What would you do if you received a bill credit that you didn’t deserve? How about if you received a bill credit that’s enough to buy you a modest house in most of the country? Just ask the Ohio Sprint customer who opened his wireless bill and saw a credit for $139,419.89. [More]
billing errors
Former Verizon Wireless Customers Receive $2 Million Bill, Are Slightly Confused
By 9.24.15
A couple in Oregon started mobile phone service with Verizon Wireless, then decided not to stick with the company after some billing weirdness. Something obviously wasn’t right when they received a first bill of $698, so they decided to return their phones and bail. Now, almost a year later, Verizon claims that their account has an outstanding balance of $2,156,593.64, which is one heck of an early termination fee. [More]
Verizon Sends $3,020 Phone Bill To Website That Doesn’t Use Verizon
By 7.23.14
It’s always frustrating when you receive a bill that, without even having to break down the numbers, you know right away is too high. It’s even more frustrating when you know the bill is too high because you are not a customer of the company that sent you the bill. [More]
Comcast, Where Your Auto Pay Is Simultaneously On And Off
By 10.22.12
When you put a monthly bill on auto pay, it’s easy to occasionally take for granted that the right amount of money is being taken out every 30 days. But when the company you’re paying doesn’t seem to know whether or not you’re enrolled in auto pay, you can end up screwed. [More]
I Paid My Bill In Person, Suddenlink Doesn’t Believe Me
By 6.27.12
E. knows that he paid his Suddenlink (ISP/cable) bill, but Suddenlink doesn’t. Which is interesting, because he physically went to one of their offices, wrote a check that left a carbon copy, and paid the bill. You would think that this would be a sufficient evidence trail for Suddenlink. It was not. [More]
AT&T Says It Will Call Me Back About Bill Dispute, Sends Me To Collections Instead
By 8.15.11
Consumerist reader Sam says he cancelled his AT&T service on June 8. But when he got the bill a few weeks later, it hadn’t been prorated and was demanding payment for the entire month. Little did Sam know that his attempt to dispute an obvious billing error would land him in the hands of a collections agency. [More]
Watch For Mysterious Data Usage On Your iPhone
By 9.1.10
If you’re on one of AT&T’s limited data plans, you’d better start carefully monitoring the data usage, because some customers are noticing unexplainable daily hits on their accounts. The support forums at Apple are filled with pages of theories and complaints from frustrated customers, but our tipster David got the following admission directly from an AT&T rep: “She told me that most, if not all, 3g-capable iPhones were being charged erroneously like I had been experiencing. She told me AT&T was unaware of why the data was being charged, and where it was coming from.” [More]
DirecTV Finds Out It's Overcharged Me By $400, Forks It Over
By 8.4.10
Lance has a rare story of a company finding out about its own long-term mistake, owning up to it and offering to make good on the error before it’s caught. DirecTV discovered it had been double-billing him for premium channels for months and told Lance it would give him all the money back. [More]
I Got A Free Night In A Hotel: Should I Complain?
By 6.2.10
Ryan writes that he has a moral dilemma. Traveling for a wedding, he and his wife checked in to their hotel late. Past midnight. Somehow, this resulted in their not being charged for the first night of their stay, even though hotel staff promised to straighten the situation out. [More]
DirecTV Says It Won't Bill Me For Free Channels, Bills Me Anyway
By 3.22.10
Eric signed up for DirecTV and got a couple premium channels for free as a sign-up bonus. He didn’t want the channels and asked to have them removed from his account immediately because he was afraid he’d be billed ahead for them before his trial period expired. Eric says the CSR convinced him to keep the channels, saying he wouldn’t be billed. But sure enough, he was. [More]
Comcast Claims Your Cable Modem For The Nation Of Comcastlandia
By 2.19.10
Jim owns a cable modem. It got old, so he got a new one. Now Comcast has claimed the old one as their property, says it has not been returned, and wants money. Jim does not want to relinquish the money, or the modem, to Comcastlandia and their colonization attempts. [More]
This Mediacom Cable Box Comes With Invisible Roommate Who Keeps Ordering Porn
By 1.21.10
Lesley lives alone, and says that despite what any Mediacom CSRs may think, she hasn’t been consistently ordering adult movies for the past three months. [More]
Zombie AOL Account Plague Spreads To Wall Street Journal Columnist
By 7.6.09
Our reader Jennifer isn’t the only former Time Warner employee whose AOL account has risen from the dead, prompting collection notices and confusion. Wall Street Journal investing columnist Jason Zweig, a former Time Warner employee, found himself in precisely the same situation, and wrote about his epic customer service adventure.
Zombie AOL Account Crawls Out Of The Grave Nine Years Later
By 7.1.09
Jennifer, like many people, one subscribed to AOL. She paid for the service originally, then received a free account while employed with Time Warner. Then she joined the 21st century and didn’t use AOL at all, but her free account remained in the system. Until AOL started billing her. Nine years later.
T-Mobile Keeps Charging For Canceled Service, Refuses To Issue Full Refund
By 4.25.09
Taylor just noticed that T-Mobile has been billing him $19.99 for a data package he asked them to cancel seven months ago. Yes, Taylor should’ve caught the mistake sooner, but now that he’s found it, he wants T-Mobile to refund the $140 in unauthorized charges. T-Mobile, citing policy, is only willing to credit him $60.
DirecTV Demands Nearly $500 For Canceled Service You Couldn't Use
By 3.21.09
DirecTV agreed to let Anthony cancel his service without an early termination fee because his signal would randomly fade away without explanation. What DirecTV really meant though was that they would let Anthony cancel if he paid a final bill of $446.69. After speaking with two agents who agreed that the fee should have been waived, DirecTV reduced Anthony’s bill to $445.42. A third agent told Anthony that he would need to negotiate any further deductions in writing with the dispute department…
Perhaps You Don't Owe GoDaddy $6,579
By 9.29.08
GoDaddy demanded $6,579 from Adam Fendelman after his disk usage skyrocketed to over 250 GB without warning, vastly exceeding his account’s 150 GB allowance. GoDaddy’s security department launched a “full-scale investigation” and quickly determined that Adam was responsible for both the data binge and the extraordinary bill. Adam refused to let the matter drop…
Ever Used A Gift Card At Buy.com? Surprise, You May Owe Them Money
By 9.15.08
Seth was recently contacted by Buy.com and told that due to an error, an order he placed over a year ago had a balance due. They’ll be debiting his credit card “on or about 09/22/08.” Seth emailed them back to ask why they were just now settling the billing issue—surely it hadn’t taken them this long to notice it. Apparently, it had, and it’s not just Seth’s account that’s messed up.
