Cellular phone companies are always running promotions in order to win your business. The last time that I signed up for a plan, I looked for one that would provide me with shared service for my entire family. I also wanted a plan that offered free phones. What can I say? I’m cheap.
We picked a plan that worked for us. We have not used the total number of monthly minutes available to us once since signing up, so our bill normally shouldn’t vary by more than a few cents each month. Frankly, because of this neither my wife nor I have paid much attention to the bills. As it turns out, this was a mistake.
Two days ago our latest cell phone bill arrived. My wife noticed that there was a charge on it for about $24 for internet downloads so she asked me to dig through the bill. What I found made me very angry.
Rather than one charge, I found four separate charges for $5.99. All of the charges listed the merchant as Verisign. Since I have not ordered anything from Verisign, I decided to call my wireless provider (Cingular) and ask them what the charges were for. The answer I received made me even angrier.
According to the representative that I spoke with a Cingular, I was enrolled in two monthly subscription plans that would allow me to download new wallpaper for my cell phone. Each of these plans cost $5.99 per month. I was also enrolled in two separate plans to download custom ring tones. Again, each of these plans cost $5.99 per month. According to the person I was talking with, I had been enrolled in each of these plans in December of last year.
Why I would need two of each plan is beyond me. My use of cell phones is that they are just like any other phone. I have never had a need to add a lot of custom features. I don’t particularly care to waste my time installing things like wallpaper and ring tones and I really don’t understand the point of text messaging when it’s easier to dial a phone number. Maybe I’m just too practical for my own good.
The bottom line here is that I was being billed for services that I didn’t want or need and which I never ordered.
After placing a few calls, I found out that the companies that were billing my phone for these subscriptions included Mobizzo (Owned by Fox NewsCorp) and another provider that was owned by Verisign. Interestingly enough, neither of these companies was surprised to hear that I had never signed up for their services.
After speaking with each of them, I called Cingular back to find out how such services could have made their way onto my bill in the first place. The answers were disturbing.
According to the representative that I spoke with, there are a variety of ways for third parties to bill for services through cell phone carriers. One of the more common ploys is to offer a free ring tone or wallpaper download. I was told that these are usually not free at all. There is normally some fine print associated with such downloads that serves as an agreement to subscribe to a monthly service.
But I was also informed that someone with access to the right information could have signed me up without my knowledge. All they really needed was my cell phone number and my name. Since I include my phone number on a lot of my written correspondence, that information would not have been difficult to come by.
I have been told that Cingular recently began to require consumers to confirm subscriptions to services through their phones. But other companies may not have this type of requirement.
In fairness to Cingular, they were quite helpful and did see to it that credits were issued to my account. In the end, I’ll wind up with a full refund for the services that were fraudulently billed to me. But consumers who fail the check their bills regularly could find themselves spending hundreds of additional dollars each year for service they don’t want or need. Both of the representatives that I spoke with told me that this type of complaint is quite common.
ACCESS advises all consumers to take a close look at their cell phone bills. If you find things listed on it that you didn’t order or which you don’t understand, call your cell phone company. Consumers who are victimized by this type of slamming should also consider filing a complaint with their appropriate state regulatory body. That’s what I did with the California State Public Utilities Commission. If enough people complain, then maybe something will get done to stop this type of abusive business practice.
How to Protect Yourself 
