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Verizon to pay $25 million settlement for overcharging

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A man looks at his phone as he walks past a Verizon wireless store in New York, July 30, 2009. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

A man looks at his phone as he walks past a Verizon wireless store in New York, July 30, 2009.

Credit: Reuters/Brendan McDermid

NEW YORK | Fri Oct 29, 2010 8:40am EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The top U.S. mobile service, Verizon Wireless, has agreed to pay the U.S. Treasury $25 million on top of more than $52 million in refunds to consumers for overcharging them, the U.S. regulator said.

The venture of Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc said earlier this month it would pay refunds to 15 million cellphone customers erroneously charged for mobile Internet use.

The Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement the $25 million settlement was the largest in the FCC's history.

"People shouldn't find mystery fees when they open their phone bills and they certainly shouldn't have to pay for services they didn't want and didn't use. In these rough economic times, every $1.99 counts," Genachowski said.

Verizon said in a statement that the settlement was voluntary and it apologized for the "accidental data charges."

It said the refunds amounted to about $52.8 million.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew; editing by Andre Grenon)
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Comments (1)
finneganG wrote:
This is the latest “technique” used by businesses now – overcharge the customer and, if they don’t catch it, take in the profit. If they do catch it, apologize profusely and refund – only if they notice.

These schemes are popping up all over the place. One of the more clever supermarket schemes is to place a markdown sticker under a food product on the shelf, but not mark it down electronically. If you don’t catch it at check-out, the store was able to sell the product with the savings to you and they marked up the cost to begin with!

The new buzz phrase as we move pass 2010 is – don’t trust anyone.

Oct 29, 2010 11:00am EDT  --  Report as abuse
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