Nationwide Long Distance Service NLDS Fraud, Disregard for Regulations and Harassment are This Company's Common Business Practice Unknown, Nationwide

I own a small business. For the last six months I have been harassed by solicitations from this company to switch my long distance service to them. They started calling on the average of once a month but in the last 2 months it has escalated to two to three times a week.

They begin by representing themselves as a representative of Qwest, my phone company, so my employees will put their call through to me. They then pretend they want to go over my account to make sure I have the best package. The first time I fell for it and it was a full 10 minutes into the call before I realized they were trying to get me to change away from Qwest (who doesn't charge me for long distance as it is).

I flipped out and told them off, telling them to put me on their 'do not call' list. That did no good. The next call I demanded to speak to their supervisor. They hung up on me.

A few days later I screamed at some poor woman who apologized profusely, swore she was only doing her job and promised again, she'd put my number on their 'do not call' list.

A few days after that, it was a guy that I launched on and hurled insults, criticisms and profane invectives <blush>, who hung up on me. I will admit that occasionally on a stressful day I sometimes enjoy b***hing them out until they hang up. But most times I cannot spare the interruption and disruption to my business.

For weeks now it's been a steady stream of harassment and abuse. I've begged my phone company to stop them; they say they can't. They call from restricted numbers - and yes I AM on the National Do Not Call Registry list - and they won't give names, address or phone numbers. They suggested I dial *57 after they hang up, for three consecutive calls and then maybe they can trace the call and maybe pursue harassment charges, but I know darn well NLDS won't call from the same number three times in a row. And Qwest charges me $1.00 each time I do the trace.

Today I forced myself to be somewhat civil in order to extract a name and a call back phone number from their obviously newbie telemarketer that called me this time. Roy, 1-800-853-7409.

I have filed a complaint with the National Do Not Call Registry.

This bogus long distance carrier is clearly thumbing their noses at government regulations and consumer complaints.