What is the credit / refund plan for certain “pay as you go” data customers?
Earlier this year, Verizon Wireless conducted an internal investigation into whether “pay as you go” data customers may have been incorrectly billed for data usage. “Pay as you go” data customers have wireless service plans that do not include a data allowance and do not have a data package, and are billed for data usage at the rate of $1.99 per megabyte. We discovered that certain customers were inadvertently charged for data, in most cases in a $2 ‐ $6 range. These customers will receive a credit and an explanatory message on their bill in October or November, while former customers will receive a refund check in the mail. By far the single largest problem, involving the vast majority of credits, was caused by a very small data “acknowledgment” session sent by software pre‐loaded on certain phones. This may have triggered an unintended “pay as you go” charge of $1.99. We have put in place additional improvements to resolve issues that caused these accidental charges.
In early 2010, Verizon Wireless conducted an internal investigation into whether “pay as you go” data customers may have been incorrectly billed for data usage. “Pay as you go” data customers have wireless service plans that do not include a data allowance, do not have a data package, and are billed for data usage at the rate of $1.99 per megabyte. We discovered that certain customers were inadvertently charged for data, in most cases in a $2 – $6 range. These customers received a credit and an explanatory message on their bill in October or November 2010, while former customers received a refund check in the mail. By far the single largest problem, involving the vast majority of credits, was caused by a very small data “acknowledgment” session sent by software pre-loaded on certain phones. This may have triggered an unintended “pay as you go” charge of $1.99. We have put in place additional improvements to resolve issues that caused these accidental charges.
