Verizon Refunds
On Sunday, Verizon Wireless announced that it plans on refunding customers in amounts of $90 million dollars due to overbilling. Over 15 million customer’s have been overbilled for the past several years due to “mistaken past data charges.” The refunds will only range between $2 and $6 per customer.
Verizon found the problem by noticing that phones that did not have subscriptions for data plans were being charged.
The FCC said that despite the refunds, Verizon will still be charged penalties. The FCC plans to look into why it took Verizon two years to inform their customers and initiate refunds. Over the past three years, the FCC has recieved customer complaints about Verizon overbilling with data charges.
The Times says Verizon had told the FCC in December that it wasn’t charging customers whose Web browser accidentally connected to the Verizon Wireless Mobile Web page if the connection was immediately canceled.
In my opinion, Verizon should be charged penalties for this million dollar mistake. They were confronted in December, but denied it. They should have looked into it before issueing that statement. It looks negligent on their part.
I am curious to see how their PR handles things. Obviously, they need to issue a public apology to their customers in addition to the refund.
Sources-
I agree, Verizon should be penalized for their actions. The first thing I thought while reading this was “well it is only $2 or $6″ but the fact is it is still a mistake. You would think that Verizon would have acted much sooner on some sort of compensation, for we all know how a bad reputation can destroy a company name.. cough (BP) cough… The appropriate thing to do would have been to immediately make the mistake publicly know. As a consumer I feel that we all know companies make mistakes, but it is a much different story when they deliberately participate in immoral or illegal activity.
As a Verizon customer, I have yet to see these refunds that they claim. On the one hand, I totally feel that the customers are being justified and gaining valuable money back into their pockets. Yet, the other cell phone companies are not doing anything about this either. So, who am I suppose to believe? I think that it is a good PR stunt in terms of caring for the customer and admitting wrong-doing. Unfortunately, all cell phone companies overcharge. So, I see no change.