Checking Your Bill for a New Charge Called 'Oops'

The New York Times ^ | 12/04/2003 | David Pogue

[stainlessbanner]

the new era of number portability means that companies have an enhanced incentive to improve.

That's not going to stop mischarging, mistakes, and overcharging.

[scab4faa]

Can someone exsplain to me why if I have just local service (no long distance service) on my phone I have to pay an extra 3 dollars a month plus a inter-state tax? If I pay more to not have long distance why do I have to pay an inter-state tax when I can't call out of state?

[kevao]

Ooops! That's not supposed to happen.

[from occupied ga]

I have to pay an inter-state tax when I can't call out of state

Because the government knows better what to do with the money you worked for than you do.

[pgkdan]

My wife and I had this problem with First USA Visa several years ago. They were stealing from us for almost a year. Let's say our bill was due on the 15th. My wife mailed the payment on the 5th but or payment would NEVER get posted until the 16th or the 17th. The other bills due at the same time were all mailed to gether and nobody else had this problem. We'd call and complain and they'd swear they never got payment until the date it was posted. I finally got wise and checked our cancelled checks. In every instance the checks were cashed and cleared my bank days before the due date. They stole from us every month as they added late charges to our balance.

[foolish-one]

But there is a hole in that defense, as one reader wrote: "If these were truly random errors, one would expect that some of them would work in our favor. I know of no one who ever got extra minutes, extra money or extra anything else."

I did. Two years ago Verizon miscredited my account $975.00 on a $19.95/month bill. The funny thing is it took over three months and multiple phone calls to get it straightened out. Each month I received a bill showing the credit. Each month I called and was thanked and told it would be corrected - and specifically told not to make a payment until the issue was completely resolved otherwise it would just complicate things more. When the corrected bill finally arrived, guess what? There was a late charge for three months of nonpayment. Oh yeah, plus the whopping 50 free minutes they gave me for being so honest. The fees were eventually removed and they did apologize.

So maybe they aren't evil or unethical. Maybe they are just plain incompetent. I'll believe either one. I'll even let them pick.

[trebb]

Some time ago, I totally dropped having a long distance provider (I use one of the 10-10 numbers). About 3 months later, I noticed I was still being charged a MCI monthly service fee. When I contacted them, they tried to make me go away, but were finally coerced into obeying the local phone company's notification to drop off the bill (I can't figure out how that works, but what the hey..) and to send me a refund. The crowning jewel to the conversation was the rep's warning that I needed to be careful that none of my long distance calls were charged to MCI because it could end up costing me dollars per minute. I asked her just how the hell she expected that to happen - I did not have MCI as a long distance carrier; in fact I had no long distance carrier and had to use a 10-10 number to make a long distance call; and she just repeated the warning. I made sure to take her name and note all the specifics of the call, but I was about as mad as I've ever been. I had some other issues with other companies charging for services I either didn't order or that weren't being provided, but MCI was the worst when it came to righting the wrong.

[lelio]

I floated a theory that all this might be part of a pattern of passive-aggressive robbery perpetrated on the premise that a certain percentage of customers won't notice

That's true, but you have to figure in stupidity as well. When I moved up to Seattle from California I was still being charged a 911 tax for Sunnyvale, CA even though I changed my address and my phone number. Every month I would call and every month I would get a refund.

Then I started to say "I just noticed this charge, I think you've been charging me for the last N months!" and they would refund me for 3 months charges, then the next month for 4.

Never underestimate human, or corporate, stupidity.

[DeFault User]

I had the same problem with First USA you did. I complained loudly the first time I caught it. They reversed the charge. The second time, I cancelled the account.

Several months later I was pleased to see their stock tank as millions of customers left them in droves. Their thievery cost them big time.

[gubamyster]

Can someone exsplain to me why if I have just local service (no long distance service) on my phone I have to pay an extra 3 dollars a month plus a inter-state tax? If I pay more to not have long distance why do I have to pay an inter-state tax when I can't call out of state?

Can you please also explain why, If I am not deaf and never call any deaf people, I need to pay for services for the hearing impaired?

[angkor]

I'm convinced that Sprint's billing department should be the subject of a RICO investigation.

[Beck_isright]

Why don't you switch to VoIP (Voice over IP) and just tell the phone companies to kiss off. Using a cable modem and the phone service I have has cut my long distance and local phone service from around $92 per month to a measly $39 per month. And I get unlimited long distance.

[Beck_isright]

Sprint PCS should have their entire company Worldcommed. They are the slimiest bunch of crooks I've ever dealt with in my life. Next to Verizon.

[angkor]

"I see dozens of accounts every month where we have made a mistake," wrote an 800-number agent for retail-store credit cards.

A few years back I made a monthly, 45 minute call to Sprint billing, and every month they agreed to rectify a $90.00 overcharge which occurred at the outset of my contract.

Then the next month's bill would arrive and nothing had been done.

In the end, they literally stole the $90.00. Of course I'll never do business with them again.

[EdReform]

I've had problems with overcharges from Sprint in the past. While attempting to resolve the issue with customer service (the last instance took 3 months), I simply subtracted out the overcharges from the bills each month and sent the amount that I actually owed. It turned out that someone had typed in the wrong billing codes for the plan that I had purchased.

[NMR Guy]

When I signed up for PacBell DSL a few years back, they were so incompetent that they didn't charge me for my DSL service for over two and a half years! At some point, I called and let them know that they weren't charging me, but all I got from the service reps I talked to was, "Uh... we're _not_ charging you??? Um, I, um, uh, don't know how to fix that... let me transfer you to someone else."

After wasting an hour of my time on that, I figured I had done my best and they got what they deserved. At $40 a month, they lost over a thousand dollars.

Anyway, when a company overcharges you, they're evil, but at least you can see that they know how to make money ;-) But when a company won't even let you pay what you owe, then you know they're in big trouble.

[tracer]

"They stole from us every month as they added late charges to our balance."

Indeed. And what do you think would happen to you if you, as a ten-year-old black child, were caught putting under your tattered jacket a half-gallon carton of milk to feed your starving brothers and sisters on Christmas eve?

And The System wonders why there are so many bitter people running around......

[Timesink]

Tonight I'm going to have to call AT&T Wireless about a number of fees that shouldn't be there, including - get this - a TWENTY-ONE DOLLAR CHARGE for a single AOL instant message! (Apparently they're trying to claim the person sent the IM along with some sort of 2MB graphic attachment ... which I never received, of course.) And my Verizon landline bill includes $11 per month of various "federal" fees, less than $2 of which are actually mandated by the government.

[chs68]

As I read this story, I thought of two things that had recently happened to me.

One: I travelled to Orlando, Fl on business and stayed at a Marriot Hotel/Resort south of town. Each morning when I left my room, I noticed that a copy of USA Today and the local Orlando Newspaper had been placed at my doorstep.

I thought this was a nice gesture on the part of the hotel.

Later, after I had checked out, I noticed -- in print that was very, very small, on the little folder that contained the compuer-card keys to my room, a note which said that copies of newspapers would be delivered to my door each morning, and that the hotel would add $2.50 to my bill for those papers.

Item Two: A couple of years ago, I purchased a wireless package from Nextel. The package provided for No Longer Distance charges and no roaming charges.

A few months ago, I looked at my bill, and I noticed that there was a $1.50 charge which had been added to my bill. I also noticed that there was a charge of close to $4.00 which had also been added to the same bill.

I felt kind of like an idiot when I called to ask about these charges. I asked the Nextel CSR I spoke with what the $1.50 charge was for, and he told me it was "for use of the Nextel Wireless System". When I asked him what, then, was the $49.95 monthly fee I paid for, he told me that he would just remove the charge from my bill. I haven't seen it since. I also asked him why I had a charge of nearly $4.00 in long distance charges, since I had purchased a calling plan which had been advertized as having no long distance charges ever.

He told me that I had made 3 calls to 411 (Directory Assistance) from my Nextel phone, and that Nextel charged $1.29 per 411 call.

To think -- that there are highly-paid exectuives who sit around and come up with cute and clever ways to rip off the consumer.