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Published by Julia on Wednesday 21st May 2008, 03:53 | Related | Filed Under

It looks likes US operators will be texting their lawyers. According to RCR News, a class action lawsuit is afoot against “six mobile-phone carriers and a top mobile virtual network operator” over the cost of incoming and outgoing SMS.

RCR says the suit is looking for “recovery… for unauthorized charges, wrongful collections and unjust enrichment” as a result of, among other things, incoming text messages that incurred charges on users’ bills but which they allegedly couldn’t opt out of. The site also says a series of cramming suits have been filed against the US networks for allegedly charging customers for services they didn’t ask for.

An indication of America’s more litigious culture or that the US networks need to shape up customer service? One for the judges to decide.

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    This is completely true and a common complaint among users on Howard Forums in the T-Mobile USA sub-forum. Once upon a time T-Mobile had free incoming but has since done away with that feature. T-Mobile may have some of the better messaging packages yet at the same time they leave customer without the option of stopping text. If you call T-Mobile CS they will say if they turn off text then they can't message you either. That is complete BS. T-Mobile may not have the system setup to prevent outside message and yet allow their messages but that doesn't mean it can't be done.
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    "An indication of America’s more litigious culture or that the US networks need to shape up customer service?"

    Both really. We are the most horribly litigious society on earth, no question there. However, it IS a fair point to say that if you can't opt out of something, you ought to have some right to not be charged for it. My parents are on AT&T, both elderly (though my dad hates it when I say that!), and only in the last couple of years have they gotten into text messaging. My dad was SHOCKED when I told him that inbound messaging was charged at .15 cents a pop or whatever it is. As he put it "if I know I'm close to max on my minutes package, I can just ignore the call, but I have no option to do that with text". They both finally added the minimum bucket of texts (around 200 or 250 I think), just to protect themselves -- being on a fixed income, he can't afford to have some wildly high charge because someone spams him with text messages.

    Really, incoming calls and texts should both be free, but likely that won't happen here for a long time, if ever.

    -olly
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    It's official - SMS 'more expensive than Hubble Telescope'. I read this article the other day that said it's 42 times more expensive to send a text message than it is to access data from the space telescope. (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/14/txts_r_...)

    It's about time someone stuck it to the telcos. We are one of a handful of countries where we still need to PAY to recieve messages!! Ridiculous.

    More people should get programs like Yoober (well, whoever has a phone that can support it!) until the Telco's in their ivory towers get the message and reduce SMS costs! (www.yoober.com)

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