Billing Errors: Shortchanged on Long Distance
6/28/2004
By Lorraine Woellert, with Brian Grow, Business Week
Long-distance phone companies have little trouble putting calls through without a hitch. But when the bill comes in, well, that's another story. Between 3% and 6% of long-distance invoices are riddled with errors, says Eric Goodness, with market researcher Gartner.
The problem: massive, disjointed networks and billing systems can't always calculate the length, origin, or location of every call with 100% accuracy. The errors might amount to a few seconds here, a few minutes there, but for corporations, it adds up. Says Goodness: "I'm seeing companies save 30% to 45% off their telecom expenses."
Now entrepreneurs are taking advantage of the wrong numbers by offering systems that can compare actual calls against the bills. Jack Holt, CEO of S3 Matching Technologies of Austin, Tex., says he is saving some clients hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. The uproar over billing errors has pushed MCI to launch a task force to review complaints. It soon will decommission several redundant billing systems to improve service. AT&T (T ) says its billing accuracy has increased by 65% in the past four years. Looks like the long-distance carriers still have a ways to go.