Verizon Wireless is making a bold move that could force an industry trend. The wireless giant on Sunday announced a plan to repay as much as $90 million in refunds to 15 million cellular customers who were erroneously charged for data sessions or Internet usage. The announcement marks one of the largest customer-refund initiatives in telecommunications history.
The decision comes in the wake of Verizon talks with the Federal Communications Commission. Consumers had complained about unauthorized charges on their cellular bills, and the refunds appear to be part of a settlement with the FCC.
“We’re gratified to see Verizon agree to finally repay its customers,” said Michele Ellison, chief of the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau. “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.”
Doing the ‘Right Thing’
Mary Coyne, Verizon’s deputy general counsel, said the company wants to do the “right thing” for customers. As Coyne explained it, about 15 million customers will be notified this month and in November through regular billing messages that the company is applying credits to their accounts. Verizon will also mail former customers refund checks. In most cases, she said, these credits are in the $2 to $6 range. But some customers will receive larger credits or refunds.
“As we reviewed customer accounts, we discovered that over the past several years approximately 15 million customers who did not have data plans were billed for data sessions on their phones that they did not initiate,” Coyne said. “These customers would normally have been billed at the standard rate of $1.99 per megabyte for any data they chose to access from their phones.”
Coyne said the majority of the data sessions involved minor data exchanges caused by software built into their phones….