[windows2000] OT: Are you getting inundated with Ringers/Text Charges on your Cell phone bill you did not sign up for and can't stop them?
- From: "Jim Kenzig ThinHelp.com" <jkenzig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: THIN <thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, windows2000@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 7 Feb 2007 10:15:41 -0500
(I am writing this because it is National Consumer Protection Week
http://www.consumer.gov/ncpw/ Feb 4-10 in hopes it might help someone else
out there)
This is the story of a 4 month ongoing saga with my cell phone carrier and a
3rd party Texting company. You may be in the this situation or you may know
someone in this situation and I can assure you the light at the end of the
tunnel is very dim.
Over the last few years we will call them Text Entertainment companies (aka
short code providers) have been inundating childrens TV stations with
advertising for "Free Ringers", Jokes, Horoscope and other types of
entertainment content. The companies tell you to just text a phrase to a 5
digit number and you will get a "Free ringer" or other item. In tiny print
the ads state that you are signing up for a service and will be billed a
weekly or monthly amount on your phone bill for extra provided content.
Back in October of 2006 one such company was advertising heavily on Cartoon
Network. My 16 year old son sent a text to this company to get a "Free
Ringer" and was signed up for such a service. I was shocked the following
month when I received my PCS bill and it was $40 more than it usually was.
When I got to my sons portion of the phone bill, I immediately saw that
there were multiple charges under text messaging to a five digit number. I
am not going to put this number in this article because I do not want anyone
calling it and getting into the same boat I did.
My first response was to call my carrier (Sprint) and ask how to stop the
messages. I was told to text STOP or QUIT to the the 5 digit number. We
tried this to no avail and the messages just kept right on coming. Another
month went by more charges, I called my carrier again and asked to have
text messaging turned off for the telephone. I was told that even if I
turned off text messaging the messages and charges would not stop because it
was a "Premium Service". I had to contact the company to stop the messages.
I asked for the number and name of the company from Sprint and was told that
they could not give it to me. We tried to text STOP, Quit and whatever else
we could think of to the number but the messages still kept on coming along
with the charges. More hours on the phone with Sprint reps asking about the
company got me no satisfaction. I refused to pay my bill until it was taken
care of. Another month went by, the messages and charges kept coming and
with no help from Sprint I finally cancelled the phone by porting it over
to an ATT account. That stopped the messages, at least from the Text
entertainment company that is.
Now came the collections calls from my phone carrier. Daily at 8 am. I told
them over and over again that I would pay my bill in full as soon as the
charges for the text messages were reversed, removed or deducted. I got
nowhere. After 5 days in a row of spending over an hour on the phone with
them and asking to get to a supervisor I finally got to a person who could
give me the information about the company that was sending the text
messages. Three months after I had asked for it! The company name was
FunkyFones. Calling the 800 number gave me a choice to stop messages or
"other". Pressing the other choice got me hung up on. I jumped on the
internet to find out more about this company and to see if anyone else had
my problems. I learned I was not alone! The company is apparently a
subsidiary of Jamster which has a pending class action suit against it (
http://cmwcomplex.com/jamster.htm) I found out about the lawsuit from
http://www.jamsterscam.com/more_stories/ which is a page with a story about
people in the same situation I am in. At the bottom of the page there is a
listing of key contacts of the different Cell providers CSC Representatives
that may be able to help.
I have also, in reading the above listed lawsuit filed, learned that the
phone companies do indeed profit from this service yet they appear to be
ignorant of any information about them when it comes to trying to resolve
billing disputes with these companies. At least until you press them for it
over and over.
More searching on the web found an excellent resource page that lists some
of the web sites for many of these "short code" providers that may assist
people in getting out of these services. That url is
http://www.usshortcodeswhois.com/
Our only defense is to talk to our children about these miscreant short code
providers and contact as many news and print organizations as possible to
get the word out about them. Please pass this on to people whom you think
could help do this.
--
Jim Kenzig
Microsoft MVP - Terminal Services
http://www.thinhelp.com
Citrix Technology Professional
Provision Networks VIP
CEO The Kenzig Group
http://www.kenzig.com
Blog: http://www.techblink.com
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