Courtesy of Stan Protigal
Dealing with Telemarketing Slime
"Anti-slam blocks" or long distance switching blocks are imposed by a local phone carrier at the request of the customer. A customer with an anti-slam block can only change a long distance carrier by directly requesting that the local phone carrier do so.
In the case of U.S. West, the authorization to switch is accomplished by the customer directly calling U.S. West. No written authorization is required. (Phone companies hate written business communications, since it reduces paper trails to have everything oral.) I understand the baby bells are not permitted to advertize the availability of the block. Presumably this is because the block is an exception to the FCC rules which require unrestricted access to long distance carriers.
Security is not an issue here. Make it easy on yourself, and use your easiest password (if required; probably not) and permit changes to be made by phone.
U.S. West and Pacbell apply an "anti-slam" block by simple request to
the business office. Other local carriers may make it slightly more difficult,
but it's still easy.
Long distance carriers typically use verifiers, who confirms that you accept
changing long distance companies. After the slimeball get a "hit," a
second person goes on line and verifies that the switch is actually authorized.
At least in the case of U.S. West, the verifier does not get them past the
anti-slam block! The only way past the anti-slam block is for the long
distance carrier to call the local carrier with you on the line and
start all over again!
Note: The complications of the verification process allow for more fun. e.g.,
Go ahead and switch me. Thank you. Gotta run. <click>.
I understand verifiers are only required to be used by those disreputable companies who got caught slamming. I'd rather deal with a more reputable carrier.<hold...>
After the Greene order breaking up AT&T, AT&T got tired of losing their customer base. At that time a number of "slam" operations sprung up, often using AT&T's billing services and leased lines. These operations were obtaining customers who did not want their services switched. At first they would simply switch people without permission. Eventually they would elicit responses which the slam companies would claim to be "yes" answers.
AT&T would be slammed as often as the next guy, but since AT&T were getting the fees, it really didn't matter much. Naturally AT&T claimed they couldn't do anything about it.
The Baby Bells could. They were getting pretty fed up with AT&T's bovine scatology, so they instituted an option for a customer-requested anti-slam block. By requesting an "anti-slam" block, a customer can rest assured that they won't be switched without authorization. (Dialing 1-700-555- 4141 will indicate the chosen carrier.)
The verifiers came about when slam operations were using ambiguous or elicited
responses to switch unwilling customers.
It is possible to get free services, but these are becoming scarcer. For example, if you get 60 free minutes per month for 3 months, that works out to $7.20 at $0.12/minute. If the new service costs $5./month, and it costs $20. to switch service two ways, that's a negative. AT&T and MCI have a couple of tricks they like to use, by "setting" whole billing cycles at undisclosed dates (until after the fact). So extensive use of unlimited calling becomes limited at best.
At the end of the day, it is very likely that you've already made an
intelligent choice of carriers according to the type of calling you make.
This is a tactic where your own dial tone provider (local telco) adds services that you did not request and probably did not want. These take a few major forms:
page first posted 29-Aug-97
rev October 9, 2007 ~~ copyright 1997, Stan Protigal ~~ Feel free to link
to me.