If you are unhappy with your current cell phone company, now is the time to speak up. The FCC just recently launched a large investigation into how the cellular industry is charging its customers (us) and how it is competing as a market.
Over the last 10 months, many Verizon Wireless customers have been outraged for being charged out-of-line megabyte usage charges for actions they can’t even verify were them. These mysterious charges started appearing about a year ago and are one of the things the FCC will be looking into as possible violations by the wireless industry.
FCC Chair Genachowski said,
“Many Americans are learning to do more with less. A surprise charge on a monthly bill or a new service that does not perform as advertised can be a major budget-buster, especially as household spending on communications grows ever larger. Today’s notice will help the Commission build a record on ways to ensure that consumers understand what they are signing up for.”
If there is a time when the FCC will actually listen to complaints against the few giants that rule the Wireless Industry, it is now.
If you wish to file a official complaint with the FCC in regards to your cell phone service, you can follow the steps provided below.
“Billing, Service, Privacy, Number Portability and other issues”
or Option 3,
“Deceptive or unlawful advertising or marketing by a communications company (does NOT include Telemarketing)”
In regards to Form 2000B and article 4 of the FCC NOTICE REQUIRED BY THE PRIVACY ACT, I explicitly requests that the FCC withhold my name from public disclosure.
good shit… i have a few complaints I’d like to file against sprint… while i have been happy overall… some of their charges are a bit ridiculous… especially when it comes to internet usage, which costs them next to nothing to provide.
i just got charged 70 dolloars last month and 20 this month for “mega bite usage” and “downloading” things i dont have
I have been charged over $1000.00 for downloading a game, which I assumed, like all others, was free of charge on my Verizon cell phone. When I received my bill I called Verizon and told them I had no idea that I was being charged for playing this game and if they could look at my past bills they would see I never have charges such as this. They would do nothing. Said I owed this amount and to pay it. I canceled my phone. They are calling my house, sending me threatening letters and have turned it over to a collection agency. This is outlandish. I would have never played a game on my cell phone if I knew I was being charged for this. What can I do to stop this harassment? I cannot afford to pay this. If it was airtime I was using for phone use I could understand, but it was simply a misunderstanding of what I was downloading.
Corn apps aren’t free ya know… ;)
Was it data usage to the net? i don’t see how an ‘app’ could get away with charging you that much for use unless you didn’t have a sufficient data plan to handle its web usage.
On June 27th I sent in an electronic payment to Verizon. I received a failed attempt and was told to try the transaction again. I did and the attempt failed again. Then I received a text about 5 minutes later stating my bill was paid in full. To my surprise, when going online to my bank account, I discovered Verizon had removed TWO payment of $88. I immediately called them and was told the second payment does not show in their system. They told me to resolve it with my bank. I went to my bank the next day and told them about this additional payment from Verizon and they said it was a merchant error and to take it up with them. I went to the wireless Zone where I live with a Verification letter from my bank, and the actual account information PROVING they took out two payments. The information was faxed over to customer service and I was told they had to speak with a supervisor to get this resolved. The next day I was told it would take an additional several days (after July 5th). I have been calling them EVERY day because I am a single mother who cannot work (due to health issues) and the money that was removed has left me with $13 in my account. I was counting on the money THEY took from me to feed my son an myself (Yes, I live hand to mouth right now). I spoke to a representative again today and they told me I needed to file another inquiry and it would take 24 hours or more. I am furious with this company. Maybe $88 isn’t a big deal to the corporate people there but that is what I am living on for the REST OF THE MONTH (until the 23rd of July). I just don’t get it. God forbid I didn’t pay on time but when they make an error they aren’t very quick in resolving it. I have decided to make a complaint to the Better Business Bureau and contact my attorney general. From there I plan on taking the phones I have and cancelling my contract. As far as I’m concerned, they broke the contract with me and I will not pay the termination fee’s.
I would not recommend trying to sign any contract with any AT&T stores or kiosks affiliated with PrimeMobile (AT&T Authorized Dealer). I did about six months ago at a shopping mall: a sales rep sold me a LG XENON without mentioning it was actually a ‘reconditioned/refurbished’ phone. The phone stopped working approximately six months later and I found out it was beyond the ’90-day’ warranty period from AT&T. I contacted the store and they denied everything and tried to replace mine with another refurbished and cheaper phone because they could not find a ‘comparable’ model. People are not always honest with what they do, especially when they are eager to sell you their products. They even sounded like it was MY fault. I was extremely disappointed with the entire process. There is absolutely NONE consumer protections here.
Prepaid TracFone Wireless Inc. is hitting up all their customers, every time you prepay for additional minutes.
A fee of $9.99 for each month they extend your service coverage, you must extend your service each time you purchase their prepaid minutes, what a rip off.
At the present time they got me for extending my coverage for almost 4 (four) years
What a neat way to scam the people, wish I would have though of it.
Cellular South did some upgrades to their system and now ALL blackberry 8830′s are draining down extremely FAST!
Cellular South says they dont anything about it and you will have to buy new phone/contract.
Please complain to the FCC and State consumer affairs, etc, if you have same issue
I just cancelled with T-Mobile and my contract had been expired since June of 2010 but they decided to charge me $200 cancel fee for each of my two phone lines. I just finished filing complaints with the BBB, the FCC and the FTC. I hope they really stick it too T-Mobile.
We were charged 131.00 for internet usage on the SPRINT phones we tried and returned after 5 days. We did not request internet we did not knowingly use it and end up with 131.00 bill for 5 freaking days. I wonder what the bill would have been had we kept the phones??? Why would we request internet if we have it on the phones anyway. I have to wonder if we would have recieved this bill if we had kept the phones???
i had purchased motorola milestone A853 in feb 2011 from kolhapur . since i have purched it , it has got regular problem first it get heated and battery dicharges quickly. i went to u r servicing centre in kop names SAMCOM , they try to solve it by changing part . but thn it has another problem it goges to sleep mode as any call ends .there is no response from it. then i have to remove battery and restart it . now it is in SAMCOM u’r servicing centre in kop for @ 20 days . they told me to change it’s board which they will get from u’r office . it ‘s long time they r getting it.i got a number of Mr. Chitanya from Pune , One of u r officer in pune but the guy is not just picking phone or reply to sms.
i just mailing u that u will get to my problem and solve it. so please come forward to my complaint
i got me a phone from dillons that is to activate when scanned i took it home opened it did not work back to dillons they got it to work i gave them 25 dollars also the phone cost 45 dollars a few days later the phone was shut of for lack of use my mintues were only good for 30 days the phone company is (iwirelesshome.net) why would the phone company shut my service of when it will go to zero after 30 days
I got a letter that Tmobile will be cancelling my son’s phone line since it’s roaming too much. Now he just bought this phone less than a year ago with the data package and one of the selling points is that there was no additional charge for roaming on the family plan with the promise that our phones would work anywhere we have to go. We have unlimited text and data and never go over on our minutes provided. They have not notified me of any similar action on my daughter’s line yet and she is in the same area. This seems to be coincidental with the failed attempt with the AT&T takeover. Which btw AT&T is the service access my son’s phone chooses when roaming. Can they actually cancel under those conditions because of what they call a service review?