If you have a Verizon phone, you’ve probably at one point accidentally hit a button that connects you to “Get It Now” or “Mobile Web.” Arg. And it’s double-arg when it turns out that even if you cancel right away, you still get hit with a $1.99 1MB data charge. According to a tipster, this is totally on purpose.
A guy wrote in to Pogue’s blog and said everyone at Verizon knows about these design flaws but no one will do anything about it, because it makes Verizon over $300 million a month. He said:
“The phone is designed in such a way that you can almost never avoid getting $1.99 charge on the bill. Around the OK button on a typical flip phone are the up, down, left, right arrows. If you open the flip and accidentally press the up arrow key, you see that the phone starts to connect to the web. So you hit END right away. Well, too late. You will be charged $1.99 for that 0.02 kilobytes of data. NOT COOL. I’ve had phones for years, and I sometimes do that mistake to this day, as I’m sure you have. Legal, yes; ethical, NO.
“Every month, the 87 million customers will accidentally hit that key a few times a month! That’s over $300 million per month in data revenue off a simple mistake!
“Our marketing, billing, and technical departments are all aware of this. But they have failed to do anything about it-and why? Because if you get 87 million customers to pay $1.99, why stop this revenue? Customer Service might credit you if you call and complain, but this practice is just not right.
“Now, you can ask to have this feature blocked. But even then, if you one of those buttons by accident, your phone transmits data; you get a message that you cannot use the service because it’s blocked�BUT you just used 0.06 kilobytes of data to get that message, so you are now charged $1.99 again!
“They have started training us reps that too many data blocks are being put on accounts now; they’re actually making us take classes called Alternatives to Data Blocks. They do not want all the blocks, because 40% of Verizon’s revenue now comes from data use. I just know there are millions of people out there that don’t even notice this $1.99 on the bill.”
Sleazy.
Verizon: How Much Do You Charge Now? [NYT] (Thanks to John!)
More From Consumerist
-
I Get A Replacement Phone, Verizon Fakes My Death
-
Verizon Uses Warranty-Voiding Photo To Sell Protection Plan
-
Verizon And Asurion Can’t Agree Whether I Have Insurance
-
Verizon Accidentally Gives Customer’s Number To Someone Else, Charges Her $50/Month For Its Mistake
-
Verizon Sends Me To Collections Over Fees It Shouldn’t Have Charged Me In The First Place
Verizon definately has this scam set up, and they even reinforce it, if you want to cancel your internet, it also disables your voice, video and picture texts as well. At least they allow it to disable that idiotic VZ navigator, which is set up in the same easy to accidentally access style.
@Raekwon: Sprint does not charge a fee. If I happen to do anything that would start a data connection, my phone always asks if I want to connect to the Internet. I say no and no charges appear on my bill.
I’m not sure if they charge to download ringtones and such (I don’t spend money on such things generally although my other half does). IIRC they don’t, but I could be wrong.
@Raekwon: ATT also booby traps some of the buttons and screens on the phones. Some months, when no one steps in the trap, we get no charge. Other months we’ve paid a few tens of cents. It’s irritating mostly because I can’t reprogram some of the buttons to something useful.
ATT: You didn’t hear about this minimum MB charge, right? Nothing for you to see here. Just move along.
I’ve considered dismantling my Razr to remove the sensors on those buttons just out of principle. Having those big fat MEdia Net and Video marketplace buttons hugging the directional pad is bullshit.
@Raekwon: I just called AT&T to find out. I can’t disable internet device-side with the crappy Ericsson I’ve got, so I just had one of their CSR’s do it for me. She checked my recent billing history and said that I get 5 cents one month, 22 cents another month, 13 cents another month, & so on. Nothing as bad as the $1.99 fee, but still, I had her disable everything for me.
The rep also, kindly, recognized by my lack of voice that I am sick. While waiting for all of my account info to load, she gave me a home remedy for my throat. (Honey, lemon juice, dark rum, all in hot tea.) I wish all CSR’s were as human as she was!
@Raekwon: AT&T has a Push-to-talk feature that annoys the shit out of me.
The button is right on the side of the phone where you’d hit the other button to say, make the clock show. It’s right where you hold the phone when talking, too.
And while there is a confirmation screen (“Do you wish to enable PTT? Charges may apply?”) I just know some day I will confirm, and the screen and the noise it makes are just annoying. Turn it off unless I have push to talk on my plan.
@Raekwon: On T-Mobile phones the buttons are equally easily pressed but they take you to T-Mobile’s store and there is no charge for browsing or downloading purchased items.
@katstermonster: Yep, seconded. I’ve never used my 2-year old $49 refurbed Curve for anything but a phone & never gotten a charge or accidentally went to the web. I don’t even know how I would use it to get TO the web.
@MikeGrenade: You could just buy an unlocked razr on ebay. I bought one for my mom, no at&t branding and no stupid internet buttons. Also, contrary to AT&T you CAN DISABLE internet usage without affecting picture and text messaging.
I disabled internet on my unlocked phone I was using on AT&T (Pebl) and my moms unlocked razr. AT&T had a billing error and kept charging me data for pic messages. I called tech support and told the guy whats up. He understood where reps couldn’t and knew exactly what I did.
Basically just make a fake internet settings that point no where and apply it just for internet use. It’s up on the web somewhere, and only takes a minute to do.
@MikeGrenade: On my razr (v3xx) I set the mobile web and store as “locked” under the security settings.
I know that if you have AT&T, you can disable data (including texting).
@summerbee: In the last year or two AT&T’s CSRs have become the best I’ve ever dealt with. And my standards are pretty high.
AT&T, if you’re reading this, give your CSRs a raise, they deserve it!
@Nick1693: And the nice thing about this (I have kids and they never look before doing something – they “accidental button push” rate is higher with them vs. the adults) blocking is that AT&T doesn’t charge for the service and doesn’t charge for sending you a notice that the feature is blocked. I love my AT&T service (even more so now that I’m a new iPhone owner!).
@ColoradoShark: Actually very recently AT&T changed charging for data pay per use from one penny per kilobyte to a minimum $2 per megabyte.
@ColoradoShark: Try getting a soft-unlocked Japanese phone. Those generally can’t go on the internet like that (or at all if that’s your thing).
@Corydon: Yeah, this. You can turn it off if you want, but at least on my default the “Connect to internet?” dialog is enabled by default.
I do it on occasion too (especially when trying to mess with options, some of which require going online — pft) and haven’t fallen into any of these traps.
If I am not mistaken most cell phone contracts specifically prohibit users from launching any kind of class action against the company. Has this changed?
@jamar0303: The last phone I had before my iPhone allowed you to change the shortcuts of every key except the one that connected to the internet store.
@West Coast Secessionist: my old phone (VX8300) worked as you describe, going straight to mobile web. my current phone (Moto Adventure) gives me the option. fortunately, my next phone won’t matter, since i am planning on getting the data plan anyways
@lestat730:
Really, the pricing is set up such that a la carte data doesn’t make much sense. For $5, you can get unlimited.
@flugennock: The tiny! That’s another reason my nearsighted self avoids getting a new phone. My niece tried to show me something text-based on her iWhatever the other day, and I had to explain that while she is nine I am thirty-two and I can’t read words on something smaller than the palm of my hand and please bring it up on the computer pretty please? because I am old and I can’t see! She did it, reluctantly, but I heard her mom call out ‘I told you it wasn’t just me!’
even if you choose to use a unlocked phone with wi-fi capability on ATT you have to disable data over ATT’s network, otherwise they’ll charge you each time you connect…even if you don’t use their network…