Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Verizon to Pay $90 Million to Wrongfully Charged Customers

by Amar Toor on October 4, 2010 at 09:20 AM

verizon guyVerizon Wireless has agreed to pay a total of $90 million to disgruntled customers who were mistakenly charged for accessing data or surfing the Web from their phones. Over the past three years, some 15 million Verizon customers have been receiving data charges from the company, despite having never signed up for data access plans. Most users incurred charges of $1.99 each time they mistakenly accessed the Internet, and some were even charged when their phones were turned off. In a statement, the telecom company said that users who were wrongfully charged will receive credits of $2 or $6 on their monthly statements, beginning in October. Affected customers who are no longer with Verizon, meanwhile, will receive refund checks.

According to the New York Times, the FCC had been pressuring Verizon to take action ever since 2007, when it first began receiving complaints from hundreds of confused customers. At first, the company ignored the bevy of customer complaints, and, last December, told the FCC that it never incorrectly charged customers for unintentional data use. A month later, however, the FCC began a 10-month formal investigation which revealed the true extent of the problem. Now, Verizon has clearly made its amends, and says it's doing its best to prevent similar crises from arising in the future. "Getting consumers repaid is just the first step; ensuring this doesn't happen again comes next," says FCC enforcement bureau chief Michele Ellison.

Tags: business, cellphones, DataPlan, FCC, refund, settlement, top, Verizon, VerizonWireless

Comments

3

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular