December 17, 1998
  
  
                   Separate Statement of
                Commissioner Gloria Tristani
  
  Re:  Implementation of the Subscriber Carrier Selection Changes Provisions of the
  Telecommunications Act of 1996; Policies and Rules Concerning Unauthorized Changes
  of Consumers' Long Distance Carriers.
  
  
       I enthusiastically support the rules adopted today by the Commission to combat
  slamming.  The problem of slamming has become rampant, and it is the FCC's job to stop
  it.  I believe our new anti-slamming rules are a major victory for millions of consumers.  I
  expect that these new rules, in concert with our aggressive enforcement actions against
  slammers, will drastically reduce the frequency of slamming.
   
       The highlight of the Commission's new rules is that a customer who is slammed
  need not pay the slammer.  This is good public policy for two reasons.  First, allowing
  consumers to withhold payment from the slammer helps takes the profit out of slamming. 
  That should substantially reduce the frequency of slamming.  Second, allowing a slammed
  customer to withhold payment compensates the slamming victim for the trouble and
  aggravation of having been slammed.  Anyone who has experienced the frustration and
  inconvenience of being slammed knows that some compensation is appropriate.
  
       For this new approach to work, however, consumers must read their telephone
  bills carefully.  When a customer receives a bill and notices that his or her preselected
  carrier has been changed without consent, the customer should immediately call the carrier
  they had previously selected and get switched back to that carrier.  At that point, the
  customer likely has accumulated charges from the slammer for one month, or part of a
  month.  Our new rules say that the customer need not pay those charges.  
  
  If, however, the customer does not realize that his or her preselected carrier has
  been changed and ends up paying the slammer, the customer is still relieved of payment to
  the slammer for the first month of service once the slam is discovered.  After the one-
  month period, the customer's payments to the slammer can be recovered by the
  customer's authorized carrier.  The authorized carrier must refund to the customer any
  amount paid by the customer that exceeds what that customer would have been charged
  under the authorized carrier's rates.  Thus, to take fullest advantage of the Commission's
  new slamming rules, consumers need to uncover slams the first time the slamming carrier's
  name appears on the bill. 
  
       This new approach to preventing slamming relies on the customer realizing that he
  or she has been slammed.  Because telephone bills today are not always clear, it is possible
  for the customer not to be aware of a change in presubscribed carriers.  To deal with
  misleading or unclear billing information, the FCC recently proposed requiring carriers to
  organize their bills more clearly.  I expect the Commission will take up consideration of
  those rules shortly.  Adoption of those rules would greatly facilitate discovery of an
  unauthorized change in presubscribed carriers, thereby ensuring that the customer does
  not pay the slamming carrier.
  
       Thus, with the adoption of the customer absolution policy, the imposition of two
  more significant fines against slammers and crammers, and the simplification of complaint
  filings, it should be clear that this Commission is serious about bringing slamming and
  cramming to an end.