Most of the recent news regarding T-Mobile has been overwhelmingly good! Their Uncarrier movement has shaken up the mobile industry in many impressive ways. They’ve given customers an unlimited data plan, offered a rollover data stash for subscribers without the unlimited plans, and even offered free data on tablets in recent months. John Legere has been at the forefront in recent months showing off just how different, or un-carrier-like T-Mobile can be. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been all smiles and sunshine over at Team Magenta lately.
T-Mobile has agreed to pay $90 million in a settlement with the FTC over allegations of “cramming,” or charging consumers for services they did not authorize. These charges were usually for premium SMS services, such as horoscopes, sports scores, etc., and were often lumped into some other nondescript charge making them difficult to spot on a statement.
The FTC alleges that T-Mobile included these charges on customer’s statements up until December of 2013. The bulk of the $90 million settlement will cover refunds to customers ($67.5 million), and the rest will be divvied up between the states ($18 million) and fines paid to the US Treasury ($4.5 million).
The settlement from T-Mobile follows a similar settlement from AT&T ($105 Million) in October, and precedes an expected settlement from Sprint. Verizon settled a class action suit over the same issue back in 2012, so it seems unlikely that the FTC will seek restitution at this time.
Have you been “crammed” by any of the major wireless carriers? Let us know in the comments, or on your favorite social network.
[button link=”http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-19/t-mobile-agrees-to-pay-90-million-to-resolve-cramming-claims.html” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Bloomberg[/button]Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
