H. B. 2924
(By Delegates Capito, Rowe, Hutchins, Mahan, Smirl and Webb)
[Introduced February 26, 1999; referred
to the Committee on the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend and reenact chapter forty-six-a of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, by
creating a new article, designated article six-g, all relating
to limitations on consumer transactions; unfair trade
practices; regulating transfers of phone service; establishing
disclosure requirements for telephone corporations for
transfer of phone service; defining terms; providing for third
party conformation of transfers; establishing criteria for
third party verification companies and conformation procedures
for service transfers; prohibiting disclosure of subscriber
information for marketing purposes and creating civil remedy
for subscriber upon prohibited release; excepting certain
transactions from this section; mailed notice of change in
service required; specific content of mailed notice; providing
notice and verification requirements for non-residential service transfers; establishing criteria for cancellation and
refund of fees; requiring notice on billings; providing
liability to prior phone service provider for unauthorized
fees charged; providing that this section does not limit any
other remedies available by law.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That chapter forty-six-a of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and
reenacted by inserting a new article, designated article six-g, to
read as follows:
ARTICLE 6G. REQUIREMENTS FOR CONSUMER TRANSACTIONS.
§47-6G-1. Transfer of long distance service providers.
(a) No telephone corporation, or any person, firm, or
corporation representing a telephone corporation, shall make any
change or authorize a different telephone corporation to make any
change in the provider of any telephone service for which
competition has been authorized of a telephone subscriber until all
of the following steps have been completed:
(1) The telephone corporation, its representatives or agents
shall thoroughly inform the subscriber of the nature and extent of
the service being offered.
(2) The telephone corporation, its representatives or agents
shall specifically establish whether the subscriber intends to make
any change in his or her telephone service provider, and explain any charges associated with that change.
(3) For sales of residential service, the subscriber's decision
to change his or her telephone service provider shall be confirmed
by an independent third-party verification company. For purposes
of this provision, the confirmation by a third-party verification
company shall be made as follows:
(A) The third-party verification company shall meet each of the
following criteria:
(i) Be independent from the telephone corporation that seeks to
provide the subscriber's new service.
(ii) Not be directly or indirectly managed, controlled, or
directed, or owned wholly or in part, by the telephone corporation
that seeks to provide the new service or by any corporation, firm,
or person who directly or indirectly manages, controls, or directs,
or owns more than 5 percent of the telephone corporation.
(iii) Operate from facilities physically separate from those of
the telephone corporation that seeks to provide the subscriber's
new service.
(iv) Not derive commissions or compensation based upon the
number of sales confirmed.
(B) The telephone corporation seeking to verify the sale shall
do so by connecting the subscriber by telephone to the third-party
verification company or by arranging for the third-party
verification company to call the subscriber to confirm the sale. (C) The third-party verification company shall obtain the
subscriber's oral confirmation regarding the change, and shall
record that confirmation by obtaining appropriate verification
data. The record shall be available to the subscriber upon
request. Information obtained from the subscriber through
confirmation shall
not be used for marketing purposes. Any unauthorized release of
this information is grounds for a civil suit by the aggrieved
subscriber against the telephone corporation or its employees who
are responsible for the violation.
(D) Notwithstanding subparagraphs (A), (B), and (C), a service
provider shall not be required to comply with these provisions when
the customer directly calls the local service provider to make
changes in service providers. However, a service provider shall
not avoid the verification requirements by asking a subscribing
customer to contact a local exchange service provider directly to
make any change in the service provider. A local exchange service
provider shall be required to comply with these verification
requirements for its own competitive services. However, a local
exchange service provider shall not be required to perform any
verification requirements for any changes solicited by another
telephone corporation.
(4) For sales of residential service to which paragraph (3)
applies, the telephone corporation seeking to verify the change in
service, in addition to the requirements of paragraph (3), shall
notify the subscriber by United States Postal Service that the
subscriber's telephone service provider has been changed. The
service provider that initiated the change shall send that notice
within 14 days of the date of the change. The notice shall provide
the subscriber with clear, legible notice of the change in service
provider, and shall include a customer service telephone number for
the subscriber to call if the subscriber did not authorize the
change in service.
(5) For sales of all nonresidential services, the subscriber's
decision to change his or her service provider shall be confirmed
through any of the following means:
(A) Independent third-party verification, as set forth in
paragraph (3) of subdivision (a).
(B) The telephone corporation shall mail to the subscriber an
information package seeking confirmation of his or her change in
the telephone corporation. The information package shall describe
the new service and shall include a postage prepaid postcard or
mailer that the subscriber can use to deny, cancel, or confirm a
service order, as soon as possible, and wait 14 days after the
information package is mailed before making the change in the
telephone corporation. The telephone corporation shall make the
change only if the subscriber does not cancel the change in service
order.
(C) Verify the subscriber's change in his or her telephone
service provider by obtaining the subscriber's signature on a
document fully explaining the nature and extent of the action. The
document shall be a separate document whose sole purpose is to
explain the nature and extent of the action.
(D) Obtain the subscriber's authorization through an electronic
means that takes the information, including the calling number, and
confirms the change to which the subscriber has given his or her
consent.
(6) Where the telephone corporation obtains a written order for
service, the document shall thoroughly inform the subscriber of the
nature and extent of the action. The subscriber shall be furnished
with a copy of the signed document. The subscriber by his or her
signature on the document shall indicate a full understanding of
the relationship being established with the telephone corporation.
When a written subscriber solicitation or other document contains
a letter of agency authorizing a change in service provider, in
combination with other information including, but not limited to,
inducements to subscribers to purchase service, the solicitation
shall include a separate document whose sole purpose is to explain
the nature and extent of the action. If any part of a mailing to
a prospective subscriber is in language other than English, any
written authorization contained in the mailing shall be sent to the
same prospective subscriber in the same language.
(7) The telephone corporation shall retain a record of the
verification of the sale for at least one year. These records
shall be made available to the subscriber, the Attorney General, or
the commission upon request.
(b) If a residential or business subscriber that has not signed
an authorization notifies the telephone corporation within 90 days
that he or she does not wish to change telephone corporations, the
subscriber shall be switched back to his or her former telephone
corporation at the expense of the telephone corporation that
initiated the change.
(c) For purposes of this section, competitive services are those
services where subscribers have the ability to resubscribe to a
telephone service provider.
(d) When a subscriber changes telephone service providers, the
change shall be conspicuously noticed on the subscriber's bill.
Notice in the following form is deemed to comply with this
subdivision:
"NOTICE: Your local (or long distance) telephone service provider
has been changed from (name of prior provider) to (name of current
provider).
Cost of change: $ ____."
(e) Any telephone corporation that violates the verification
procedures described in this section shall be liable to the
telephone corporation previously selected by the subscriber in an amount equal to all charges paid by the subscriber after the
violation.
(f) In addition to the liability described in subdivision (e),
any telephone corporation that violates the verification procedures
described in this section shall credit to a subscriber any charges
paid by the subscriber in excess of the amount that the subscriber
would have been obligated to pay had the subscriber's telephone
service not been changed. The commission shall adopt regulations
to govern credits to subscribers pursuant to this subdivision.
(g) The remedies provided by this section are in addition to any
other remedies available by law.
(h) As described in federal law, no telephone corporation, or
any person, firm, or corporation representing a telephone
corporation, shall make any change or authorize a different
telephone corporation to make any change in the provider of any
telephone service for which competition has been authorized of a
telephone subscriber without having on file, or having instituted
reasonable steps designed to obtain, signed, dated orders for
service from the subscriber. All orders shall be in the form
prescribed in federal law for letters of agency. As described in
federal law, the telephone corporation is responsible for charges
associated with disputed changes in telephone service for which it
cannot produce a signed, dated order for service from the
subscriber. This subdivision applies to all intrastate services for which competition has been authorized.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to establish procedures to assure
that consumer transfers of long distance phone service are
verified as being approved by the consumer.