Competition's dark side Slamming heads the list of carrier complaints >BY CAROLYN HIRSCHMAN, Special to Telephony

Slamming-the unauthorized switching of a customer's long-distance company-topped the list of consumer complaints to the Federal Communications Commission, the agency's recently released "Common Carrier Scorecard" revealed.

More than one-third of 64,000 written and call-in complaints to the Common Carrier Bureau's Enforcement Division in 1995 involved slamming, according to the second annual and most recent tally of complaints. Operator service providers, which provide interstate long-distance service from public telephones, generated 18% of all complaints. Information services, which are 900 numbers that provide data such as sports scores and psychic readings, made up 11%.

The previous year, 45,246 complaints were lodged and 16% involved slamming.

Although the largest companies received the most complaints, smaller companies rose to the top on a size-adjusted basis, according to the report.

For example, AT&T received 2316 complaints in 1995, the most of any phone company. However, it got only 0.06 complaints per $1 million of revenue, one of the lowest ratios among the 85 companies that generated 20 or more complaints.

In 1995, 13 companies agreed to pay a total of $1.7 million for alleged and actual slamming rules violations.

As for general consumer complaints, Nynex stood out from the eight largest local telcos for generating 23% of the nearly 8000 complaints made to the FCC for this group. Pacific Bell was second with 18% of the complaints, and Southwestern Bell and GTE tied for third place with 13%.

The scorecard aims to help consumers judge a proliferating number of carriers and to help phone companies improve their customer service programs, the FCC said.

The report focused on slamming, saying that the growing practice "distorts the long-distance competitive market by rewarding companies that engage in deceptive and misleading marketing practices." Slamming complaints have more than tripled since 1994, the agency said.

FCC rules require a long-distance company to obtain a customer's written OK before changing providers. Violators must switch customers back to their original provider at no charge and must re-rate calls so that customers pay no more than they would have paid if service had not been changed.

The "grand slammer" among companies with 100 or more complaints of any type was Sonic Communications. The Furst Group ranked second, and EqualNet Corp. came in at No. 3.

The main complaint against operator service providers was high rates. The FCC is looking into setting benchmark charges for the companies that, if exceeded, would require them to inform consumers before connecting their calls.

In addition, some information services charged customers over toll-free numbers without a written agreement-a violation of FCC rules. The agency is looking into additional consumer protections in this area as well.