I've been auditing utility bills for years here in Kansas, mostly electric and gas. But I'm starting to see more clients asking about telecom and broadband bills. Just finished reviewing a client's Verizon business account and found $18,000 in overcharges over 18 months. Most of it was duplicate billing for services that were supposedly disconnected but kept running. Anyone else expanding into telecom audits? The complexity is insane compared to electric bills but the error rates seem higher.
Telecom audit opportunities - anyone else seeing major errors?
Bonnie, I've been dipping my toes into telecom for about 6 months now here in Seattle. The learning curve is steep but you're right about error rates. Just found $12K in errors on a client's CenturyLink account - they were being billed for T1 lines that were upgraded to fiber 2 years ago. The carriers seem to have even worse record keeping than utilities. What kind of errors are you finding most commonly?
I'm seeing similar patterns down here in Memphis. The biggest issues I've found are: 1) Services not properly disconnected when locations close, 2) Equipment charges continuing after hardware is returned, 3) Incorrect rate plans being applied. The documentation is a nightmare though - telecom bills make electric utility bills look simple. Anyone have tips for organizing the audit process?
The key is getting the complete service inventory from the carrier upfront. Don't rely on the bills alone. I've found AT&T here in Jacksonville is pretty good about providing detailed service reports if you know who to ask. Also, always request the original service orders - half the time the billing doesn't match what was actually ordered. Circuit IDs are your friend for tracking changes over time.
Rob makes a good point about service orders. I've been working with several large clients here in Dallas on their telecom audits. One thing I've learned is that carriers often have different billing systems for different services. A client might have local service billed through one system, long distance through another, and data services through a third. Each system can have different error patterns. Document everything!
Marcus is spot on about the multiple billing systems. I've seen this with both AT&T and Verizon here in Connecticut. What's really frustrating is when they migrate between systems and services get lost or duplicated. Just helped a client recover $23K from Verizon where services were being billed in both the old and new systems for 8 months. The carriers seem to have no internal controls to catch these overlaps.
Thanks everyone for the insights! Vince, that double billing scenario sounds exactly like what I found with my client. The migration issues seem to be a goldmine for auditors. I'm thinking of putting together a telecom audit checklist - would others be interested in collaborating on something like that? We could share common error patterns and best practices.
Count me in on that checklist idea, Bonnie. I've got a spreadsheet with about 30 different error types I've encountered. Would be great to consolidate our collective knowledge. Maybe we could also include contact information for the right people at each carrier - that alone would save hours of getting transferred around customer service.