Whether or not you have been burned by your cell-phone provider’s shady business relationships, a little preventative maintenance of your account is in order. What I call a scam, they call “third-party billing.”
But you can stop it.
One Consumerist commenter was successful in asking T-Mobile to block third-party billing. Two minutes later, so was I, and the customer service representative I spoke with did not give me any grief. Just call 611, ask for an operator, and tell them you want them to block third-party billing.
This should work with other cell phone service providers, as well.
(photo: Kodamakitty)
If you are in Minnesota, contact The Glover Law Firm, LLC, for a free case evaluation. In any other state, you can find a consumer rights lawyer using the National Association of Consumer Advocates lawyer database.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I just called T-Mobile to request that they block third-party billing, and was informed that what I needed was their content blocker, which blocks third-party billing and chargeable downloads (such as ringtones). That might not work for the iPhone crowd, but since I’m old school with my phone, I didn’t inquire further about whether Apple’s apps and such are ever blocked.
I have been crammed twice in the last few months, and a friend was crammed this week by AT&T, both of us via home telephone bills. ATT claimed the FCC forbids them to block 3rd party billing even if you, the account holder, request it. When I called the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), the agent said the phone companies “can’t discriminate,” interpreted to mean you can’t ask for a blanket blocking of all 3rd party billers. Agent did admit this is getting to be a huge problem with many scam “companies” simply asking your phone company to charge for their “services” via your phone bill. They can get your name and phone number and phone company very easily without your knowledge. Phone companies aren’t compelled to check with you for legitimacy and wouldn’t want to because it would cost them money to do so, whereas they get a percentage from the “service company” from the money collected from you. FCC gets thousands of complaints, the agent said, but the place to complain is the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) for these scams not directly involving your telephone operational service. What the FTC will do other than collect complaints, I don’t know; but I am also writing my Congressperson to ask that steps be taken to change the law to regulate these practices that must be costing unwitting consumers collectively big money. I urge all of you to do so, too. And keep examining your phone bill because the first time I was crammed, I asked AT&T to block 3rd party billing and was assured by the rep that it was taken care of. But when I called ATT after the second cramming and complained about not honoring my “block,” the rep then told me FCC wouldn’t allow it.
Bev,
Where the confusion comes from is your phone company does have a 3rd Party Block however that is for 3rd Party Calls, meaning youcall the operator and tell them you want to bill the call to your home phone. There is confusion and miscommunication between service representatives and the consumer because they may be thinking you’re asking about blocking 3rd party calls when you are actually talking about 3rd party billing companies. Whatever the scenario may be phone companies do have to comply with allowing these charges appear on your bill. I personally do not agree that this is allowed and if it continues to be allowed 3rd Party companies should require more verification for security purposes than just a fake name and phone number.