Cell Phone 'Mystery Charges' Get FCC's Attention

The Federal Communications has promised to open an investigation next week into "bill shock," in response to complaints from wireless customers.

The agency is also reportedly planning to introduce a proposal requiring wireless carriers to notify their customers if their bills have suddenly gone up.

The FCC action comes on the heels on an announcement by Verizon Wireless that it will refund up to $90 million to consumers who were wrongly charged for accessing the Internet with their mobile phones.

The company said it will notify about 15 million customers this month and next that it will apply credits to their accounts due to mistaken past data charges. FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn says the action is long overdue.

"While I appreciate that Verizon Wireless has acknowledged its billing errors, the refunds to millions of Americans have been a long time coming," Clyburn said.

"It appears the company was first notified, more than two years ago, about certain billing errors. As I pointed out in December of last year, the company's initial response to public reports of the phantom fees was that it does not charge consumers for accidental launching of the web browser," he said.

Belated action?

While advocacy groups generally applaud the FCC's probe of bill shock, they note that it, too, was a long time in coming. Complaints about wireless billing practices have been piling up for years.

Tonisha, of Los Angeles, experienced bill shock recently.

"Being a customer nine years with Verizon Wireless I had grandfathered my way into having call detail free," she told ConsumerAffairs.com. "I changed my number on that line and they started charging me $1.99 a month. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. I called them to pay my bill to discover that it was $790.00."

Jay, of Sioux City, Iowa, was among those complaining about being charged for Verizon services he didn't want.

"I called about data usage on two phones I do not use web on but was pretty much told to bad, you push the wrong button you pay for the usage," he told ConsumerAffairs.com. " I did not use the web just pushed a wrong button and got charged for it. They didn't even credit it but why would they when its millions of dollars a month."

Cramming

A growing issue among wireless customers is "cramming," in which a third-party provider inserts a charge on a consumer's wireless bill. The law requires providers to pass along the charge, supposedly in the interests of increasing competition. However, the law has been repeatedly exploited by scammers to insert charges for non-existent services.

Consumer groups say the FCC should take action to make the wireless billing process easier for consumers to understand. Since many cellphones are now bundled with other communications services, the bills now take several pages and are hard to follow.

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