Office of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel

June 2009 - Frontier Communications, a small telephone company with about 500 residential telephone lines in northwest Williams County, is raising the prices of some calling features significantly.  For example, the monthly price of call forwarding will increase from $2.40 to $5.99 while three-way calling will increase from $1.90 to $5.99.

Below is the list of all of the rate increases going into effect on June 19:

Frontier is also no longer offering a monthly 50-cent discount per calling feature when two or more features are purchased on the same line.

June 2009 - Samsung is recalling certain models of its Jitterbug cell phones because they may not connect a consumer to emergency 911 services when the phone is in an area without service. Here is more information about the affected models and how to reach the manufacturer.

May 2009 - The Illinois attorney general has sued a California-based company that has placed unauthorized charges on customers' local telephone bills, a practice called "cramming." In Ohio, the Office of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel (OCC) has not yet received consumer complaints about this company.

The company, Minilec Warranty ISP LLC, sells warranties on third-party Web sites for $29.95 per year. According to news reports, the charges are supposed to cover cell phone repair warranties. However, the Illinois attorney general has received complaints from consumers that say they never authorized such charges. In addition, Minilec bills the charges as a monthly Internet service fee, rather than as a cell phone warranty.

For more information on how to prevent cramming, visit the OCC's fact sheet on this topic.

May 2009 - The Federal Trade Commission has asked a U.S. district court to halt the alleged illegal practices of a prepaid calling card distributor. The FTC alleges that CTA, Inc. misrepresents the number of minutes consumers purchase, fails to disclose that consumers’ cards are charged whether a call goes through or not and charges hidden fees.

Tests conducted by the FTC using 46 calling cards it purchased, which are distributed by the company, resulted in none of the cards delivering the minutes advertised by posters at retail outlets. CTA sells calling cards in denominations of $2 to $20 under various brand names at small retail outlets like gas stations, grocery stores and newsstands.

In addition to not delivering the advertised minutes, CTA is also accused of inadequately disclosing the charges associated with the cards as well as not informing consumers that they will be charged fees whether or not a call goes through.

The FTC has asked the court to order CTA to halt its allegedly deceptive practices pending to trial and have the company monitored. The commission has also asked the court to require the company to give up the gains it received from its alleged illegal practices.

May 2009 - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has required Internet-based (VoIP) telephone companies to notify customers before shutting down operations. In the past, some companies have failed to provide adequate notice, leaving consumers without telephone service. The new FCC rules, however, require VoIP companies to give customers 30 days notice before abandoning operations.

May 2009 - According to a recent Columbus Dispatch article, consumers are receiving calls on their home and cellular telephones related to automobile warranties. The calls typically indicate that a consumer's car warranty is about to expire and that they should purchase another warranty. The calls are building on the troubled economy and concerns over the future of the auto industry and dealerships.

The article reports that consumer complaints with the Better Business Bureau of Central Ohio against auto warranty offers are up 40 percent from this time last year.

Consumers are being warned of the dangers of giving unknown telemarketers their personal information, including Social Security, bank account or credit card account numbers.

If the auto warranty telemarketers are making calls to cell phones using automated systems or to consumers whose telephone numbers are registered on the federal Do-Not-Call list, they may be in violation of Do-Not-Call rules. Complaints against violations of the Do-Not-Call rules can be submitted to the Ohio Attorney General's Office or to the federal government.