Working on an Entergy New Orleans account and found over $47K in telecom charges that make no sense. Multiple T1 lines supposedly installed at a warehouse with no phone service. Anyone else running into similar issues with Entergy's telecom billing? The rate codes don't match anything in their published tariffs and customer service keeps bouncing me around departments.
Anyone else seeing massive Entergy telecom billing errors?
Juan, I've seen this with Alabama Power too. Found $23K in bogus "fiber optic service fees" on a retail client's account. The utility was billing for telecom infrastructure that was never installed. Had to escalate all the way to the PSC to get resolution. Document everything and demand facility surveys.
This is exactly why I started expanding into telecom auditing. Idaho Power was charging one of my clients for "enhanced telecommunications services" under tariff schedule T-47. Problem was, T-47 doesn't exist in their current tariff book. Recovered $31,200 going back 24 months. These billing systems are a mess.
Warren, good point on the tariff verification. I'm finding Entergy has been applying outdated telecom rate schedules that were supposed to sunset in 2012. The revenue recovery potential is huge but the learning curve is steep. Any recommended resources for understanding telecom tariff structures?
Check with your state's PUC website for archived tariff filings. Pennsylvania has everything digitized going back to 2008. Also, FCC has some good reference materials on commercial telecom billing practices. The key is cross-referencing actual services with what's being billed.
One thing I learned - always request the "as-built" documentation for any telecom infrastructure charges. Half the time, utilities can't produce it because the work was never completed or was done incorrectly. That's your smoking gun for recovery.
Albert makes a great point. I recovered $18,500 for a Boise manufacturing client when Idaho Power couldn't produce installation records for "dedicated fiber circuits" they'd been billing for 18 months. The audit trail is everything in telecom billing disputes.
Update on my case - Entergy finally admitted the billing errors and issued a credit of $52,400. Took three months and threats of PSC complaints, but persistence paid off. Thanks for the advice everyone. This telecom side is definitely worth pursuing.