phantom billing
Gregory canceled
Verizon, but Verizon didn't cancel him. The company kept on billing him every month, and every month he'd call to get the charges wiped away, which the CSR promptly did.
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fee traps
Daniel's Providian/WaMu credit card was recently absorbed into
Chase's swollen belly, and they welcomed him to their family by catching him in a technicality that cost him $39. Here's a good example of why you need to pay attention to
statement cycles, even if your bank won't tell you to.
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print is dead
Meet Michael. He likes to read the newspaper. Sadly, his attempts to resubscribe to the
Washington Post have resulted in abject failure. Hmm, we thought that
newspapers were sort of hurting for subscribers...
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gouging
Comcast is going to start rolling out a $2 fee hike across the country this fall, which means your cable modem rental fee will go from $3 to $5 by the end of the year. Comcast says they absolutely have to do this or they'll never be able to pay for service and equipment upgrades, which makes us wonder how the poor underfunded company manages to stay afloat at all.
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t-mobile
Consumers, feel your power. Back in August, T-Mobile announced that they would charge customers $1.50 per month to receive a paper bill, and $3.50 to receive a detailed paper bill. It didn't go over well. Because of the negative reaction from many customers, and the beginnings of
a class action lawsuit, T-Mobile is changing the policy for now.
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whoops
It's important to note that the
Fair Credit Billing Act caps your liability at $50 for unauthorized credit card charges — but you have to notify the bank in a timely fashion that someone is using your card. (You should notify your bank
in writing within 60 days of the first incorrect bill.) One Colorado man is finding out the hard way that
not noticing an $11,000 charge to your account for months is really, really bad.
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cancellation fee
Here's a lovely story from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. A unnamed 75-year-old widow says AT&T called her to offer their new U-Verse service with bundled TV, Internet and phone. She signed up, only to receive a phone call letting her know that the TV service wasn't available in her area yet, but would she like to sign up with
DirecTV instead? She agreed, but DirecTV started doublebilling her as soon as her service started. After a few months of the runaround from DirecTV she called to cancel.
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government oversight
Uh-oh, the
FCC is getting serious about doing its job, which probably means more memos like the one Apple posted last week from companies like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. Yesterday
the FCC announced three "Notices of Inquiry"—all unanimously voted for by a full, bi-partisan commission—that will look at different aspects of the cellular industry.
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refunds
On August 14, the Cleveland Plain Dealer printed a column by a business writer who described her 6-month-long ordeal with Verizon concerning a mysterious $1.99 charge for "
data usage." The paper says that over 400 Plain Dealer readers responded with complaints similar to the one in the column. Now the paper says they have a promise from Verizon to refund these mysterious and erroneous charges.
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wasteful
Pete received a bill in the mail that has him slightly offended and amused. A
health care provider has sent his balance to collections after a payment arrived late a few years ago. They will clearly be hurting if he doesn't pay his overdue balance of ....four cents.
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t-mobile
If you're a T-Mobile USA customer who likes to kick it old-school with a paper bill, checks, stamps and whatnot, bad news. Starting September 12, you'll be charged $1.50 per account for the privilege of receiving your bill by mail.
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double billing
We think AT&T just stole about $157 from commenter Spoco. They applied the payment as always via his Amex card, but then said that it was declined and auto-debited it a second time a month later (+ late fees, of course). The only problem is, it wasn't declined, and Spoco has proof. He just can't get anyone at AT&T to care.
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stupid
Reader C.W. is wondering why Craftsman (which is part of
Sears) doesn't have the ability to cancel a duplicate order. Especially since there appears to be a "cancel" button on the website.
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one bill to rule them all
It seems like
Verizon is still working the bugs out of its
One Bill service. Reader Vikram wrote in to warn consumers not to sign up for the service if they'd like to be able to actually pay their bills...
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overcharged
James discovered that the waiter at a steakhouse he and his wife ate at padded his bill by 4 extra dollars, but also ran through the charge a second time with no tip at all. Now he's wondering what to do next.
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comcatastrophe
Reader Kevin would like to be billed the correct amount for his internet service from
Comcast. This is a dream we all share, so let us give our support to Kevin in this dark hour. In his letter to the CEO of Comcast, Kevin says that he has tried many tactics in order to get Comcast to charge him the correct amount — including — but not limited to —- going to the Comcast office and sitting outside in the hope that the account executive would show up. He didn't. This mysterious account executive has also failed to answer messages left on his work voicemail and his cellphone. Perhaps he has become hopelessly trapped under a vending machine somewhere. Someone should try to find him before the scorpions show up.
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