We all pretty much accept that if we make a 45-second call it's billed a minute, and a 1-minute, 4-second call is billed as 2 minutes. But even after allowing Verizon wiggle-room for that questionable practice, my bills reflect being charged for thousands of minutes of time I didn't use... And I've only begun the research... I've been with them since 1999.
It all started with an out-of-the-ordinary, and not even remotely anticipated, $253 bill for February (vs. My normal $65-$75 bill). Naturally, freaking out, I asked for the detailed billing [notice how now they don't send the detailed bill anymore, just a summary - there's a crafty reason behind that having nothing to do with saving money on postage].
I live on Hawaii, the "Big Island", and know no one on any of the other islands, so on the rare occasions I call them, I remember who and why. I began scrutinizing the bill and saw a lot of calls to Honolulu (Oahu), Lihue (Kauai), and Wailuku (Maui), as well as calls to Brooklyn, Cleveland, Portland, and a few towns I've never heard of. I also saw a lot of local numbers I didn't recognize. But those unrecognized calls could not have jumped up my bill THAT much! So I kept looking...
The first thing jumping out at me is being billed for 3 times, for 3 separate calls to different numbers, and thus for 3 minutes, 12:17 P.M.; then there were times I'd place a call to 123-4567 at 1:12 P.M. For 1 minute, but the bill shows 3 calls for 1 minute to the same number at 1:12 P.M.; clearly, that is one, 1-minute phone call, not three. While society may have accepted the cell providers' position that each partial-minute call will be billed as a full minute, I seriously doubt there is anything written anywhere allowing those providers to bill us for using 3 (or more) minutes of airtime during the 60-second period between 1:12-1:13 P.M.! Those were just the most obvious things, and I have to relinquish some degree of that to my own acceptance of the "one-minute rule". But there was more that struck me as wrong, if not impossible, so I kept digging.
I found not only being billed for 3 minutes airtime for one 1-minute call to the same number at 4:37 P.M., I'd find that while I was on a 30-minute call (according to the bill) beginning at 9:00 A.M., I'd be charged minutes for supposedly being on incoming calls at 9:08 A.M. And 9:24 A.M. That I KNOW (emphasis added) I didn't take. Without exception, I don't conference call and I ignore the beep when an incoming call wants to interrupt my present conversation. So I can in all earnest say that there has not been one time when "call-waiting" or "conference calling" could attribute to the double-billing of airtime. I've NEVER put a call on hold to pick up an incoming call. Verizon screwed up.
There are instances where I'd start a 9 minute call at, say, 10:15 A.M.; such a call would end, at the latest, at 10:23 A.M. Now, the bill would show that I started a different, outgoing, 6-minute call at 10:20 A.M. That ended at 10:25. So I have two outgoing calls at once??? Really, even if I ended one call and called a different number during the 60 seconds encompassing 10:23 A.M., AND THE 2ND CALL CONNECTED (not supposed to be charged for non-connected calls), the result would be being billed twice for 10:23 A.M.; I'd be charged for 11 minutes (10:15-10:25 A.M. Total, for two calls, including a 1 minute double-charged for 10:23 A.M.). However, Verizon would bill me for 17 minutes — one 9-minute plus one 7-minute call, PLUS the second minute charged at 10:23). That's a six-minute double charge. Again, I don't conference call; there's no way I was on two outgoing calls for 5 minutes at the same time; I KNOW THIS NEVER HAPPENED. This blatent overcharging cannot be swept under the rug as falling under the "full minute" billing policy.
I don't want to forget to mention the countless times Verizon's "411-Connect" has billed me $1.25 and 1-2 minutes airtime to connect me to... Get this... 411-Connect (!), which finally allegedly connected me to Who Ever, and then billed me twice for 2:58 P.M. (because their computer transferred the call so it's deemed 2 calls within the same minute). I know THAT has NEVER happened, either (one could not forget calling 411-connect and being connected back to 411-connect), and if it's because of the call being "dropped" due to the provider's inadequate equipment and/or service, I should not be double-billed (for minutes OR the $1.25 per call fee).
There are also several months of my bills going back to early 2003 where there are anywhere from a dozen to literally hundreds of calls to anywhere from one or ten isolated phone numbers I don't recognize, and when I call to see who belongs to that number, I get either a message that it's a "non-working number", or "the caller you have dialed is not accepting calls at this time", or the person answering says they don't know a Julie in Kona, and I don't know them.
Oh, yeah—I've been billed airtime for mis-dialing... Hung up before the phone even rang, much less was answered, and then I dialed correctly... I got dinged for 2 calls. And Verizon Wireless supposedly only bills for CONNECTED calls.
Obviously, this is a serious problem, and until all of society says "enough", the abusive billing practices will continue. Imagine...$10/month per customer times a million customers equals...$10 Million dollars each month these leaches are sucking from us! They figure most of us won't notice, and to ensure we don't, they now send "summary" billing statements without the calls detailed so we can't catch them... Unless we pay (in my case) $4/month extra to get the detailed bill. Reeks of a scam to me.
The laws and regulations need to change. As to the "full minute" billing practice that is disclosed, it's wrong: One minute is one minute, period: sixty seconds. If I can squeeze 2-3 real, actual calls into that sixty seconds, I've used one minute of airtime and should be billed accordingly. As for the other abuses like billing for dropped calls, double-billing and duplicate-billing, they are inexcusable, even allowing the acceptance of the "full minute" rule.
I have started keeping a log of my calls, right off the phone's own "call log", and in the past month, only 2 calls overlapped in the same minute of time. I got the phone, new, on February 8th. On April 18th I checked the phone's call log and saw both the "total time" and "life time" were the same (approx. 44 hrs, 23 mins, X seconds). I pulled out this year's Verizon bills and got my to-be-billed minutes on-line; I added up the total minutes I was billed for since I got that phone, and I'd been billed for just over three HOURS (almost 200 minutes) MORE airtime than my phone had even used. THAT'S NOT PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE! NOT EVEN UNDER THE "FULL-MINUTE" RULE!
The service providers tell us that calls will be rounded up to a full minute; we accept that. It never occurs to us to ask, and they never disclose to the consumer at point of sale, that said consumer will be billed three, or four minutes for one ACTUAL minute of airtime if they dial or pick up calls, including calls "dropped" due to lost reception, within the same, defined, 60-second time period. That if failure to disclose which equates to a bad business practice. They are not required to provide us a contract in detail to read before signing, so we sign what amounts to a cash register receipt and go home; they'll mail us the confirmation information in about a week. When Joe Consumer finds out he's not getting what he was told he'd purchased, it's too late for him to cancel the 2-year contract; he took and used the phone and signed a "contract" [that was only explained to him by Biff Salesman; Joe Consumer never read it], and Joe Consumer paid his previous bills [thus cementing his acceptance of the terms]... So if he cancels now, there will be a $200 breach-of-contract charge. Joe Consumer gets trapped.
I have yet to find any laws or gov't regs that even address these specific forms of thievery plundered from Americans by the pirates who own and run cell phone companies. I want to see them held accountable for accurate AND moral standards and practices of billing, and I've figured that since I started with Verizon in 1999, and their billing practices have been consistent, Verizon owes me about 30 hours of no-charge, peak time airtime (that I've already paid for but not actually used).
Hey, about my complaints about the definitions and use of "airtime", I may be full of hot air, or it may seem that I'm trying to make my bill vanish into thin air, or I may just have the air of an angry person... You choose. I just told you the facts. It seems to me, in this matter, 2 2=6... To the cell phone companies' billing mathemeticians. Their bills defy the laws of physics; they're literally impossible! The cell phone companies must be held to a reasonable standard (i.E., one minute = one 60-second period of time). Let's face it, we all know there are not more than 24 hours in a day. We must convince our "representatives" to legislate that cell phone providers cannot bill us as if there were!
The billing practices of these cell phone providers are, at the very least, clearly deceptive, and at worst, suspect of outright fraud. Watch your bills closely; scrutinize them, even if they don't run over your normal contract payment; and demand FREE detailed billings. If you've been ripped off, if you want change, write everyone you can think of: the PUC, the FCC, your local paper, and your local government representatives; the more they hear it, the more likely they'll take effective action about it.
Mahalo for reading this very long report.
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