I received my phone bill from Fairpoint Communications on
When I called ESBI at 1-800-686-2661 I was (after a 7 minute wait) connected to "John" who stated that they were just a billing agency for the company that claimed I had obtained services over the internet from them. They stated that they had no authority to reverse the charges. They did give me a phone number 1-800-286-4455 to call.
I called them and was initially connected with "Bob". He asked me for "verification of identity information" that included my address and phone number. He then stated that the information they had concurred with my personal information and thus proved that the charge was valid. He said they had a confirming form I had filled out with a Gmail email address for me. I explained that I did not use the Gmail e-mail account at all. I had signed up for it but did not like the format and thus never used it to communicate with any company.
Bob said they would (at my insistence) cancel this $14.95 MONTHLY charge for this supposed "Imail service" that they claim gave me an 800 phone number and voice mail. Up until then I had no idea that this was going to be a monthly charge. They refused however to delete and reverse the initial
I was (after another several minutes) connected to "Heather" was stated ashe was the evening supervisor. She reiterated that they were charging for a service for an 800 number and voice mail that I had signed up for on the internet. She refused to reverse the initial charge saying that it was clear from their information that I had signed up for this product. Nothing I could say would move her. I told her I was a senior citizen on a fixed income with significant physical impairments to my hearing and sight and physical health and that such a service for me would be a ludicrous purchase. I was only able to get Heather to give me the first name of the day supervisor (Don) and I stated I would try to take the billing question up with this day supervisor on Friday (as Thursday was Thanksgiving.)
I then went to the Gmail email website and looked through several months of emails and found NO e-mail from ESBI or from the MYIPRODUCTSIMAIL.
I looked at the website for and it states:
We are the premier provider of Internet-enabled Telecommunications products for residential and business consumers.
Customers are billed through LEC billing (charges appear on your telephone bill) making it easy for anyone to purchase our products.....
J H
United States of America#2Consumer Comment
Thu, November 26, 2009
Enhanced Services Billing Inc (ESBI) put two 14.95 charges on my bill this month- one of which was an 800\vmail service similar to yours but a different company- Digital Vmail Inc.. They too used an inactive email account and the ip address was drastically different than mine.
ESBI is doing this to thousands of people- as a simple google will reveal. ESBI was disciplined by FTC in 2001 for this but has continued anyway- probably because the revenue is staggering when you figure how many people are blindly paying.
You are not in this alone but it appears nothing is being done. I filed complaints with FTC, FCC, PUC & the Texas Attorney General (ESBI is located in San Antonio). I am meeting with my Congressman's office tomorrow. I advise you to do all of the above.