By DOUG HOWARD

When looking at long distance telephone bills, it pays to read the fine print.

„People need to pay as close attention to their phone bill as they do their credit card statements,“ advises Mike Earley, long sales manager at Indiana Telephone Network/Sugardog in Monticello.

With the increase in the past few years of telemarketing, consumers can add the watch words „slamming“ and „cramming“ to a growing list of everyday technical jargon.

„With ‘Slamming’, your long distance has been changed without your permission,“ Earley explained. „It’s actually a deliberate attempt to steal service from a competitor.“

„Cramming,“ he said, “is where services you’ve never agreed to purchase have been added to your bill.“

Examples of unauthorized „cramming“ changes include voice mail, paging and web page hosting charges.

„We’ve seen this here, with the business owner who doesn’t even have a web site,“ said Earley.

„Most of this is appearing on their local phone bill,“ he said.

In comparing complaints, Earley said, a number of his clients noticed that between Dec. 5 and 8, they received telemarketing calls.

„It tends to run in cycles, from what we see,“ said Earley.

„Most of these companies are hitting the business clients,“ said Earley. „They’re targeting businesses, knowing that they’re going to pay,“ said Earley. „On the residential side, they’ll keep the charges small,“ he said. „They just hope that people don’t notice them.“

For those who believe they may have been slammed or crammed, „The first thing to do is to call and ask for an explanation of the charges,“ advised Earley. „By law, there has to been an 800 number for billing questions.“

„The second thing is to call you local (service) phone company and let them know that these charges were for unauthorized services. If they arranged credit with the company, they need to know that.“

In cases where the consumer has not yet paid the ‘slammed’ bill, the consumer does not have to pay for service for up to 30 days.

„If you’ve been slammed and you’ve paid your bill, you may be eligible for reimbursement,“ Earley said.

Consumers can also file a complaint with any of several state and federal regulatory agencies [see sidebar].

Under state law, while the complaint is being investigated, the local phone provider may not disrupt service due to nonpayment of disputed charges.

In response to widespread service change complaints, the Federal Communications Commission put into place an option known as a „PIC (Presubscribed Interexchange Carrier) freeze“ on long distance service. The option is free from the consumer’s local telephone company and is designed to prevent switching long distance service without the consumer’s expressed consent.

Teresa Shaver, marketing director for Pulaski-White Rural Telephone Cooperative, said the number of complaints generally decreased since the PIC freeze option has gone into effect.

„We try to stress to the customer to check with their long distance telephone companies,“ said Shaver. „We encourage all our customers to contact their local phone company and tell them not to change (service) unless they have it in writing.“

„When long distance is changed, by law, (telephone companies) have to obtain written or electronic permission or go through a third-party verifier,“ said Earley.

Some new telemarketing schemes seem to go around the PIC freeze, Earley said, by apparently recording and reusing an affirmative response out of context.

„In some cases,“ he said, „(telemarketers) take that (affirmative response) and use that as confirmation to agreeing to change your service.“

Shaver offers a few other bits of advice to avoid be slammed or crammed.

„When (consumers) receive a call from a long distance carrier, be careful — if the offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is.“

„If you don’t know who it is, sometimes you’re better off not speaking.“

For information on slamming and cramming, or to report a complaint, consumers can contact the following agencies:

· Federal Communications Commission at 1–888–225–5322

· The Indiana Office of the Utility Consumer Counselor consumer services at 1–888–441–2494

· The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission at 1–800–851–4268

Consumers can also request a telemarketer to be put on the telemarketer’s „do not call“ list. To register for the Indiana Telephone Privacy List,