Business

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Verizon to Refund $100-Mil for Hidden Fees

Verizon Wireless has tentatively settled a class action lawsuit that alleged the company advertised a price for cell plans but then jacked-up consumers’ bills with hidden administrative charges.

*MOUSE PRINT:

The complaint specifically alleges:

The Administrative Charge is not disclosed to customers either before or when they agree to purchase wireless service from Verizon, and in fact the Administrative Charge is never adequately or honestly disclosed to customers.

The current amount of the Administrative Charge is $3.30 per line per month—a more than 8X increase from the original amount of the Charge [40 cents].

The first time Verizon customers can possibly learn about the existence of the Administrative Charge, or the amount of the Charge, is on the customer bills… [but] Verizon’s paper bills fail to mention the Administrative Charge at all, stating instead that a customer should “[c]heck your online bill for all surcharges, taxes and gov fees.”

[F]or years, Verizon explicitly and falsely stated on its monthly bills that the Administrative-Charge is a surcharge imposed on subscribers to “cover the costs that are billed to us by federal, state or local governments.”

For its part, Verizon has denied the claims, but says it has changed the way it describes those fees.

Verizon customers who purchased postpaid cell or data plans from the company between January 1, 2016 and November 8, 2023 are eligible to share in the $100-million proposed settlement. The maximum payment is $100, but that could be reduced based on how many consumers file claims and for how long they were a customer.

Claims must be filed by April 15, 2024 at the settlement website. Most customers were just notified via postcard of their eligibility to file a claim and were given a notice ID and confirmation code to enter on the website. If you did not receive that, here is the official claim form.

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How to Cut Package Shipping Costs

USPS Flat Rate BoxMrConsumer recently had to ship a package from Boston to California and was shocked at how much it would cost.

He had gotten what he was told was a Priority Mail flat-rate envelope from a local post office branch and stuffed it full believing it would cost about $10 to ship. When he went to mail it, he was told that was not a flat-rate envelope and it would cost about $23 to send the package. Yikes! The clerk pointed out some medium flat-rate boxes that I should try (they’re free), but the postage would run $17.10. Still yikes, but he took one of them anyway.

MrConsumer poked around online looking for discount shipping services and came across one called “Pirate Ship.” There, you enter the box size, weight, mailing location and destination, and it gives you a variety of prices for different shipping companies and services. You are not charged a membership fee or a label fee — the service is free. Just pay for the postage and print a prepaid label for the box.

They would charge $14.75 to ship the package via USPS Priority Mail in the flat rate box. That is the same price that the PayPal shipping label printing service charges, and even the same as what the post office charges online if using their Enhanced Click ‘n Ship service.

While that is a good savings for many people, it was still too high for MrConsumer. He adjusted the parameters at Pirate Ship to plain packaging in a box using the same Priority Mail box by simply wrapping it in brown paper. (As it turns out, any similar box whose contents weighed less than five pounds could have been used.) Now when checking on rates, he got the cheapest price from UPS.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Lowest shipping cost

Sold at $12.08 – a $5 savings — nearly 30% off the original post office price. Of course, the package won’t arrive in three days like the Priority Mail package would, but I was in no rush. Incidentally, the USPS had a rate only five cents higher called Ground Advantage Cubic.

The rate was also lower because UPS takes the package only part of the way then hands it off to the post office for final delivery. As it turns out, the package arrived early — three days after mailing — and UPS decided to take it all the way to its destination.

So as you plan to ship your holiday gifts, Google the term “discount shipping” to find any number of services that will charge less by comparing special rates offered by the post office, UPS, or FedEx. Just read the details so you know in advance if there are any extra fees involved.

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Is It Advertising or a Bona Fide News Story?

Recently in his news feed of consumer-related stories, MrConsumer got a link to an USA Today article questioning whether the bargain website, Temu.com, was offering legitimate deals. It was entitled, “Why Temu is so cheap – the secret behind Temu’s budget-friendly products.”

[Note: graphical excerpt of the USA Today article has been removed.]

The story was a very positive portrayal of the company not mentioning any of the negatives that often appear in other news articles. This USA Today story ended in part with this:

To sum up, Temu is real and safe to shop on. Its affordability is also no accident. It’s the result of a carefully designed business model… Its commitment to customer satisfaction, secure transactions, and quality assurance make it a reliable platform for online shopping.

So the next time you’re looking for a bargain online, remember to compare prices on Temu.

That sounded a little too promotional and commercial to me. And then the clincher came.

*MOUSE PRINT:

USA Today disclaimer

One might see a disclaimer like that on “commerce content” which is a story specifically written by a different section of a publication designed to help the publisher earn money from the links contained in the story. They tend to be written in a positive manner and have the effect of promoting the product or service reviewed.

The above story is labeled “Contributor Content” but there is no explanation of what that means. There is no disclosure that USA Today or perhaps even the author make money in some manner from the story, or that this “story” really is advertising or “sponsored content.” If this really is an ad, that needs to be disclosed to the reader at a minimum and even that may not be enough according to the FTC.

For example, companies shouldn’t give the impression that a ranking or review is objective and unbiased if it is based on or affected by third-party compensation. And if an advertisement strongly resembles editorial content such as a news article, or appears formatted as native content in a publication with a strong journalistic brand, it is unlikely disclaimers will overcome the deceptive net impression. — source: FTC

Even USA Today’s own ethical principles state:

*MOUSE PRINT:

We will not blur the line between advertising and editorial content. We will provide appropriate disclosures, exercise transparency and avoid actual or implicit commercial endorsements by our journalists.

We wrote to the author asking about her piece, but she did not respond. We contacted USA Today/Gannett twice asking for an explanation of what “Contributor Content” is and suggested that some type of notification to readers might be required if this was advertising. We got no response.

Here are other stories that USA Today labels as “Contributor Content.”

In a twist, another publisher, Dow Jones, has appended a refreshing footnote to some stories in the Wall Street Journal, like this one entitled “Bleeding Money on Subscriptions? These 3 Tools Will Cancel Them Fast.”

[Note: graphical excerpt of the WSJ article has been removed.]

*MOUSE PRINT:

WSJ we are not paid

As consumers of news, we deserve published content that does not blur the line between bona fide news content and advertising.