When consumers sign up for a
wireless plan, they expect to pay the same amount each month. But sometimes other fees kick in when they access additional services or exceed preset limits, and those fees can come as a shock.
"Rapidly changing technology, easy access to expensive wireless data services and complex billing practices regularly leave wireless phone customers with unexpected and extremely high bills," said Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley. "Simple protections such as usage alerts and preset cut-off mechanisms that have long been standards in other industries should be adopted to better protect wireless customers from unexpected charges."
Coakley is asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to require greater transparency and real-time notification to alert wireless phone users of their voice and data usage before charging them excessive fees outside of pre-set use plans.
Coakley`s comments were filed with the FCC in connection with an FCC inquiry aimed at looking into whether it should adopt measures that would give wireless customers advance notice they were exceeding limits and could be facing much higher bills for calling, text or data usage.
Surprise!
According to a recent FCC survey on "the consumer mobile experience," one in six mobile telecommunications subscribers, or 30 million Americans, encountered unexpected charges and fees in their bills, commonly known as cell phone bill shock.
The biggest shock often comes with international roaming charges that can be hundreds of dollars. Kristina, of Alexandria, Va., recently took a cruise to the Bahamas and as a precaution, called her carrier, T-Mobile, to find out about charges. She said she was told that voice calls would carry a $2.99 per minute roaming charge and data would be billed at $15 per kilobyte.
"So I decided I would not use my phone for Internet at all," Kristina told ConsumerAffairs.com. "I made one call that was about 11 minutes and two other calls that were about four minutes. No Internet, no texting, no checking voicemails. My bill was $200 higher than normal."
Still receiving
The reason? Kristina did not turn off her cell phone. Though she wasn`t "using" it, it was still receiving data. She said a T-Mobile rep explained that she paid a roaming charge anytime someone sent her an email or left a voicemail message. Had her carrier given Kristina a heads up that she was racking up changes, she might have been able to limit them.
Of the group of wireless consumers that experienced bill shock, 88 percent said their wireless provider did not contact them after their bill increased and 84 percent stated that the wireless provider did not contact them when they were about to exceed their allowed minutes, text allotment, or data usage limits.
More than one-third of consumers experiencing bill shock faced a bill increase of at least $50 and 23 percent of cell phone users experiencing bill shock faced a bill increase that was over $100.
To address the pervasive problem of unexpected or unknown wireless phone charges, Coakley requested that the FCC adopt what she called "simple common sense protections" that are already in place for wireless phone customers in the European Union. She said wireless carriers should be required to provide real-time usage alerts and pre-designated usage/rate caps, with the ability for a customer to override, at no charge to consumers.
"These types of regulations will provide consumers with more control over the services to which they subscribe and the bills for those services," Coakley said.
