Phone slamming on the rise, Bryan told

Sandra Chereb

Tuesday, April 7, 1998 | 10:19 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - Phone slamming is on the rise in Nevada and across the country, and industry experts on Tuesday said the problem will only get worse unless Congress and the Federal Communications Commission tighten laws against the practice.

"Public education is not enough. We need tougher laws and penalties," Dave Nichols, president of Nevada Bell, told Sen. Richard Bryan and others during a forum on the problem.

Slamming is the unauthorized changing of an individual or business telecommunications service without the customer's knowledge or permission.

Bryan, D-Nev., is co-sponsor of a bill that would require telecommunications companies to verify a customer's switch to a different phone company. The bill also includes penalties of $40,000 for a first offense and $150,000 for repeat offenses, as well as restitution provisions for victims.

The bill was passed by the Senate Commerce Committee last month.

Slamming is the No. 1 complaint received by the FCC, and no one is immune, Bryan said.

"This is not something that occurs only to the unsophisticated," he said. "Our Las Vegas office was slammed."

Bryan said slamming cost consumers an estimated $100 million last year in higher phone rates and poorer service.

"Many consumers don't catch the change or don't want to hassle fighting the changes and they just go ahead and pay the higher charges," he said.

Nevada Bell alone received 5,830 slamming complaints last year, Nichols said. The company predicts complaints will rise as much as 30 percent this year.

"This is a problem that is pervasive," said Rick Hackman, manager of the consumer complaint resolution division of the Public Utilities Commission. "There seems to be very little fear on the part of offending companies."

Grace Stika, of Hidden Valley told how she was deceived by people who identified themselves as Nevada Bell employees.

The callers said they were seeking her authorization to consolidate her long distance calls into one bill, and she agreed.

It wasn't until she received her next phone bill that she realized she had been slammed.

The bill was double the amount it would normally have been, and fees had been added on, she said.

Mrs. Stika said a similar instance occurred where she works.

Wanda Wright of Reno and Linda Goodwin of Sparks said they, too, received calls from someone purporting to be from Nevada Bell.

"We have identified 65 companies using the Nevada Bell name without our permission," said Nevada Bell industry relations analyst Kent Anderson.