UG-BDRG-001 Issue 2-April, 2005

BellSouth requests that carriers submit disputes electronically when applicable, or use the Billing Adjustment Request (BAR) Form and the Wireless Usage Dispute Form when disputing a claim. These forms highlight all the necessary information to be submitted when a dispute appears on a carrier's bill. For more information on the correct submission of dispute forms, see the Billing Adjustment Request (BAR) Form section or the Wireless Usage Dispute Form section in this guide.

The following examples of disputes highlight the type of information BellSouth needs to successfully process a billing dispute. Often times, a carrier submits a claim that is not broken down enough for BellSouth to understand what is or is not in dispute. These types of disputes are rejected and delay processing of the claim for the customer.

A carrier submits a dispute at the BAN and circuit level for a specific invoice. The customer submits the total billed cost of the circuit for the invoice along with the dispute amount and what they believe is the net cost, or what they believe they should have paid.

Incorrect Dispute Example

Circuit	Cost	Dispute Amount	Net Cost	Reason
60.hcfu.800000..SB	$160.09	$90.87-	$69.22	Dispute UITF1 - No interoffice transport applicable

This dispute is invalid and would be rejected since the actual USOC U1TF1 only billed $90.87 for the invoice period, not the total cost of the CKT of $160.09. The carrier should submit the claim as follows:

Correct Dispute Example

Circuit	USOC	Jurisdiction	Billed Amount	Reason
60.hcfu.800000...SB	U1TF1	Local	$90.97	Interoffice transport not applicable. Include Contract or Tariff Reference here.

This dispute would be acceptable, as it has complete information about the billed item. The disputed USOC is clearly identified and the actual billed amount of the USOC is present, as well as the disputed amount. (Note: The Jurisdictional indicator is also present. This indicator is necessary if the customer has multiple appearances of the USOC with different jurisdictions.)

A carrier submits a dispute indicating that USOCs (TMECS & 1L5XX) are invalid. Based on the way the CKT is set up for this account, the USOCs are valid and the dispute would be denied.

In this example, the issue is that the Circuits should have been converted to UNE from ACCESS, which changes the entire structure of the account, and the dispute would be valid. The customer should clearly state what the issue is and provide supporting Tariff or Contract information to substantiate the claim.

A carrier submits a dispute with sufficient detail (BAN, INVOICE, CKT, CKLT, USOC, Jurisdiction, Billed Amount and Dispute Amount), but also indicates additional billed USOCs on the dispute line. The customer does not include the Billed Amount for the USOC in the dispute amount. This causes confusion as to what the customer is actually disputing.

Incorrect Dispute Example

Circuit	CKLT	Jurisdiction	MUX USOC	MUX Amount	EF / CT USOC	EF / CT Amount (Disputed)
5000 T1ZF ORLDFLMAK?? ORLDFLSOWA?	3	1	SATN1	$12.49	TMECS	$154.00

This dispute would be rejected since the total billed amount of the CKT does not match the amount of the two USOCs.

Correct Dispute Example

Circuit	CKLT	Jurisdiction	EF/CT USOC	EF/CT Billed Amount	EF / CT Amount (Disputed)	Reason
5000 T1ZF ORLDFLMAK?? ORLDFLSOWA?	3	1	TMECS	$154.00	$154.00	TMECS not applicable. Include contract or tariff reference here.

If the customer submitted the dispute as shown above, and only included the disputed information, the dispute would be accepted and processed in a timely manner.