Frequently Asked Questions
Will the audit affect our relationships with our Telecommunications Service Providers?
DIgby 4 Group recognizes that your relationships with your service providers are important and therefore we do our best to handle the Audit in a manner that is both cordial and diplomatic. If we establish a good rapport with your service providers, this enhances the Audit process and increases the likelihood of success.
Telecommunications Service Providers are aware of the problems with their billing systems and know that errors may exist. The local telephone company has a separate department to handle Auditors requests and claims. In the case of long distance voice and data services and cellular service, many of these may be uncooperative at first. If the potential for a significant refund is uncovered, we may need to enlist your support with a meeting or conference call to encourage their cooperation.
If someone in our organization is already working on obtaining a refund, is there any point in getting DIgby 4 involved in those negotiations?
When we begin the Audit, you can identify any refunds already being worked on by your in-house staff and we will agree not to work on the same items. However, you may wish to consider that our Auditors have many years of experience in negotiating refunds. It is likely that we can get back more money than someone in-house may agree upon. Even if you decide to continue to pursue these yourself, there may be a benefit to letting us review the outcome before you reach a final settlement, as a further refund is often possible.
How far back does DIgby 4 need copies of our bills?
To begin the audit, we just need one recent, representative month of each bill. You can give us the originals, which we will return, or photocopies. If you like, we will come to your offices to make the copies. While we begin with one month’s bills, we may wish to look at additional bills. Do not discard any old telephone bills, contracts or records while the audit is in progress, since they may provide evidence of how far back a billing error goes. Your telecommunications service providers seldom provide past bills or if they do there is often a substantial charge for them, so keep your own records archived.
While overcharging is more common, there are some instances where your service provider may be undercharging. If we discover this, we will point it out to you and you can decide whether or not to have it corrected. If you do this, you may minimize the chance for retroactive billing. If you do not correct under-billing and your service provider discovers it, they may be able to bill you retroactively unless your contract with them specifically prohibits this.
How far back will the telecommunications service provider go when issuing credit?
Each state Public Utilities Commission has established guidelines for how far back a refund may be issued. In most states the Statute of Limitations is six years, even if evidence that the billing error existed for a longer period of time can be demonstrated. If no documentation can be provided, the maximum credit is typically two years. Some telecommunications service providers are now limiting their liability by inserting clauses in their contracts that you are responsible for reviewing your bills as you receive them and that they will not issue refunds for incorrect billing going back beyond six months. Try to have this restriction eliminated from any of your agreements.
If you are a large customer (over $50,000. of billing per month) your service provider is more likely to provide refunds back beyond the 6-month period, regardless of what is in your contract. If your organization’s procedure is to confirm the addition or removal of telecommunications services in writing, save copies of these letters, forms or e-mails as they may provide valuable evidence that can support our claims for incorrect billing, particularly in the case where you are being billed for a service that you had requested be discontinued. Without any written evidence, how far back a credit will go often depends upon a negotiation process that we go through with the service provider. Our experience is brought to bear in negotiating for the maximum amount possible.
How can we get an organized database of all outside lines and the associated circuit numbers that are used in our organization?While we compile some of this information as part of the audit, a database of your circuits is not a by-product of the audit since there is considerable additional effort involved on our part in developing the circuit list into a useable format. Once the audit is complete, we can propose to develop the circuit database as a follow on project, using the information we have collected.
What are the different types of charges DIgby 4 is auditing?
Our initial assessment of your telecommunications spending will identify the areas of greatest opportunity in terms of where to begin the audit. We recommend considering all of the following:
Fixed monthly costs for outside lines and related services
Variable monthly costs for telephone calls and directory assistance
Variable monthly costs for the installation of new services
Long Distance Telephone Service – Voice (outside lines and calls)
Fixed monthly costs for outside lines connecting you directly to your long distance service provider
Variable monthly costs for telephone calls and directory assistance.
Calling Cards – Voice
Variable monthly costs for telephone calls and associated calling card surcharges.
Cellular Telephones – Voice
Fixed monthly costs for calling plans
Variable monthly costs for call volume exceeding calling plan limits.
Variable monthly costs for calls not on calling plans and associated air time and roaming charges.
Audio and Video Conferencing – Voice
Variable costs for calling volume and associated charges
Pagers and Text Messaging Devices - Data
Fixed monthly costs for rental of devices
Fixed monthly costs for message plans
Variable monthly costs for additional messages
Connections to the Internet – Data
Fixed monthly cost for outside line accessing the Internet
Fixed monthly costs for web site hosting
Fixed monthly costs for e-mail addresses
Other Circuits and Usage Costs for Data Communications
Fixed monthly costs for outside lines (circuits)
Variable monthly costs for usage on certain types of data communications services.
Frame Relay Networks
What if we purchase our local telecommunications service from a competitor to the traditional local telephone company?
At present, the traditional local telephone company is more regulated by the state than its competitors, so rules that apply to obtaining refunds from the “local phone company” may not be enforceable with their competitors. Thus, the likelihood of recovery of refunds from these competitors is not as great.
What if we don’t have copies of our bills readily available?
If you cannot provide us with bill copies, it may be possible for us to obtain bills directly from your telecommunications service providers if you give us your account numbers. This can often take some time and there may be an associated charge.
Will DIgby 4 need to speak to the company who services our Telephone System (PBX)?
We may wish to speak to the company who provides service on your PBX. While it is not likely that they have a complete set of records, they may have information about the outside lines that go through your PBX.
In addition to obtaining refunds, how does ongoing cost reduction come into play during the audit?
Typically, when we obtain a refund due to a billing error, there is a corresponding reduction in the monthly billing. While we point this reduction out to you, DIgby 4’s compensation in this case is a percentage of the refund only. Any resulting cost savings belongs solely to you. There may be instances where we cannot obtain a refund since no billing error exists, but there may be an opportunity to reduce the monthly expense. For example, we may find a group of outside lines that are working lines but not connected to any telephone equipment on your premises. If we point this out to you and you agree to remove that group of lines, there will be a monthly reduction in your bill. We can help you with this if you wish. There may be other opportunities to reduce costs that we observe, but are beyond the scope of the Audit. For example, we may note that your rates for long distance calls, while in compliance with your contract, are considerably higher than what other organizations of your size are paying. We will point this out to you, but in order to reduce the rates a negotiation with your long distance carrier would be in order or you may need to change to another service provider. While DIgby 4 can provide you support with this as a separate fee based consulting project, this type of cost reduction is not part of the Audit.
What happens if the billing errors reappear after DIgby 4 has requested that they be corrected?
Before we complete your Audit, we obtain new copies of your bills and billing detail from all service providers where billing errors were found. If we find that an error we requested to be corrected has not been, or has reappeared, we will take the steps again needed to correct the error and negotiate an additional refund or credit. Once again, when the refund or credit is received, we will forward this to you along with our invoice.
If we receive our bills on electronic media (CD-ROM) does DIgby 4 need this and do you still need the paper version of the bills?
While the CD-ROM version of your billing can be helpful in the Audit process, we also like to receive paper bill copies which can contain information that may not be on the electronic version. It is also easier to miss errors when using the CD-ROM vs. the paper bill.
Please feel free to let us know if you have any other questions.
We do our best to make everything we are doing on your behalf very clear.
