Current Verizon or Sprint customers have until December 31 to file a claim regarding unauthorized charges for premium texts. The practice, known as ‘cramming’, allows customers to file claims as part of the company’s multi-million settlement issued by the Federal Communications Commission.
Sprint and Verizon Agreed to Pay $158 million in Settlements
These premium texts often surround ringtones, cell phone wallpapers, or text messages about sports scores, celebrity gossip or tabloid news, and daily horoscopes. As it turns out, customers from these two carriers had allowed third parties to make unauthorized charges to certain accounts.
The Carriers Will Give Customers Their Money Back, Guaranteed
Victims of these charges can file a claim to get real cash money back from the carriers, but this is only viable until December 31. These charges may be $9.99 in average though it ranged between 99 cents and $14 for some customers. These cramming incidents date between 2010 and 2014.
AT&T Were Victims of This in the Past
Last year, AT&T and T-Mobile suffered the same incident, and the carriers paid more than $100 million in settlements. AT&T managed to settle with the FCC in mid-October, agreeing to pay $150 million with $80 million going back to wronged customers. As for T-Mobile, they were fined $112.5 million by the Federal Trade Commission. From this figure, the carrier agreed to pay$90 million in consumer refunds, $18 million in fines and $4.5 million to the FCC.
The holidays are a very stressful time, but things could be looking up for certain customers. If you’ve been wronged by Sprint or Verizon and see unauthorized charges, you can now make your holiday season a lot sweeter.
Filing A Claim to Sprint or Verizon is Easily Done
Victims of having these charges can go into Sprint’s refund website and Verizon’s settlement website. Anyone with additional questions or looking to see if they’re eligible can contact Sprint’s Legal/Regulatory and Consumer Resources (1-877-389-8787) or Verizon’s Wireless Premium SMS Refund Program (1-888-726-7063).
$50 million of Sprint’s settlement money is going back to customers, and $70 million of Verizon’s is for settlements. Both companies were reported to have made huge profits by allowing these third party services to cram customer’s phones. Verizon was earning about 30% in commissions, and Sprint was earning about 35%.
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