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Verizon class action lawsuit overview:
- Who: Five plaintiffs have filed a class action lawsuit against Verizon Wireless.
- Why: Verizon allegedly unlawfully charges a Verizon administrative charge that is not disclosed to customers until they receive their first billing statement.
- Where: The Verizon class action lawsuit was filed in New Jersey federal court.
A new class action lawsuit claims Verizon Wireless has engaged in a “bait-and-switch scheme” by advertising flat rate fees but charging mobile customers a Verizon administrative charge on top of the promised price.
A group of five plaintiffs lodged the Verizon class action lawsuit against Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless and Verizon Communications Inc., claiming they charged the Verizon administrative charge without customers’ consent.
The Verizon class action lawsuit alleges Verizon began charging the administrative charge on its postpaid wireless customers’ bills in 2005. The Verizon administration charge allegedly started at a rate of 40 cents per month and increased on a regular basis.
Currently, the plaintiffs say the Verizon administrative charge is $3.30 per line per month, which is more than eight times the original amount.
“Verizon has used the Administrative Charge as a revenue lever to covertly jack up its monthly service prices and to squeeze its existing subscribers for more cash whenever Verizon desires,” the Verizon class action lawsuit alleges.
Verizon has allegedly improperly reaped billions of dollars from the Verizon administrative charge scheme.
Customers are not informed of Verizon administrative charge until they receive their first bill, plaintiffs allege
Customers are not made aware of the Verizon administrative charge until they receive their first monthly billing statement, “which they begin receiving only after they have signed up for wireless service and are committed to their purchase and cannot cancel without penalty,” the Verizon class action lawsuit explains.
The plaintiffs allege that Verizon provides conflicting information about the reasons behind the charge. On the monthly bills, Verizon allegedly falsely states that the administrative charge is imposed to “cover the costs that are billed to us by federal, state, or local governments.”
The Verizon website allegedly falsely states that the Verizon administrative charge is tied to the company’s operating costs.
The plaintiffs are asking the court to compel Verizon to notify potential customers about the Verizon administrative charge in its advertising and to reimburse Class Members for undisclosed extra-contractual fees they paid.
This is not the first time Verizon has faced a class action lawsuit over allegedly undisclosed fees.
Verizon has also recently agreed to settle a class action lawsuit alleging it violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act with pre-recorded debt collection calls.
Have you seen a Verizon administrative charge on your cell phone bill? Tell us what you think of the Verizon class action lawsuit in the comments!
The plaintiffs are represented by Stephen P. DeNittis, Joseph A. Osefchen, and Shane T. Prince of DeNittis Osefchen Prince PC, and by Daniel M. Hattis and Paul Karl Lukacs of Hattis & Lucacs.
The Verizon Administrative Charge Class Action Lawsuit is Cintia Corsi, et al. v. Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless, et al., Case No. 2:22-cv-04621, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.
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1,347 thoughts onVerizon class action claims company pads bills with ‘administrative charge’
Yes I feel I was took like this as well ! I had Verizon in those years and got left owing as they were leads in the switch now gimmick of will give you all this and pay for your switch from atnt and vice versa they are totally in on it together
Add me
We went to Verizon after seeing an ad for 5G, no contract, free iPad with new service, offer. We were greeted and told the same. Free iPad, definitely 5G service on phones and internet. We traded our perfectly fine iPhone 12 Pro Max phones for $1000 trade in.
Strike 1. Three days later, after the phones kept dropping calls and no data available on them, we went to the store again. Anton, the employee, did some clicking on the phones and said take them and try it for a few weeks. I told him no, that we are aware of the 15 day limit on returns. Anton immediately whispered “You actually have 60 days, they just don’t want us telling people that” Who am I to argue with the “knowledgeable” employee? I ended up back in after an update shut our hones down. They had to reset them and told me to pray my iCloud was working, because it wiped our phones clean. Mine worked, my husband’s didn’t. We were told we couldn’t return and get our phones back, that they were sent directly to recycling.
Strike 2. Went back to tell them we have no service. One employee turned and walked away from me (Charles) I attempted to explain the situation to the manager. She immediately told me it wasn’t their problem, call customer service. I went outside to do this. The customer service representative wanted to speak to the manager about what I was told. She grabbed my phone and told them the employee was off that day and she didn’t know anything. Gave me my phone back and customer service representative said he would call them tomorrow and get right back to me. To this day, I’ve never received any calls to help us.
Strike 3. Now we are past the return date. Found a Facebook post for Verizon. Talked to a guy named Ken. He got me to DM him, sent me to the Verizon page and quickly informed me that we were out of the turn in period. I have screenshots where he told me tough. You aren’t under contract, but the only way you can leave is pay $1400 per phone. Yet they don’t plan on doing anything to reimburse us for our phones or give us any credit to get new ones elsewhere.
In the meantime, my first bill, quoted to us at $225/month, came in at over $400! Next bill, all while I’m fighting to get decent service, came in at $395. Now my bill is $395 month. We’re paying for the phones and iPads, nothing is free. I called and spoke to a supervisor who said until the matter was resolved, they would place an inconvenience fee on the bill in the amount of $100. I told her that $285 was too much to pay for unreliable service. She said they were working on our account. Still no reply or response from them.
Strike 4. Called again on Friday. Was told we would be let out of our non existent contract, but they needed to start a ticket to have a technician come out today to verify our area has bad reception through Verizon. She said to email her today to be sure it was in progress. Sent multiple emails today. No response. None.
Strike 5. My mother is in a memory care facility in Florida. I’d gone up the road to call, in a spot I don’t usually lose service, called her and lo and behold, our service had been disconnected. We had just gotten the new unrevised bill on Friday and I had called, but the man at customer service told me that he didn’t know who I thought I was, but there was no inconvenience fee and I just needed to pay, what is now $598. But couldn’t tell me why.
I’m at my wits end. They beat you until you, normal people, just go with their deception and lies, to avoid the confrontations.
Between the lies (5G is not, and will not be available in our area for 2-3 years, according to a nice lady at Verizon.) and deception over fees, administration fees, added taxes and payments for phones we were told we paid for up front. Which we did the night we purchased this mess. Now they say that was administrative fees.
Not sure where to turn next. We don’t have $2800 to just pull out of the air to get out of this situation, and our trade ins are forever gone according to everyone I’ve spoken with at Verizon. One employee even had the nerve to laugh at me about it. I’ve been publicly embarrassed, laughed at, been rude to and treated like trash with this company since the middle of December 2022. Please tell me that you can help us. We’re trying to save our credit, but they keep hitting it and it’s lowered several times since this began.
If you are still with them and paying for the phones all you have to do is call in and have the promo fallout form filled out to have it added. They will confirm you bought the devices in the promo period and traded in your phones. You’ll get catch up credits for all the months you missed off your promo. Same with your trade ins, but you get a monthly credit over time, the phones aren’t outright free otherwise people would do it to get free phones and switch carriers right away. They credit you monthly, which depending on the phones you chose may end up free or a few dollars a month if you got more expensive ones. Call back in and tell them you are missing the promos, with the amount missing and dates of purchase.
Please add me too. I left Verizon for a lot of reasons during the hype of the pandemic. They wanted to charge me double and charge me for service that o couldn’t even use.
Verizon & Asurion have colluded to defraud me of a working phone under the warranty replacement guarantee and trade-in option.
Boy oh boy where do I began, Verizon Wireless has changed. I’ve been a Loyal customer for 20 years and I’m rather un happy with them as of late. This administration fee is for the birds and the customer service is so poor. I’ve been dealing with my bill that a customer service representative messed up going on my 2nd week trying to get my bill back to what it was has been nothing shy of a joke.
Omg I hate VERIZON they charge hidden fees, auto pay fees if it’s turned off, just to talk to a representative is a fee of $10 and I was also so wrongfully scammed into getting the home insurance from a VERIZON representative, which I totally didn’t know. She stated that if I wanted to receive a discount on my phone insurance bundle for being a loyal customer which I paid $50 for each month for 5 lines. She had stated to me that instead of $50 they had a promotion for $25 a month for the phone insurance plan and it was a better deal. So I told her ohh really that’s great I’ll take the $25 a month plan instead and I specifically asked her if it was for my phone insurance plane, she stated yes its for being a loyal customer and she made it clear that it was. But when I seen the bill I seen that she added home renters insurance for $25 dollars. I was so mad because the representative knew what she was doing she wanted her own commission for making a customer a subscription order. I’m suspecting that’s how it goes ??? Anyway I had to literally fight with VERIZON for 3 days for them to listen to me. After dealing with all that drama and there hidden fees and sky high prices !. I switched to T-moble for a way better deal. 4 lines for $140 a month. I honestly
didn’t want to deal with the stress and anxiety from VERIZON. Such a headache ache that no one should ever go through. No more!!!! VERIZON!!!!! I also didnt care if I owed VERIZON money still. I felt like my peace along with not being broke from paying almost $300 dollars a month was worth my peace and happiness. The cost of living is so high so for me to have the extra $150 a month is so much worth it. So please count me in I have a lot of proff to back it up.
Hello I’m a new 2 month Verizon member who has done a 4 unlimited phone line family plan with Verizon as well with 2 smart watch line.. so a total of 6 lines. (Since watches has its own phone line apparently, which also get charged Admin and Teleco Charge.)
To start off we were never told about the Admin and Teleco Charge. As well 2 of our lines were charged $6.60 for the Admin and teleco charge. Again without us even knowing that was part of something we had to pay for.
Then to top it off, the Verizon Store (3rd party location) greatly messed up our family plan and activated 2 phone lines the 1st day, then activated the 3rd phone the next day and the last phone a week later because the phone weren’t in yet for the 3rd or 4th. We asked if that was okay to do the plan like that. Employee said it’s okay we are all in the family plan we will still get charged $35 per line. He also put insurance on 4 devices (the highest insurance) without us even agreeing or knowing about it.
My 1st month phone bill was $283.14 on October 7th. Which I called customer service and was told it’s only for the first 2 phone lines and not the 3rd one which was activated the next day. I told her how we were told it would be okay and be on the family plan. Long story short I was passed to a manager on customer service and she told me that for the next month all phone lines would work itself out because they were going to deduct some payments because of them messing up on our family plan and activations.
Now I got recently charged November 5th for $490. The manager lied to me and today a customer service told me nothing he can do about it. That he’s sorry the manager said it wrong. Also that I have my next bill for November 16 for $317. But says for next month it will finally work itself out. I’m going to speak to customer service again tomorrow because if I knew or was told to that we had to wait to activate everyone’s phone line the same day for the family plan to work, we would had gladly, especially for 1 day or a week. Instead we are getting charged 4x the amount we were promised and on top of that never got told about the Admin and Teleco charge and being lied to by the manager about the bill working itself out instead I’m paying $800 this month. Also being charged protection plans without our consent and to top it off the 2 watches are supposed to be paid off, but in my Verizon app, it shows that there’s payment due on the watches. Sorry it’s a long email, but I believe we have been greatly conned by Verizon customer service, Verizon and Verizon store 3rd party, thanks
Verizon could not keep my phone fixed for last 5 years .They aďed a smart watch to my bill and I don’t even wear watches. Had 5 lines now I’m not even with them anymore . Sorriest phone service I had for last 5 years. Was with the company for over 8 years. Add me in law suit.
I had an account with Verizon for 40+ years. I recently closed my account after many issues over those 40 years and now with Xfinity. Verizon won’t stop bugging me about coming back.