Complaint Review: ILD Teleservices - Optical Telephone

Slammed!

I was surprised to open my monthly phone bill to see the total of over $200 when it's normally around $75. I was even more surprised to see over 100 calls charged to a phone line that I use exclusively for my computer -- I never use it for outgoing calls. It also showed a charge for a monthly service fee for this long distance company (Optical Tel Corp.) that I never heard of, and a setup fee for a long distance service that I never authorized.

As another reporter on this site indicated, my bill shows all the calls being made at either :08 or :09 after the hour. In some cases three or four calls are being made at the same exact time to the same phone number! Two calls were made to Germany to the same number exactly one hour apart. All other calls were to U.S. numbers.

I called the 800 number for ILD, and the woman said she would get all the charges removed, but it would take about three billing cycles. I asked her how this could possibly happen, and she just said it was a "computer error." I tried to explain to her that computers don't program themselves; obviously they have idiots programming them. She just laughed it off. No doubt this was intentional -- no computer could have done this on its own.

I'm just glad I don't have my phone bill paid automatically! I don't think I could get a refund from these people very easily.

I'll have to wait for next month's bill to see if any more calls are being made and charged to this phone number.

Catherine
Winchester, Virginia
U.S.A.