Integretel has been cited again and again by the Feds, etc. Do the usual
searching of the internet and you'll find plenty.

My recommendation: send a note (paper...) to the Pa. Public Service
Commission asking _them_ to relay your complaint(s) to Verizon that you're
being misbilled. And that Verizon, despite all the complaints to them
about Integretel, is still acting as a collection agent for them.

Oh, Verizon can NOT shut off your local phone service if you don't pay
this addon.

Per (Pete Cresswell):

A strawman:

This is probably *not* a scam because
-----------------------------------------
- The amount is so piddling.   Six bucks and change.  
- Integretel sounds like a sort of clearinghouse for small entities what want tb
able to bill through people's phone bills.
- Given above, whoever did the deed wouldn't even get six dollars after
Integretel's cut.   I'd think five absolute max...maybe less.
- At five dollars a hit, to get a thousand dollars, you'd have to attack 200
people.
- Not to sound arrogant, but in the context of prison time, a thousand dollars
is chickenfeed.
- To get enough money to hire decent lawyer, how many bogus charges would you
have to generate?  200,000?  a half-million?
- At 200,000 or a half-million you're into the territory where you're virtually
assured of angering somebody who either knows somebody in a regulatory agency or
is so psycho that they'll pursue to the ends of the earth over less than ten
bucks.
--------------------------------------------

Thoughts?

About two years ago I had a 30 minute blank message on my answering
machine.  It was weird and I erased it.  At the end of the month I got
a bill from Verizon for a 30 minute collect call from Washington, DC
from Zero Plus Dialing for over $100.  It was something like $4 a
minute.  I wrote to Zero Plus Dialing and called them and explained
that no one ever accepted any collect calls from DC.  They refused to
erase the bill and threatened to sue and/or ruin my credit rating if I
didn't pay.  I searched the Internet and discovered that they have had
endless complaints that their collect call service has an automated
"press any key to accept this call"  and the beep of an answering
machine is an accepted key press even though it doesn't match any
dialing tones.  I threatened a class action lawsuit against them and
they stopped billing me.

CD

This is my experience with Integretel and SBC in Michigan. After readin
your posts, I realize that I may have yet more work to do to avoi
these people

Cind

I have managed to have all charges from Integretel removed and sen
back to the "carrier" by SBC. Furthermore, they have placed a thir
party block on my line so that Integretel cannot bill us again. Or an
other biller of like "products.

Of course, I have spent many hours on the phone being told things b
SBC that were not true. Or they were less than forthcoming in thei
solutions. That is, their representatives told me that they *could not
block third parties from billing, that they *could not* reverse th
charges, that I had to deal with Integretel itself to resolve th
problem

Today, I talked to four different people. They sent me twice to billin
because I now had a deliquent bill because Integretel's charges had no
reached 84.00. Billing asked me when I was going to pay the 84.00.
said "never.

I told each person that I talked to that Erin did not sign up for thi
service. She is autistic with a severe spelling disability. Each perso
that I talked to was told that Integretel has been the target o
lawsuits from the state attorney generals of Connecticut
Massechusetts, and New Jersey. When I talked to customer care, I tol
them that I wanted all extra services dropped from my phone bill (cal
waiting, caller ID, etc.). And further, that if something wasn't don
about this, I would be forced to sever my relationship with SBC. I the
told them that I wanted an itemized statement of my bill from August 1
2005. They then sent me to a "specialist." *The specialist told me tha
Integretel was a "nasty outfit." He then sent all of the charges bac
to the carrier and placed the block on all third party billers. I wil
be getting an itemized statement of my charges from August 1st.

I am telling all of you this so that you will not be faced with week
of denials of help from SBC if this kind of thing pops up on you
telephone bill. I guess thirteen years of advocating for my kids ha
had some additional benefits

Have a great day

Cindy Cleave