Last month the Cleveland Plain Dealer noted that a Verizon customer faced a $9100 bill for consuming 569 gigabytes in just a few days. The paper had consistently said numerous customers had been making similar complaints, so it dug into FCC complaint history and found a notable spike in Verizon customer complaints during the month of September. Verizon customers filed 2,079 federal complaints during the month, up from just 168 in August and more than the previous eight months' worth of complaints combined.
The lion's share of complaints are focused on Verizon suddenly failing to notify users of overage fees, or incorrectly monitoring the amount of data used.
According to the paper's analysis of FCC data, it's not just Verizon Wireless. The paper found customers filed 2,656 complaints against all wireless carriers from September 1 through September 22, an increase of 256% from the 746 such complaints filed during the same period last year.
Verizon has so far refused to comment on the spike, and aside from some nebulous claims of Amazon's apps somehow being the culprit, there's no real explanation for what's causing the problems. In addition to large errant bills, many customers say Verizon Wireless' notification system -- which alerts you to how much of your monthly allotment you've confirmed -- didn't work properly during the month of September.
A report this week found that AT&T and Verizon made
$600 million in overage fees alone last year. Several years ago a study found that wireless carriers
consistently over-estimate users and over-bill consumers. As we've noted for years, that's thanks in part to regulators, who'll apparently gladly field your complaints, but can't be bothered to objectively test whether ISP (fixed or wireless) usage meters are accurate.