Phone Scams Follow Up

It turns out the phone number for my mom’s apartment WAS ported over to Clear Rate Communications. This was discovered after talking to CenturyLink customer service yesterday morning. After getting things back online with CenturyLink, I called Clear Rate Communications. The person I ended up talking with, Evan, was the antithesis of customer service. Defensive, arrogant, and condescending. I pointed out that the company had ported an account they had NO authority to change, nor did my mother. He said, dripping with a false sense of security, that he wouldn’t talk to me unless he had my POA for my mom. Pointing out that it was, ‘MY account you pirated!’ Did no good. I emailed my DPOA (a hotter document than a POA) to Clear Rate Communications, and headed out for some retail therapy. I was pissed at this point.

This company “Slammed” my account, and then tried to convince me that changing the billing from my nane to my mother’s was somehow accepted business practice, rather than a yellow or red caution light that possibly something illegal was afoot. While I do not blame their solicitor for not knowing that they duped an elderly woman with dementia, I do take, obviously, enormous offense at Evan’s attitude.

My mom doesn’t know that she doesn’t have rights to the phone account, nor did she remember responding to their solicitation call on January 2nd. At the very least, a reputable company would have stopped at: Changing the account from ‘Fred’ to ‘Elmer’ despite ‘third party verification’ by any customer. Any name changes I’ve had to make on my mom’s accounts have required my father’s death certificate and my DPOA. Why did Clear Rate Communication accept my mom’s word that she was ‘on’ the account when they were soliciting her, yet demand my DPOA to talk to me about My account they slammed? ARRRRGG!!

My second call the Clear Rate, after an email confirmed they’d received my DPOA, was answered by someone who knew what their job title meant. She was understanding, sympathetic and kind. She’s thrown a switch in their system so as to never solicit mom again, and give me a couple of tips I’ll be chatting with CenturyLink about to prevent this from happening in the future. I’ll be filing a complaint with the FCC. It’s the principle of the thing.