 espaethDigital PlumberPremium,MVM
join:2001-04-21
Minneapolis, MN
kudos:2
 ·Vitelity VOIP
| "Who'll confirm this?" How about the subscribers of the ISPs themselves?
Come on, the people who subscribe to ISPs are not idiots. Meters are now a common part of residential grade NAT/Router devices, and many free software options exist. Not only that, but unlike their electric meters, ISP subscribers don't need to risk electrocution to install a meter of their own.
said by Karl Bode:Are there laws protecting consumers from abuse? Nope. Right.
If you collected evidence that ISP meters were substantially incorrect I'm sure the attorney general of your state of residence would simply ignore bringing any kind of unfair billing practices lawsuit against the ISP.
Get real. The people who take up that office get a hard on over the idea of prosecuting companies for that sort of thing. |
|
 BF69Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | said by espaeth:How about the subscribers of the ISPs themselves? Come on, the people who subscribe to ISPs are not idiots. Meters are now a common part of residential grade NAT/Router devices, and many free software options exist. Not only that, but unlike their electric meters, ISP subscribers don't need to risk electrocution to install a meter of their own. said by Karl Bode:Are there laws protecting consumers from abuse? Nope. Right. If you collected evidence that ISP meters were substantially incorrect I'm sure the attorney general of your state of residence would simply ignore bringing any kind of unfair billing practices lawsuit against the ISP. Get real. The people who take up that office get a hard on over the idea of prosecuting companies for that sort of thing. You mean how the government has slapped Verizon hard about charging $1.99 for non-existant data useage? Oh wait they didn't anything about that. |
|
espaethDigital PlumberPremium,MVM
join:2001-04-21
Minneapolis, MN
kudos:2 Reviews:
·Vitelity VOIP
| said by BF69:You mean how the government has slapped Verizon hard about charging $1.99 for non-existant data useage? Oh wait they didn't anything about that. The FCC started an inquiry in December.
Don't think some state's Attorney General isn't drawing up a game plan to get in that fight - it's only a matter of time. |
|
BF69Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | said by espaeth:said by BF69:You mean how the government has slapped Verizon hard about charging $1.99 for non-existant data useage? Oh wait they didn't anything about that. The FCC started an inquiry in December. Don't think some state's Attorney General isn't drawing up a game plan to get in that fight - it's only a matter of time. inquiry that will take months or years. Meanwhile Verizon keeps raking it in.
So if these meters are mesed up how long are customers going to be screwed over while the governemnt "inquires"? |
|
espaethDigital PlumberPremium,MVM
join:2001-04-21
Minneapolis, MN
kudos:2 Reviews:
·Vitelity VOIP
1 edit | said by BF69:So if these meters are mesed up how long are customers going to be screwed over while the governemnt "inquires"? If they take matters into their own hands, probably not long. The story itself makes my point about the users not being stupid:
Users there had to make a concerted effort to get the ISP to investigate and to issue refunds. So users had to get a little noisy about it, but they were given refunds without government regulators forcing them to.
Of course, the flip side to that is if a customer base is too apathetic to care about being overcharged then it could probably go on as long as nobody cares.
The Verizon $1.99 billing could be over quickly if enough customers call in to complain and get a credit on their bill. Those manual transactions take time for CSRs to process, and customer service call volume is something that these companies track very closely. Even more so, if enough people call in they can't plead ignorance to the problem because they'll have a substantial amount of documented billing system activity that would come up in the course of an investigation. |
|
|
|
| reply to espaeth
Yeah, the same way they brought suit against CC for forging reset packets. Definitely. |
|
espaethDigital PlumberPremium,MVM
join:2001-04-21
Minneapolis, MN
kudos:2 Reviews:
·Vitelity VOIP
1 edit | said by WernerSchutz:Yeah, the same way they brought suit against CC for forging reset packets. Definitely. Notice how Comcast stopped that practice?
User complaints can work -- it doesn't always have to come down to government regulation. |
|
| Certainly. Retroactively.
Government regulation, SERIOUS fines would discourage such "creative" ideas being tried in the future, hoping hey would not be detected. |
|
