Hello. My brother screwed up. He signed up for AOL dial up service and
when prompted selected a non local number, even though with the same
area code. That was quite an expensive mistake because long distance
phone bill was over 400 USD. The question is what options, if any do
we have to reduce that bill and/or negotiate a deduction? Telephone
service is on our mother's name and she doesn't have a really good
credit history and not too much concerned with establishing one. 400
USD is like a 1/3rd of their income so paying this thing would be
extremely hard for them.
Thank you for your help.

Hi mishka7,

I don't think there's much you can do about your present phone bill
but have you changed that phone number??

Click on My Computer / Dial-Up Networking 

Highlight the account you are using

Right click and select Properties

Type in your local phone number!

hummer

He did change the number now... too late to change the bill:)

Foreword: This happened to me about a year ago after moving, so I've
probably forgotten some stuff.  I do remember what a pain it was
though.

I had this problem after we moved to a new city.  7-digit dialing
connected us to the ISP without warning.  In my previous experience,
all long distance numbers required to dial at least a '1'.

We unfortunatly could not get the whole amount stricken (more than
$300), but I did hound customer service.  They kept saying they could
do nothing, so I would ask for their boss, "Is there some one I can
speak to that can help me with this?", until I got to a man who could
do something (actually, I asked him the same question, and he
basically told me he didn't have a boss, though I know this can't be
true unless he's the president or something).  He offered me 25% off
or something, and I said something like "if you can go 25, then you
can go 50" and he finally caved.  But this was a very long
conversation before that happened, went round and round, I basically
just kept repeating what I had been saying all along.  It seemed that
he, as a customer service manager (or whatever), could not dismiss me
and just hang up.  And I didn't finish the conversation until I got
something more.  I still wasn't happy with the whole deal, but at
least it wasn't a $300 bill anymore.  I was never mean or nasty, and
never raised my voice or anything, but I wouldn't let go.  He probably
just got tired of listening to me.

Here are the arguments they presented:
-When signing up at the ISP, the ISP probably had a notice that you
need to verify the phone number as long distance.
-The front of the phone book shows your calling area and what's local
vs. LD.
-You should call the ISP and see if they will reimburse you.

My arguments / rebuttals:
-I've been a BellSouth customer all my life and my experience is that
I've always had to dial at least a '1' in order to make a long
distance call.
-We've just moved here and even though requested a phone book more
than a month ago, we have yet to receive one.

there may have been more, but that was the basis i think.

The best you can probably hope for is getting a percentage taken off. 
Good luck.

I don't think the problem here is with long distance charges which are
typically in a different area code. I believe the issue here is with
local toll calls that are too close to you to be long distance, but
too far from you to be local. Even though they are distinct from long
distance, the rates can be just as high or higher for local toll. I
would recommend finding out what your phone company's best local toll
plan is, figure out how much the bill would have been under that plan,
plead for mercy, and then offer to pay them what the bill would have
been if you had been using their best rate plan.

Well they are using long distance service provider for instate calls
that are not "local". And the rate was pretty much the best rate for
those calls they had... I guess we got to try just calling customer
service and complain. Not sure if that would help.

That's exactly the reason I don't sign up for a PIC and a LPIC,
primary interexchange carrier and local primary interexchange carrier,
respectively.  PIC is simply your interstate long distance company,
whereas LPIC is your intrastate local long distance company.

I do it for the following reasons:

1. No spamming and negotiators to switch phone company.  Since I
didn't sign up for any carriers, I am not on anyone's radar screen to
try winning me over.

2. Since I didn't sign up for any carriers, no toll calls can go
through.  So, I wouldn't accidentially dial to a number which I need
to pay.  Since I have a cell phone, so I can choose to use my cell
phone minutes instead.

3. If you shop around, those 10-10 dialing can be a bargain.

You *might* catch a break if your brother is under 18.  If so, there
may be some legal loophole that he couldn't legally commit to /
contract for the expense.

Does your brother have any sort of a job?  Maybe offer to pay off the
bill at some modest rate, based on what he makes from his job.

greco-ga's method works.

I've been in Customer Service for years, keep asking for supervisors,
and never, ever be rude. Keep repeating yourself. They WILL cave in
when you get high enough in the chain of command.

I'm  never rude, what give you  that  idea ;) I spoke  with  those 
guys  a couple  of times and  so  far I'm at supervisor  level and
they are offering me 20% off the bill.  That's not much  so on Monday
I'll  try  to contact them again  and  ask for  something more.
two arguments  I'm using  are 
1. they could  have called  me when  they saw such  a huge increase in
the usage of long distance telephone
2. I  can't pay  the whole  thing  anyway. +  we've being customers
for a long time and blah blah blah...

So my strategy is to ask for a supervisor on each iteration, but  what
if they  stick  to  this 20 % writeoff and that's it.  What are my
other arguments. Like for instance, if I wouldn't pay the bill at all
but would register a dispute with let's say Federal Communications
Commision  (if they accept those disputes)  would my long distance
service provider be able to sell my "overdue loan" to the  collection
agency? How much  for  a  dollar would  they  gvet  from collection
agency? I guess for them a  good deal  would be if I pay  more for
this thing than a collection agency... Should i even try to use  those
arguments in communicating with them or it would be too rude:)?

Thanks for all your help.