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Huge early termination fees, theres a map for that

Monday, December 7, 2009

The new Verizon Wireless commercials “There’s a Map for That” campaign have gotten a little more attention than they may have wanted over the cell phone carriers doubling of early termination fees from $175 to $350.  Not only is the FCC looking into this move, several representative on Capital Hill have taken notice as well and have proposed new legislation designed to limit how much consumers can be charged by their cell phone carriers in these fees, and also to control how these fees are prorated and sometimes hidden in the legalese of the contracts.  Also on the list of issues for the FCC is how some customers have reported that if they do not choose to get a data plan on their phone (because they don’t intend on using the internet on the phone), it is almost impossible not to accidentally ping the data servers a few times a month by accident when you hit a single preprogrammed key on Verizon phones (and you cant set the phone not to connect if that button is pressed).  When a customer without a data plan pings the data servers, even for just a nanosecond (they see the “connecting to web” message and immediately hit cancel), they are still charged $1.99   Several customer have reported that seeing these obvious overcharges is a regular thing on their bills, and while its easy to get credited if you call customer service, the FCC is curious just how many customers are being charged for these unintentional button presses every month.

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Also this week, I take a look at a strange new law in Australia that will require you to give a percentage of the money you get when you resell a work of are that you paid for.  So if you buy a painting for $100 and fifteen years later sell it at a garage sale, you are required to give a portion of those monies to the original artist.  I really wish I could get paid for things I already sold once.  The idea appears to be to try and protect artists that sell works early in life that become very valuable when the artist becomes popular, although I’m not sure why the artists can’t just make new art, or just who the heck thinks its appropriate to sell something and then come asking for more money later…will I get some kind of refund if I overpay and the artwork end up being worth much less than I paid for it?  I doubt it.

And as always we have This week in history, and strange news you probably hadn’t heard

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