Consumers Union is an expert, independent, nonprofit organization whose mission is to work for a fair, just, and safe marketplace for all consumers and to empower consumers to protect themselves.
This weekend Verizon Wireless fessed up to billing 15 million of its customers for data services they didn’t use. The admission came amid an FCC investigation of the deceptive charges.
Verizon Wireless says it will issue refunds or credits of $30-$50 million to customers hit with the unauthorized charges, about which the agency has received hundreds of complaints about over the past three years, according to the New York Times.
The mystery charges were assessed on customers who did not have data access plans, but were nonetheless hit with one or more charges of $1.99 when software built into their phones initiated data exchanges or they unknowingly went online on their phone.
We are glad Verizon has finally admitted to slipping these sneaky charges into the bills of millions of consumers for services they did not ask for, authorize, or inadvertently accessed, but we are far from satisfied with the solution offered by Verizon.
It’s unclear if the credits or refunds will even equal the amount of wrongful charges paid to Verizon by consumers. Further, why did it take Verizon at least three years to knock it off?
Another important question is whether the FCC will hit Verizon with sufficient penalties to convince Verizon and possibly other wireless companies to refrain from such shenanigans in the future?
Despite Verizon’s action to finally refund its customers, the FCC must continue its investigation. We urge the FCC to act quickly and decisively to make it clear to the entire telecommunications industry that anti-consumer and anti-competitive practices will be both investigated and dealt with, including tough and meaningful penalties.
This situation continues to remind us that wireless bills are highly inscrutable, with poorly explained charges all over the place. Luckily, the FCC is in the midst of beginning to consider industry wide rules to deal with “bill shock.” This is an opportune time for the FCC to act quickly and decisively to adopt strict consumer protections to deal with these (and other) kinds of anti-consumer and anti-competitive behavior.
In addition to industry-wide rules to prevent “bill shock”, consumers should also examine their bills closely and question any unexplained charges. Should they not receive a satisfactory solution, consumers need to complain to the FCC and other authorities.
I woud lie to know what the FCC is planning to do to ensure that Verizon won’t continue to bill me for “mysterious” services that I don’t understand and which I have not agreed to from this date forward. Please forward this message to the FCC. Thank you.
I have had data completely blocked on all of my Verizon phone lines after a couple of months of these charges. Consumers are still being charged for ‘inadvertant use’ of data by Verizon even now.
My son’s phone line suddenly showed a $9.99 monthly charge for downloading VZ Navigator that he never downloaded intentionally.
this was pure deception I was charged numerious times 1.99 every month I called and was told by verizon that it was my fault for pushing an up arror on my phone. they disabled the service but no refund. my wife and I never use the phone for anything but talking we are on a fixed income a sad way to treat customers
american greed
Regarding cell phone bill shock;
To simply advocate for advance notice before minutes are exceeded is not sufficient.
At what % of minutes is the notice to be sent?
Should the “trigger point” be related to how much of the billing period remains?
charged for ‘bytes’ to download their ‘updates’…. computer ‘error’ that kicked me out of ‘lifetime’ charge for land line service and raised monthly fees to approx 60 @month… am fed up with greed
TO: Consumer Union
Please stop with the conspiracy theory rhetoric and making every big company sound like a bunch of crooks – yes there have been and are some for certain, but I assure you that Verizon Wireless is not one. The culprits are the ten’s of thousands of consumers that use services, or try them out, and then think they should get a refund; or those who habitually complain, ask for credits every month and plead dumb that they didn’t read the “accept charges” statement before they USED the service. Is it really that difficult to press ‘end’ or ‘clr’ a couple of times to abort downloading an app…then if the app is actually used, that is a difficult to justify giving a credit don’t you agree??
This makes customer service very suspicious when consumers say they accidentally activated an app when they actually have to accept the app charges and apps usually require several acceptances before they can be activated. If a chargeable app/service is too easy to access and results in erroneous charges VZW would be the first to want to stop it. Service calls cost money and create ill-will, and from someone on the inside for over 20 years I can assure you that the culture was to constantly improve our customer satisfaction ratings by redesigning bills and improving customer care contacts…so here are a few tips:
> Call “Customer Care” immediately (dial*611) if you think you activated something that you really don’t need/want and ask for credit and ask if it can be blocked (IE: Premium Text Messaging) to prevent future inadvertent issues.
> If charges you don’t understand show up on your bill for services you did not use ask for an explanation and credit; then ask how to prevent future issues. If you don’t get the answers you want the first call, try several calls before visiting a VZW store/service center. There are thousands of corp stores located in or near every mall or shopping plaza. A face to face meeting with a Manager is always a good last resort.
Remember, the wireless industry is very competitive and it costs $Billions, invested every year, to enhance and expand the best wireless network in the world to (nearly)always be there when you need it. So believe me when I say that VZW doesn’t want to lose nor to upset loyal honest customers, and there has never been a plot to overcharge. Never, such acts would be so counter productive for such marginal gains it would make no sense at all.
Stop conspiracy rantings, manage your phone and keep your kids and others from using it, especially if they generate new service charges. Also, remember that these are digital electronics and all usage is documented and available in a Billing-usage database. So don’t try to cheat the big companies. Without big companies millions of people would be unemployed and the economy would be in ruins, and America’s incredible (nearly)always there wireless services (Voice and Data) would cost much much more. Yes, oversight needed, but the creation of additional overheads and govt costs to “over control” business in a true competitive market place (like America’s wireless communications)is just unnecessary and counter productive…it will increase costs.
(BTW – if Consumer’s Union can prove that every overcharge was not a lying-cheating consumer trying to get out of paying for something they activated and used, then VZW should be made to account for every $ considered to be an overcharge. I’m guessing that the FCC and VZW have already worked that issue out and the refunds will probably exceed what are actually warranted. So call this one a Win and go fight other battles that need fighting)
I have been wrongfully charged by Verizon now for the second time. First for ringback tones that took several calls and 3 months to get turned off. Now I have my daughters account added to ours from her ex-boyfriends. I requested the account be the same as it was before with unlimited texting. The first bill had charges of almost $600 for texting. Verizon claims the best they can do is discount the charges by %40.I have been their customer for years , first with Altell then with Verizon after they took over. Now they have lost at least 5 LOYAL HONEST customers and stand to loose even more as I am on a mission to get the word out on how Verizon treats their customers.
That’s why I dumped Verizon this year. I want my money back!!!
Verizon and AT&T are slime companies! I use Sprint and have never had a problem. Credo is good too.
I had a block put on our family plan so that the internet could not be accessed to ensure that my son did not run up charges with his phone. I was then eligible for a new phone on this plan, picked one out at Walmart and when the next bill came, there were over $400 of charges for accessing the mobile web!! Verizon’s response to this was that when I put the new phone on, this then authorized web access. I fought this with them for months, and then finally gave up and paid the charges.
I had been calling Verizon for years about the
$1.99 data charges on my bill. They always had a different excuse as to why they were on the bill. I was never given the same reason twice. I thought that I was alone with no way to stop it!The charges finally stopped a few months ago, since they were caught.
This is a clear case of Consumer FRAUD!
Verizon has NOT stopped this! They do exactly the same thing on their FIOS service. Out of the six billing cycles that I have been with Fios, they have added unsolicited charges 3 times. I have called each time to complain and so far have not received any refund of these immoral (illegal?) charges. So today I talked AGAIN to three agents after getting cut off once, routed to another part of the country a second time and finally talked to someone. She assured me that the charge would be refunded (but so did the people the previous two months) and after I pressed her as to how such charges could appear on my bill completely unsolicited, she told me that this was company policy!!!!! She said that “this is the way we do business.” She elaborated by saying that the company offers two free weeks of a service unsolicited and then immediately begins charging, so on the first month, you automatically have 1/2 month of charge for a completely unsolicited service (NOT REALLY A SERVICE, since you did not know it was there!!!!). So, warning, folks – Verizon is ripping their customers off royally with this technique. I cannot imagine why the FCC and the FTC do not consider this to be illegal. If I sent you a bill for tutoring (my business) that I did not provide, surely that would be illegal, even if supposedly I gave you two free weeks (that you did not know about and did not use). How can Verizon think that doing this is legal for them, or even good business. Cheating the customer, which cramming certainly is, should not be legal and is certainly immoral as well as a lousy business practice.
I just received a bill for $19.98 for “data” on my monthly statement. When I called to protest I was advised it was a 3rd party service (“ring tone” and “send me ink”) for which they “I had signed up”. Allegedly I renewed my request for this service on 11/21/10 at midnight. Actually my phone shows no such call and I go to bed by 10 pm. Verizon claims no responsibility for this scam as they only pass the charge through on the word of a third party company whose word they accept as having been authorized to bill for services they claim to have provided. I hold Verizon responsible for this problem. I’m looking for another provider as my contract is expiring soon.
I just received a bill for $19.98 for “data” on my monthly statement. When I called to protest I was advised it was a 3rd party service (“ring tone” and “send me ink”) for which they “I had signed up”. Allegedly I renewed my request for this service on 11/21/10 at midnight. Actually my phone shows no such call and I go to bed by 10 pm. Verizon claims no responsibility for this scam as they only pass the charge through on the word of a third party company whose word they accept as having been authorized to bill for services they claim to have provided. I hold Verizon responsible for this problem. I’m looking for another provider as my contract is expiring soon.
I can’t wait ’til Verizon and other wireless companies start notifying us when we are close to using up all of our minutes. A $300.00 phone bill when it should be $59.99 is really sleazy.
Verizon keep charging me $1.99.What can I do with mysterious bill.Million of custuners paying $2 dollars more.Good business and very honest.
I was always seeing these charges on my phone and was blaming my gf for surfing the web, and there were times even she thought the free access to check our account was charging us. It didnt pan out when we both stopped using the so called free service to check our bill, and found the charge.
I agree that tuis solution is not a fair one. These companies are always looking for a way to make us do their work for them. They are better equipped to identify the unauthorized calls and refund their customer’smoney.
I have been receiving charges for “get it now” downloads that I DO NOT USE. They range from $5 -8.99 per month. When I noticed it I realized it went back SIX months. They credited me $35 and put a “data block” on my phone (as if to prevent me from accessing this again) and in the months of November & December 2010 the charges were back. They claimed this “data block” never took hold. Again I received another credit – but now I have this block which prevents me from EVER using those features (including navigator) should I need to. Why am I being penalized for their fraudulent charges? I hope there’s an end in sight for their sake.