Dorothy Westerman
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (July 01/05) - Bell Mobility says it's up to Yellowknife customers to check their May bills for errors on long distance charges.

That's because over-billing won't be refunded unless the company is notified, warned Gina Gottenberg, a spokesperson for Bell Mobility.

"If people aren't catching it, they're not getting refunded," Gottenberg said.

Problems arose when phone numbers with the new 445 prefix were coded as long distance instead of local. It occurred between early February and March.

"It was certainly a human error on our part when not coding those new prefixes correctly," Gottenberg said.

One unnamed customer was overbilled for $89.50 in long distance calls because of the coding error.

Several other customers, who did not want to be quoted in Yellowknifer, said they found the error themselves.

Gottenberg said the most effective way to communicate with customers is in their bills and the company is still working on a solution. "I would encourage customers to read their bills and if they think there is a problem, then they should call us," Gottenberg said.

One corporate customer with about 15 Bell accounts said they were told customers who called the company would be issued credits.

Gottenberg said Bell rectified the problem May 9.

"The company is still looking into exactly how many people were affected by that problem," she said.

But while Gottenberg said customers who discover an overpayment will be credited, those who use a credit card are out of luck when it comes to the interest charges which may have accrued.

"Interest is something Visa manages, not us. Not everyone pays interest on their Visa," she said.

Marianne Arnaudon, spokesperson with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, said the CRTC has no authority in instances of overbilling. "Customers would have to contact their service providers," Arnaudon said.