Verizon to Give $52.8 Million for Bad Data Charges

[Marcus Yam]

There's a couple of bucks coming your way if you've been wrongfully charged for data.

Verizon to Give $52.8 Million for Bad Data Charges : Read more

 

[steelbox]

How can they charge wrongly? It boils my blood every time i see something like this.

 

[ap3x]

And people complain about AT&T's data plan. Verizon's was no only more expensive but they where charging a little more that they where supposed to. If the FCC did not contact them, do you think they would have done this. Before the FCC it was silent, with the FCC it is a PR nightmare.

 

[bamslang]

It cracks me up when companies are caught doing bad business practices, then pretend to be doing things out of good conscience when they fix the problem right before they are told to do so. I’m with Verizon and have caught them a few times giving me faulty charges. They always fix them when I bring them up, but I guarantee you quite a few people never dig into their bills.

 

[victorintelr]

Poor guys...[/sarcasm]
We'll give 52.8 million back (how nice of them [/another sarcasm]) but we keep the interest earned, though.
Oh, Yeah! one more thing, The 37.2 difference...will keep that money since some of the former costumers won't even know about it. >=D

 

[TheCapulet]

Telling some drooling idiot on Verizon's customer support line how not to cheat it's customers seems like a very common occurrence. Unfortunately, any other carrier just plain sucks in my area.

 

[jitpublisher]

Business as usual, not surprising at all. I go over every invoice I receive at my business with a fine tooth comb. Out of a hundred or so invoices I approve for payment every month, at least 10% of them will be wrong. And guess what, the mistake is NEVER in my favor, never. There are a lot of companies out there that live by the "charge as much as you can, and if the customer complains too much, we will refund it, if they don't don't, it's free money for us". Literally, I mean this is how a lot of places do business. I spent countless hours on the phone every month arranging credits for over billing and over charging.

 

[gmarsack]

Sounds great, can't wait to get my check. Wonder what everyone else will be getting?

 

[Guest]

I once paid $100 prepay card of verizon. I just wanted to be accessible, hardly ever called. Everytime I checked my balance, I had less and less (tens of dollars being snooped off).
At first I thought it was a joke, until they no longer allowed me to call.

Needless to say for the $5 I called, the $95 rip off was not enough to justify a court session.

Verizon is the last cell phone company in the world that I will ever get a subscription. They lost me as a customer there and then, forever!

 

[fracture]

Pffft, they make their computers says 1+1=3. Collect extra money. Invest it. Get interest off of it. Then down the road they say, Our internal investigation found something wrong with our computers, to sound like they're heroes because they're doing something about it. Then say, Here's the money that it took. Minus the inerest of course.

So I should be able to go rob a bank. Invest that money. Get interest. Then return it 10 years later and not get in trouble for it.

Also how did it go from 90 mil to 52 mil? That's a huge difference. Even if they gave the Treasury 25 mil that's only 77 mil that they gave. There's still that 13 mil there.

 

[tronika]

why does it seem the news section jumps around? this article was in the middle today now its on the top. annoying. sorry to not comment on the article.

 

[dogman_1234]

^ That's okay.

Anyways. To me, it seems that Verizon payed off the FCC to stop the investigation, just as Google did as well. Oh, lets let all the companies pay the government to stop caring about the people. really, i hope the FTC gets involved and brings their @#$#@! to court.

 

[yao]

This press release doesn't feel sincere...

 

[JD13]

52 Million is cheaper than 90 million if they actually went through with the investigation & may have led to more finding costing Verizon even more money. Why charge people extra for TXT at all? I talked to person in IT & they say it doesn't cost Verizon a penny more than a regular phone call.

 

[cappinhoff]

[citation][nom]ProDigit80[/nom]I once paid $100 prepay card of verizon. I just wanted to be accessible, hardly ever called. Everytime I checked my balance, I had less and less (tens of dollars being snooped off).At first I thought it was a joke, until they no longer allowed me to call.Needless to say for the $5 I called, the $95 rip off was not enough to justify a court session.Verizon is the last cell phone company in the world that I will ever get a subscription. They lost me as a customer there and then, forever![/citation]

So verizon is the only company that does/did this? No. I'm sure they will do fine without your business. I remember something that was said on the floor at sprint tech support when I was there. " For every person that leaves sprint, 20 more customer come int"

 

[calmstateofmind]

I heard this on NPR yesterday...sucks for Verizon. You can actually opt out of those charges (if you're with other carriers) by simply asking to not be charged for them. Over two years, they add up.

 

[mikem_90]

[citation][nom]JD13[/nom]52 Million is cheaper than 90 million if they actually went through with the investigation & may have led to more finding costing Verizon even more money. Why charge people extra for TXT at all? I talked to person in IT & they say it doesn't cost Verizon a penny more than a regular phone call.[/citation]

Its apparently unheard of, numbers this high. I just wish the price for violating the law or ripping customers off was MORE than the amount one earned. Payback 2 to 1 might curtail some illegal behavior.... maybe.

 

[eddieroolz]

Makes me wonder just how much other carriers are charging you, unknowningly.

 

[theroguex]

Verizon, when threatened with an investigation that would show that they actually did something wrong, instead takes the settlement route and gets to pretend it's 'doing the right thing' without actually admitting they did anything wrong. So, customers who may have been fleeced for $1.99/month for YEARS only get $6 at max.

Yup, that'll teach Verizon, won't it?

I think the Justice Department should say 'nope, we don't accept your settlement and we're going to investigate anyway.'

 

[beayn]

The refunds should be done with interest. You'd most definitely be charged interest by the company if you neglected to pay it back on time... Corporations get away with way too much.