Cell phone users beware: Unless you’ve got a contract that specifically excuses you from bills for calls from a stolen or lost phone, you’re out of luck.
It’s buyer beware, said Rosemary Kimball, director of media relations for the Federal Communications Commission.
Speaking by telephone from her Washington office, Kimball said the government has no rules or regulations that would excuse a cell phone customer from bills resulting from fraudulent calls.
Yet states don’t regulate cell phone companies since the technology crosses state lines, noted Maine Public Advocate Stephen Ward.
Kimball said she doesn’t know of a cell phone service company that includes a contract provision letting customers avoid the cost of unauthorized calls.
She said customers’ only hope is to promptly notify their cell service company once they realize their phone has been lost or stolen. The company then has the responsibility to cut off service to a missing phone.
CBS News recently reported that some people have learned the hard way that a lost cell phone can be costly.
The television news network noted that one San Francisco woman didn’t realize her phone was missing until she returned home from a vacation. When she got her cell phone bill, it totaled more than $26,000 and included calls to Guatemala, El Salvador and elsewhere.
Cingular Wireless demanded payment right up to the time that the woman told her story to a CBS affiliate in California.
A Chicago area woman ran into a similar problem with her wireless company, T-Mobile, CBS reported. Her $4,000 bill was cut to $1,200 after another TV station reported on her plight.
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