GTE Suspends 20 at Latino Service Center : Utilities: The employees allegedly signed up thousands of unsuspecting consumers for services they did not request.

General Telephone disclosed Monday that it has indefinitely suspended 20 employees at its Spanish-speaking customer service center in Los Angeles for allegedly enrolling thousands of unsuspecting California consumers in costly services they did not request.

The suspensions cover nearly a third of the 63 workers at the company’s Language Assistance Center in Mar Vista, GTE’s only service center for Spanish-speaking customers in California. The action follows disclosures earlier this month of what is believed to be widespread abuse affecting potentially thousands of customers.

Among those suspended Monday were six management employees, including the director of the center. All the suspended employees, whose names were not disclosed, speak Spanish, GTE said.

The company said it has begun a detailed review of all telephone service requests passing through the center during the last two years, and will refund money to customers who received and paid for services they did not request.

A GTE spokesman said that although the workers at the center do not receive commissions for selling optional services such as call waiting, three-way calling and speed dialing, they had received points for bonus merchandise such as coolers, bicycles and other prizes for persuading customers to subscribe to the special services. “It’s highly likely that this system will be abolished,” the spokesman said.

An investigation of the alleged abuses is expected to be completed by the end of the week, the company said. Guilty employees would be given punishments ranging from retraining to dismissal.

“The company deeply regrets that any customers might have been treated unfairly,” said Virgil Gardaya, director for public communications at GTE. “Even though the activities were limited to a small group working out of a single facility, GTE cannot, and will not, tolerate such activities.”

The company said it uncovered the alleged abuses through routine monitoring of live telephone conversations between employees and customers and follow-up audits of confirmation cards mailed to subscribers verifying their new services. The company said its actions uncovered evidence that unsuspecting customers were being enrolled in call waiting and other services--ranging in cost from $3 to $3.25 a month--that they had not requested.