There is a whole industry of ex-Bell employees who go around to large organizations and offer to find billing problems. The deal is, they do the work for free, but get 50% of the money saved. These folks can make good money.
Bell bills are notoriously incomprehensible to mortals, so people are reluctant to cancel stuff without knowing what it is. What if the CEO has a hollerdown circuit to his stock broker, and some well-intentioned soul cancels it? People have lost their jobs over such things. Bell will send something that is called an "Equipment Record" every few months. It comes with the bill so a lot of times people just think it's part of the invoice and it gets filed by accounting. In reality, it is a detailed inventory of every circuit that bell is delivering to you. Find the equipment record (or get Bell to send you a new one). It will help you a lot. Jim -- Jim Van Meggelen [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/2177 "A child is the ultimate startup, and I have three. This makes me rich." Guy Kawasaki -- > -----Original Message----- > From: Reza - Asterisk Enthusiast [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: July 24, 2007 3:55 PM > To: Toronto Asterisk Business Group > Subject: [biz] Bell Ripping off clients? > > Ok.... we've just deployed some Asterisk services & got > referral of another from the next door (client's competition) > and they want the same system. > > So here is what is happening -- > > First client (Originally not on a PBX system): > - 5 Telephone lines originally > - paying about $50/phone line (marked Business Line) > - Monthly bill for 5 phone lines ~ $250/month. > - Replaced entire service of bell with SIP trunking and now > service is costing them less than half that. > > > Second client (well prospect) next door who saw what we did > (has a small > office PBX): > - I was quite stunned when I saw their phone bill > - They too have 5 bell lines ~$50/month/line (this was > marked Business > Line) > - Immediately below on the bill are 5 units of what is marked > as "Local Link > PBell" at ~ $50/Local Link. > - Now these guys are paying per month approx $500+ for their > 5 phone line > service. > > In other words -- the prospect is paying literally MORE than > double of our > first client. Annually they are paying more than $6,000 for > their phone > service. So this new opportunity is already a winner (in > principle) but I > want your 2 cents on this "Local Link". > > My 2 cents (for TAUG) to be quite blunt, is that this "Local Link" is > nothing but a business line packaged with features. That is: Call > Forwarding, Name/Number Display, callTransfer, 3 way calling, bla bla > bla. --- and is absolutely un-necessary if you have SIP > trunking and having > Asterisk to manage all these wonderful features. > > Your thoughts please before I actually go and say they were > being over > charged and/or present a cost savings analysis for them. > > Cheers! > Reza. > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.10.16/914 - Release > Date: 23/07/2007 7:45 PM > > No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.10.16/914 - Release Date: 23/07/2007 7:45 PM --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
