Mary Lou of Winchester, VA, writes:
I signed up for the long distance service after reading about it at lowermybills.com. The sign up was a breeze. After one week of service, I was unable to make any long-distance calls. and the local operators could not connect me with Opex operators and the service number could not be dialed because it was long distance.

I emailed them and two days later got a reply that said that they were not able to locate a customer number for me. I have since recieved two bills and paid them. I disconnected with their service and went to MCI Worldcom.

I had a grandfather in emergency surgery (in another state) and was unable to contact the relatives or the hospital to get the results. Also being new to my neighborhood, I could not ask a neighbor to use their telephone to make a ling distance call. I was quite distraught. The cost of the service was great..if in fact I had recieved any service!

Frankly, we never heard of OPEX. They are what's called a reseller as opposed to a facilities-based carrier. There's nothing wrong with that but many resellers are thinly capitalized, lightly-staffed and unable to quickly solve problems.

Here's how the company describes itself:

OPEX

Opex is a rapidly growing nationwide reseller utilizing the Global Crossing nationwide fiber optic network. OPEX was founded in 1998 and serves approximately 50,000 customers. The company is head-quartered in Elk Grove Village, Illinois.