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Talk of the bay

Sprint to repay ex-customers for erroneous charges

By LOUIS HAU
Published August 29, 2005

Sometimes when a long-distance carrier adds a new fee to its monthly bills, customers aren't the only ones who are affected.

Former customers have to watch out, too.

In February, a consumer alerted the Florida Public Service Commission that she was being charged a monthly recurring fee of $3.95 for Sprint long-distance service, even though she had dropped Sprint as her long-distance carrier in November.

The PSC asked Sprint to look into whether it had wrongly billed anyone else. It turned out that 3,092 Florida customers were being erroneously billed the $3.95 fee, which Sprint had added to some of its long-distance plans in December.

On Tuesday, the PSC is scheduled to vote on a staff recommendation that it accept Sprint's offer to refund customers $72,937.41 in fees, plus $748 in interest.

Sprint's problems were strikingly similar to a much larger glitch that ensnared AT&T last year. In that case, AT&T admitted wrongly billing 86,763 Floridians about $1.07-million for erroneous phone charges after it added a new monthly recurring charge to some of its long-distance plans. Many of them were no longer AT&T customers.

If your former long-distance carrier charges you for a service you no longer have, call the company for a refund. If they fail to respond, call the PSC toll-free at 1-800-342-3552 or the state Attorney General's office toll-free at 1-866-966-7226.

[Last modified August 26, 2005, 20:32:02]