The FCC Said You Lost Money

Who is investing the time to carefully scrutinize your mobile costs?

The Los Angeles Times reported in June of 2015, that, "Wireless carrier AT&T could be forced to pay $100 million after the Federal Communications Commission found that the company had slowed data networks for unlimited plan holders without informing them, the agency said Wednesday.  Since 2011, thousands of customers had complained to the FCC that AT&T had drastically reduced their network speeds . . .

'Consumers deserve to get what they pay for,' said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a statement. 'The FCC will not stand idly by while consumers are deceived by misleading marketing materials and insufficient disclosure.'

The proposed fine represents the largest in FCC history, according to FCC spokesman Neil Grace, and was calculated after the agency estimated that AT&T had earned billions from locking consumers into plans falsely advertised as 'unlimited.'"

The previous month, in May 2015, the Los Angeles Times also reported that all four major wireless carriers overcharged their clients, "Verizon and Sprint are paying a combined $158 million to settle investigations into unauthorized charges placed on their customers' phone bills. The practice is known as 'cramming,' and with [this] announcement, the Federal Communications Commission has now made cramming settlements with all four major wireless carriers — AT&T settled in October for $105 million, and T-Mobile settled in December for $90 million. Of [the] $158 million, $90 million will come from Verizon and $68 million will come from Sprint."

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Small Problem Stealing Big Time

This specific example illustrates our attentiveness to detail and follow through.  We saved our client money, time, and aggravation.  

A telecom billing problem caused consistent aggravation.  Prior to engaging CMS services, the employees of a company spent numerous hours during a 4-month period attempting to resolve a small billing problem with a carrier for one of their office locations.  The employees’ time and distraction totaled to much greater value than the invoice error.  Aggravation with the issue continued to increase, and distracted the employees’ attention from higher priority work.

Once CMS was engaged, a CMS account manager invested 4 hours to correct the problem.  One call lasted 2 hours: hold time, transfer to supervisors, and transfer to different departments.  CMS identified that the client account had not billed on the correct carrier platform, which resulted in the unnecessary charges. 

Credit issued.  Problem solved.  

CMS eliminates at least 90% of the items on your telecom/cellular to-do list, and simultaneously reduces hard-dollar monthly costs.  We guarantee measurable results. 

Let's talk (503) 972-9999.  See us at www.cmsenterprisesinc.com

Consolidated Bill: Better Scrutiny Yields Lower Cost

Many organizations don't have the time to carefully scrutinize consolidated billing.  

CMS discovered that a new client was paying for two point-to-point circuits.  Problem: The circuits had not been used in 10 years.  The carrier billed for these two circuits, along with other services, in a consolidated bill.  There was no red flag.  We contacted the carrier, and disconnected the circuits.  We followed through to make sure the invoice reflected the disconnects.  

If you are enjoying the convenience of a consolidated bill (also know as aggregation, or summary invoice), the carrier may be enjoying the benefit of receiving over-payment from you. 

CMS will give you complete visibility for you to know what you have, why you have it, and why you are paying that dollar amount.  CMS routinely finds unexpected hard-dollar savings for its clients.  That’s part of our job. 

You get pure savings.  No contingency commissions.  We do all the legwork.  Thorough scrutiny.  Exhaustive follow through.  Flat fee.  No change of carriers.  CMS takes the time to solve problems, and do the work, so your staff can focus on core priorities.  And, we guarantee to deliver monthly hard-dollar savings.   

Please visit us at www.CMSenterprisesinc.com   Feel free to discuss your situation with us, call (503) 972-9999.  Thank you.

Wrestling for Results

A company with geographically diverse locations reduced monthly telecommunications expense by renegotiating a contract with their primary carrier.  So far, so good.

Problem.  The company, and the carrier, did not follow through to carefully examine the new billing.  The company did not notice the problem, because their costs dropped.  No one had the time to verify the invoices against the contract terms.

After the company hired CMS, we caught numerous billing errors.  Wrong rates were inconsistently applied.

CMS wrestled with the carrier, and did all the legwork.  The carrier issued checks totaling $60,031.87 to the client.  The money was refunded, because CMS caught the 6 months of billing errors.  We tenaciously followed up to get the credits for our client.  The account now bills correctly.

The on-going savings, and credits from the past, belong 100% to the client.  CMS does not charge a contingency fee, or accept payments from carriers.

This may not represent a situation of every company.  But, where there are telecom and cellular problems, we will achieve measurable results.  We have since 1989.

Look at us behind our back. 

Cancel Your Corporate Cellular Accounts and Save Money

Look at your corporate cellular cost, and divide by number of devices to determine your average per device cost.  Are corporate smart phones an employee perk?  Should you pay for data plans for tablets? 

The obvious.  If an average per employee cost to your organization is $75 per month, and you transition to employee liable cellular with a $40 stipend, you save $35 per month per device.  Importantly, you simplify your organization, and eliminate the risk of fraud and overages costs. 

Save time, too.  Employee liable cell devices cut support costs.  Your staff can focus on more strategic projects.  Eliminate: Trouble tickets, move-add-change-disconnect, accessories, add new employee, terminate employee, user error support, upgrade eligible, pooling, fraud, expense code allocation, taxation issues, finding and correcting carrier errors. 

Nothing can be this easy.  There are reasons to keep corporate plans, such as HIPAA compliance, perceived data security risks, employee perceptions, company access to phone records, terminated employees keeping a corporate phone numbers, and early termination fees are some reasons why organizations choose to keep control with corporate liable cellular plans. 

Why do you have corporate cell phones?

Should you like to transition to employee liable phones, or simple reduce staff time and monthly hard-dollar costs, please contact CMS.  (503) 972-9999  info@CMSenterprisesinc.com