Action: Mystery phone charges refunded

We're at our wits' end trying to get Verizon to trace 42 calls to Tampa that showed up on our telephone bill in March. We never called Tampa. We have lived here for 30 years, and it is unusual for us to call Tampa twice a year. My wife called Verizon three or four times about these calls, and all it says is that it is not able to trace the calls. Its response is simply that we must have made them. Nor can the phone company tell us what numbers in Tampa were called.

I have paid the full amount of the bill but hope you will be able to do something. Peter Lucchini

Response: Thanks for letting us know that you received a credit for the calls to Tampa. After receiving a copy of your complaint from Action, Verizon let us know that it would monitor your line for calls to Tampa. One possible explanation it gave for these calls was that your Web TV was using default, or 813-area code numbers, when your local numbers were busy. We have not heard back from the phone company and so do not know whether this was the case, but we're glad the problem has been resolved.

Severed connection

We purchased a golf cart from Fairway Golf Carts in Palm Harbor on April 19, 1996, and have had it serviced every year since. On Sept. 22, Fairway came out at our request to repair our charger. The cart had little power and kept slowing down after five or six holes on the golf course, especially on slight upgrades. Then the passenger would have to get off and walk alongside at a slow pace, and we would end up having to push the cart to get it home.

After Fairway repaired the charger, we continued to have trouble with low power. Each time we called Fairway, we were told to get new batteries. We finally bought new batteries from Fairway on March 21 at a cost of $357.58. We thought the problem had been solved. However, when we plugged in the repaired charger, it ran in the charge mode for 22 hours straight. Unplugging it was the only way to stop it from charging. We took it back to Fairway, which found faulty circuitry in the charger.

Our problem is that we do not feel Fairway's final bill of $83.51 is warranted. We had already been billed $61.81 for repairs to the charger. We can't help but suspect that the faulty charger may have caused damage to our original batteries and now also to our new batteries. In fact, we will never know whether we even needed new batteries.

When we received the $83.51 bill from Fairway, my wife called and tried to talk about it but was cut off. We have since received two more bills with interest added. I hope you can get some results. Irvin Westlund

Response: John Bascom, sales manager for Fairway Golf Cars Inc. in Palm Harbor, said Fairway has provided service to you seven times since you bought the golf cart five years ago, for a total cost of $550 plus tax. Bascom said the repairs performed on your cart have been reviewed and all are in the range of "normal" for a five-year period of residential use. These include a $325 set of six heavy duty batteries and a charger module repair, all customary charges for the age and use of your cart. These figures do not include a $58 repair provided in November at no cost.

Bascom said that sometimes customers who are not mechanically inclined make assumptions that one repair is linked to another. On numerous occasions, he said, both the service technician, with 10 years' experience, and the company owner, with 20, painstakingly explained the repairs in question to you, each of which was justified. When you refused to listen to the explanations, Bascom said, the owner finally gave up and told you to forget the bill on condition that you seek further assistance elsewhere.

Unfortunately, the bill was not deleted from the books, and that's why you received the past-due notices. That situation has now been corrected, he said. You owe the company no money, and it does not want your future business.

Bascom said the company made only two mistakes in its dealings with you. One was to not insist that you pay for the repair it performed at no charge in November. The second was to not get the bill for the second, and contested bill, written off its books, which would have prevented your receiving a past-due notice.

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Action solves problems and gets answers for you. If you have a question, or your own attempts to resolve a consumer complaint have failed, write Times Action, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731, or call your Action number, (727) 893-8171, or, outside of Pinellas, toll-free 1-800-333-7505, ext. 8171, to leave a recorded request.

Requests will be accepted only by mail or voice mail; calls cannot be returned. We will not be responsible for personal documents, so please send only photocopies. If your complaint concerns merchandise ordered by mail, we need copies of both sides of your canceled check.

We may require additional information or prefer to reply by mail; therefore, readers must provide a full mailing address, including ZIP code. Names of letter writers will not be omitted except in unusual circumstances. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

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