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Joined: Dec 2005
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jweaks Offline OP
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My office is getting eaten alive by our phone bills so I'm looking to make some changes. I know this a good forum for advice and I'm hoping it will save me some time.

Our current situation: we have 4 lines on our PBX and 1 analog line for fax and DSL. Our local service and our DSL are with the major telco here in downtown Durham, NC. This runs us over $400 a month which seems excessive to me.

Our long distance is with another major telco and they are most definitely over-charging us. A low month will be $100 to $150 and high month will be over $300. I'm seeing charges on our LD bill as high as $0.94 per minute!

All these services were in place before I started here, but it's my job to fix the mess and get our bills down.

I'm hoping I can get all our services bundled and our bill reduced significantly. The big telco that handles our local service has been somewhat helpful and has offered to get everything on one bill, but they are not actively suggesting or helping with ways to reduce our costs.

If I do nothing else except switch our LD to this company we would save some money, but I want to look at all options.

Another telco has actually sent someone out to talk with me and he'll be getting a proposal to me soon. I don't know anything about that company, but I'm impressed with the time they have taken to try and get our business.

The kind of advice I'm looking for:

What telco options do I have here in central NC?

What type of plan or plans should I be looking for?

What should we be paying for these services? ...or some way of comparing costs?

Any other recommendations?

We need to keep our 4 lines and the analog fax line, keep our DSL or some type of broadband, and have account codes on our long distance.

Thanks,
jweaks

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Dear Jweaks,
Hello and thanks for posting. I'm the site moderator Barbara Clements, President of Auditel Inc. a telecom expense management and recovery company www.auditelinc.com. There are lots of great people on this forum and we will all be happy to give you some good advice. If you'd like to call my office I'd be happy to give you more options via phone 1-800-473-5655 or email me directly [email protected].

First I want to mention that it is great that you took an interest in your telephone bills
and the charges you are paying monthly including usage.

Your options of service depend on the providers in your area the main LEC or Regional Bell Operating Company (RBOC) versus the CLEC or ILEC. I will explain this more in detail via phone.

Plans to look for vary depending on the carrier you choose. I would consider plans that give no monthly minimums (or low minimums that you will certainly meet monthly). Another thing to consider is full minute increments versus six second increments. Sounds like you may have the full minute billing with high cpm (cost per minute). You also want to consider getting low initial billing increments. This is the minimum call that you will be billed for each time you connect to a caller.

Our company doesn't sell products so we can give you unbiassed feedback. I'm sure you will get lots of great feedback on this forum too.

I look forward to talking with you soon and to viewing feedback from this forum.

All the best,


Barbara Clements
President

Auditel Inc.
www.auditelinc.com
[email protected]
Colorado office: 719-689-5953
Orlando office: 800-473-5655
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jweaks Offline OP
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Thank you. I'm starting to get some feedback and some potential new vendors are lining up.

jw

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jweaks Offline OP
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I'm going to post this info right here for Ms. Clements or anyone else who wants to comment.

We have 4 lines, 1 combination fax line/DSL line.

Our long distance carrier is AT&T and they are way overcharging us. I have a high bill of over $300 and a low bill of about $150. All our long distance calls seem to be "peak" on the AT&T bill and charges anywhere from $0.23 to $0.94 per minute.

The low bill was for:
Interstate - 1 hour 11 minutes
In-state - 1 hour 4 minutes
International - 19 mintues

The high bill was for:
Interstate - 3 hour 36 minutes
In-state - 1 hour 44 minutes
International - 0

Looks to me like we're averaging a charge of about $0.70-0.72 per minute which seems outrageous to me.

The local bill (Verizon) is $430 to $455 per month. We're being charged for:

Business lines 5 x $39.50
Line hunt service 3 x $6.25 (why do we have this? would not our PBX do the hunting?)
Interstate access charges 5 x $9.50
Advanced Data services $38.10
DSL $32.50
plus the charges for "Tri-Wide" calling which look okay unless there is a better option
and directory charges that don't look right.

and there may be other things I have not even figured out yet.

jw

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It sounds like your rates are "non-contract", as in just the maximum tariffed amount allowed in your state. Many times, people will select a carrier for their long distance, but not notify the carrier that they want to do business with them. In non-contract situations, carriers treat this as "casual" use and bill accordingly.

As for the hunting, no traditional phone systems do not, and cannot provide hunting, regardless of the brand. From the rates you are paying, it appears that you don't have ISDN lines. A phone system with ISDN is the ONLY way that hunting can be provided by the phone system.

The interstate access charge sounds like a federal tax that is levied by all carriers under law and doesn't change from carrier to carrier. It's also known as the Federal Subscriber Line Charge.

The rate for DSL sounds appropriate for a business account.

The Advanced Data Services charge isn't clear to me; it could be anything.

As for directory charges (I assume you mean directory advertising), are not regulated by the state. If you elect to dispute them, you should still pay the regulated portion of your phone bill to avoid the risk of your service being disconnected due to non-payment.

You should consider switching to a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) that may offer a bundled package that includes all of your features with a block of long distance minutes included. Even cable TV companies have this available now, so leave no stone unturned in your quest.


Ed Vaughn, MBSWWYPBX
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jweaks Offline OP
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Thank you, every bit of info helps me.

The "hunting" issue still has me confused me. We have a Toshiba DK40i system that I'm quite familiar with. I know it has "hunt" groups and that it "rolls" lines according to how we program them, but I'm not sure if we have ISDN lines. I have never seen anything to indicate that we do.

Maybe I just don't understand what the phone company hunt does?

Advanced data services must be the long distance codes we use to track and bill calls. We don't have anything else that it could be. That seems to be too much money as well.

The DSL is satisfactory both in cost and performance.

I have at least three carriers at this point that have stepped forward and are putting together proposals for me. I am puzzled as to why our current local carrier (big company, starts with V) has little interest in us.

They do not have a field person in the area and this isn't a small area... not Atlanta or Charlotte, but not small beans either... I have to call 'timbuktu' to talk to someone.

I'm pleased with the help and response I've gotten so far. I'm sure we'll have a satisfactory deal in place by the end of the month.

And once again this forum has been most helpful.

Thanks,
jw

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JW:

Yes, you can have extensions on your system in hunt groups. Your telephone lines are basically "extensions" on Verizon's much larger "system" in their central office. They establish hunt groups for lines because otherwise, a line that's busy is simply busy and can't go anywhere. Once it's tied up with a call, unless there's hunting in place for the next call to bounce over, the caller will receive a busy signal.

I am sure that you don't have ISDN lines on your system.

I still think that checking with the local cable TV provider in your area is a viable option. You might also want to look into Vonage. While I have heard good and bad comments on Vonage service, we do have some business customers that use it.


Ed Vaughn, MBSWWYPBX
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Hunting that is programmed in your
DK40 is for calls you MAKE, not RECIEVE.
When your customers call you they dial one listed directory number. (LDN) Once a customer calls in and is on the first line a second customer will dial that same LDN and your provider will send it to your 2nd line and so on.

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Hunting has to be provided by your carrier but the question is why are you being charged for it? Maybe it's a state thing but I can tell you here in New York, (where we pay double for anything) Verizon doesn't charge extra for it.

My advice is to stay far away from the likes of Vonage and cable companies. (Sorry Ed) Their quality of service is not on par with even the worst of CLEC's. My viewpoint with them is that you may save because of their cheaper rates but those rates are only because the idiots in Washington haven't imposed the taxes and surcharges on them that they do on traditional carriers and it's only a matter of time till they do. Then you will be paying the same and have crappy service. So if you want to go through this again in another couple of years Vonage is the way to go.

Not as any endorsement for Verizon but around here I always recommend to my customers that they stay with them whenever possible. Reason being any CLEC has to have Verizon do their service work for them. This won't be an issue until you have a problem. You call your CLEC to report the trouble, the CLEC calls Verizon. Verizon drags their feet because you aren't their customer and the government makes them sell to these CLECs at almost a loss. Want to get in the middle of that?

I would be VERY cautious about jumping ship. Those sales reps will promise you anything to get their commission.

Back to your problem, yes I would agree that your bill is excessive. Many times this is because whoever set up the account- either the customer or the customer service rep. (or both) didn't know what they were doing.

Yours is not a big account but that shouldn't mean that you should get the "fast shuffle". I would seriously see what Verizon can do for you before considering an alternative. Find out what services they offer through their website. I know they have several plans (like their Freedom Plans here) that bundle local, regional and long distance at a considerable savings.

Have you looked into Centrex service? Around here I recommend it for no other reason than you can get that $39.50 line charge almost cut in half.

-Hal


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Hal:

They are located in the former GTE area now called Verizon. I also live in former GTE territory in Virginia. They have always charged mile-high rates for hunting, in fact for my two lines at home to hunt, I have to pay the hunting charge for both lines, even though it's only one line hunting to another! They get about $5.00 per month for each line. GTE's "Centranet" rates really don't save money like Bell's "Centrex" either. Even though they are now technically one company, they still operate independently when it comes to the rates they were tariffed by the state.

Now the Bell Atlantic territories around this area are only charging 58 cents a month for hunting. It really varies by the state and the company.

I agree with your suggestion about the Freedom plan idea around here. If this is being offered in the GTE areas, it's certainly worth looking into.

I have a feeling that the $39.50 monthly charge for lines may actually be "trunk" rates and not "POTS line" rates. JW, you may want to ask if your service is being billed as PBX trunks because you can have this regraded since you don't have a PBX. You have a key system. POTS lines are the same thing, they just cost less.


Ed Vaughn, MBSWWYPBX
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