Re: question about burglar alarm dispute (San Francisco Bay Area)

[I brive a dus <alarminstall@xxxxxxx>]

On Mar 3, 12:21 am, hotis...@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Hi dear all:
>
> We recently got involved with a dispute with a burglar alarm company
> (in San Francisco Bay Area), and I hope this is the right place to
> post this question.
>
> On our AT&T phone bill last month we noticed that we have a long list
> of "automated" long distance phone calls dialing to a area code (408)
> phone number. These phone calls happened on daily basis and always
> start from 1:43pm and would continue to dial until 2:39pm (for about
> one hour, and call every one minute). At first we didn't think of it's
> a problem from our burglar alarm company, so we called AT&T and they
> put these calls on dispute for us. The next month, we noticed the same
> thing again, so we called AT&T again and they told us that it seems
> the phone number is a fax/computer type of phone number, they also
> asked whether we have some kind of alarm system, so we started to talk
> to our alarm company. The alarm company did some investigation, then
> got back to us saying that these phone calls were made by the alarm
> system for automated testing, as all these calls were never actually
> went through, so the modem kept on trying to make those automated
> testing calls. However, they did mention that they have another 4-5
> customers who also had this problem before and the problem seems to be
> related to really old modem (on the residence side, not the modems on
> their company side), so they suggested that we should upgrade the
> modem in our house (the current one was provided and installed by
> them), and they also switched the 408 long distance number to a 1-800
> number. They continue to say that we should dispute these phone calls
> with AT&T and they are NOT willing to pay for these phone bills
> (currently there are about $390 due to
>
> Some questions:
>
> 1. From the technical side, who should be really responsible for these
> phone calls? I know that we shouldn't, but we also don't know from the
> technical side whether AT&T or the alarm company should be responsible
> for this $390. Could someone please give us some "technical details"
> about how this type of automated dialing system works (for burglar
> alarm systems)? If, according to the alarm company, that these
> automated dialing (from our home modem) never went through, why would
> AT&T has a record on their computer and still charge us?
>
> 2. Is there any regulate agency for burglar alarm companies? If this
> is the alarm company's fault and they should be responsible for the
> $390 bill, other than the BBB (better business bureau), is there any
> other places that we could file a complain against this alarm company?<

You must be the only person in America without unlimited long
distance. I'm going out on a limb here but are you the same person
they keep the payphones active for too?