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Florida Subscribers Win $30 Million from Verizon and Alltel

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Double Standard

acemannw

Jun 24, 2009, 3:54 PM
I wish someone would take this lawsuit nationwide because I have many customers that have gotten scammed by alltel and these 4rd party billing companies.

The double standard is that a user on an account cannot add even road side assistance for $3.99 but they can sign up for $10 per month joke a day. Nobody verifies that they have authorization by the account holder they just allow it to go through. Alltel make millions off of this and it is a total and complete scam.
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mrpmpfan

Jun 24, 2009, 4:17 PM
These customers are willingly providing their private information to get a free low quality ringtone. If they get ripped off in the process because they can't read it's their own fault. All cellphone providers provide a legit way of getting a ringtone.

My personal favorite thing to see is this happening to Blackberry users, eventhough they can use mp3 files as ringtones.
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Versed

Jun 24, 2009, 5:06 PM
I hope you never get taken advantage of from something you don't know a hell of a lot about. Not everyone is so well informed on such things, and they tend to be vague on what it entails. Trying to stop these services can be a bitch.
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mrpmpfan

Jun 24, 2009, 5:09 PM
Well tell me this what fool believes that any service would be free where they are getting something that would otherwise cost them $2.49/$2/99 per ringtone if they did it through their cell provider?

I do not feel bad for these idiots because they are trying to beat the system.
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Jayshmay

Jun 24, 2009, 5:28 PM
People are such bad consumers paying $2.49-$2.99 for a ringtone when full songs are only .99 cents on Amazonmp3 & Itunes. Personally I just use music off my memory card for ringtones.
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jhr2112

Jun 24, 2009, 5:33 PM
They are not trying to beat the system if the ad says "free ringtone". I don't think the cell phone companies should be in the business of 3rd party billing for these shady companies. The cell phone companies rip us off enough as it is..
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mrpmpfan

Jun 24, 2009, 6:26 PM
The customer agreed to the 3rd parties fine print when they downloaded the "free ringtone" but any adult with a 4 IQ or higher would realize nothing is ever free.

Also phone companies don't rip off people

People with expensive taste rip off themselves because all you really need a phone to do is maake phone calls, if you want unlimited data, email and texting thats your own damn fault.
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murmermer

Jun 24, 2009, 6:37 PM
I take pictures for free from my phone
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Multi-Tasker

Jun 25, 2009, 7:54 PM
murmermer said:
I take pictures for free from my phone

what a character!!!!! please tell me what phone is out there that has any "cost" to take a picture?
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murmermer

Jun 26, 2009, 1:12 PM
mrpmpfan said nothing was free, i told him pictures from my cellphone were free- i was just causing a ruckus
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jhr2112

Jun 24, 2009, 7:05 PM
Back in the day before deregulation companies did not over-charge customers. Our society has turned into a corporate cesspool, not producing anything and over charging for everything. I just got back from Thailand and phone service with data and the works is less than 1/3 of what we pay..plus incoming calls are free..same in France, Norway, the UK. We pay the most..greed, ripoff..Over there they are not permitted to overcharge..
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Menno

Jun 24, 2009, 10:18 PM
Again, what do you think people would say if Verizon blocked all Premium SMS messaging?

That's right, they would moan about verizon curtailing their rights.

You can either have options and be responsible for the choices you make, or you are not responsible because you have no options. You cannot have options and not be responsible. Consumers need to grow up and realize this.
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acemannw

Jun 25, 2009, 2:19 PM
If you go back and read my message you can see that I am talking about the difference between phone users and account holders. Most of the accounts that have issues with this type of billing are started by users that are not 18 and do not have account holder status on the account. If Alltel would stick to the Policy and Procedures manual users would be unable to make account changes of any kind.

The problem is with Joke a day or other similar short codes services is that hide all that info down in the small print. I have a high def TV with a DVR and I can hardly read all their billing BS. While technically it is true that it is 13 year old Sally's fault for signing up for a monthly billing the fact that the carrier has a double stan...
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mrpmpfan

Jun 25, 2009, 3:42 PM
Users are responsible for their lines and if a account holder is silly enough to give their 13-yr old daughter a new cellphone and not watch her usage its their fault. The phone company did nothing wrong they didn't send any ads of any kind to intice people into these services they just freely gave out their number and didn't read the small print.
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acemannw

Jun 25, 2009, 3:54 PM
"The phone company did nothing wrong they didn't send any ads of any kind to intice people into these services they just freely gave out their number and didn't read the small print."

You obviously can't see the double standard that I layed out. If that same 13 yearold user were to call Alltel CS to add Acccess Web for $5.99 per month they would be unable to do so. Alltel like most carriers has a very strict identity verification policy but that is completely thrown out the window for 3rd party short code services!!!

Bottom line is that is just too much money in them. If any of the big carriers really wanted to follow their official policy and procedures they would require the account holder opt in to short code services. Then t...
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mrpmpfan

Jun 25, 2009, 4:34 PM
The phone company isn't the one responsible its the 3rd party companies and to have Verizon sued over it is silly. At AT&T we have nothing we can put on a user's account short of text messaging block that would prevent them from being able to activate these 3rd party charges. Why do parents no longer accept responsibility for their kids?
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bbcurve1234

Jun 26, 2009, 10:27 AM
Same with Alltel. Our son was adding 3rd part apps to his phone like games etc. I talked to a store and they called CS for me to see what could be done. They said they could put a block on the account so it can not be done from the phone anymore, BUT if he wanted to go on a website he could still get them sent because Alltel has no control over 3rd parties websites. So even though I have it stopped from the phone, he can still do it from on the Internet and I can still get the charges. As a parent, I am taking responsibility for this issue and not claiming that it is Alltel's fault. And as a parent, if he does do any of that from the internet, I still will not blame Alltel for it. I am going to make sure my son pays me back whatever a...
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Menno

Jun 25, 2009, 5:08 PM
It's not a double standard because Alltel didn't add these Premium SMS charges, the phone user did.


The irony is that these third party services most likely started out of some consumer advocacy group complaining that cell companies were monopolizing the services available to their customers.

As I said before, you cannot have choice without accepting responsibility.

This is a no win argument for carriers because no matter what they do they are somehow "screwing over the customer."

Could you imagine how much people would complain if carriers blocked all third party billable options? or required a customer to call into customer service and verify their identity every time they wanted to sign up for something the carrier di...
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Multi-Tasker

Jun 25, 2009, 7:58 PM
acemannw said:
If you go back and read my message you can see that I am talking about the difference between phone users and account holders. Most of the accounts that have issues with this type of billing are started by users that are not 18 and do not have account holder status on the account. If Alltel would stick to the Policy and Procedures manual users would be unable to make account changes of any kind.

The problem is with Joke a day or other similar short codes services is that hide all that info down in the small print. I have a high def TV with a DVR and I can hardly read all their billing BS. While technically it is true that it is 13 year old Sally's fault for signing up for a monthly billing the fact
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acemannw

Jun 26, 2009, 2:39 PM
I work as an Alltel agent so our system is somewhere limited in what it allows agents to do. I can block "axcess downloads" which keeps kids from downloading aplications, ringtones, and games, but the short code biling items cannot be blocked by the agent system. Maybe there is a way for CS to do it.
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Menno

Jun 24, 2009, 10:10 PM
And yet if Verizon or Alltel completly blocked all these third party programs (or made it so you had to verify yourself through customer service before they would allow you to enroll in them) people would be complaining about the "big bad cell companies" infringing on their rights.
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mrpmpfan

Jun 25, 2009, 4:35 PM
In all honesty I hope Verizon and Alltel put a block on these people's accounts so they do have to be inconvienced to be able to get these third party ringtones. 👿
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glinc

Jun 25, 2009, 9:33 PM
You can add a feature called "Block Premium SMS" on verizon wireless. Now not every time its started by a customers son/daughter some of these 3rd party companies bill you for it out of no where without the account holders consent.

I've had tons of these problems with customers and all the time when these 3rd party companies send you a txt msg about these services it just tells you about what they offer and when you get the bill, boom! u get slammed with this charges.

I'm starting to see this with a lot of my boost mobile customers also but the difference is though that these companies charged you $10 on verizon and on boost i see is about $1.50 to $2
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frank rizzo

Jun 26, 2009, 10:31 AM
Maybe facebook should have been sued as well. Most of the I didn't do it people are facebook users being duped. Facebook has a lot of quizzes that are apart of facebook but they also have a ton of quizzes that look like its facebook. The user will answer all the questions then it will ask for a cell number to get your answers. There is a terms and conditions there that no one reads that explains the $9.99 charge. That explanes most of I didn't do it users.
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