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Verizon to refund 15 million customers from overcharged fees

By Emil Protalinski

On October 4, 2010, 10:22 AM

veriz
Verizon Wireless will refund 15 million cellular customers who were wrongly charged for Internet use: even though they didn't have a data plan they got billed for data anyway. Following hundreds of complaints, the FCC that pressured Verizon into this settlement, according to The New York Times. The formal investigation into the unauthorized charges began in January but only now are we going to see some results.

"These customers would normally have been billed at the standard rate of $1.99 per megabyte for any data they chose to access from their phones," the company said in a statement. "The majority of the data sessions involved minor data exchanges caused by software built into their phones; others involved accessing the web, which should not have incurred charges. We have addressed these issues to avoid unintended data charges in the future." The problem has been occurring since at least 2007.

The refund will be in the form of $2 to $6 credits, though some will receive larger funds, on the customer's next bill (unless you've left Verizon in the meantime, in which case you'll get a check in the mail). Doing some simple math (credit amount multipled by number of customers affected) shows that the company will pay out somewhere between $30 million and $90 million in total reimbursements.


5 comments

User Comments: 5

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  1. October 4, 2010 10:45 AM
    mattfrompa
    mattfrompa said:

    I have to keep a watchful eye on my verizon bill, because they try and overcharge all the time. But when called on it, I always get an "Okay, we will take it off your bill."

    Reply
  2. October 4, 2010 10:47 AM
    motrin said:

    so thats what that was!!!!

    honest to GLaDOS. two of the five phones on our plan would be charged $1.99. every month and i know i didn't use any data nor did the other person. this happened like 3 months in a row.

    Reply
  3. October 4, 2010 12:32 PM
    Guest said:

    i dont think $30 or $90 million dollars could matter to Verizon because its customer money only

    Reply
  4. October 4, 2010 12:45 PM
    Guest said:

    Like any of this happens by accident.

    Reply
  5. October 4, 2010 5:39 PM
    Timonius
    Timonius said:

    hmmm... we just need to 'borrow' $30 to $90 million for a little while. Then we apologize and give it back without interest/profit share.

    Reply

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