Vonage charged J.R. $38.94 for a three-hour call transferred from Texas to Los Angeles because Vonage apparently thinks L.A. is somewhere in Algeria. After some digging, J.R. learned that if you transfer a call without adding +1 to the number, Vonage will mistake area codes for country codes and bill at the international rate, even though the calls are domestic.
billing
Teenager Tries To Bankrupt Family By Sending $4,756.25 In Text Messages
By 4.9.09
Here’s an idea, don’t use your phone to send 300 texts a day at school. Not only will your parents not get a bill for $4,756.25, you won’t go from As and Bs to Fs and you also won’t get your phone smashed with a hammer.
Has Comcast Hired ELIZA For Customer Chat Support?
By 4.8.09
This English-as-a-second-language tech support guy just wants to help Noah out, but the weird combination of formal exchanges and misunderstandings make him sound like an AI program. We don’t think Jullan even realizes that his good-natured attempts to help are only annoying the customer more. In theory, we like the idea of a tech support guy “extending an extra mile,” but maybe next time he should stick to tech support and leave billing questions unto the billing department.
Comcast Sends Customer "Free" Self-Install Kit, Then Adds $9.95 Shipping Charge To Monthly Bill
By 4.2.09
Hillary discovered that her money-saving free digital service self installation kit from Comcast wasn’t so free after all when she got her monthly bill. She says they removed the charge when she called to ask about it, which further reinforces our suspicion that this is a sneaky plan to pass the cost of the free kit back to subscribers. If you request a free self install kit from Comcast, watch your bill for extra charges.
AT&T Might Charge You For "Free" Mobile-To-Mobile Calls Unless You Notice
By 3.24.09
Jeff canceled one of the two lines on his AT&T Mobility family plan, and on his next bill he noticed the remaining line had been charged for mobile-to-mobile calls on the AT&T network—even though those minutes are supposed to be free.
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…
Upset With $350 Electrical Bill, Man Pays In Pennies
By 3.10.09
Not happy with the high cost of his $350 electrical bill, John Almany of Virginia decided to pay it entirely in pennies, all 35,000 and 170 pounds of them. It took two men with two large duffel bags transport them to the billing counter, and took Bristol Virginia Utilities two hours just to count up to $26. That’s certainly one way to go about it.
A Glimpse Into The Future Of Broadband With Time Warner Cable
By 3.9.09
Time Warner Cable is running a pilot program in Texas where they’re metering your bandwidth usage and charging extra if you exceed your monthly allotment. This also gives them the opportunity to create a tiered system where you pay more for more bandwidth. Richard is a TWC Texas customer, and his story is a good example of how things work in a tiered, metered system like this. The bottom line: if metered broadband comes to your area, get used to paying extra to take advantage of things like Hulu (which is free) or Netflix video streaming (which you already pay for).
Watch Out For Payment Date Errors—And Related Finance Charges—From Chase
By 3.4.09
Mike used an Office Depot Visa card issued through Chase to take advantage of a pay-no-interest deal through 2008. He paid off the remaining balance a couple of days before the offer period ended, but Chase still slapped him with a nearly $40 interest charge. Why? Because they’ve been “having problems like that” with Office Depot cards.
AT&T Mobility And RadioShack Hit With Class Action Lawsuit Over $5,000 Overage Bill
By 3.2.09
A woman in Oklahoma bought a 3G netbook from RadioShack for $100, subsidized by a two-year data plan from AT&T Mobility. That plan comes with a 5GB monthly data cap, which she exceeded, and as a result her first monthly bill was over $5,000. Now the two companies are facing a class action lawsuit that alleges they are not clearly disclosing to purchasers that overage fees could be “astronomical.”
Vonage Silently Adds "Optional" Feature, Refuses To Refund Your Money
By 2.25.09
We’re having a hard time figuring out how Vonage can justify pulling their “Visual Voicemail” scam on customers without even offering the option of a refund, but that’s exactly what they’re doing to Daniel. They quietly turned on the feature over a year ago. You’d think in a year of logging onto the website, an observant customer would catch that sort of thing—only Vonage makes it actually look like it’s not enabled on your control panel, all the better to sneak it past you. Here’s how they pulled it off with Daniel’s account.
Verizon Wireless Accused Of Wrongly Billing NY Customers State Tax
By 2.25.09
A class action lawsuit has been filed against Verizon Wireless accusing it of passing directly to customers a “metropolitan commuter transportation district” tax that the company was actually supposed to pay. Albert Levy, who filed the lawsuit, points out that Sprint has never charged the tax to customers. Verizon Wireless calls the accusation “silly,” and says they’re billing it correctly. Perhaps not surprisingly, the actual wording of the tax law leaves the matter up in the air.
AT&T Charges $27,788.93 To Watch A Bears Game On Your Laptop
By 2.24.09
Wayne has an AT&T wireless card that he uses in combination with his Slingbox to watch TV while he travels. It’s normally a good system, but he recently got a shockingly huge bill after watching about 2 1/2 hours of a Bears game while waiting for his cruise to depart Miami.
Help! I Accidentally Ordered $127 Worth Of Snuggies!
By 2.18.09
Reader Laura’s mom wanted a Snuggie for her birthday, so she tried to order one. There was a 2-for-1 deal, so she ordered it — thinking she could use a Snuggie, too.
AT&T: You Can't Cancel Your DSL Because You Don't Have A Landline
By 2.18.09
Naked (or “dry loop“) DSL is generally considered wonderful, especially among people who haven’t had a landline since, um, wait… oh yeah, never. But it seems that although AT&T was forced to offer it by the FCC as part of their merger with Cingular, they haven’t yet realized that it’s a product that they sell. Reader Brent just wanted to cancel, but AT&T said no. And then they said yes. And then they told him he never tried to cancel. And then they sent his account to collections…
Aetna Underpaid Students, Settles For $5 Million
By 2.9.09
If you’re a student and think Aetna underpaid the reimbursement for your out-of-network care, you may have some money coming to you. The insurer has settled for $5 million plus interest and penalties.
Check Your AT&T Bill For Fraudulent Charges
By 2.2.09
Ralph discovered a mysterious $18 charge on his most recent AT&T bill. A little research turned up OSP Communications, which is apparently a front for a fraudulent biller that has repeatedly hit AT&T customers with a cramming fraud. Read Ralph’s email below, and be sure to check your own phone bill for charges like this each month.
Comcast Charges Hurricane Victim $24.95 For Calling Customer Service
By 1.24.09
Comcast charged Robert a $24.95 “Customertroublecall” fee after he called to ask why they were taking over a month to restore his service after Hurricane Ike swooped in and caused over $3,000 worth of damage. Robert wanted to know why Comcast was continually missing their scheduled service appointments and why they insisted on billing him for a service he couldn’t use.
