Verizon Wireless To Issue $90 Million In Refunds

tekgoblin writes "Verizon Wireless had somehow been charging customers extra money on their bills for data that they actually hadn't been using. Approximately 15 million customers were affected by the billing error. According to BGR the FCC had been pressuring Verizon to respond to the hundreds of complaints that had been piling up. So Verizon's answer was to refund all of the overcharged money as soon as possible."

Re:"Accidents" and "Refunds"

[Pharmboy]

I did RTFA, Verizon said:

"We will mail former customers refund checks. In most cases, these credits are in the $2 to $6 range; some will receive larger credits or refunds." which means actual refunds for larger amounts, and for the $2-$6 range (most customers) it will be a credit on their next bill. Looks like they are trying to do the right thing. For once.

"Mistaken charges" is a bit euphemistic

[Sockatume]

They had designed their phones such that there was a shortcut button to their web portal. Users without a data plan, taken to that portal, were charged for the data at the usual ridiculous out-of-plan rates. They could have the portal blocked but this just meant they were charged for the data used in retrieving the "this portal is blocked" page instead. So there's an interesting bit of background detail going on here. Maybe $2 per customer isn't much to the customer, but it's a tidy bit of extra revenue to Verizon.

Re:"Accidents" and "Refunds"

[skyride]

You read it wrong:

"In most cases, these credits are in the $2 to $6 range; some will receive larger credits or refunds."

So no, there will be a lot of people owed more than $6 dollars and receiving credits. Regardless, in the vast majority of cases, its still $2 they should never have been charged.

Re:Cost of billing?

[vlm]

Flat rate per month with no roaming nor long-distance charges.

Your jitterbug is OK. The marketing, last time I was unable to DVR FF past it, was aimed at the gray/white haired crowd. If you could hold your nose and buy it despite its marketing, you could probably hold your nose and buy a virginmobile phone, which has different, yet equally offensive marketing. And it is something like a quarter per minute prepay, unused balance zeros after a couple months. Which is psuedo-flat rate at ultra low usage, but in practice runs single digit dollars per month. You may save money on a $X buys you X minutes plan, even with expiration.

The confuse-opoly of it is so annoying. If only there was a way around the (un)free market.

Re:Cost of billing?

[iammani]

If I may say so, thats (jitterbug) a complete rip off, you will much better of with a pay as you go t-mobile prepaid plan. Its $100 buys $1000 minutes thats valid for 1 year. You can top-up when you want to and be billed exactly for the minutes you have used.

Re:"Accidents" and "Refunds"

[C0L0PH0N]

This is absolutely correct. Verizon has a very small number of phones, called Feature Phones. You can find the models on their website, here [verizonwireless.com]. If you purchase a Feature Phone (and that is all I purchase, as I don't want the data capability), then they won't charge you the extra 19.99/month for the data plan. If you purchase any non-Feature Phone, as most of them are, then you will automatically be charged 19.99/month. You cannot get out of it. So if you are not into texting or browsing the web on your phone, and just want to use it for voice mail and calls, as I do, then you MUST get a Feature Phone. Further, unless you ask, the Verizon policy requires their representatives to sell you a non-Feature Phone set. They are forbidden to advise you, "unless asked", about the existence of Feature Phones. This is Verizon veering very close to being evil, certainly completely interested in their customer's money and not at all in their customer's best interests.

Re:And?

[ncy]

as a customer of Verizon, i can say that i've received third-party charges multiple times on things i never used or even heard of, in the amount of i believe between $30-$50. good thing looked at the bill in detail. and what's more annoying is that Verizon support said they can't do anything about it in terms of refunding; had to call the third-party company listed on the bill, who only after getting threatened to be reported said "i'll talk to my supervisor" and refunded the full amount, sometimes with extreme rudeness. i imagine they must be getting a lot of these calls. shady business practice if you ask me. the last time this happened, it was some music service, and the Verizon guy said it might be the "kids" using some wireless service, which is stupid because we don't use have Verizon wireless, only landline and cable. at least they offered to put a "block" on third-party charges this time ... we'll see how that goes

Re:I really don't understand cell phone companies

[Myopic]

I *don't* think there should be more regulation

YOU DON'T?!? Fer fuck's sake, what will it take to get through to people like you? You sit there and rant about bad corporate behavior, you recognize that government is the solution to the problem, and then you state that you don't favor more regulation. There is this asinine anti-regulation ideology in America for which we all suffer, and it's a big pain to deal with.

be aware if you have a VOIP account...

[jvismara]

it looks like they are not addressing another illegal charge: I have a VOIP account that gives me a local phone number to make international calls. I used it from my cell and Verizon charged me $1.4 / min to call Brazil, when I was not using their system to make an international call. I was using their network to call a local domestic number in the US. When discussing the problem with Verizon, they told me that their system was charged because of my call and they have to re-pass that cost to me... interesting that my local telephone company does not have that charge and do not re-pass any INVENTED costs to me. The fact that they traced that number as being a bridge of a VOIP company, shows their absolute lack of ethics. be aware of this scam by Verizon Wireless...