Sprint and Verizon to pay $158 MILLION over bogus 'cramming' fees

actually

>Verizon's $90m fine will hardly make a dent in its pocketbook

Except being in the news cycle for a being a dishonest b*stard (some people actually need reminding) will cause a bigger goodwill hit than that. Their saving grace may be all their competitors were doing it as well. Never ceases to amaze me to see just how little Baby Boomer leadership (for example Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam, born May 28, 1954) even pretends to care about business ethics. The Worst Generation for sure.

@ ASDF

I share the sentiment of your comment, but would add that the CEO's of these giant telco's probabaly aren't even aware that their marketing and operations departments are running these types of "service" (read : scams).

I'd also posit that it is most likely that the pushing of these services is done complicitly on the back of a risk based business case which goes something like this:

Predicted earnings running scam = $200m

Risk assessment against being fined = - £100m

Scam profit / Ker'chiiing-ment = $100m

Good eh? The new business is all about the money. Fuck the ethics.

The telco cartel long ago realised that customers have a short memory. And when customers have a limited choice in other suppliers, and, when all of those alternatives (i.e. your cartel partners) are running the same scam - the risk of reputational damage means nothing

Consumers rightfully expect their monthly phone bills will reflect only those services that they've purchased,

If that were really true the FCC would do a thorough audit of the billing practices at these companies. Granted I haven't worked there for at least 5 years now, but one of my former employers with only 300 employees was so frequently overcharged on their phone bills that it was cost effective for them to hire a full time employee to review the monthly bills and challenge improper charges.

Great, can't wait for my refund check for $1 after the lawyers get their full share.