Ben Lomand Telephone Co-Op Sucks!
The purpose of this website is to inform the current and future members of Ben Lomand Telephone Cooperative in Tracy City, TN of their rights concerning the collection of bills they may owe or are disputing with the telephone company. I have included my story here as well. I am currently considering legal action against Ben Lomand.
I am a disabled dialysis patient who is considering moving to the Pelham Valley. I have been staying here for the summer and since I am on a transplant list and seeking a kidney I needed a residential phone to be notified of a match. I have a prepaid cell phone, but I have noticed that its reception is spotty and I often do not get calls. So, I thought that I should have a phone at my residence to be sure.
When I went into the Ben Lomand office to sign up for a phone I was told that I had a past due bill of some $1400 that I would need to pay before I could get a phone from them. This was supposedly for service from 8/97 to 1/97. I explained to them that I did live in Monteagle, TN in 8/97 and I had service with Ben Lomand then, but I was not in Tennessee the rest of the time and that I gave them a letter asking them to disconnect my service at the end of that August. In addition, I did not understand how any telephone bill could go 4 months without being paid and not be dsconnected anyway. So, to me this was an obvious mistake on Ben Lomand's part. In any case, I asked them to show me a bill and Tania Curtis, Customer Service Representative, said she would get me one.
I came back the next day and I was informed by Tania that they no longer had a bill because their records only went back 7 years. I figured that without a bill that would be the end of the issue and I could get my phone. but Tania let me know that they would not issue me a phone unless I started paying on this account. They wanted me to pay $50 extra a month toward the bil they say I owed. They refused to admit any possibility of an error, refused to give me any benefit of a doubt and could not produce a bill for me to either contest or pay from. I refused to pay anything on this amount because I would not acknowledge it in any way. In addition, they did have on record $50 that I sent to them in 1998 which I said most likely was for the first month of service which I already acknowledged I owed for. I asked Tania to please write me a letter explaining under what terms they were going to allow me to have service and to include the fact that they cannot produce a bill. Tania said she would have that letter for me by the following Monday.
Later, I did a little bit of research (thanks to some advice I received from online friends) and I found out that according to Tennessee state statutes, utilities ar not allowed to pursue any debts older than 6 years (T. CA 28.3.109). I had dialysis on Monday so I showed up at their office on Tuesday and went in to see Tania. I explained to her about the state statute of limitations and she still insisted on pursueing this debt - a debt that was obviously a mistake, that they could not produce a bill for, and which was illegal for them to pursue anyway! Tania made me the same $50 a month offer with an additional discount of 50% off of the installation fee because I was on public assistance. I am still wondering why this was never offerred before and if any other Ben Lomand members on public assistance have ever been offerred this deal.
At this point I asked to speak to Mike Burdwell, District Manager. Basically, Mike let me know that the fact that I needed the phone to be informed of a transplant match was "irrelevant". He also let me know that they would consult their attorney about the statute of limitations and then let me know. In the end, I finally recieved an email from Tania letting me know that they have consulted with their attorney and that the statute of limitations has indeed run out and they would grant me a phone with a $100 returnable deposit after one year due to my "adverse payment record". I wrote her back an email turning her offer down. (see below)
Had Tania offerred me this deal when I first walked in I most likely would have taken it. But after all the crap they put me through trying to shake me down for whatever amount they could get out of me I decided that if they tried to jerk me around there had to be other members that they are also giving the shaft. These phone people are either dishonest or incompetent or both. Because they either knew that they could not collect on this account and tried to get money out of me anyway or else they were ignorant of a law it is their job to know about. And after dealing with Mike Burdwell - who is the rudest customer service person I have ever encountered - I decided to fight back to the fullest extent I could.
I have filed complaints with the FCC, The Tennessee Regulatory Agency and with my two state representatives. I also have an appointment with the Tennessee Legal Aid Society on August 4th. I have also submitted letters to the Editors of The Grundy County Herald and the Chattanooga Free Press. I also contacted my local state representatives. My aim is to inform as many people as possible of their rights when it comes to Ben Lomand and bullies like them. (later note 02/14/10 - I had forgotten to also file a complaint with the Americans with Disabilities Act).
Below I have included a few items such as the email conversation I had with Ben Lomand, the wording of Title 28.3.109 of the Tennessee State Statute. This site is under construction, so please feel free to email me at [email protected] with any comments or questions and I will be sure to put you on my list to let you know of any updates to this site.
Your friend and advocate,
Mark A. Ginzo, Jr.
Mr Ginzo,
After reviewing your account with management and our attorney, we have
determined that your balance owed to Ben Lomand Telephone has aged and will
be treated as a separate issue.
We will consider you as a new customer applying for phone service. As with
all new customers, we look at past payment history to determine if a deposit
should be collected at time of application.
After reviewing your account, we have determined that you will pay normal
installation charges, membership fee, and $ 100.00 deposit. This is a
standard deposit based on previous customer's payment history. This deposit
is refundable in 18 months if payments on your account have been received on
time with no disconnects due to non-payment.
There will be no restrictions placed on your phone for prior history with
Ben Lomand.
As per our conversation before, we will be glad to work with you in order
that you may have phone service installed.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at 592-2121.
Thank-you
Tania Curtis
Branch Customer Service Supervisor
-----Original Message-----
From: Ben Lomand Internet [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, July 16, 2009 9:02 AM
To: 'Tania Curtis'; [email protected]
Subject: FW: Contact US
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Saturday, July 11, 2009 1:44 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Contact US
Message Type: Complaint
Subject: Services
Comments: I am a disabled person who needs a residential phone becaue I am
on a transplant list. But Ben Lomand has refused me a home phone over a
supposed $1400 debt from 8/97 to 1/97 that I do not owe They will not give
me a phone unless I begin paying on this amount. However, they cannot
produce a bill for me to either pay from or even contest. I have notified
the TRA and the FCC of this situation and will be contacting Legal Aid
services as well. At the moment I am hoping to reach someone at Ben Lomand
that can make a reasonable decision on on this matter. I have been dealing
with Tania Curtis on this case. Thank you.
User Name: Mark Ginzo
User Email: [email protected]
User Telephone: 931 841 7107
Contact Requested!
28-3-109. Rent — Official misconduct — Contracts not otherwise covered — Title insurance — Demand notes. —
(a) The following actions shall be commenced within six (6) years after the cause of action accrued:
(1) Actions for the use and occupation of land and for rent;
(2) Actions against the sureties of guardians, executors and administrators, sheriffs, clerks, and other public officers, for nonfeasance, misfeasance, and malfeasance in office; and
(3) Actions on contracts not otherwise expressly provided for.
(b) The cause of action on title insurance policies, guaranteeing title to real estate, shall accrue on the date the loss or damage insured or guaranteed against is sustained.
(c) The cause of action on demand notes shall be commenced within ten (10) years after the cause of action accrued.
http://www.michie.com/tennessee/lpext.dll?f=templates&fn=main-h.htm&cp=tncode
UPDATE 09/24/2009
Today, I received this email from Tania Curtis at Ben Lomand:
Mr Ginzo,
I am writing in response to your request for phone service with Ben Lomand Telephone. We value our customers and work to treat everyone equally and with respect. At Ben Lomand we take pride in our customer service and we are disappointed that you have had hard feelings toward our company.
We developed policies several years ago regarding charge-offs in an effort to keep our company financially sound so we can continue to provide services to rural customers for another fifty years. In turn, we do try to work with our customers and understand the necessity of land-line service in homes.
We hope that you will accept our offer to waive your deposit and will be glad to send you the paperwork and instructions to apply for the lifeline and link-up credit..
Please feel free to call me at (931) 592-2121 if you would like to discuss installing your phone service.
Thank-you
Tania Curtis
Customer Service Supervisor
Ben Lomand Telephone
The people at Ben Lomand thought that I was some uneducated podunk hillbilly they could intimidate. Well, I hope I have taught them a lesson and that they will think twice the next time they try to defraud another one of their members.
Below is the final email i sent to Ben Lomand and its directors"
frommdginzo <[email protected]>sender-timeSent at 4:10 PM (GMT-04:00). Current time there: 5:13 PM. ✆tocc Mike Birdwell <[email protected]>,
Levoy Knowles <[email protected]>,
KAYE HILLIS <[email protected]>,
David Vaughn <[email protected]>
dateThu, Sep 24, 2009 at 4:10 PMsubjectFwd: phone servicemailed-bygmail.comhide details 9/24/09
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: mdginzo <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 5:00 PM
Subject: Re: phone service
To: Tania Curtis <[email protected]>
Tania, thank you for your offer. I will consider it. My hard feelings toward Ben Lomand are the result of the incompetence and deception of you and your District Manager. If you had offered me service with a deposit when I first applied for a land line I would have accepted. For something that was an obvious mistake, a deposit would have been acceptable while you further investigated.
Instead, either you did not know about the statute of limitations in Tennessee law or else you knew and tried to extort this money from me anyway. You created an impossible situation for me when you could not produce a bill for me to either pay or contest, yet you insisted I owed you a debt even though you had no proof of such debt. Anyone with any business sense understands that this alone is a faudulent attempt to collect money. You knew you had a monopoly on land lines in my area and also knew of my medical need so you thought you would try to extort money from me. In addition, you attempted to get me to acknowledge this debt by witholding phone service pending a $50 a month payment on said debt - an insult to my intelligence.
It is a shame that no one at your office was able to make a rational decision in this case and instead wasted my time and the time and money of your members with lawyers and the complaints I had to file. The end result being that you did not get any money for this error and caused your members to incur additional costs in dealing with this issue and my subsequent complaints to the authorities.
Tania, I have spent most of my life in sales and in customer service. The level of incompetence and disservice I have experienced with Ben Lomand this summer is rare. Since that time I have discussed your company with several of your members and have gotten the impression that dissatisfaction with your company and the people that run it is all too frequent. I will continue to make sure that your members know of their rights and that you have the opportunity to abuse as few of them as possible.
Mark A. GInzo, Jr.
I am a disabled dialysis patient who is considering moving to the Pelham Valley. I have been staying here for the summer and since I am on a transplant list and seeking a kidney I needed a residential phone to be notified of a match. I have a prepaid cell phone, but I have noticed that its reception is spotty and I often do not get calls. So, I thought that I should have a phone at my residence to be sure.
When I went into the Ben Lomand office to sign up for a phone I was told that I had a past due bill of some $1400 that I would need to pay before I could get a phone from them. This was supposedly for service from 8/97 to 1/97. I explained to them that I did live in Monteagle, TN in 8/97 and I had service with Ben Lomand then, but I was not in Tennessee the rest of the time and that I gave them a letter asking them to disconnect my service at the end of that August. In addition, I did not understand how any telephone bill could go 4 months without being paid and not be dsconnected anyway. So, to me this was an obvious mistake on Ben Lomand's part. In any case, I asked them to show me a bill and Tania Curtis, Customer Service Representative, said she would get me one.
I came back the next day and I was informed by Tania that they no longer had a bill because their records only went back 7 years. I figured that without a bill that would be the end of the issue and I could get my phone. but Tania let me know that they would not issue me a phone unless I started paying on this account. They wanted me to pay $50 extra a month toward the bil they say I owed. They refused to admit any possibility of an error, refused to give me any benefit of a doubt and could not produce a bill for me to either contest or pay from. I refused to pay anything on this amount because I would not acknowledge it in any way. In addition, they did have on record $50 that I sent to them in 1998 which I said most likely was for the first month of service which I already acknowledged I owed for. I asked Tania to please write me a letter explaining under what terms they were going to allow me to have service and to include the fact that they cannot produce a bill. Tania said she would have that letter for me by the following Monday.
Later, I did a little bit of research (thanks to some advice I received from online friends) and I found out that according to Tennessee state statutes, utilities ar not allowed to pursue any debts older than 6 years (T. CA 28.3.109). I had dialysis on Monday so I showed up at their office on Tuesday and went in to see Tania. I explained to her about the state statute of limitations and she still insisted on pursueing this debt - a debt that was obviously a mistake, that they could not produce a bill for, and which was illegal for them to pursue anyway! Tania made me the same $50 a month offer with an additional discount of 50% off of the installation fee because I was on public assistance. I am still wondering why this was never offerred before and if any other Ben Lomand members on public assistance have ever been offerred this deal.
At this point I asked to speak to Mike Burdwell, District Manager. Basically, Mike let me know that the fact that I needed the phone to be informed of a transplant match was "irrelevant". He also let me know that they would consult their attorney about the statute of limitations and then let me know. In the end, I finally recieved an email from Tania letting me know that they have consulted with their attorney and that the statute of limitations has indeed run out and they would grant me a phone with a $100 returnable deposit after one year due to my "adverse payment record". I wrote her back an email turning her offer down. (see below)
Had Tania offerred me this deal when I first walked in I most likely would have taken it. But after all the crap they put me through trying to shake me down for whatever amount they could get out of me I decided that if they tried to jerk me around there had to be other members that they are also giving the shaft. These phone people are either dishonest or incompetent or both. Because they either knew that they could not collect on this account and tried to get money out of me anyway or else they were ignorant of a law it is their job to know about. And after dealing with Mike Burdwell - who is the rudest customer service person I have ever encountered - I decided to fight back to the fullest extent I could.
I have filed complaints with the FCC, The Tennessee Regulatory Agency and with my two state representatives. I also have an appointment with the Tennessee Legal Aid Society on August 4th. I have also submitted letters to the Editors of The Grundy County Herald and the Chattanooga Free Press. I also contacted my local state representatives. My aim is to inform as many people as possible of their rights when it comes to Ben Lomand and bullies like them. (later note 02/14/10 - I had forgotten to also file a complaint with the Americans with Disabilities Act).
Below I have included a few items such as the email conversation I had with Ben Lomand, the wording of Title 28.3.109 of the Tennessee State Statute. This site is under construction, so please feel free to email me at [email protected] with any comments or questions and I will be sure to put you on my list to let you know of any updates to this site.
Your friend and advocate,
Mark A. Ginzo, Jr.
Mr Ginzo,
After reviewing your account with management and our attorney, we have
determined that your balance owed to Ben Lomand Telephone has aged and will
be treated as a separate issue.
We will consider you as a new customer applying for phone service. As with
all new customers, we look at past payment history to determine if a deposit
should be collected at time of application.
After reviewing your account, we have determined that you will pay normal
installation charges, membership fee, and $ 100.00 deposit. This is a
standard deposit based on previous customer's payment history. This deposit
is refundable in 18 months if payments on your account have been received on
time with no disconnects due to non-payment.
There will be no restrictions placed on your phone for prior history with
Ben Lomand.
As per our conversation before, we will be glad to work with you in order
that you may have phone service installed.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at 592-2121.
Thank-you
Tania Curtis
Branch Customer Service Supervisor
-----Original Message-----
From: Ben Lomand Internet [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, July 16, 2009 9:02 AM
To: 'Tania Curtis'; [email protected]
Subject: FW: Contact US
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Saturday, July 11, 2009 1:44 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Contact US
Message Type: Complaint
Subject: Services
Comments: I am a disabled person who needs a residential phone becaue I am
on a transplant list. But Ben Lomand has refused me a home phone over a
supposed $1400 debt from 8/97 to 1/97 that I do not owe They will not give
me a phone unless I begin paying on this amount. However, they cannot
produce a bill for me to either pay from or even contest. I have notified
the TRA and the FCC of this situation and will be contacting Legal Aid
services as well. At the moment I am hoping to reach someone at Ben Lomand
that can make a reasonable decision on on this matter. I have been dealing
with Tania Curtis on this case. Thank you.
User Name: Mark Ginzo
User Email: [email protected]
User Telephone: 931 841 7107
Contact Requested!
28-3-109. Rent — Official misconduct — Contracts not otherwise covered — Title insurance — Demand notes. —
(a) The following actions shall be commenced within six (6) years after the cause of action accrued:
(1) Actions for the use and occupation of land and for rent;
(2) Actions against the sureties of guardians, executors and administrators, sheriffs, clerks, and other public officers, for nonfeasance, misfeasance, and malfeasance in office; and
(3) Actions on contracts not otherwise expressly provided for.
(b) The cause of action on title insurance policies, guaranteeing title to real estate, shall accrue on the date the loss or damage insured or guaranteed against is sustained.
(c) The cause of action on demand notes shall be commenced within ten (10) years after the cause of action accrued.
http://www.michie.com/tennessee/lpext.dll?f=templates&fn=main-h.htm&cp=tncode
UPDATE 09/24/2009
Today, I received this email from Tania Curtis at Ben Lomand:
Mr Ginzo,
I am writing in response to your request for phone service with Ben Lomand Telephone. We value our customers and work to treat everyone equally and with respect. At Ben Lomand we take pride in our customer service and we are disappointed that you have had hard feelings toward our company.
We developed policies several years ago regarding charge-offs in an effort to keep our company financially sound so we can continue to provide services to rural customers for another fifty years. In turn, we do try to work with our customers and understand the necessity of land-line service in homes.
We hope that you will accept our offer to waive your deposit and will be glad to send you the paperwork and instructions to apply for the lifeline and link-up credit..
Please feel free to call me at (931) 592-2121 if you would like to discuss installing your phone service.
Thank-you
Tania Curtis
Customer Service Supervisor
Ben Lomand Telephone
The people at Ben Lomand thought that I was some uneducated podunk hillbilly they could intimidate. Well, I hope I have taught them a lesson and that they will think twice the next time they try to defraud another one of their members.
Below is the final email i sent to Ben Lomand and its directors"
frommdginzo <[email protected]>sender-timeSent at 4:10 PM (GMT-04:00). Current time there: 5:13 PM. ✆tocc Mike Birdwell <[email protected]>,
Levoy Knowles <[email protected]>,
KAYE HILLIS <[email protected]>,
David Vaughn <[email protected]>
dateThu, Sep 24, 2009 at 4:10 PMsubjectFwd: phone servicemailed-bygmail.comhide details 9/24/09
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: mdginzo <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 5:00 PM
Subject: Re: phone service
To: Tania Curtis <[email protected]>
Tania, thank you for your offer. I will consider it. My hard feelings toward Ben Lomand are the result of the incompetence and deception of you and your District Manager. If you had offered me service with a deposit when I first applied for a land line I would have accepted. For something that was an obvious mistake, a deposit would have been acceptable while you further investigated.
Instead, either you did not know about the statute of limitations in Tennessee law or else you knew and tried to extort this money from me anyway. You created an impossible situation for me when you could not produce a bill for me to either pay or contest, yet you insisted I owed you a debt even though you had no proof of such debt. Anyone with any business sense understands that this alone is a faudulent attempt to collect money. You knew you had a monopoly on land lines in my area and also knew of my medical need so you thought you would try to extort money from me. In addition, you attempted to get me to acknowledge this debt by witholding phone service pending a $50 a month payment on said debt - an insult to my intelligence.
It is a shame that no one at your office was able to make a rational decision in this case and instead wasted my time and the time and money of your members with lawyers and the complaints I had to file. The end result being that you did not get any money for this error and caused your members to incur additional costs in dealing with this issue and my subsequent complaints to the authorities.
Tania, I have spent most of my life in sales and in customer service. The level of incompetence and disservice I have experienced with Ben Lomand this summer is rare. Since that time I have discussed your company with several of your members and have gotten the impression that dissatisfaction with your company and the people that run it is all too frequent. I will continue to make sure that your members know of their rights and that you have the opportunity to abuse as few of them as possible.
Mark A. GInzo, Jr.
