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DECISION MEMORANDUM TO: COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER COMMISSIONER SMITH COMMISSIONER HANSEN JEAN JEWELL RON LAW RANDY LOBB DON HOWELL TONYA CLARK LYNN ANDERSON DAVE SCHUNKE JOE CUSICK BIRDELLE BROWN CAROLEE HALL DOUG COOLEY BEVERLY BARKER GENE FADNESS WORKING FILE FROM: WAYNE HART DATE: JUNE 21, 2002 RE: FORMAL COMPLAINT OF BOISE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS AGAINST CITZENS COMMUNICATIONS (FRONTIER) On June 17th, 2002, the Commission received a formal complaint against Citizens Communications (Frontier) from the Boise County Board of Commissioners regarding a billing dispute for 911 services provided by Frontier to the County. The complaint includes letters sent by the County to Frontier, identifying the issues involved, and the County's request for reimbursement of $44,997.22 it claims had been billed in error and that it has already paid to Frontier. According to the letter, Frontier refunded $18,968.49, but refused to refund the full amount claimed by the County. The County requests the full amount it believes it has overpaid. The complaint also includes an identification of the previous efforts of the County to resolve this issue, beginning with calls to Frontier in 1996, and again in 1997, 1998, 1999, and extensively from November 2001 until this complaint was filed. BACKGROUND Boise County officials initially contacted Staff about general 911 billing issues in February 2002, seeking information as to tariffed prices and advice as to the technical requirements for 911 service. Staff met with County officials in late February to informally review the billings from both Frontier and Qwest in an attempt to help them understand the services for which they were being billed. A county staff person had been working nearly full time since August 2001 trying to resolve ongoing billing issues with both companies. The County indicated it had resolved the concerns it had with Qwest's billing, but had remaining concerns with Frontier. County staff also expressed considerable frustration in getting responses from Frontier. County staff had made numerous inquiries and requests for information of Frontier, and indicated Frontier had either failed to respond, responded late, or responded incompletely, to nearly every request. County staff had an extensive log detailing ten separate conversations with Frontier representatives since January 2002. They indicated Frontier representatives had recently admitted the current billings were erroneous, but had not yet responded with a corrected billing. Frontier officials had been requested to discuss the matter at the March 18 regular meeting of the Board of Commissioners. Staff recommended the County provide Frontier the opportunity to resolve the issue without further Commission Staff intervention. County staff agreed, but requested that Commission Staff attend the March 18 meeting and continue to monitor the situation. After the County received the partial payment from Frontier, Staff advised the County that the partial payment appeared to be within compliance of the Commission's rules, that the remaining issues were outside the scope of an informal complaint, and recommended that the County file a formal complaint if it wanted to pursue the issue further. STAFF ANALYSIS The dispute involves billing for dedicated lines installed by Frontier to provide 911 service between the County's public safety answering point (PSAP) located in Idaho City, and the Frontier central offices in Horseshoe Bend, Garden Valley and Sweet. There are basically two separate issues directly involved in the dispute. 1. Frontier over billed Boise County for services to both Horseshoe Bend and Garden Valley, since the start of these services in July 1997 through to January 2002. In both cases, the County was billed for 4 lines, when only two were provided. The County's calculation of the amount of over billing is $28,151.01. Frontier representatives acknowledged the over billing in the meeting with Commissioners on March 18, and at that time offered the County a refund for the most recent 2 years of the over billing. After the meeting, Staff referred Frontier representatives to the Commission's Telephone Customer Relations Rule 204, which requires refunds in accordance with Section 61-642, Idaho Code (3 years). Staff believes, but has not verified, that the amount of the refund Frontier provided to the County corresponds to this 3-year period. The County maintains that it initially questioned the billings in 1996, and again in 1997, 1998 and 1999, and therefore the entire amount over billed should be refunded. 2. Frontier established a connection between the Sweet central office, which serves a small portion of Boise County, and the Idaho City PSAP. The County has paid a total of $16,846.21 for the installation and recurring charges for this service between April 1988 and January 2002. The County now claims this service was never ordered, and requests that all monies paid be reimbursed. In discussions with Staff after the March 18 meeting, Frontier claimed it would not have installed the service without such a request, but also admitted it could not find any evidence of an order requesting the service. This issue is further complicated in that for at least part of the period for which the County paid for the service, the service in question appears to have actually been provided to Gem County, and not Boise County. The majority of the customers in the Sweet exchange live in Gem County. When Gem County implemented e-911, all 911 calls in the Sweet exchange, including those from customers living in Boise County, were routed to Gem County. While not directly raised as an issue by the County, Boise County claims it made numerous attempts to resolve this dispute over the years and Frontier representatives repeatedly either provided false information or failed to respond. COMMISSION DECISION Does the Commission wish to consider this complaint? ______________________________________ Wayne Hart WH:udmemos/boise county formal complaint