AT&T To Repay $80 Million In Shady Phone Bill Charges

First time accepted submitter dibdublin writes The Federal Trade Commission announced today that AT&T will pay $105 million for hiding extra charges in cellphone bills. The best part of the news? $80 million of it will go back into the pockets of people bilked by AT&T. The FTC announcement reads in part: "As part of a $105 million settlement with federal and state law enforcement officials, AT&T Mobility LLC will pay $80 million to the Federal Trade Commission to provide refunds to consumers the company unlawfully billed for unauthorized third-party charges, a practice known as mobile cramming. The refunds are part of a multi-agency settlement that also includes $20 million in penalties and fees paid to 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as a $5 million penalty to the Federal Communications Commission."

Comments

Re:AT&T

[alvinrod]

Is there a more sleazy, incompetent corporate entity on the face of this planet?

Comcast.

All well and good

[MikeRT]

But at some point, an attorney general is going to have to have to call a spade and spade and actually file criminal charges against actual officials for the pattern that keeps emerging at the telecoms and cable companies. Notoriety for agreeing to pay $X for Y and then finding $X steadily increasing or Y getting padded is not an oversight. It's a pattern of fraud. People need to go to prison for that. The shareholders will thank the states after a few years if the states clean house in these companies and thus hopefully put an end to that rotten culture. It's a liability.

Re:All well and good

[tekrat]

You must be new here.

Company officials *never* will see the inside of a cell. They won't even be charged. Instead, they will get a nice fat bonus, and the company will pay for that by charging higher rates and cutting 5000 workers who were never responsible, and making sub-standard wages.

Some more palms will get greased in government, and things will continue Business As Usual. And we the public get the shaft.

Re:All well and good

[Charliemopps]

But at some point, an attorney general is going to have to have to call a spade and spade and actually file criminal charges against actual officials for the pattern that keeps emerging at the telecoms and cable companies. Notoriety for agreeing to pay $X for Y and then finding $X steadily increasing or Y getting padded is not an oversight. It's a pattern of fraud. People need to go to prison for that. The shareholders will thank the states after a few years if the states clean house in these companies and thus hopefully put an end to that rotten culture. It's a liability.

No... you don't understand how corporate cultures work. I have worked for several, including AT&T. They are designed for profit... and nothing else. So groups are created. Departments. Processes. You need to think of a company like AT&T like an ant-hill. There may be a queen and she may give a command like "Get me food!" but how that happens is completely outside her sphere of knowledge or even understanding. I'd even go so far as to say that in most corporate cultures Executives have very little to do with the direction of the company other than the people they hire.

It's not like someone says "Hey! I bet we could do this illegal thing and make lots of money! They'll never catch us!" What happens is the collective actions of dozens of departments have a culture that is profitable. If it's not profitable, they get laid off, or broken up... eventually such systems develop in such a way that they make lots of money. Their upper management sees lots of green so all is well. The problem with this situation is that none of those people can see the forest from the trees. Collectively those departments are doing something illegal. But none of them, individually, think what they are doing illegal because they can't see the entire picture.

The department that checks that the payments were authorized gets bonuses based on how much work they get done. So they authorize more. The billing department gets a cool trip because they got 98% on time payments. The printing department was congratulated for simplifying the bill resulting in fewer questions about bills. All, individually are totally legit. Together you have 1 department authorizing questionable content, another printing bills with missing information and a 3rd getting customers off the phone so fast they're practically hanging up on them. Combined, you have collusion to defraud, yet I guarantee you that if you asked any one of those people they'd tell you they had no idea what was going on.

And trust me, even if you did suspect something, going into a meeting and suggesting that your companies hugely successful, hugely profitable lead project is a terrible idea. Even if you're correct and save the company from legal action, you'll be looked at like that guy at the party that said "Maybe we shouldn't drink so much..." good idea, yes... popularity winner? NO

Jail time for corporate officers

[oldhack]

Send them to fed for couple months at least. The fine is not even a slap on the wrist. What's the point?

Re:This just happened to me

[Tokolosh]

I was about to jump ship to Uverse, but insisted on a bottom-line price before signing. They claimed it was impossible to provide, because of local taxes, yada yada. Well then, how are you able to bill me once I sign? No thanks, scumbags.