Cell Phone Users Say 411 System Needs Assistance
Few things are more frustrating than getting the wrong phone number from directory assistance. But one of them is getting the wrong number from directory assistance when you’re on a mobile phone.
The situation is lose-lose for mobile customers--they pay for the 411 call and for the resulting call to the wrong number. And then they have to call 411 and try again.
Getting a refund for the botched 411 call can be difficult because customers must call the mobile company and endure lengthy waits on hold so they can plead their case for a credit.
Recently, Beverly Hills attorney Sanford Passman found that even that onerous process didn’t work with his carrier, AT&T; Wireless (formerly L.A. Cellular). He said he has been unsuccessful getting reimbursed on several occasions by AT&T; Wireless employees, who either refuse to issue the credit or who pledge to apply the refund and then don’t.
“It’s quite a racket they’ve got going,” said Passman, who says he spends up to $25 a month just on mobile directory-assistance charges.
The price of wireless directory-assistance calls varies by carrier, but analysts say 75 cents per call is about average. (By comparison, so-called land-line prices range from 35 cents at GTE to soon-to-be 46 cents for Pacific Bell.) The mobile companies typically charge an extra fee for placing the call for the customer once the requested phone number is provided.
“In my experience, 15% to 20% of the directory information numbers are inaccurate,” Passman said. “And most people don’t call for a credit because they know they’ll have to wait through a battery of automated messages and wait a long time on the mobile phone before they get through to a person. One time I drove from downtown Los Angeles to Beverly Hills on hold and never got through to an AT&T; person.”
Steve Crosby, a spokesman for AT&T; Wireless in Los Angeles, said the company’s policy is to issue refunds for inaccurate 411 numbers. However, he conceded that some employees may have been unaware of the policy and incorrectly denied refunds to customers.
“It could conceivably happen several times because our employees have so much to learn that this policy may have slipped through the cracks,” Crosby said.
AT&T; Wireless is not alone. Sprint PCS, AirTouch Cellular, GTE Wireless (which serves San Diego and some other portions of Southern California), Nextel and Pacific Bell Wireless have similar refund procedures and comparable phone number databases.
Industry analysts agree that the relative accuracy of directory-assistance service in general has suffered in the last few years, as deregulation has pitted once-friendly phone companies against each other--a shift that has reduced their willingness to share solid local phone number data without exacting a price.
Phone companies claim accuracy in the 90% range, citing figures compiled by outside researchers that they hired. They don’t release the results to the public. Still, anecdotal evidence--and public frustration--suggests that major companies still have spotty phone number databases, and that users believe the 411 problems are worse in the wireless world.
Gary Brown, executive vice president of Decision Data Collection, said he is not aware of any published objective research into the accuracy of wireless directory-assistance databases. His firm, based in McLean, Va., conducts research for companies, including occasional studies of directory-assistance accuracy for phone firms.
“I think wireless companies need to have higher accuracy rates than traditional wire-line companies, if only because their customers are damaged more with inaccurate information,” he said. “The wireless customers, because they are mobile, have more at stake in terms of getting the correct number and getting connected to the right number.”
A random test of the region’s wireless 411 services yielded accurate phone numbers for both residential and business listings that are easy to spell and that have not changed recently.
Still, several of the companies initially claimed to have no listing for a Culver City restaurant that has been in the same location for four years, but then found the correct number when pressed to check further.
New or changed listings are the weak spot in most databases, and their accuracy depends on how frequently the listings are updated. Of the services tested, AirTouch fared the worst in that regard, giving out disconnected phone numbers for the Los Angeles office of the Public Utilities Commission (changed in April) and for Ericsson Wireless in San Diego (which took over a Qualcomm operation last year). AirTouch also was alone in giving out the wrong number for a Los Angeles resident who had moved last fall.
Unfortunately, consumers have little recourse except to press for additional searches when an operator comes up blank and to press for refunds when appropriate. But that could change if the PUC follows through on its promise to step up monitoring of consumer issues involving wireless phones.
Although state regulators generally are restricted from regulating wireless prices, the PUC last week endorsed a plan to reassert oversight over quality-of-service issues related to wireless carriers--an approach that could ultimately include refund policies and other matters related to mobile directory assistance.
One area ripe for review is why wireless carriers require their customers to dial a separate phone number (often 611) to request a refund for faulty directory information.
With land-line services, a caller can get a refund through 411 when he or she calls back for the correct listing. However, most wireless companies don’t allow their 411 operators to issue credits, even though those same employees routinely apply debits to customers’ accounts.
