To quote Howard Beale (played by the actor Peter Finch) in the 1976 movie Network, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!" What am I mad about? Invoices from telecommunications providers (voice, data, cellular).

It seems to be standard industry practice for their invoices to be wrong. Not marginally wrong, but very wrong. As evidence, I provide two exhibits. First, my staff averages 20 hours per week reviewing and scrutinizing our telco bills to make sure that we are not being billed rates above our contract, charged for unauthorized services, phantom locations, etc. Second, at least once a month I am contacted by a new vendor that offers the service of verifying our telco invoices to make sure we are not being billed rates above our contract, charged for unauthorized services, phantom locations, etc. Would this cottage industry exist if telco providers were sending out accurate invoices? Not a chance. This cottage industry exists because it knows it will find errors in provider invoices.