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Legality of Toll Free Hazing?

L

LordRaiden

Banned
Well, ok, Toll Free Hazing probubly isn't the correct phrase, but it's the only think I can think of to call it. Basically here's the story. Heard about this on a site visit and it's been bothering me a bit. One of our customers had a client of theirs who apparently lost some money and blamed it on our customer. For simplicity of telling the story, we'll call our customer "TechCo". I'm not gonna give their real name since I think that they'd prefer to stay anonymous through this.

Well anways, since it was their client who was a fault, TechCo wasn't responsible for the loss of money and therefor wouldn't answer calls for compensation from the client. So what their client did was he called their 800 number and left the phone off the hook on hold with the standard "The next customer service rep will be with you shortly" bit playing in the background, and did this over a weekend.

So come Monday morning the phone had officially been off the hook for a total of aproximately 63 hours. The toll free number costs TechCo 15 cents a minute per call. The client did this to TechCo for 4 consecutive weekends over a one month period. So the math adds up like this.

63 hours x 4 weekends = 252 hours of usage.
252 hours x 60 minutes per hour = 15,120 minutes of total usage just from this one customer.
15,120 minutes of usage x $0.15 per minute = $2268

The client claims that TechCo owes him something like $3500 and apparently was trying to make them pay that one way or another. I don't know what's happening with this right now because I haven't been following it very closely, but I found it rather disturbing personally.

What would you say would be the legality of this? Personally, I say that our customer (TechCo) needs to sue their client for the money he cost them plus penalties and maybe some other legal action, but then again, I'm no legal expert. Opinions?
 
Wait a minute, he did it for a weekend?

Either this means you guys never pick, or he kept hanging up and redialing... Hmmm.
 
TechCo has a clear case against the client. Take 'em to court. What the client did was obviously malicious and obviously intended to harm TechCo.
 
Originally posted by: Howard
Wait a minute, he did it for a weekend?

Either this means you guys never pick, or he kept hanging up and redialing... Hmmm.
Click to expand...

Yeah.... what company would play a "your call will be answered by the next available representative" when there's no one to answer the phone? That's awful customer service there.

Still, though, I think TechCo would win a case against this scumbag.
 
right even thought he company owes them money they cant do something like this. Techo has a good case against them. It will be easy to prove also.

 
I agree Waggy. I think this is low on the part of the client. If you have a beef against a company and nothing else will solve it, and it is legit, then take them to court. If you're right and your case is legit, you'll win hands down.
 
TechCo needs to reprogram their PBX switch for an off-hours message, that gives the caller the option to leave a short voice mail, then terminate the call. Them having a message that says that a customer service rep will be with you shortly is just asking for it.
 
Originally posted by: Rastus
TechCo needs to reprogram their PBX switch for an off-hours message, that gives the caller the option to leave a short voice mail, then terminate the call. Them having a message that says that a customer service rep will be with you shortly is just asking for it.
Click to expand...

Yes i agree,if i call and get that kind of a message,i put my phone on "speakerphone"and play solitaire
on my computer,write bills,look at junk on Ananadtech,etc..

i was on "hold" for about 2 1/2 hours the other day,and then i actually got a person that picked up!

Good old Speedy Verizon!
 
the guy with the beef should have taken TechCo to small claims court, not done the phone call crap

if i was TechCo , i would take the jackhole to small claims court and try to get the $2268 phone costs from the idiot

you can't just make up your own rules of justice
 
Originally posted by: FoBoT
the guy with the beef should have taken TechCo to small claims court, not done the phone call crap

if i was TechCo , i would take the jackhole to small claims court and try to get the $2268 phone costs from the idiot

you can't just make up your own rules of justice
Click to expand...
I agree. Too bad some people seem to think that Vigilanti justic is the only cure.
 
they shouldn't have such a misleading message... it's clear that the cust serv rep was not going to with him shortly...
 
If they're too stupid to configure their phone queue to not accept calls during non business hours...

rolleye.gif


Viper GTS
 
Well they will never be able to prove that he was not on the phone waiting for the Next Customer service rep.
I would think that this message is a fraud and this company should be shut down for the fraud. Sounds like a company that has NO business in business.

Bleep
 
Originally posted by: Bleep
Well they will never be able to prove that he was not on the phone waiting for the Next Customer service rep.
I would think that this message is a fraud and this company should be shut down for the fraud. Sounds like a company that has NO business in business.

Bleep
Click to expand...

I challenge you to find a jury, or even a single judge, that would believe you spent 63 consecutive hours on hold waiting for someone to answer your call.

It's so asinine that it's practically a self-proving statement.
 
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