THE SENATE                           S.C.R. NO.            225
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 1999                                
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
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                    SENATE  CONCURRENT
                        RESOLUTION

  REQUESTING THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION TO OPEN A DOCKET ON
    SLAMMING, CRAMMING, AND OTHER TELEPHONE ABUSES. 


 1        WHEREAS, deregulation of the telecommunications industry
 2   brings more options and lower prices to the consumer for a wide
 3   variety of services, including local and long distance,
 4   internet, cable, and other services; and
 5   
 6        WHEREAS, telephone bills are extremely complicated, with
 7   as many as twenty separate line items for basic telephone
 8   service; and
 9   
10        WHEREAS, this complexity includes telephone bills with
11   out-of-state billing companies that are difficult to contact;
12   and
13   
14        WHEREAS, this situation allows some unscrupulous and
15   crafty entrepreneurs to resort to marketing scams and deceitful
16   methods, such as slamming and cramming; and
17   
18        WHEREAS, slamming is defined as changing a customer's long
19   distance carrier without the customer's knowledge or consent;
20   and
21   
22        WHEREAS, cramming is the illegal practice of adding
23   charges to a customer's telephone bill for products or services
24   without authorization from the customer; and
25   
26        WHEREAS, the Texas Public Utilities Commission recently
27   collected almost $200,000 from telephone companies for slamming
28   and cramming; and
29   
30        WHEREAS, the State Public Utilities Commission should be
31   taking an active role in preventing fraud; and
32   
33        WHEREAS, the Office of Consumer Advocacy should be taking
34   steps to educate consumers about how they can protect
35   themselves from these scams; now, therefore
36   

 
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                                  S.C.R. NO.            225
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1        BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twentieth Legislature
 2   of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 1999, the House of
 3   Representatives concurring, that the Public Utilities
 4   Commission is requested to open a docket on slamming, cramming,
 5   and other telephone abuses; and
 6   
 7        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Office of Consumer
 8   Advocacy is requested to represent consumers in this docket;
 9   and
10   
11        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Public Utilities
12   Commission is requested to report findings and recommendations
13   to the Legislature twenty days before the convening of the
14   Regular Session of 2000; and
15   
16        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this
17   Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Chairperson of the
18   Public Utilities Commission, the Consumer Advocate, and the
19   Director of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.   
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23                         OFFERED BY:  ____________________________