This happened to me more than once on my phone. I had two "dumbphones" on a family plan and noticed this charge on my bill one month. I called Verizon and they removed the charge. To prevent any more "accidental" internet usage from either of the phones on the plan, I had the CSR block internet access from both of the phones.

Needless to say, a couple months later, I noticed the same charge again on the phone. I called back and confirmed that the internet had indeed been blocked from the phones on the date that I had last called. It was then when I heard the "backup assistance" line.

I have since upgraded to Blackberries on my plan so I haven't had the problem since, but it's interesting to hear that it has happened to so many other people.

"You may need Verizon's help determining what applications cost money."

Thank god they are there to confirm the money that I may have already spent without my knowledge or express consent

Sweet! My photo made it in to the Consumerist!

Some people get charged $1.99 a month for this, even though it's free.

How is this legal, and not just outright theft? Does theft go unpunished if it is widespread enough and just an "accident"?

Both our local papers here in Charleston, WV, have had stories this week @ this. A spokesperson for Verizon here said on the record it was a mistake & that it would be removed "if" people called about it.

I have been getting this for months. I don't use the internet on my phone but leave it enabled in case I need it in an emergency.

Yea I got this too a month after I got my new Env Touch.

When I was upgrading from the voyager to the touch, I was asked if I wanted my contacts transferred over, and I said no thanks I have it backed up on my computer. Didn't want to say with BIPMIN because they know it is used to hack the phones and I have hacked my phone in the past. Anyways the guy downloads Backup assist application without my permission. I pay my bill in full, then a few days later I get a warning thru the web site that I have 1.99 past due. Had to fight with Verizon CSR because the stores kept bitching that I didn't pay 1.99. The 1.99 was finally cleared with the CSR after I explained the payment history was always the amount I owed and it didn't make sense for me to pay 1.99 less than what I owed.

Oh Verizon! Tsk! Tsk! I know times are tough and people are cutting back on data usage. But you need to come up with a more plausable way to rip people off. Why don't you raise the rates on your SMS? Then you can collude with some 3rd party SMS service and have them send text messages to everyone without a message plan. At least fewer people would complain about mysterous 0.35 charges for each text message. Come on now!

What's that I hear just over the horizon? It's the call of the Class Action Lawsuit!

I smell class action lawsuit. Wonder how long they have been doing this and how few notice.

I was recently employed in Verizon Wireless Customer Service and can tell you this charge does show up quite frequently on bills. I actually questioned my supervisor about this and the company line of course is that each phone has an ESN (they liked to call it the phones fingerprint) and therefore if the system says there was data usage then there was data usage.
As to the comment, "Jason told us he could fix it so we'd never get billed for this again. Yes, it can be done. If customer service tells you otherwise, they're wrong."
This isn't exactly true. Internet and web browsing can be blocked on most phones. Certain phones however, namely smart phones and any phone using HTML browsing (which almost all new phones use now), the normal block is not sufficient. There is a different block for these phones which blocks all data network access, but it also blocks picture and video messages as well since they are sent over the data network.
As for the backup assitant. If the customer does not have a "My Verizon" account they will be charged 1.99 per month for the service. If they have the My Verizon account they do not get charged data that backup assitant uses. That sounds like an excuse from the CSR who couldn't think of anything else to say. I never saw any incorrect charges due to backup assitant in my time at VZW.
As a former Verizon Wireless employee and current customer of them I would recommend to anyone who does not use the internet to call and have it blocked.

I didn't find out about the automatic back-up assistance until after my first phone was stolen with all my contact info. If you have an online account with Verizon, the service is free. It only costs $1.99 if you don't have it set up to view and pay your bills online.

Now it continually backs up my contacts every day so no more mass emails begging people to send me their phone numbers again!

This is nothing new. Generally speaking, most phones ship from the manufacturer with a default shortcut that connects to the Mobile Web when the up arrow on the directional pad is pressed. Since all wireless carriers round up to the nearest MB, the instant that button is pressed you are automatically charged the fee for transferring 1MB of data - in this case $1.99.

@Christovir: The backup assistance charges $1.99 a month if you don't have an online Verizon Wireless Account set up for your Verizon account. The fee is waived if you do.

This has been on my bill A LOT recently. I had finally had enough and called. They refused to refund, I was told I obviously did NOT have a clue what my son and husband do with their phones, and I was told that only a Universal Block would stop the charges. I did not want to go that route as it blocks everything except texting - including picture messages. I went through the site and blocked all internet access, VCAST [read: EVIL - this is a massive part of their sales], email access, and premium text. I also went through their phones and rest their "hot" keys to something besides email and web browser.

Now... whenever my husband turns his phone on and off, it says "looking for /registering apps" and shows those damned data usage arrows! I am sure I will see some massive charges for that as it *should* equal to 1.99/day for data usage, no matter how small a usage it is. I am also sure I will be calling them during my next billing cycle.

I am also sure I'll be in on the class-action lawsuit when it comes out!

@Auntie M.: Yeah, we have this for our phones too. The online account is just easier to manage because we can view how many minutes we've been using and etc. One doesn't have to pay their bills online even if they set-up the account.

It seems to me that Verizon salespeople are putting the contact back-up application on new phones when transferring contacts form the old phone to the new phone. The problem with this is that the application costs $1.99 a month unless you have an online account set up with Verizon Wireless.

To me it seems pretty shady because it sounds like the salesperson installs the application without telling the customer what they're doing and that they'll be charged unless they set up an account online.

@btrthnnothing: I should also say that this is what happened to one of my phones when I upgraded at the retail store. The salesperson asked if I wanted him to back-up my contacts for me and of course I told him yes because doing it myself by hand would be a waste of time. Turns out that all he did was download the back-up assistant to save the contacts on the Verizon server and then programmed the new phone with my number. After that, he downloaded the same back-up assistant on the new phone to sync the numbers. Luckily we already have an online account with Verizon, so we weren't charged. But if we didn't have an online account, I'm sure we would've been charged.

Here's Verizon's webpage about the back-up assistant. I think another problem is that the back-up assistant shows up as a "Data Charge" on peoples' statements so its hard to pinpoint where the charge is coming from.

[backupassistant.vzw.com]

This happened to me as well! My problem came from VZ Navigator, which I made the mistake of trying out. Unfortunately, somehow that stupid program was left on my phone after I canceled my subscription, and it tried to download itself every month (not sure why) causing me app and data usage fees. Every month I would go into the local store to correct the problem, but the charges continued to show up on my bill each month. It took 4 months to finally get the issue resolved, after Verizon mistakenly deleted all my pictures while doing a hard reset, and somehow managed to block all my incoming and outgoing picture messages. And even with the block on picture messages AND the app store, Verizon still figured out a way to charge me 1.99 for data usage on two of the phones on my account.

Needless to say, I haven't had the best luck with Verizon. Unfortunately, I've heard horror stories about all of the major carriers, so I don't know of a better alternative. So, I will patiently wait for the FCC to lay the smack down on U.S. carriers.

If you set up your 'my account' function with VZW, the backupassistant application is free. W/R/T to it, if you wish to minimize your peak minutes have the phone do its thing (the backup job) during the 'early morning' time frame so that you're not using peak minutes. Also, while you can modify the contacts via the backupassistant website, and then push the updates to your phone, I believe that it counts as a text message. You would probably want to confirm that, as I never do the download. And it might be a free downloand/push if you're replacing your phone. Again, check to be sure.

@gameraboy: aweeessoommee

BAH. Verizon plays fast and loose with billing constantly. I am STILL trying to get unwanted charges off my 'onbill' from January.
Verizon discontinued the 'triple play' plan with no warning deciding that far too many customers were using it to save money. I was moved to the next "Super-kungfu-hyper-powersaving-yeeha" plan which was supposed to put my bills back in the closer area to my normal billing.

THATS NOT WHAT HAPPENED. I was signed up for 'online games', Starz online and some small online backup nonsense. I saw the bill and called the second it crossed my desk. They canceled it and promised the account would be credited for the amount I was charged. That was February.

I have called monthly and obviously it hasnt been fixed. Last month the DSL (it is apparently the DSL service that added it) CSR rep got snippy and told me that they already credited my account. I told her that was a nice try BUT I can pull up my bill all the way back to feb would you like to step back with me? I see no credit... Two reps one from DSL and one from residential (read that India for DSL and somewhere else for residential) went back and forth and then agreed that the credit should be re-issued and I should see the charges removed.

Tuesday after seeing my bill I called again. This time after waiting a very long time on hold I got a girl who said that it was a 'trial that I had to remove after I decided I didnt like it that was for new DSL customers'. I told her no I was not a new customer I have had DSL since 2001 and it should not change. She said she would check on it please hold... And I got a machine saying for me to enter my number again. I talked with another DSL rep again and they assured me again that NEXT month the charges and all the fees would be removed.

***BIG SURPRISE CALL FROM VERIZON***
It seems a QA manager overheard the call and did not like the way the situation was handled at all. He apologized and said he would take care of the issue. He asked for my input into how it could be handled better. I told him it was 2009 and honestly a bill can be adjusted in real time. Dont their billing departments work electronically? Why does it take 2-8 months to fix a billing issue? He said it would be fixed.

I still see the charge online.
To be continued.

Whoa. My husband was just complaining to the kids about these Verizon fees... Problem is, neither uses the Internet from their Sidekicks. Ever. At all. Now we'll have to look at that most recent bill again.

Thanks for this heads up.

Equally dirty is how Verizon puts certain functions on phones that require internet access, and then arranges the menu so that an accidental key press starts a session.

On more than one occasion, my family members hit a wrong button, consuming 3k of data and yet incurring a $1.99 charge for 1 megabyte of data.

This is the nonsense that is going to get the government crawling up Verizon's rear. And I can't say I'm against it.

i just called in to ask about the $1.99 charge. i originally saw the charge when i went on a shared plan with my wife. at that time i was told it was backup assistance, which i had already signed up for. it stopped for a few months and then appeared again.

i explained why i was calling and the article i read. the initial csr would not do anything so i asked to speak with a supervisor. the supervisor explained that he had read the article and it was "tabloid reporting." the people quoted in the article would likely be loosing their jobs and be sued. i asked who would be suing and he said he misspoke and what he meant was there would likely be a class action lawsuit. but since it was "tabloid reporting" and the article was printed recently, he could only give me credit for the past bill and would not go any further back.

they said they have blocked web access, so i will have to see what happens.

has anyone else been told that essentially the article is nonsense?

I get this now and then, and they grudgingly take it off.

The bigger picture for me is international text messaging. Verizon says you can't block the receipt of international SMS, which are .20 apiece.

Strange how a system that is sophisticated enough to detect and bill for international SMS is not smart enough to be able to selectively block it.

I've had this happen, it turns out that they consider previewing a ringtone in their own store to be a data charge.

Crap like this is why I have no qualms about hacking my phone to remove Verizon's disabling of USB transfer so I can move my photos and ringtones around.

Happened to me when I redid my contract back in January and got a new phone. Customer Service didn't have a problem refunding the charge and mentioned the controls to keep this from happening again. Although I'm probably part of the minority, I switched off all extraneous internet usage on the phone so this wouldn't re-occur.

Same thing happened to me. I have two phones on my account; both were charged $1.99 for data. First line used .01 MB one time, and the second phone used .02 once and .01 once. WTF $3.98 for .04 MB?? I called and they removed the charge and I told them to remove all data functions from the account.

Historically, I have had frustrating experience with Verizon customer service, trying to resolve billing errors. What is this string of comments on Consumerist going to do besides venting?

So is this for Verizon, or Verizon Wireless?

@jc364: Just a side note about VZ Navigator: it's not worth the cost. You can get a decent GPS for around 100 bucks or less, whereas VZNavigator costs around 15 bucks a month.

So if you cancel VZ Navigator and buy a new GPS, it will have paid for itself in less than 7 months.

I second the posts about accidentally launching the web access app - my girlfriend's phone's (the MotoRizr)freaking CAMERA button doubles as the "TV" button, and of course you have to HOLD the button to launch the camera (as opposed to the other way around which would make sense) if you just press it, the phone attempts to connect to the web to show Verizon's pitiable television service. Many months of 1.99 data charges on the bill later, my girlfriend no longer uses her phone's camera. This was an obvious grab at frivolous service charges by deliberately mis-designing the phone.

This is nothing new for Verizon. I had Verizon Wireless from November of 2006 until March of 2009, and had to call them about data charges on my bill almost every month from the beginning.

The first month it happened they told me I must be accessing it accidentally, and since my phone didn't allow me to take the browser off of my shortcuts (the only shortcut that couldn't be changed), I accepted that that was probably the case (it's pretty easy to press up instead of right when aiming for the calculator). They credited my account and I had them block data.

Next month, same thing, only this time it was "I'm sorry, they didn't block it right last time." I went through customer service phone calls almost every month for 2 1/2 years, every time having the charge credited and being told "I'm sorry, I see that data is blocked and I'm not sure why it's charging you for it."

Such a ridiculous little $1.99 charge, but it was a major factor in switching cell phone carriers for me.

@globalman: I have a theory that the charge is coming from the back-up assistant application. Did you upgrade at a retail store and have them transfer your contacts from your old phone to the new one? If you did, the person most likely used the back-up assistant which costs $1.99 a month if you don't have an online account set up with Verizon.

@Christovir: It's apparently not theft if a corporation does it these days. Steal $2 by making an unauthorized credit transaction, and you go to jail...unless you're a corporation, then the worst you suffer is a small fine.

@Christovir: This happened to me too, an inexplicable charge for $1.99 that the customer service rep said was from internet usage, at $1.99 per megabyte. I was furious, but what could I do, switch to AT&T? Laff.

This was outright stealing, and should be prosecuted. This is how Verizon dealt with the down economy, issuing small bullshit charges to customers. I'm writing to the state's attorney general, I want them punished.

@btrthnnothing: actually, no...I just transferred them using bluetooth from my old phone. most people don't realize that it's worth it by just linking them up for a minute and transferring contacts, photos, videos, etc. than paying the store to do it.

@globalman: Ohhh, that's interesting. I can never get that to work, maybe I'm just doing it wrong.

But anyways, it sounds like my idea is flawed. Maybe Verizon is charging people randomly and when they call, they just blame it on the back-up assistant or something.