Enhanced Services Billing, Residential Email LLC and AT&T

I was originally going to title this blog "you're sh**ting in my mouth and telling me it's a sundae" (thank you Mr. Show), but I wanted to ensure that Enhanced Services Billing Inc, Residential Email LLC and AT&T show up on Google searches. Before I go any further, I want to encourage all who read this to contact your phone service provider and ask them what the procedure is for "third party billing charges" blocking.

So what is this all about? Last week we received our monthly statement from AT&T. I always dread reading our statement because often there are rate increases of some sort. This bill did not disappoint in that department. We had a whopping increase of $14.95!

It was not actually a rate increase though. It was a charge from a company called Enhanced Services Billing for an email account from a company called Residential Email LLC. I called AT&T to question this charge and was told by the AT&T customer rep "Fernando" that it was not their problem. I would have to call the "third party" billing to dispute the charge.

So I called Enhanced Services Billing Inc. and was routed to Residential Email LLC where I talked to "Jennie". "Jennie" told me that perhaps someone in my household had set up the account. When I explained that this was not the case she changed her story and said that a person by the name of "Gary Stevens" had set up the account and mistakenly entered our phone number. She then asked me for my home address and email address so she could send an account cancellation notice.

I called AT&T back and got "Fernando" again (lucky me). I asked him how I should handle the third party charge since it had been a mistake on Residential Email LLC's part. Would AT&T send a new bill minus the amount or should we just deduct it?

I was informed that I would still be responsible for the charge. What?!!!

Yes that is what I was told by "Fernando" and at least three other AT&T representatives over the course of two days. The charges are the responsibility of the customer to dispute. And this gets even better.

Turns out Enhanced Services Billing Inc. (hereafter known as ESBI) has a long record of fraudulent billing, and Residential Email LLC is just one of the many "companies" that use ESBI to submit fraudulent charges. Topping this off is that AT&T knows all about this. Two of their agents that I spoke with confirmed that they regularly handled complaints about ESBI and Residential Email LLC, but they along with the other agents I spoke with recited the mantra "the FCC forces us to do this".

So can we the customers that pay these companies on a monthly basis block fraudulent businesses from charging us for bogus accounts and services? Depends on who you talk with.

"Yes Mr. Gilberts, you can block third party charges from appearing on your bill. But it can only be done by filling out forms which we will mail to you. Would you like us to mail you these forms?" This is what I heard from three different reps on April 2. "Yes", I replied, " by all means send me the forms".

The following day I called to see if there was a way to find out if there are any new charges on our account for the April billing cycle. The first rep, Eric, said he would put me on hold while he checked on this, then hung up me. The second rep (you would not believe me if I told you his name) I talked with seemed to be hosting a raucous party. As the cacophony raged in the background of his apartment, the AT&T rep told me " I'm not allowed to access your billing records until the 25th of April, but I can send you forms to fill out to block third party charges". Pretty interesting response since I did not mention the situation of the previous day. Maybe one of his guests were privy to my situation. Anyway, I told the fellow a request had already been made for the forms, but asked if he could verify that they had been mailed. He told me " No they have not, but they will be mailed out first thing on Monday, April 6 and I should receive them by Thursday.

I think you can see where this is going.

Here we are on Thursday. No forms in the mail. I call AT&T to inquire about the tardy documents. After getting the usual runaround I finally talk with "Walkell". She puts me on hold for about five minutes, than informs me that they might have been mailed yesterday ( April 8th). She confirms that I did request the forms on April 2nd. And no, I will not have "Third Party Blocking" until those forms are signed, mailed back, and processed, end of story!

Now unbeknownst to "Walkell" I had alerted other AT&T (and related companies) customers to my situation. Some of these folks called AT&T to inquire about this problem and were told that by simply making the call they now had third party blocking. Now why was I not given that same assurance? Perhaps, and I know this is pure speculation, but perhaps this most noblest of phone companies did not give me the same deal because they had already fed my account to the jackals. And perhaps, and again this is speculation, they have already allowed new charges to be added to our account. Blocking applied last week would have prevented charges from being added on April 6th, a month after the first charges were applied. That would have proven to be a sticky situation for them come May when our next statement arrives with an even larger charge.

Well, sorry for this long posting. I admit it is a bit of a rant to purge my anger, a catharses for a man who tends to be quiet and unassuming. But friends I have discussed this problem with have thanked me for alerting them and advised that I pass the word along so that others can protect themselves. It is not just a simple $14.95 problem. This can damage a person's credit rating. Bad enough in a stable economy, but under the current conditions this can mean a financial disaster.

The criminals that applied the charges were just doing what you expect criminals to do. They steal. But a company that should know better not only allowed this to happen, but also made the victim of the crime contact the perpetrators himself thereby opening himself for further damage. My email is now known to them, and there are possibly recordings of me saying "yes" to various prompts and questions (a favorite tele-marketer trick). I didn't know these companies were crooked until after I had looked them up on a Google search. Because surely AT&T would not put a loyal customer in danger, now would they?

It has been a long week of worry, and I don't imagine things are going to get any better given AT&T's behavior. Have any of you ever seen Terry Gilliam's movie Brazil?

And please go over your monthly phone statements with a fine toothed comb.

"The Audactiy of Bubblegum Mechanics"

The closing for my show "The Audacity of Bubblegum Mechanics" and Joshua Vance's show "Louisville Portraits" will be this coming Friday. If you missed the opening, I hope you can make it to the closing of my 15 minutes of fame in Louisville. :-) And of course you are more than welcome to drop by the gallery during regular business hours. For more info please go to The Tim Faulkner Gallery.

Tim put together a video featuring mine and Joshua's work. If I imbedded the code correctly you should be able to view it below.

Dilation Exercise for March 2009

As I mentioned in a previous blog, Alan Clark is running the monthly Dilation Exercise Contests. This month I will be joining him with my own Dilation Exercise. I hope this will be a fun work out for your imagination and I encourage you to participate with comments. If you come back to the blog and can't find this post, look for it in the "Dilation Contest" label.  

Please look at the picture and imagine for it a one sentence caption of dialog and a one sentence caption of narrative.  Write these down and transmit the sentences to me via the comments option at the bottom of this post.  Try to produce captions that compliment the image without overly defining what's going on in the picture.  It helps if the captions suggest something beyond the picture plane.  For examples of these captioned images and more information about this project  and contest, go to Imagination Work Out and Contest.




The title of this painting  is not important here.  More important is what happens in your imagination when you view the image.  What's going on here?

As Alan does with his contest, I will choose my favorite of the captions offered for the March '09 Dilation Exercise and declare a winner on or about the 31st of March, 2009. The winner will have the image with his or her caption and name entered into the “Dilation Exercise” album in the coppermine gallery on my web site. The winner will win an 8" x 10" matted print of the contest image.  It will be necessary to have the winner's shipping address in order to deliver the print.  Sorry, but the print prize will only be delivered to an address within the continental United States.

For examples of captioned images and more information about this project  and contest, go to Imagination Work Out and Contest.

HYPERICON 5-DEEPSOUTHCON 47

Things are going swimmingly at the present.

My show opening at The Tim Faulkner Gallery (my first extended gallery showing in Louisville) is less than two weeks away.

I have my online gallery re-established (albeit sans the image info).

My online shop is now good to go (thank you again Deborah!).

And to top everything off, I'm going to be the Artist Guest of Honor for Hypericon 5!

This year Hypericon 5 is also DeepSouthCon 47, so by proxy I'm Artist Guest of Honor for two conventions at once. Not bad for this bucolic little country mouse. With all of the wonderful talent out there to choose from I'm sure selecting a guest artist was not an easy task, so I'd like to again thank Hypericon chairmen Fred Grimm for according me this tremendous honor.

Hypericon is an extraordinary convention. The fans are wonderful and the roster of professional talent that attends is growing yearly. Last year I participated in a painting demonstration with Guest of Honor Alex McVey and the multi-talented Deena Warner. This year we hope to once again provide a demonstration/workshop. I'll keep you posted on the details.

Living in the Dead of Winter

Whew, what a month. I have my site (sans the Coppermine Gallery pages) back up. My online shop met its demise in the server crash, but is in the process of being created once again by the talented Deborah Jones (thanks again Deborah!).

2008 was a turbulent year but finished on a high note. In November I took a chance and approached Tim Faulkner, owner of the Tim Faulkner Gallery (TimFaulknerGallery.com) with a portfolio of my recent work. He liked what he saw and is now featuring my paintings among the works of other Louisville talents such as Terry Tapp, Jen Goodell and Joshua Vance.

Tim was kind of enough to write up a piece about me on his blog at Louisville Mojo. You can read it here.

During the month of March he will be hosting a show of my work and Joshua's. The show will open on March 6th. Please drop in and have a look.

In other news of the New Year, Alan M. Clark has devised an online project which I will be a part of.

The goal of the project is to bring the viewer into the creative process by encouraging him or her to devise captions and dialogue for a featured piece of work. You can read more about it at The Imagination Fully Dilated Blog.

Back to the internet drawing board. I'm going to once again attempt to set up the Coppermine Gallery. Wish me luck.

Technical Difficulties

My website is currently down due to a massive server crash. As the wreckage is sifted for remains of life I am frantically, well at least concernedly, working to get things set up at a new server. Fear not. I shall return shortly.

And a belated Happy New Year!

Covers and Conventions

And here is yet another long overdue blog entry.

Business first. Here is the cover for the wonderfully suspenseful novel The Master of the Moors by Kealan Patrick Burke and published by Necessary Evil Press. This was one of the projects that I had to keep under wraps until the official notification.

More information is available at the NEP site and Kealan's site.



This is the cover for Norman Prentiss's upcoming poignant and eerie short novel "Invisible Fences", published by Cemetery Dance Publications. You can read more information at Norman's site. Keith Minnion created the interior illustrations. You can see more of his work at KeithMinnion.com.



Last but not least, here is the cover for the reprint of "The Necronomicon", edited by Robert M. Price and published by Chaosium Inc. Information is available at Chaosium.com.




And to finish up this post, here are a selection of photos from my busy summer of conventions.

HyperiCon

InConJunction


Camp Necon


And GenCon.