[THIN] Re: 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: "Beckett, William \(Bill\)" <bill.beckett@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 7 Feb 2007 10:21:45 -0500
Another racket, thanks for sharing
________________________________
From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Jim Kenzig ThinHelp.com
Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 10:16 AM
To: THIN; windows2000@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [THIN] 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?
(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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