Capt thats all well and good but this guy is a fraud victim. He said he willingly signed up for it. It sucks!! But there really is nothing verizon can do here. I'm sure "technically" they can remove it, but they dont have access the this third party's systems and therefore cannont see if this person has made use of the service they signed up for. So they can't issue a credit it this case.

sorry meant to say this guy is NOT a fraud victim!

hes not a fraud victim. he can make complaints if he wants but in this case they are not merited, verizon wireless has not done him wrong. vzw gets billed by the third party and in vzw puts the cost on your bill.

now maybe someone in vzw has the ability to deny those charges but its not me. normal reps/techs/supes dont have access or info to that aspect and i have no clue who would.

I don't know about cellular, but if a third party bills you for something on your home phone and you disagree with the charge, the landline MUST send these charges back to the billing party and then it is up to that company to collect. I don't see why this cannot be the case in VZW's case. This would be obvious that the customer cannot use this service since VZW locks out ringtones by any third party. You must use GIN. Why wouldn't they do the same as a landline company would?

VZW only will do 3rd party billing for the services that offer what is called double opt in. You MUST respond from the phone to be enrolled. By doing so, VZW is ensuring that the 3rd party they are dealing with was actually agreed to by the mobile telephone user. In as much, because of the authentication process with both cellular calls and messaging, the customer has already agreed to these charges either directly or by handing heir phone to someone who has accepted these charges. In all my time, I have only found 1 instance where a customer did not opt in. (And it was because the provider was overseas and not abiding by the common rules of when to cancel the subscription. VZW lawyers are currently in talks with this company because of all ...
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OK. But in this case it is clear that the vendor is selling something that VZW WON'T ALLOW THE END USER TO USE. So they clearly know that their customer cannot be using this said product. Please tell me some common sense could be used here...

I see the only appropriate way to solve the issue is for Verizon to add to their list of 'features' (or blocks) ()"block third party services that would result in third party billing"
Daling with these third party vendors is a problem, and often almost impossible to get hold of anyone.
Time for a bill through congress to proctect the consumer from this crap.

they already do. You can block text messaging.

That's an indirect way of doing it. They do have 'block ringtones download' but this seems to be a different issue. I don't know how this person got stuck with this (probably didn't read the message fully before replying) but still, there should be a 'block any third party billable features' option on his account ('my account').

It is in the works...

Block 411 would be a good thing too!

you can block text messaging.

and people would get pist if vzw decided to prohibit its subscribers from joining these 3rd party programs. some people actually want the services and as americans they should have that right.

I agree but consider you have a 15 year old who is responsible and gets a spam message for a free ringtone, and replies to it, and there ''may'' be some micro print at the end of the message saying you are agreeing to a $30 billing.
There may be print that says you agree to T & C on xxx.com website. (more lkely) That's unreasonable.
If it is VERY clear, IN THE LARGEST type in the message 'by responding to this you are buying xxx, then I stand down, EXCEPT I still believe that a blanket third party purchase block needs to ba an option. Heck, VZW has blocks for all other stuff, including mobile web!

With text messaging, I am agreeing to pay VZW only for text messaging and I want to have the ability to protect myself and my responsible ...
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I am sure that the carriers are getting a kick back from these 3rd party charges. Look at verizon wireless, they are the king of limitations, they have no problem limiting what you can do with your phones, ect, but, when it comes to 3rd party text charges, they put up with all the complaints month after month, and in my opinion as to why...there has to be money involved. It would not be that difficult to allow the accoutn holder to block 3rd party billing. But, to do it, they make their customers give up a service they would like to have, they have to give up all text messaging in order to block 3rd party texting. There must be a pretty good kick back for carriers to take the heat and complaining every month on these charges.

And by t...
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