High phone bills startle immigrants

By Vanessa Colón / The Fresno Bee
(Updated Sunday, December 19, 2004, 6:47 AM)

Nor Yang, left, a newcomer to the United   States, rang up a hefty long-distance telephone bill because he did not know his calls to Thailand cost about $6 per minute. Sovan Krib, a consumer advocate for Southeast Asians, helped Yang reduce his $409.84 phone bill to $55.36.
Diana Baldrica / The Fresno Bee

All Nor Yang knew is that he missed the relatives he left behind in a Thai refugee camp four months ago.

So he picked up the telephone at his new Fresno home to chat about living in America and catch up on what his relatives were doing.

The Hmong refugee had no idea the conversations would cost his sponsor family $409.84.

"It was a shock," Yang said through a translator. "I'm afraid of using long-distance."

Long-distance phone plans are confusing, say consumer rights groups, but for immigrants who do not speak English, they can be mind-boggling.

And during the holiday season, when many Valley immigrants make international calls to places such as Thailand or Laos or Mexico, the confusion can be costly.

"The consumer needs to be very careful, especially now during the holidays," said Nora Rivera, a consumer rights advocate at Central California Legal Services.

Sovan Krib, a consumer rights advocate at Khmer Society of Fresno, spends part of his workday helping Southeast Asian immigrants understand their phone bills and explaining the costs of international phone plans.

He collects copies of their bills and disputes some of them with the phone companies. Sometimes Krib is effective in getting bills reduced.

He helped 23-year-old Yang and Yang's host family reduce their $409.84 SBC bill to $55.36. SBC had blocked the long-distance calls once Yang accumulated $409. 84, making it impossible for him to place the costly calls after that.

"They blocked the calls. If they did not block it, it would have gone to thousands and thousands of dollars," Krib said. "The client didn't know it was a $6-a-minute call. He thought it was a regular charge."

Phone companies try to cut customers slack when they can.

SBC will reduce the bill as a courtesy the first time around, said company spokesman John Britton, but ultimately, "customers are responsible for calls made within their homes."

Krib suggested to Yang that he start using calling cards.

Onechanh Phanhdone bought a prepaid phone card that covers calls she regularly makes to Laos.

The idea: She dials a series of numbers listed on one of her cards, the time would be deducted from a balance of minutes she has paid for, and the calls will not show up on her phone bill.

But the 83-year-old got a bill in June for $1,577.68 from SBC.

Krib does not know whether Phanhdone dialed wrong or how she got connected to Laos through SBC.

But he contacted SBC, and the company reduced her bill to $451.83.

"She kept using [her calling card], wondering why the minutes were not over," Krib said.

Says Britton: "Our goal is to satisfy customers. We believe we went far and beyond."

About 4,200 complaints were made against telecommunication service providers from September 2001 to September 2004, said Terrie Prosper, press secretary for the California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates phone companies.

It's unclear how many complaints involved international calls made by immigrants or services provided to non-native English speakers.

But in 1992, the commission investigated GTE in connection with the phone company's foreign-language assistance center. The PUC found that sales staff at the center "charged non-English-speaking customers for optional services such as call waiting or call forwarding which the subscriber did not order," according to a commission document. GTE — now Verizon Communications Inc. — agreed to a $13 million settlement.

Maria Lopez suspects she was a victim of slamming — a type of fraud in which unauthorized changes are made to a person's long-distance telephone service.

Her husband got a call from a Spanish-speaking telemarketer about a free phone card.

After he accepted the card, Lopez said, her monthly bill was much higher, and she noticed she was being charged by New Century Telecom, a different long-distance carrier than she'd had. Her bill was $94.37. It's usually about $30 a month.

"That's a lot for me," Lopez said in Spanish. "They never told him they would change his plan."

With Rivera's help, she got the bill canceled by New Century Telecom.

Charles Helein, an attorney who represents New Century, said telemarketers have to verify changes in service before they make them. They need to get an address, phone number and Social Security number from the consumer, he said.

Some immigrants just pay their bills because they lack education about consumer rights, Krib said.

More than two years ago, a Cambodian immigrant paid a $9,000 phone bill because he thought it would affect his credit, Krib said. He had to borrow money from relatives to pay it.

"Some Laotian families have their phone shut [off]," said Vilaysouk Vee Inthaly, community health project coordinator with the Khmer Society of Fresno. "They don't even know how to argue."

The reporter can be reached at vcolon@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6313.