Consumer Groups Urge Verizon Wireless to Come Clean on Unfair Penalty Fees

In a letter sent Tuesday to the Federal Communications Commission, Free Press and other consumer groups asked the agency to press Verizon Wireless after the company failed to adequately respond to the agency's questions regarding unfair cell phone penalty fees. Last month, the FCC sent a letter to Verizon Wireless investigating the company's exorbitant early termination fees for mobile phones after they doubled from $175 to $350, as well as the company's alleged practice of billing customers $1.99 for inadvertent data transfers. In many cases, consumers do not realize they will incur these fees because they are not clearly disclosed. In their letter to the FCC, Free Press, Consumers Union, and Media Access Project point out that Verizon Wireless failed to adequately answer the Commission's questions, did not provide the data requested, and provided misleading information on wireless services.