3rd party aggregator charges hurting cell customers on clarkhoward.com

RIP-OFF ALERT: AT&T has just settled (and T-Mobile is facing) a lawsuit over 3rd party aggregator charges. These are the stray charges on your bill for Internet services, ringtones or what have you. Your carrier gets a split of money from the crooks that post these bogus charges on your statement, a practice now being called "off decking."

The sad thing is that most people don't even notice the charges. That's because their bills are automatically charged to a credit card or auto-debited from a checking account. It's as if you give the crooks permission by not checking your bill.

The simple solution is to get a copy of your statement and vet it carefully every month. Clark goes through his bill page-by-page and calls his carrier if something doesn't make sense.

The carriers feel they're caught in the middle; they don't initiate the charges, they only act as billing agents. But Clark has trouble with this rationale because they're getting money from off decking.

On a related note, do you have teens added to your cell plan? Tell them not to respond to any texting offers for free ringtones, games, etc. These offers are all hazard and no opportunity.

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What others are saying

third party charges
Is there anything I can do about these charges? For the past year I have been paying 20 to 60 dollars more a month. I have complained to sprint I have had to call some of the third party companys but the following month they are back on my bill !!!! these people are stilling my money Help!!!
By Virginia Meleski @ 06/25/08 04:17:06 PMreport abuse
slammed..
i was slammed by unwanted text messages (10¢/message) and mysterious charges for using internet via the phone. to remedy this problem, i called ATT wireless and disabled all text messaging and internet services. why bother with text message when most of calls (m to m or roll over minutes) are free anyway?
By joe @ 06/06/08 11:09:24 AMreport abuse
charges
At&t is full of trouble. I order two new cell phone lines last Christmas. One rep told me that they could have texting w/o internet access and another, later in the game, $$$later, the opposite. I incurred $300 in downloads etc... Seems like they feed what ever they want w/o permission. We need a ferderal law against these loop holes. Consumers should get what they ask for nothing more. No hidden suprises!
By Beth @ 06/06/08 09:11:16 AMreport abuse
Charges
I was being charged monthly from Empire Voice Mail, which I am not familliar with. They said I went on line and ordered, more than likely it was a pop-up. I do not need their voice mail, never used their voice mail and want a refund. How do I go about getting a refund?
By Beth @ 06/06/08 09:04:29 AMreport abuse
cell phone bills
My cell phone company now charges me a fee to receive paper bills so I often forget to go through the bill online. SHould I suck it up and pay the fee?
By Virginia Rece @ 06/06/08 06:56:41 AMreport abuse
billing with Verizon
My goodness I have been fighting this problem for nearly 7-8 months. I have paid nearly several hundreds of dollars while I attempt to prove that Verizon was supposed to have blocked our access to downloading, premium texting, etc. I still have to get them to reverse a $30.00 charge for taxes applied after I was charged for downloading, which they were supposed to have blocked. I'm sick of these cell phone companies getting over on innocent people.
By saundra @ 06/05/08 11:36:37 PMreport abuse
billing with AT&T
I have had problems recently with the company. They deleted on of the provisions of my plan. It caused my wife and I to use up all our minutes and go over. I called them and they could only say that I needed to show them the billing records. The records that they should have in their systems.
By anthony @ 06/05/08 08:46:11 PMreport abuse
Unable to block numbers
I called my T-mobile provider and they said they don't have the technology to block numbers that I don't want to receive from. Is that true? I know this is to their disadvantage, but they should have the technology and I should be able to utilize it.
By Aman @ 06/05/08 06:40:14 PMreport abuse
tmobile and sprint
I ported my # from sprint to tmobile in Feb. Less than 3 weeks later, I could no longer send/receive texts from Sprint customers. It took over 100 phone calls to TMobile, and they never called back as promised. One complaint to the BBB, and they called the next day. I was released from my 2 yr. contract and told that no matter who I port my # to next, it won't be able to have full data services & will still be unable to send/receive texts to only sprint customers. Neither company wants to accept blame nor fix the problem. Very unsettling! Why should I have to change my #? So much for porting your number to another carrier.
By Sarah Finkbeiner @ 06/05/08 06:33:49 PMreport abuse
Long Distance telephone calls
Here is an other RIP-OFF ALERT
When some makes a long distance call all the phone companies do this. They roundup to the next whole minute and next full cent. Example: Someone makes a long distance call and talks 62 seconds or 1 minute 2 seconds. The telephone companies round first the 62 seconds or 1 minute 2 seconds to 2 minutes then the charge is also rounded up to the next whole second Example The long distance call cost 1.1234. The telephone companies rounds the cost of the call to 1.13. In other words the public is paying on this example 52 seconds of dead air and they overpaid $0.0066. This is on one call. What happens when a company has thousands and thousands of calls. This is a huge winfall for the telephone companies. The public is getting taken. Why do I have to pay for dead air? I am willing to pay on real time instead of rounding time. Please respond Thank you
By Mark Soroka @ 06/05/08 11:38:07 AMreport abuse
3rd party charges
I had sprint until last fall when I fired their sorry tailends-for their countless mind-numbing stupidity, arrogance and rude, lazy, obnoxious and coundn't care less customer service department. Somehow a $10/month charge from an outfit called "thumbplay" started appearing on my bill for one of my phones. Every month I had to call sprint's customer no-service, listen to elevator music for varying lengths of time and they would credit the amount back. but they said they could not stop the charge even if they wanted to with this third party. I don't know if that is true or not, but it is pathetic if it is true, that any company would sellout its customers to these vultures and lose control of their own billing function. absolutely, positively, 100% pathetic, and I am being nice when I say that. Took me 6 months to finally get ahold of someone at this thumbplay outfit as they only communicate by email. Finally got the phone number of one of the top guys there, and he apologized for everything and sent me $50 to boot. So while I actually made money on the deal, I figured i worked for it at less than minimum wage.
By brian @ 06/04/08 06:51:31 PMreport abuse

third party charges

Is there anything I can do about these charges? For the past year I have been paying 20 to 60 dollars more a month. I have complained to sprint I have had to call some of the third party companys but the following month they are back on my bill !!!! these people are stilling my money Help!!!

By Virginia Meleski @ 06/25/08 04:17:06 PMreport abuse

slammed..

i was slammed by unwanted text messages (10¢/message) and mysterious charges for using internet via the phone. to remedy this problem, i called ATT wireless and disabled all text messaging and internet services. why bother with text message when most of calls (m to m or roll over minutes) are free anyway?

By joe @ 06/06/08 11:09:24 AMreport abuse

charges

At&t is full of trouble. I order two new cell phone lines last Christmas. One rep told me that they could have texting w/o internet access and another, later in the game, $$$later, the opposite. I incurred $300 in downloads etc... Seems like they feed what ever they want w/o permission. We need a ferderal law against these loop holes. Consumers should get what they ask for nothing more. No hidden suprises!

By Beth @ 06/06/08 09:11:16 AMreport abuse

Charges

I was being charged monthly from Empire Voice Mail, which I am not familliar with. They said I went on line and ordered, more than likely it was a pop-up. I do not need their voice mail, never used their voice mail and want a refund. How do I go about getting a refund?

By Beth @ 06/06/08 09:04:29 AMreport abuse

cell phone bills

My cell phone company now charges me a fee to receive paper bills so I often forget to go through the bill online. SHould I suck it up and pay the fee?

By Virginia Rece @ 06/06/08 06:56:41 AMreport abuse

billing with Verizon

My goodness I have been fighting this problem for nearly 7-8 months. I have paid nearly several hundreds of dollars while I attempt to prove that Verizon was supposed to have blocked our access to downloading, premium texting, etc. I still have to get them to reverse a $30.00 charge for taxes applied after I was charged for downloading, which they were supposed to have blocked. I'm sick of these cell phone companies getting over on innocent people.

By saundra @ 06/05/08 11:36:37 PMreport abuse

billing with AT&T

I have had problems recently with the company. They deleted on of the provisions of my plan. It caused my wife and I to use up all our minutes and go over. I called them and they could only say that I needed to show them the billing records. The records that they should have in their systems.

By anthony @ 06/05/08 08:46:11 PMreport abuse

Unable to block numbers

I called my T-mobile provider and they said they don't have the technology to block numbers that I don't want to receive from. Is that true? I know this is to their disadvantage, but they should have the technology and I should be able to utilize it.

By Aman @ 06/05/08 06:40:14 PMreport abuse

tmobile and sprint

I ported my # from sprint to tmobile in Feb. Less than 3 weeks later, I could no longer send/receive texts from Sprint customers. It took over 100 phone calls to TMobile, and they never called back as promised. One complaint to the BBB, and they called the next day. I was released from my 2 yr. contract and told that no matter who I port my # to next, it won't be able to have full data services & will still be unable to send/receive texts to only sprint customers. Neither company wants to accept blame nor fix the problem. Very unsettling! Why should I have to change my #? So much for porting your number to another carrier.

By Sarah Finkbeiner @ 06/05/08 06:33:49 PMreport abuse

Long Distance telephone calls

Here is an other RIP-OFF ALERT
When some makes a long distance call all the phone companies do this. They roundup to the next whole minute and next full cent. Example: Someone makes a long distance call and talks 62 seconds or 1 minute 2 seconds. The telephone companies round first the 62 seconds or 1 minute 2 seconds to 2 minutes then the charge is also rounded up to the next whole second Example The long distance call cost 1.1234. The telephone companies rounds the cost of the call to 1.13. In other words the public is paying on this example 52 seconds of dead air and they overpaid $0.0066. This is on one call. What happens when a company has thousands and thousands of calls. This is a huge winfall for the telephone companies. The public is getting taken. Why do I have to pay for dead air? I am willing to pay on real time instead of rounding time. Please respond Thank you

By Mark Soroka @ 06/05/08 11:38:07 AMreport abuse

3rd party charges

I had sprint until last fall when I fired their sorry tailends-for their countless mind-numbing stupidity, arrogance and rude, lazy, obnoxious and coundn't care less customer service department. Somehow a $10/month charge from an outfit called "thumbplay" started appearing on my bill for one of my phones. Every month I had to call sprint's customer no-service, listen to elevator music for varying lengths of time and they would credit the amount back. but they said they could not stop the charge even if they wanted to with this third party. I don't know if that is true or not, but it is pathetic if it is true, that any company would sellout its customers to these vultures and lose control of their own billing function. absolutely, positively, 100% pathetic, and I am being nice when I say that. Took me 6 months to finally get ahold of someone at this thumbplay outfit as they only communicate by email. Finally got the phone number of one of the top guys there, and he apologized for everything and sent me $50 to boot. So while I actually made money on the deal, I figured i worked for it at less than minimum wage.

By brian @ 06/04/08 06:51:31 PMreport abuse

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Jun 04, 2008 -- 3rd party aggregator charges hurting cell customers

What others are saying