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N.C. AG Roy Cooper North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper filed suit in Wake County Superior Court against Buzz Telecom of Merrillville, Indiana alleging that the company used unfair and deceptive practices and violated the state’s telemarketing laws.
Cooper is asking (via Direct) the court to permanently ban Buzz and its employees from telemarketing in North Carolina and to cancel the company’s contracts with North Carolina customers. Cooper also seeks refunds for consumers and civil penalties of $5,000 per violation.
According to the complaint, Buzz began pitching its long-distance telephone service to North Carolinians sometime in 2003 through telemarketing calls. Buzz telemarketers regularly failed to tell consumers that they were calling to switch them to a new phone service and often claimed to be with the consumer’s local phone company. The company particularly targeted senior citizens, promising a senior discount to consumers who answered yes to a series of questions designed to verify the consumer’s enrollment in the new long distance service.
Instead, consumers wound up with phone bills that were double or tripled what they had previously paid.
In a letter dated April 28, 2005, the Attorney General’s Office told Buzz to stop telemarketing in North Carolina. The company then claimed that it had stopped making calls to North Carolinians, but onsumers began complaining about calls from Buzz again in 2006 prompting Cooper to take legal action.
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