Verizon Wireless is being sued by the Cleveland-based law firm Goldman Scarlato & Karon, which accuses it of charging phantom data fees. The technology blog Electronista reports that the class-action lawsuit accuses Verizon of adding a $2 fee to customers’ bills for data that they’ve apparently never used. Although a $2 addition may seem like small change, Verizon currently has more than 86 million subscribers, and adding that charge to just a fraction of bills each month would add up to hundreds of millions of dollars a year. If people weren't to notice the extra charges on their phone bill, this is what company's like Verizon can do to save a couple of millions. During these tough times, how can companies be charging more than what is necessary. If people keep having to pay these extra charges and then it becomes to much to pay, they are going to being dropping their phone line and changing to a cheaper company. Wouldn't you think so? What is your though on this?
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/bits-scan-verizon-fees-e-book-profits-and-chilean-telescopes/?ref=technology
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It's amazing the stuff they do. Phone companies have flat out admitted that the whole message "to leave a message for this person, press 1, to blah blah blah blah press whatever..." is just to use up an extra minute of airtime because, just like that $2 charge that the post talks about, adds up significantly when multiplied by several million.
ReplyDeletewow im impressed its a smart way to milk people out of money without them noticing it. reminds me of sales taxes, so if we complain about these 2 dollar charges we should probably start complaining about sales taxes to... A
ReplyDeleteIts classic office space. Take a tiny like fractions of a penny off of transactions or adding $2 to a $200 phone bill and accredit it to data usage. Even now $2 extra on a phone bill isnt a lot of money but times 86 million people its quite a bit. This is smart unless you get caught but very moraless and undermines all of their customers' trust. Hopefully its not true but i wouldnt be surprised to see that it is.
ReplyDeleteI can understand the fraud. If companies are able to say that the data is a legitimate cost, then they can slap anything they want on the bill. I believe it is up to the customer to fully understand their bills and make sure they are paying for what they want to pay. E
ReplyDeleteI think that this is immoral but I also think that it happens a lot without us even noticing its happening. Companies could add a dollar or two in phantom charges in a lot of monthly payment industries--internet, television, energy--and it wouldn't surprise me if practices like these are more common than we detect.
ReplyDeleteThis is really shocking to read about, but I can really understand and see it happening a lot. This is such an easy way to collect extra funds without having customers even remotely realize it. As a customer, it infuriates me to read this because I can only imagine how many times this has occurred to me. I just wish that companies were as trustworthy as they portray themselves to be. I agree that those extra funds would really add up.
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