Verizon Wireless Bogus Data Charges Will Cost Company up to $90 Million

By Sharmaine Jones

Christmas is three months away, but the season of giving has come early this year. First Apple gave us a little something for our “trouble” now Verizon Wireless is set to pay up to $90 million in refunds – one of the largest settlements paid by a wireless network – to cell phone customers.

Image: Getty Images

Last year, the FCC launched an investigation involving a fee which was billed to customers for inadvertent web access or data usage over the past several years. It's happened to us all at one point or another, some of us more often than others,  you accidentally press a button on your phone initiating the Web browser so you hurry up and press the “end” key. Customers may not have noticed it on their billing statement but Verizon estimated 15 million customers were incorrectly charged $1.99-a-megabyte for that simple mistake. If you've never made the “accidental-button-press” mistake, you still may have been billed due to minor data exchanges caused by software built-in to your phone. Either way, they got you!

The Bad News: You may have been ripped off for several years.

The Good News: Customers will receive notification in their October or November bill of an account credit of between $2 and $6 in most cases. Other customers will receive larger credits, and former customers will receive a refund check in the mail.

Verizon is also taking steps to ensure that this won't happen again:

“We have addressed these issues to avoid unintended data charges in the future,” said Mary Coyne, the company's deputy general counsel. “Our goal is to maintain our customers' trust and ensure they receive the best experience possible.”

Call us cynics but the fact that it took an FCC inquiry to get the ball rolling on this web-blotch doesn't quite give us the warm fuzzy feeling of “reliance” Verizon may have hoped for. One has to wonder if there was no probe in the first place, could we “trust” that we wouldn't still be incorrectly charged for web-based services that we weren't using? Apparently we aren't the only ones with an eyebrow raised:

"We're gratified to see Verizon agree to finally repay its customers," FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Michele Ellison said in a statement. "But questions remain as to why it took Verizon two years to reimburse its customers and why greater disclosure and other corrective actions did not come much, much sooner."

Things that make you say “Hmmm?”

Do you think Verizon is generous enough in the way they are handling the situation? Voice your opinion in the comments section below or @MTV3!

Tags Cell Phone, Technology, Verizon Wireless