Money Matters, Simplified.
FCC to propose steps to prevent inflated bills
by Anter Prakash Singh - October 14, 2010 - comments
A large number of customers are also complaining about the ‘mysterious fees’ that they are not aware of until it appears in their bill.
With an aim to protect the customers from unexpectedly high bills and the mysterious fees charged by the operators, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) has plans to propose a comprehensive set of rules for the wireless carriers in the United States.
FCC Chairman, Julius Genachowski, announced during a speech at the Center for American Progress in Washington that the consumers must feel that FCC is at their back to protect them.
Genachowski acknowledged that customers are bound to get a ‘bill shock’ when they see their bill going up many fold just within a month.
One out of six customers pay more than expected
To prove his point, the Genachowski gave examples of a few customers who had received bill much more than they expected.
A women got a bill of $30,000 while she was visiting her sister in earthquake hit Haiti.
Similarly another man testified that he got a bill of $ 18,000 after his free data download ran out without a warning.
A survey by FCC has revealed that nearly 30 million U.S. customers, nearly one out of six, had experienced some kind of a shock seeing their bill.
FCC proposes to require service providers to send a voice or text alert to the customers whenever they are reaching their plan limits or when roaming charges are going to be applicable.
These kind of safe guards are already in place in several other countries.
The FCC boss said that while most people do not understand technical jargon, they do understand when they are alerted that they are going to exceed their plan limit or they will have to pay extra.
Customers are mostly not aware of the fees charged
A large number of customers are also complaining about the ‘mysterious fees’ that they are not aware of until it appears in their bill.
The now famous video of the unfortunate iPhone owner who received a bill of 300 pages shows that it has become very difficult for customers to keep track of all the things they are being charged for and the customers usually end up paying up more than they intended to.
A survey by FCC has revealed that nearly 30 million U.S. customers, nearly one out of six, had experienced some kind of a shock seeing their bill.
The industry representatives, as we can assume were not very amused with the proposal.
Christopher Guttman-McCabe, Vice President CTIA, a wireless trade group said that he had apprehensions that the new rigid and costly rules can create hurdles in the creative offerings by the companies and the competitive nature of the industry.