RED ALERT! Watch your cell phone bill!

[wjoerob]

Good friend of mine, just got fired last week for refusing to illegally charge customers for services they didn't order. He has worked 15 yrs. for the local store of a major telecomm company. Won't identify it, but it's initials precede B, U and U. So my friend is a good salesman, but regional rep. tells employees they need to get sales figures up on add-on features. Someone asks, "What do you mean, you want us to 'slam' customer accounts?" Regional rep says, "Whatever it takes." So last week store boss tells my friend "Really, I admire you for not going against your morals. But I've got to get this done, and you won't do it, so I have to let you go."
He says the rule used to be they couldn't access a customer's account unless the customer was there in the store, and knew about it. Now, it's common practice anytime. Since then, I've talked to several people locally who say they've had services charged to their accounts that they never used or asked for. It seems like they're just counting on people not paying attention, not noticing an extra $5, $10, or $20 a month. WATCH YOUR BILL! I'm sure this can't be just going on around here.

 

[Travelover]

Your friend needs a good attorney. He may have a good case as a whistle blower.

I use a prepaid service for cell phone service, but I'm amazed at what others pay per year.

 

[nmu98]

We are having that problem with our work account. We have purchased 4 new phones and each time they have added a 5 dollar per month fee for sending pictures. We have never done that and will never. I have had to call back each time and get it removed.

 

[archerm3]

I used to catch sprint every few months charging me with services I didn't do or for changing my plan rates. Haven't had a problem for about a year.

One reason why I have such a problem with corporate ethics these days. These companies figure 75 percent of the people never read their bills and pay blindly. Easy money. $2.51 from 750,000 customers is what? I think it comes out to either a CEO bonus or a rise in my mutual fund value, or both.

 

[jayste]

We have US Cellular and our bill is the same every month. EXCEPT for two months ago when I called and complained about one of their stores that has shoddy service! They credited my next months bill for $25! Made me a real happy customer and I hope it got some changes made in the store. I haven't needed them since so I don't know. Anyway, anytime my bill is more than "usual" I'm checking it out. Oh! one more story, AT&T (Cingular at the time) decided we were costing them too much money a few years ago (we bounced off someone elses tower when we were at home) so they contacted us, like they did a bunch of other folks, and informed us they were dropping us. After they dropped us our final bill had an early termination of contract charge on it! Hahaha! I was on the phone faster than your head could spin! Called them on my new US Cellular phone and service to tell them how sorry theirs was!

Jay

 

[SPIKER]

we have been a VZ customer for years and years. our bill varies monthly a few bucks due to text usage, I dont have the extra testing and we get them from people usually BS marketing practices, I call and say I got xx texts as spam and they take them off, I only have 2 people who usually send texts so it is easy to pick out the bogus ones...

we also really like the service there so far is only a few places were calls are sometimes dropped that I travel, one is the holler I drop into leaving home which is understandable and a different holler 4 or 5 miles away in same area. I'm not sure if sunlight gets down there more than 2 times a year

Mark

 

[tanglefoot]

Thanks for the heads up on AT&T. That's one more reason for me to drop their pitiful cellphone. We've used their service since 2001 and never had a good signal here at our house.
Butch

 

[Bird]

I got our first cell phone right after my wife wrecked her car out on a farm-to-market road in 1999 because I figured she might need it someday. It was with Southwestern Bell Mobile, which became Cingular which became AT&T. We still have the same plan, same price for 10 years now.

 

[polo1665]

This type of practice is not exclusive to cell phone bills. We have our phone, cell phone, satellite TV, and internet bundled through Verizon into one monthly bill, and you have to watch the charges very closely. In one instance we were charged a monthly fee for a phone message service that we never asked for or received. When I contacted Verizon they took care of it, but informed me that if they were asked to bill us by another party, by law could not deny them. They said these laws vary from state to state. The woman I spoke to was very helpful and took care of the matter immediately.

Mark

 

[reb]

This isn't anything new. About 4-5 years ago my wife signed up for a basic plan with one of the major companies. The rate was to be about $25/month. Her first bill came with a list of bogus credits which meant no charge for 2 or 3 months. The fine print also showed she had enough extra frills added that her bill would have been about $100/month when the credits disappeared. We immediately called and removed the frills. Somehow all those bogus credits disappeared, too.