QLT Consumer Lease Services
Consumer Phone Services LLC, doing business as QLT Consumer Lease Services, formerly AT&T Consumer Lease Services, has New Jersey-based operations managed by Alcatel-Lucent, formerly Lucent Technologies. The AT&T name was used under license since Lucent was spun off from AT&T on September 30, 1996.
Consumer Phone Services bought Lucent's telephone leasing business in 2000, when Lucent reorganized its equipment businesses.
CPS leases out the following models made by Western Electric:
- Traditional 500/554 Rotary Phone
- Traditional 2500/2554 Touch-Tone Telephone
- Trimline 220/222 Rotary phone
CPS also leases the following models released post-breakup, manufactured by AT&T Technologies, Lucent Technologies, or Advanced American Telephones:
Consumer Phone Services also leases cordless phones & telephone accessories.
Customers of Consumer Phone Services number less than a million. In 2007, some 580,000 customers still leased phones through the company.[1] A majority of the customers are elderly who have found convenience in simply leasing the same telephone.[2] Most customers are also leftovers from before the 1984 breakup of AT&T, who did not opt to purchase their telephones before the buyout option expired in 1987. One criticism in these cases has been that such customers have paid over ten times the value of the leased phone over the course of many years.[3][4] Customers do retain the benefit of free replacement if the phone ever breaks and free accessories such as long cords.
On October 1, 2008, AT&T Consumer Lease Services changed its name to QLT Consumer Lease Services.
References
- ↑ Minnick, Fred (August 12, 2007). "Phone-lease charge rings hollow; 580,000 AT&T customers still pay monthly rental fee". Richmond Times Dispatch. p. D-2.
- ↑ Segraves, Mark (November 29, 2005). "$3,000 for a Phone?". WTOP Radio. Archived from the original on July 16, 2012. Retrieved 3 April 2014.
- ↑ Lin-Fisher, Betty (July 14, 2013). "Leased Phone Costs Add Up; Daughters Discover Elderly Father Paying Bills for Old Rented Model in Basement for 29 Years". Akron Beacon Journal. p. D1.
- ↑ De Groote, Michael (May 2, 2012). "Bad Call: Seniors Paying Thousands to Lease Home Phones". Deseret Morning News.