Check your phone bill for EZ Webmasters charge

[Scott Patterson]

I just looked at my office line phone bill and it had a little extra charge on it for $37.57!!

The charge was for EZ Webmasters.com with a listed phone number on my AT&T bill as 1-800-433-4818. So I call the number and a recording comes on and says for a $9.99 fee that is charged to my phone I can get additional information on the number I'm calling!

Check those phone bills. I never added or approved any service to justify this charge. What irks me is that AT&T allows this to happen by adding charges like this to folks bills.

ATT is closed for the day but they will hear from me in the morning..

Check your phone bill!!

[Rick Hurst]

Scott,

I think these are the scumbags that call offering to put your website on some other site or list it for free they say.

They do this for 30 days free, and then bill you for it afterwards if you don't call back and cancel it.

Threaten them a call to the FCC if they don't remove the charges.

I getting to where I see an 800 number of a out of state call on my ID, I don't even answer it. Let it roll into voicemail.

rick

[Jim Luttrall]

I have had this happen with a different company and seems that AT&T would not reverse the charge without the companies permission! I finally contacted them and got it off, but this sounds like even more of a scam. I wonder if you can put a lock to outside charges for future billings? (Kind of line putting a fraud alert on your credit report)

[Jim Luttrall]

I'm about ready to do the same Rick but I always relent and answer just in cast it is business:(.
I have been reporting every call and telling the callers that they are violating the law because I am on the National Do Not Call Registry.
Maybe just coincidence, but my junk calls are down since I started doing this.

[Rick Cantrell]

AT$T receives some of everything they collect. I heard it is as much as 50%.

[Bruce Breedlove]

I have been reporting every call and telling the callers that they are violating the law because I am on the National Do Not Call Registry.


Jim,

I thought the National Do Not Call Registry was for residential phone numbers only, not for business lines. Has this changed?

[Mitchell Meeks]

DNC only applies to residential.

I had the same thing happen to me earlier this year. It took me several calls over several days to get someone. They claimed that they called me and that someone on the line said it was OK. No one answers my phone during the day because no one is there at the office. They tried to make it look like they were doing me a favor. Just this once, kinda of crap.

[Richard Stanley]

With the possible exception of congress, att is the biggest crook in the country today. If you do business with them long enough, you will learn.

[Stuart Brooks]

I told the person on the phone, who had an obvious Indian accent, NO! I already have a web site!. It was processed anyway. The number I called actually answered and the charges were removed. But Scott is right, check your phone AND credit card bills.

[Scott Patterson]

Update.....

AT&T removed the charges and the best thing is that they will add a Third Party billing block to your account! So I would recommend that everyone should have this billing block added to your business account! This prevents anyone from adding any extra things to your account!

The sad thing is that I have not paid much attention to my phone bill. I have it setup on an auto-pay out of my company account and I discovered that I have been billed this unapproved fee for about the past 6 months! AT&T will credit back up to 3 months. The remaining fees are an educational fee for me!

[Jim Luttrall]

Jim,

I thought the National Do Not Call Registry was for residential phone numbers only, not for business lines. Has this changed?
I figure if the caller is not smart enough to know the difference, it is not up to me to educate them.:D I don't know the particulars of the law but I think just the threat has gotten my number off some of their lists.
I do have all my phone lines (including cell phones) listed on the do not call registry and have since it was made available.

[EmmanuelScanlan]

If you use Verizon services call them and let them know you want to block this under the CPNI Service (Customer Proprietary Number Information Service). This service blocks any attempt from a business not only to obtain any information about you, your number or service but also blocks attempts by another to backbill your phone service such as what occurred here.

For those of you who just have to dial those 900 numbers :D this will not block any outbound call charges.

[Nolan Kienitz]

Like many of you I've received my share of 'soliciting' calls from folks promising 1st page listing on all search engines, ServiceMagic, and the list can go on and on.

I've done the same as Jim L. and have had all my phone numbers on the Do Not Call Registry since it first was available and I periodically update the registration.

Now for the ones I do answer I tweak the conversation and continue to ask the caller about the house they want me to inspect and to provide me with the particulars so that I can get it on the calendar and inspected for them.

This approach usually always catches them off guard and they stammer and stutter and try to get back to "selling" me their services. I hold my ground in the conversation and tell them that if they have called me (a home inspection company) that they must want a property inspected and that is all I will discuss with them ... if they are trying to sell or offer some 'deal' then we have nothing more to discuss.

Calls end rather quickly and I feel good about getting them off their focus at least for a moment or two. ;)

[Ron Bibler]

Now for the ones I do answer I tweak the conversation and continue to ask the caller about the house they want me to inspect

Calls end rather quickly and I feel good about getting them off their focus at least for a moment or two. ;)

Ask hem for here home phone # and credit card # :eek: and say your service$ 850.00 due now...:D

Best

Ron

[Ted Menelly]

A few years back I ordered some bus cards on line for the heck of it to see what it was all about. I never ordered from them again.

A couple years later I found a charge on my credit card and could not figure out what it was. It looked like I had stopped and got gas a a convenience store. It was for 17 dollars and change. I looked over some past bills but did not see it until i went to the second month back. I did notice a charge of 21 dollars and change the first month back which looked like the same type of charge. I did not find it again until I went back 2 months from that bill.

It turns out that I was being billed 17 plus one month and 21 plus the following month for a very long time. Again it looked like a charge for gas and a goodie so I just put it down for that on a monthly basis. The reason it never rang a bell because it never showed up every month but changed up to the higher or lower amount.

500 and change is what the charges turned out to be all associated with the bus card company. Associates/business partners of the credit card company. I never signed up for anything. I called the number and the woman on the other end immediately said they were sorry about the inconvenience and would put the money back on my credit card.

They did and it was done with. Short of going the court route (and they new it) I just accepted the money in return. I never pursued the interest on that money because it would have cost more than what it was worth.

Yes ATT got me once years ago when someone who worked for them slammed me (ATT has a slam department) 6 months and paying accounts off to both ATT and other carriers, a lot of spittle flying from the mouth and a few brain aneurysms is all it took to end the nightmare. That was many years ago.

They also almost got me on the top banner garbage on yellowpages.com

Almost everything the salesman sold me on was false. I tried to cancel a couple weeks later and they denied canceling the contract. 6 months later a supervisor actually listened to the sales calls (again, six months later) and I finally got the contract gone and all fees associated with it erased. 6 months of hell again is all it took to make them go away.