Alert: extra charge on my phone bill

[speechteachri]

OK, add me to the list of suckers who is now having extra charges show up on the phone bill! AAARRRGGHHH!!!

The problem is, the charges have been there for 4 months, and I just noticed...how stupid am I? I look at my bill every month, and for some reason, when I went to pay it tonight it struck me as being really high, so I looked more carefully, and there were charges from 2 different companies! I just spent over an hour on the phone and internet tring to get info. Can't call the phone company until they are open tomorrow, which means not until tomorrow afternoon when everybody will be wanting to get home for the long weekend...that should be a fun conversation!

So far I was able to get one charge credited and cancelled , but because one of the companies has 2 separate companies as "clients", and they could only cancel 1 of them, I still have some work ahead of me.

This is so NOT how I wanted to start out my holiday weekend!!!

Now I'm MAD!!!

I know some people really like the freebie offers, but I know Tricia has admitted to not really liking them. I ALMOST NEVER do them for this very reason! I would just caution everyone once again.....BE CAREFUL!! And Check you phone bill carefully!!!

[Blessing and Miracle]

I'm sorry and I hope the second charge is handled as quickly. We have SBC and they are pretty quick to resolve issues. I llike to use my cell phone now. You have third party charges automatically blocked. Can I say that? If not sorry and please delete.

[athoods]

Glad you shared your info. off to check my online bill now

[Shadey55]

I had this happen too for $19.95 per month for some sort of voice mail service that I supposedly agreed to. I called the company and they said they would reverse the charge...but I am skeptical that this will happen. Do you think I should call verizon as well? She said I signed up for this on April 19 and I should of received an email welcoming to the voice mail program. I never received an email. Blah.

[speechteachri]

I had this happen too for $19.95 per month for some sort of voice mail service that I supposedly agreed to. I called the company and they said they would reverse the charge...but I am skeptical that this will happen. Do you think I should call verizon as well? She said I signed up for this on April 19 and I should of received an email welcoming to the voice mail program. I never received an email. Blah.

You should definately call verizon and have them place a block on your phone for 3rd party billers.

As an update, after 2 calls to Verizon, and to 2 of the 3 companies who were charging me (still one to call to cancel on Tue) I have had 2 of the chargers cancelled, and Verizon has credited me. They were not surprised. When I went on the verizon message boards there were many complaints about the companies in question.

it took a little time and effort on my part, and I will keep checking my bill tomake sure everything really is settled, BUT, it looks like things are mostly set...thank goodness!

[Leslie]

I am so glad I saw this post in the forum. I got my phone bill today, and guess what? There was a third party charge on it for $9.10. I called the company and had them remove the charge. I also called the phone company twice, and have been told both times that they don't allow you to block third party charges.

Thanks for posting your experiences here, so I could be on the lookout for charges on my phone bill!

[arob414]

Caught a $9.25 charge on my regular phone bill, last night. It was for email hosting, don't even know what that is. It was too late to call, last night. Tried calling, this evening. It isn't too late, but could only leave a message.

[PSL1013]

It happened again to me, second time now! Just check this months bill and there was a charge from a voice mail onetime set up fee of $8.94....ATT took the charge off and I called the company and she cancelled the sign up and then said she put a block on my phone number so I couldn't be charged again. I check my bill EVERY month anyway, so I'll catch it again if they charge me again. I have no idea how I got signed up with this again because I'm so careful doing those offers....it must really be hidden somewhere deep, I read everything and I'm not seeing it??

[~Kathie]

It happened again to me, second time now! Just check this months bill and there was a charge from a voice mail onetime set up fee of $8.94....ATT took the charge off and I called the company and she cancelled the sign up and then said she put a block on my phone number so I couldn't be charged again. I check my bill EVERY month anyway, so I'll catch it again if they charge me again. I have no idea how I got signed up with this again because I'm so careful doing those offers....it must really be hidden somewhere deep, I read everything and I'm not seeing it??

A different company?? THAT isn't good. Hope you figure out where/what it is coming from.