Utility Telephone

Utility Telephone contracts out sales people, I worked with TeleSelect Partners but Utility Telephone is the service provider and our internet has been horrible since the day we got it. I contacted them within a couple of days after starting with them letting them know that our service was awful. It is hampering our ability to conduct business. It appears that all Utility Telephone cares about is getting the sale. Utility Telephone tells me to increase my internet speed. And, what they offered almost DOUBLES our bill. Sounds a bit like a bait and hook scenario appears to be going on. Once you sign that contract your options are to live with it (which hurts business), or pay them almost double what was quoted.

Review: On June 17, 2013 I paid annual DSL service in the amount of $416.30. On January 2, 2014 I contacted by email requesting Effective January 2, 2014 to please cancel [redacted] Internet Service through Utility. I attached a copy of [redacted] check ([redacted]) for DSL Service paid one year in advance requesting a return due to the cancellation. On Jan 27 I emailed a request again, I received an email Jan 28 stating it takes 6-8 weeks for a refund to be processed. On Mar 21 I once again requested the refund and received the following answer (Provisioning is still working to disconnect the circuit for you services, but Ive had them send the order over to billing to get all of that taken care of in the mean time. Ill let them know to look for it so they can get you any refund information). At this time it is clear that I am getting no where. It has been a frustrating situation.Desired Settlement: I want my refund, it shouldn't take this long to process and I feel that I am getting the run around.

Business

Response:

The consumer is entitled a refund and the check is in the mail.

Review: Unauthorized long distance calls were made due to hacking.

Account Number with Utility is XXXXXX.

From April 7 (Sunday) to April 9 (Tuesday), our telephone system was not in used due to the error initiated by Utility Telephone. They said that our telephone system was hacked and several international calls were made. That's why they block our outgoing calls on that period. This alone, gives us income loss due to the basic requirement of our business is telephone lines. Which we use domestically. We paid substantial amount to IT technician, who was able to figure out while working with customer service of Utility Telephone that our telephone system was hacked. They should provide adequate security measures for not letting this happen in their system. And now, they are charging us substantial amount due to said hacking. Desired Settlement: We would like full reversal of charges for the unauthorized long distance calls made. And compensate income loss during the period that their system was not in use.

Business

Response:

Business' Initial Response

The apparent fraud was committed through the customers phone system, not Utility Telephone. As soon as Utility Telephone was notified of a problem, the phone calls were blocked to prevent any further abuse, and to allow time for the customer to fix the security breach on their phone system. Utility Telephone has already issued a credit to the customer (as the customer is well aware of) which we feel is more than fair, again, considering Utility Telephone was not at fault and Utility Telephone pursued what actions that could be taken to help the customer solve the problem.

Consumer's Final Response

(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)

We have been in receipt of billing and religiously paying them on time. For February 2013 bill, its $441.21. For March 2013 bill, its $439.06. For April 2013 bill, its $438.31. Then suddenly this May 2013 bill it ballooned to $1,210.24. More or less $800 was the increased our bill due to said hacking. We are forced to pay the total amount due, as this will hurt our business if they cut the line we have from them. They have been sending us collections and notice for interruption. We even paid the IT technician $200.00 for the service he made to figure out that the problem is with the Utility Telephone System. The financial loss we had during the time we can not use the telephone lines is something must be considered. Truly, they give us a credit of $350.00 based on email. But we believe that it's not enough. We also tried to call/email the contact person to follow-up the full reversal. But they don't give feedback.

This is their system, and we do not know how to do that hacking. It doesn't matter if its $10 or $10,000.00 But the fact that they are charging us for the usages that we never consume. It's absurd. We don't know if we are the only customer who are being charged with this. They should protect their customer. Instead of charging them too much. Protect their system, by providing security measures.

If they do not resolved the full reversal of the charges that we never used, we will be constraint to take legal action for this.

Business' Final Response

It is the customers responsibility to protect his phone system from unauthorized access. Utility Telephone responded and assisted the customer in resolving their problem. Utility Telephone bears a real cost associated with these calls, but as a matter of policy, will not profit from such a circumstance (hence the credit given). Utility Telephone has acted responsibly given the facts of the matter.

My company signed a contract with Utility Telephone in August 2014 from one of their partners TeleSelect Partners. Their representative, TeleSelect told us our internet/phone service would be faster than the AT&T we had and less money. I even sent them a copy of our bill from AT&T for comparison. Our internet is not faster nor is their invoice less money.

The poor internet service is disrupting our business. Throughout the day, we are logged off our computers and the internet is SLOW SLOW SLOW. We are continually waiting for the blue circle to end and having to log back on to the internet. This is disrupting us setting customer appointments, customer service and employees productivity.

We have a two year contract expiring August 2016 and I have asked them to let us out of the internet portion and they will not. Amazing to me that a company would do this to secure 4 more months of business and have such a dissatisfied customer, which tells you how concerned about customer service and their reviews.