Premium SMS
To me VZW approaches premium sms in a very unethical way, atleast with regards to what we as reps are supposed to do when a customer calls about them. The "official" policy is that you just tell the customer how to unsubscribe and that's that. Of course most reps will gladly (and immediately) offer the premium sms blocks although the policy states otherwise. I can see VZW getting slammed in a courtroom (just like AT&T) by a crafty class action lawyer when the company's official policy of telling reps not to offer customers this block when they first call in about premium charges.
Since sleazy premium sms merchants are no different from sleazy 900 line operators I don't see why we're not supposed to offer the blocks up front like landline does whenever a customer calls about 900 charges.
Why don't you look up the short code and give the customer the number of the company that is actually charging them instead of crediting back VZW's money?
As to your second point -- I always give the customer the option of ending a particular subscription or to stop all premium sms perio...
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I've never seen anything stating that we shouldn't proactively offer it. Whenever it was first available, I know that we were supposed to have customers unsubscribe, THEN (and only then) add the block, as the block wouldn't stop active subscriptions.
Since then, however, it seems that we're able to simply put the block on. I'm pretty sure that some can still get through (I've seen it happen), but those are more the exception than the rule.