Press Release
Free Press and Consumer Groups Urge Verizon Wireless to Come Clean on Unfair Penalty Fees
Contact: Timothy Karr, 201-533-8838
WASHINGTON -- In a letter sent Tuesday to the Federal Communications Commission, Free Press and other consumer groups asked the agency to press Verizon Wireless after the company failed to adequately respond to the agency’s questions regarding unfair cell phone penalty fees.
Last month, the FCC sent a letter to Verizon Wireless investigating the company’s exorbitant early termination fees for mobile phones after they doubled from $175 to $350, as well as the company’s alleged practice of billing customers $1.99 for inadvertent data transfers. In many cases, consumers do not realize they will incur these fees because they are not clearly disclosed. In their letter to the FCC, Free Press, Consumers Union, and Media Access Project point out that Verizon Wireless failed to adequately answer the Commission’s questions, did not provide the data requested, and provided misleading information on wireless services.
"The Commission is trying to make sense of Verizon Wireless' questionable business practices of charging users excessive and poorly disclosed penalties, but the company has offered incomplete and misleading answers," said Chris Riley, policy counsel at Free Press. "Verizon must be held accountable for these practices that are harming consumers."
Consumers who are upset about their wireless bills should join Free Press' Free My Phone campaign at http://www.freepress.net/freemyphone.
Full Text of the Letter: www.freepress.net/files/VZW_Response_Letter.pdf
Last month, the FCC sent a letter to Verizon Wireless investigating the company’s exorbitant early termination fees for mobile phones after they doubled from $175 to $350, as well as the company’s alleged practice of billing customers $1.99 for inadvertent data transfers. In many cases, consumers do not realize they will incur these fees because they are not clearly disclosed. In their letter to the FCC, Free Press, Consumers Union, and Media Access Project point out that Verizon Wireless failed to adequately answer the Commission’s questions, did not provide the data requested, and provided misleading information on wireless services.
"The Commission is trying to make sense of Verizon Wireless' questionable business practices of charging users excessive and poorly disclosed penalties, but the company has offered incomplete and misleading answers," said Chris Riley, policy counsel at Free Press. "Verizon must be held accountable for these practices that are harming consumers."
Consumers who are upset about their wireless bills should join Free Press' Free My Phone campaign at http://www.freepress.net/freemyphone.
Full Text of the Letter: www.freepress.net/files/VZW_Response_Letter.pdf
