
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 14, 1994                   TAG: 9409140083
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Sandra Brown Kelly
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

EXCEL'S ROAD TO RICHES A WINDING, LONG-DISTANCE ONE

Years ago, there was a company that marketed cosmetics made with mink oil. The product was pretty good, but the way it was sold wasn't. It was a pyramid scheme - the kind where you became a representative and then recruited other representatives and got commissions on their sales.

No matter how good the beauty products were, they couldn't offset the mess that developed when areas became saturated with sales representatives. The last ones in had no way to make the big money.

Pyramid schemes became illegal in Virginia, so you don't hear about them much any more. But occasionally you see reminders of them in certain multilevel marketing efforts, and there's one in town.

It's Excel Telecommunications Inc., and it's selling long-distance telephone service and a seven-level marketing program that, to succeed, requires each person to recruit others. Excel buys long-distance time at wholesale prices and then resells it, a business that's become common in the deregulated telephone industry.

What I know about Excel comes from people who have attended its meetings, from official records and company literature and from customer-service representatives at its Dallas headquarters, with whom I spoke as a prospective customer.

That's because company officers do not speak with reporters, according to a woman who answered its telephone in Dallas. They would accept my questions by fax, she said, but she couldn't say when the questions might be answered. Local representatives also refused to talk to reporters because of company policy.

Excel is for real, though. The company was founded in 1987 and began operations in 1988 providing long-distance telephone service to residential, commercial and fund-raising groups. It originally was a regional long-distance company operating only in Texas. In April 1989, it expanded using what it calls a Network Marketing plan and began a national expansion later that year.

Here are the company's claims, according to its own literature:

"The marketing plan will now allow anyone who wants to work the opportunity to earn a solid, professional-level income in a short period of time."

Bell Atlantic-Virginia does billing for Excel, but does not provide any customer service on its behalf. Customer-service workers in Dallas were candid with answers to questions both times I phoned.

One said, for instance, that Excel's long-distance rates are 2 cents to 3 cents per minute below AT&T's rates. Another representative said that Excel's international rates "are not competitive, however."

For several weeks, Excel recruiters have held regular weekly meetings locally to tell invited prospective customers about the service. One is scheduled each Tuesday at the old YMCA building on Orange Avenue Northwest. Also, there was an Excel booth at the recent home show at the Roanoke Civic Center.

State consumer offices have no complaints about the company or its services. But I've received inquiries about it from people who aren't certain if they should give the service a try.

Once you're in Excel's program, the first people you want to get to join are your friends, because you and the friends then get a 50 percent discount on long-distance calls to each other, and as a recruiter you get a commission on their calls.

From there, the way to the big money gets more complicated. If you want to know more than you're hearing, call (800) 875-9235 for customer service and ask questions, or call (214) 705-5500 and ask for Kenny Troutt, founder and president, or Steve Smith, vice president of marketing. Both were away when I called.

And, if you want to talk with someone in the state Division of Consumer Affairs, call (804) 786-2042.

by CNB