Pacific Bell’s Aggressive New Sales Practices Detailed

Pacific Bell has embarked on an aggressive sales campaign that tracks revenue by the hour, directs service employees to push sales on every call, and encourages them to deny customers certain caller ID blocking options in what consumer groups say is an apparent violation of a state mandate, according to internal company documents.

A PacBell official said such practices are common and do not encourage unethical marketing, adding that the company is not violating state rules. But critics contend that these incentives encourage PacBell salespeople to sell higher-priced services to consumers who don’t need or want them.

The documents, which a PacBell labor union said it filed early Wednesday with state regulators, add details to allegations recently outlined in union advertisements. They paint a picture of nonstop sales promotions and quota updates, along with regular sales notices laden with slogans like “Offer high, watch ‘em buy!!! Offer low, nowhere to go!!!”

Under internal names like “Basics Blastoff,” “Ride the Wave” and “Splash Cash,” PacBell is offering cash and prizes to managers and service employees who meet quotas for selling high-profit products such as caller ID, call waiting and call forwarding.

Such practices appear to be relatively new for PacBell, but are more common for SBC Communications of Texas, which acquired PacBell last year and has instituted the new sales program.

Steve Dimmitt, PacBell’s vice president for consumer marketing, did not dispute the authenticity of the documents and said SBC has routinely used such sales practices in its traditional markets in Texas, without complaint.

“We don’t believe it’s a problem,” Dimmitt said. He added that state regulators have not received any customer complaints about PacBell’s sales efforts.

But Michael Sukhov, telecommunications analyst at the Office of Ratepayer Advocates, an independent arm of the state Public Utilities Commission charged with protecting consumers, said his office is “aware of and concerned about the allegations.” He said the agency will look into the matter as part of its evaluation of a PacBell application for a new calling service.

The company’s largest labor union, the Communications Workers of America, has tentatively approved the incentive plans. But a smaller union, the Telecommunications International Union, filed the documents with regulators and has asked state regulators to investigate the new sales practices.

“The inevitable and planned result of the new SBC/PacBell sales program is to convert employees who have long been the customer service arm of PacBell into an aggressive, sleazy sales force, while deceptively promoting a continuing customer service role to the public and the [state regulators],” said Alicia Ribeiro, president of Local 103 of the TIU, in a letter to the California Public Utilities Commission.

Ribeiro and others say the company critiques employees based on sales performance, and that its biggest emphasis is on selling add-on services, including a new feature package called “The Basics.”

Consumer groups complain that the company named the higher-cost package so that customers might confuse it with “basic service,” a low-cost phone service with no extras.

PacBell said the advertising is not meant to confuse customers. “For us to pull the wool over our customers’ eyes only hurts us, and we won’t do it,” said PacBell’s Dimmitt.

Another big sales push involves caller ID, sources say. The service, priced normally at $6.50 per month, displays a caller’s phone number on a special screen as the phone rings.

After a contentious fight over caller ID, California mandated that phone companies also offer all customers ways to prevent their phone number from being disclosed to caller ID subscribers.

One of the blocking options, called per-line or “complete” blocking, allows customers to have all outgoing calls protected from caller ID machines. Another option, “selective blocking,” allows callers to block their number on a per-call basis.

In privacy-conscious California, an estimated 53% of all phone customers have complete blocking--a percentage that undermines the usefulness of caller ID.

Now the labor union and others say PacBell is telling employees not to offer customers complete blocking and to convince others to switch to selective blocking.