atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Inventory

I did this task for the last 8 years I worked for SW Bell. That was part of my ACCOUNTING gig.

I would say the best place to start is with a DETAILED RECORD of what services, circuits and lease/maintenance agreements the customer has from the various vendors.

When I did this job with SWBT, we used a detailed record of service and equipment known as the 2733.

I would imagine you will encounter many problems in getting such detail until you can get in touch with a KNOWLEDGEABLE sales or MARKET person as in an ACCOUNT REPRESENTATIVE.

Once you know what they are being billed for, you can use that as a template to see what they may or may not have.

That would be where I would start.

Those 8 years were a very interesting part of my BELL SYSTEM CAREER. SWBT at the time, (Early 80's) seemed to have problems removing things from customers bills. It wasn't rampant, it just happened. There wasn't that much, it just happened.

What made it VERY INTERESTING was the fact that some CONSULTANTS figured this out and ran a bit of a RACKET where they would obtain the records we would use for our inventory (before we were involved). Then they would do their own inventory. Of course, if they found that SWBT was billing for something that they DID NOT FIND, they would hold SWBT accountable for each and every monthly charge for that service/phone/circuit from DAY 1. (Imagine, $5.65 X 12 Mo X 10 Years)

With the data they gathered, they would promise the customer a BIG REFUND from SWBT but, only if they got 1/2 of it.

Usually these guys got everything done by intimidating some clerk in the business office.

If the Business Office did not get us Accounting types involved, the Consultants would just make a killing.

Of course, if we did the inventory, we would find things like a single line set that we had billed the client for over the last 10 years under the lift out floor, that of course, the Consultant wouldn't look for period.

GOOD LUCK!