Verizon Wireless is on Santa's "2011 Naughty List" for "Bill Shock"

By Dan Baldwin

It looks like Verizon Wireles is going to get a bunch of coal in its stocking this year. The question is, "Does Verizon Wireless care?"

Hard to say.

Consumer Reports unveiled its 2011 Naughty & Nice Holiday List this week and Verizon Wireless made the list.

Following is what CR reported:

"The company tells the Federal Communications Commission that it voluntarily provides ample warning to customers who seem about to exceed their monthly allotment of minutes, messages, or data, so a mandatory rule that would make it issue such alerts isn't necessary.

But we caught Verizon doing -- and admitting to -- something else.

Two staffers who are Verizon customers recently were notified only after they went over their allotment, at which time the company tried to upsell them to a pricier plan.  When contacted by our reporter, a company spokesman acknowledged that its voluntary alert system isn't always reliable.

But it now looks like better protection from 'bill shock' is on its way. Under a mid-October deal with the FCC, members of CTIA - The Wireless Association, a trade group representing 97 percent of wireless carriers, agreed to begin issuing alerts of impending overages.

Full implementation of the alert system could take until April 2013."

 

What Can Business Owners Do Now?

The FCC has written a 6-page white paper that details what consumers and business owners can do in advance of the wireless operators getting truly serious about giving their users advance notice about possible monthly overages. 

Click here or the white paper image to the right to read the FCC's recommendations for minimizing or avoiding cell phone bill shock. 

 

How Can "WEM" Help?

You can also contact your local independent telecom agent or channel sales partner who can introduce you to "Wireless Expense Management" or WEM.

Your independent agent can help your business conduct an audit of all your cell phone invoices from all your carriers and then help implement a WEM solution that consolidates all your cell phone minute packages.

Properly configured, WEM can prevent cell phone "bill shock" overages inspite of what Verizon Wireless or the other mobile operators like AT&T, Sprint, etc. ever end up doing or "forgetting" to do.

Go get 'em, Santa!

 

Let BaldwinTel Help Your Company!

Looking for a Southern California based, vendor neutral business communications technology service expert that can help you out with your multi-location telecom or data network problems?

Click here to learn about how we might be able to fix your problem for free, then contact me directly at 951-251-5155 or [email protected]. 

BaldwinTel helps multi-location businesses across the United States but specializes Southern California especially San Diego County, Orange County, Los Angeles County, Riverside County and San Bernardino County.

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