Complaint Review: ESBI / 4MVN (My Voicemail Network)

I recently sent this email to:
- 4MVN, ESBI, AT&T, Qwest, Verizon, FTC, FCC, my senators and congressmen, itunes and tag.com as well as various blogs all over the internet

Dear Sirs

I need to draw your attention to a scam that is going on because of a lack of regulation of smaller companies who may charge costs to a phone bill without the phone customer's knowledge or permission.

The example I will draw upon is an incident that happened to me and my husband, which I found is all too commonplace by doing a search of the internet.

I found a charge on my AT&T phone bill in March 2008 and assumed AT&T was the one charging me $12.95 per month for "Enhanced Services Billing Inc" (AT&T really should make it clearer on their bills that some charges are charged by a third party separate to themselves).

I was angry at being charged and started to look into it. Months later (it is now October 1 2008) I have finally gotten to the bottom of where those charges are coming from (through no fault of my own) and I am unable to get those charges reversed. The company responsible is 4mvn see http://www.4mvn.com also listed sometimes as ESBI (Enhanced Services Billing Inc).

The only way people can get a refund / credit and get these charges stopped is by calling the company first to find out why they are being charged. Many people have tried calling this company countless times and could never get through to someone. They left messages on their voicemail and were told someone would return the call but no one ever called back.

When I eventually got through to them (after calling them a couple of times today and holding on the line for a very very very long time today most people would have given up long before I did I suspect it was about an hour of waiting I am hoping I don't get charged for that call!), I was told they could only credit the most recent month's charges unless I contact them via another method (Writing to their credit department's address, which I am now doing as I write to you also). Their member of staff told me that my husband had signed up via a website (itunes.com or tag.com neither website is used by me or my husband ever!) and that he had given the password as the maiden name of either his mother or his wife to be "fred". Firstly I was annoyed that clearly this was NOT my husband as he never used those sites and wouldn't give a maiden name of Fred but secondly I was angry that the member of staff was telling me the password to this account despite the fact that I had not identified myself to her as yet! She also insinuated that I was the first person ever to complain that this has happened to them (clearly not true except that maybe most of the others could never get through to a member of staff!).

It is clear to me that this company is pursuing illegal business practices and should be closed down immediately. There are lots of examples in Appendix 1 to show that this is happening to an awful lot of people (and these are just the ones who have noticed it what about all those who haven't noticed yet, or just assume that their telephone provider is billing them for a legitimate charge?)

This is also happening to lots and lots of others out there (some still probably haven't noticed it yet, or still assume that AT&T are the ones charging them others are experiencing similar incidents via Verizon, Qwest etc. See appendix 1)

My suggestions for resolving this issue include:

AT&T (and other phone service providers) should make it very clear when a charge is from an external provider/third party company so that their customers do not assume they are being charged by AT&T. My first assumption when I saw this charge on my bill was that I was being "ripped off" by AT&T and I almost closed my AT&T account and had my phone line disconnected. Then I found out it was a third party. This is NOT good for AT&T's business.

There should be a complaint process created by the FCC whereby if someone complains that they are being charged without permission, they should be able to get refunded ALL monies, if there is no proof to substantiate the company's claim that the phone customer indeed requested the service, and there are no logs to show that the customer used the service.

Third companies such as 4MVN should be regulated to ensure that they check with the phone customer that they really did order the service, and that they use properly secure methods of getting and keeping identifying data such as passwords.

4MVN should be shut down as a company. The perpetrators responsible for the way their business is conducted should be charged in court and jailed.


Thank you for taking the time to read this and act on it. I will be distributing it around the web forthwith.

Michelle Sollicito

Appendix 1

Here are some examples of other people who have had the same thing happened in many of these cases, no authorization was given for the service to be charged by the phone customer, and they had difficulty getting the charges stopped/refunded.

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/354/RipOff0354463.htm
http://blogs.mcall.com/bill_white/2005/08/cramming.html

Lots of other complaints here
http://ripoffreport.com/searchresults.asp?q5=esbi&q1=ALL&q4=&q6=&q3=&q2=&q7=&searchtype=0&submit2=Search%21&Search=Search

Msollicito
marietta, Georgia
U.S.A.