Charges on phone bill from USBI - a scam?

[Stephen Tashiro]

A friend's phone bill from Century Llink has charges from "USBI" that appear to be for each long distance call she makes. She gets her long distance service from Value Line and that company says it has nothing to do with USBI. is USBI a scam or does it provide some useful service`?

[Bill ThompsonNM]

Apparently it's frequently a scam. Do a google on "USBI phone charges". Company claims to provide information services for other carriers. There's a class action lawsuit it appears but you can also find forms to disconnect their services.

[Chuck Wintle]

What did Century link say?

[John McClanahan]

My mother had similar problems before I took over her finances. The phone company likes to pass the buck since they are making money from adding it to the bill. Insist they credit the bill for the disputed amount.


John

[Phil Thien]

My mother had similar problems before I took over her finances. The phone company likes to pass the buck since they are making money from adding it to the bill. Insist they credit the bill for the disputed amount.


John

You can try, most will only credit 1-2 months.

This entire scam is the reason I will never, ever, ever be an AT&T customer again. I previously had my account flagged so no third-party billing could occur, they'd still sneak on there somehow. So finally I just got rid of AT&T. Best move I ever made.

[Tom Giles]

You can try, most will only credit 1-2 months.

This entire scam is the reason I will never, ever, ever be an AT&T customer again. I previously had my account flagged so no third-party billing could occur, they'd still sneak on there somehow. So finally I just got rid of AT&T. Best move I ever made.

^This. ATT told me they couldn't stop 3rd parties from slamming my bill. I dropped them and haven't looked back.

[John McClanahan]

Funny, Good experiences and AT&T are never used together.


John

[Stephen Tashiro]

There's a class action lawsuit it appears but you can also find forms to disconnect their services.

Did you find a link to a class action lawsuit? I only find "ripoff" reports and website about a lawsuit vs AT&T and USBI - nothing about Century Link (formerly Qwest) and USBI.

[Brian Elfert]

Bad corporate policy is the only reason they won't credit more than a month or two. I'm certain they make enough money from a cut of those charges to refund slammed charges more than a month or two.

I used to run a small business. A customer called one day to figure out why he was charged his normal monthly fee plus a second large charge. I investigated and it turned out someone had accidentally set him up for monthly and year billing. I looked at his record and we had been charging him the yearly and monthly fee for a number of years. The customer just wanted the extra fee for the current year refunded, but I refunded all of the yearly charges even though he had never noticed the prior charges. It was a huge hit to the bottom line, but it was the right thing to do.

Long distance is a huge ripoff on traditional land lines. Many long distance providers have (or had) a monthly minimum. I recall some phone companies even charging a fee for not having a long distance carrier.