Michigan-based Clear Rate Communications is yet again in the Federal Communications Commission’s crosshairs over allegations of “slamming,” with the commission ordering the company to wipe new customers’ charges for the third time this year.
In a series of orders released Friday, the commission found credible four customer complaints claiming Clear Rate misrepresented itself on sales calls to get Verizon business customers to change their service, mandating that Clear Rate remove all charges incurred by the customers during the first 30 days after the change.
In February, the commission found that Clear Rate had used a similar practice on five business customers and ordered the same remedy. In April, the FCC cited the company again for using the same practice — known as “slamming” — saying it had continued to run afoul of the agency’s 2018 anti-slamming order.
The four customer complaints featured in Friday’s orders told the same story. Three businesses subscribing to Verizon were contacted by salespeople who claimed to be from Verizon, telling the customers they would have to switch service or otherwise signing them up for Clear Rate. One had been a customer of Frontier Communications, who said the salesperson claimed to be from Frontier.
