December 18, 2014
Sprint Mobile has some serious problems at this moment, because the giant carrier is accused for operating a billing system that allowed a third part to charge Sprint’s customers some services, situation that is not permitted by the law and which might provoke Sprint a significant loss of about 105 million dollars if it is proven that they are guilty of something. The sum represents the supposed illegal costs that were charged so, basically, they can disappear from Sprint’s accounts.
The part that accused Sprint stated through the voice of Richard Cordray, director of consumer bureau: “Consumers ended up paying tens of millions of dollars in unauthorized charges, even though many of them had no idea that third parties could even place charges on their bills. As the use of mobile payments grows, we will continue to hold wireless carriers accountable for illegal third-party billing”.
In defense, the representative of Sprint Mobile, Stephanie Vinge Walsh, a spokesman, said: “We are disappointed that the C.F.P.B. has decided to target Sprint on this issue, and we strongly disagree with its characterization of our business practices. Sprint took considerable steps to protect wireless customers from unauthorized third-party billing and is an industry leader in proactively preventing unauthorized charges”.
The inconvenient was signaled by thousands of Sprint Mobile customers before it seems from the reports, but nothing significant happened. In appearance, the conflict started because it was involved the placement on customers’ phone bills of charges for premium text messages, in the form of horoscopes or other digital content.