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From: asuvax!mothra!bakerj@ncar.ucar.edu (Jon Baker)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: MCI As Slamming King
Message-ID: <12328@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 18 Sep 90 17:20:46 GMT
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In article <12217@accuvax.nwu.edu>, v116kznd@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu
(Dave Archer) writes:

> I've wondered if any of this has anything to do with telemarketers
> hired by the LD companies imposing quotas on their employees.  Such
> as, "if you don't get 10 people an hour to switch over, you're out of
> a job".  This might explain alot.  And as far as MCI, it could just be
> they don't keep as close a watch on their telemarketers as the other
> companys do.

According to the WSJ report, MCI was not using outside telemarketers;
the agents were employees of MCI.  Quotas were imposed by MCI HQ.
Unfortunately, the persons responsible for monitoring the marketers
and reporting such behavior were working for the same management
responsible for the quotas.

The tactic was directed primarily at the elderly, hard-of-hearing, and
non-english speaking victims.  Although MCI led the pack in slamming
complaints (both to FCC, and to local telops), Sprint was not far
behind, and a few complaints were registered against AT&T as well.
The practice is growing to epidemic proportions, and is becoming a
major concern for the telops.  It costs them time/money to deal with
the flood of customer complaint, of a problem which they can legally
do nothing to stop.  It would also be expensive if all default-carrier
conversions were accompanied by paperwork which had to be processed by
the telop.  They seem to be stuck in a no-win situation.  Perhaps
AT&T's lawsuit will deter the practice in the future.  MCI HQ claims
to be making management and policy changes, and increased efforts to
monitor/stop slamming by their telemarketers.


JB