One observant reader indicated that on his Verizon bill each month “he receives a couple of erroneous data charge of $1.99 each – yet we download no data”

Is it possible for your bill to incur data charges EVEN IF you don’t access data services?  You’d better believe it!

He goes on to say “…. They configure the phones to have multiple easily hit keystrokes to launch ‘Get it now’ or ‘Mobile Web’—usually a single key like an arrow key. Often we have no idea what key we hit, but up pops one of these screens. The instant you call the function, they charge you the data fee. We cancel these unintended requests as fast as we can hit the End key, but it doesn’t matter; they’ve told me that ANY data–even one kilobyte–is billed as 1MB. The damage is done….Imagine: if my one account has 1 to 3 bogus $1.99 charges per month for data that I don’t download, how much are they making from their 87 million other customers? Not a bad scheme. All by simply writing your billing algorithm to bill a full MB when even a few bits have moved.”

And so it goes, yes the carriers we trust in providing us service AND telling us how much we used and what we owe.  So those of you reading, a simple question.  If you see your bill increased by $1.99 for the month, what do you do?

a)  Wait on the line with your carrier for an hour and a half trying to get that refund?

b)  Do you drive  to the local wireless carrier’s billing center during your lunch hour and stand in line at your local bill center?

c.  Eh, what the heck, it’s only $1.99 (or the modified employee view – I’m not responsible paying for the bill so no biggie)

Think of your company’s bill for  a moment.  Does your company phone bill reflect similar charges?  What if each employee had a similar charge added each month, multiplied by the number of phones, AND what if it were multiple charges added per bill for other services (think software applications, text messaging, or ringtones with monthly costs).  It is NOT inconceivable that an employee’s phone bill could be increased by 10% or more NEEDLESSLY each month.  The charges become much more significant than this example and can go from innocent mistakes to downright “highway robbery”.  These additional charges can add up significantly over time without oversight.

By the way, it’s our experience that most companies choose option “C” every single time.  Don’t let that company be yours.