888-238-5118

A charge to my phone bill.

Yes, this is a scam.  We had the same problem with our CenturyTel (now CenturyLink) bill.  They (National Search Directory) claim to be legit but hide behind claim that the telemarketing sales is done by a third party so they are not responsible.  B.S.

First, I called my phone company.  They told me that unless we put a block on all third party billing, this could happen again.  So now we have said block on all third party billing.  Why this is not an “opt in” rather than “opt out” I’ll never understand.  They told me to call the number shown on the bill with the charge in order to cancel the service.

Second, I called the number (888-238-5118) given on our phone bill which was “PaymentOne, Inc. billing on behalf of National Search Directory”.  PaymentOne is one of the third parties that participate in this scam.  They eventually transferred me through to a representative from National Search Directory.  I explained the situation and told them to stop charging our account.   They claimed to have our permission to charge us the $39.95 per month for their services.  They said that we were sent a “Welcome” letter and given the opportunity to cancel the service.  We never saw such a letter and I highly doubt such a letter was ever sent.  I told them that they did not have authorization to charge us for their service.  Next they said that they did and had a recording of the phone conversation that proves they did and then proceeded to play it for me.  The audio recording she played for me was of a fast talking guy from India or Pakistan or the like.  What appears to have happened is that they called and talked to our receptionist who answered a series of unrelated questions.  Then “they” somehow stitched together a short audio clip where it appears that she claimed to have the authority to subscribe to said service and agreed to the charges.  This is totally bogus and I told them so.  Next I told them to issue a refund for all of the bogus charges to our account.  They agreed to issue a credit but warned me that it would take up to two billing cycles for the credit to appear on our bill.  Be certain to ask for a confirmation number.  When the credit finally came through, it was for only a part of what was charged and there were additional charges added too.  So I called them up again.

Third, I filed complaints with the following:
  My home state Bureau of Consumer Protection
     (In Wisconsin, this falls under Department of Agriculture, Trade)
  Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (which only deals with local utilities so did not apply to this
      issue as it relates to third party long distance carrier charges)
  BBB of Central Florida (home state of National Search Directory)

I received correspondence from both of these organizations detailing their communications with a representative from National Search Directory.  When they later sent out a letter asking if the issue had been resolved, I said checked the “NO” box and explained that they only issued partial credit.  I detailed the charges and what had been refund to date and demanded a refund of the balance.  Now a few months later, National Search Directory has agreed to refund the balance.  For some reason, the taxes don’t get refunded.  But I’m sure that is an issue with the phone company.

something my child did online that got charged to my telephone. Called the telephone company and they said to call the 888 number and speak to them. I did and they said it was on an exclusive email bundle. That is such a crock. Any way I was nice to them and they were nice to me and hopfully this is resolved. But to make sure it does not happen again their is a third party block on my phone.