From: Ehud Gavron <GAVRON@ACES.COM>
"No bible-toting fool who won't pay his bills will be
in business long." - Ehud (look it up, it's in the same book.)
Enough with the Bible (and person) bashing.
He said they were a charge for circuits never ordered. I've seen a bit
of the same myself, and thus I believe him. I've also seem multiple
installation charges for the same order, charges for interior cabling
when I personally did the wiring from the network interface, and a fair
number of other shenanigans.
However, in this litiginous world, the correct approach is to pay the
disputed billing, give them 5 days notice to refund the overcharge, and
then sue them, including fees and costs. (Although I've never had to do
this over $300K, which isn't exactly pocket change.)
Fortunately, the Uniform Commercial Code gives a reasonable rate of
return on the interest: 1% a month from date of filing. Somewhat better
than I can get at the local bank....
I usually take plenty of time to conclude the dispute after filing, for
that very reason. The big guys hold their very bigness over your head
to force payment, so you might as well take advantage of their natural
slowness. 
Hopefully, he has a good lawyer.
WSimpson@UMich.edu
Key fingerprint = 17 40 5E 67 15 6F 31 26 DD 0D B9 9B 6A 15 2C 32
BSimpson@MorningStar.com
Key fingerprint = 2E 07 23 03 C5 62 70 D3 59 B1 4F 5E 1D C2 C1 A2
However, in this litiginous world, the correct approach is to pay the
disputed billing, give them 5 days notice to refund the overcharge, and
then sue them, including fees and costs. (Although I've never had to do
this over $300K, which isn't exactly pocket change.)
Side note on such carrier goofs, from a US West Fast Packet customer
feedback seminar I attended the other year: the AZ Court System has a
Frame Relay network of several hundred sites...they have an accountant on
staff, working full time, who does nothing but catch and file claims on
circuit billing errors....who more than pays for it in the refunds they
get each month...although, of course, they bitched **endlessly** about it
the whole day.
This should give anyone who hasn't gotten hit by this yet a moments pause
<<the moments pause is for remembering where you have all your old bills
I personally have yet to do business with ANY telco carrier who hasn't
screwed this kind of thing up on at least a quasi regular basis for data
circuits.
My last emplyer made disputed payments to various MCI units for almost a
year to keep the pipes on (we were being double billed for most network
elements, seems 2 different branches of MCI thought they were responsible
for collecting payment for the same circuits....)
When our initial contract was up and they tried to not renew it, our
attorneys had a REAL nice talk with them, and refunds, favorable contract
terms and a free install or 2 were forthcoming. (We didn't threaten court
earlier due to capital issues, and yes we did sign an agreement such as
the one Nathan mentioned, that the payments were in dispute, and were
being made to continue service, NOT to settle the invoices in question).
-David Mercer
infiNETways, Inc.
david@infinetways.net