Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel Hit With @ More Lawsuits-

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 09 Jul 2003 20:49:25 -0400

Wednesday, July  9

Lawsuits: Cellular firms' fees added illegally

By Ted Jackson, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 9, 2003

Cellular giants Nextel and Sprint are improperly adding fees to the bills of their

Florida customers, according to lawsuits filed last week.

The two suits, filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, are part of a growing
wave of popular discontent over the recent proliferation of telephone company
surcharges, consumer activists say.

"The fees are fueling a consumer backlash," said Rich Sayers, editor of
Martinez, Calif.-based 10-10Phonerates.com, who pointed out that
long-distance companies AT&T, Sprint and MCI are also adding fees.

Filed by consumer and securities fraud attorney Richard Greenfield of Royal
Oak, Md., the lawsuits allege that Nextel and Sprint misrepresented some of
their fees as being government-mandated.

The Sprint action, brought on behalf of Kathy Flaherty of Lake Worth,
accuses the mobile phone provider of illegally attempting to recover more than
the 50 cents per month allowed by Florida law for costs associated with
E-911, an upgraded cellphone emergency service.

That was done, the suit alleges, by Sprint misleading customers into thinking its
"USA Regulatory Obligations & Fees" were government-required, when they
are in fact imposed unilaterally by Sprint and are a rate hike in disguise, the
suit claims.

The Nextel suit, filed on behalf of William Drugan of Panama City, targets
three separate fees that have been tacked on to customer bills recently, the
suit said.

While the fees have official-sounding names such as "Federal Program
Recovery Fee," they aren't government assessments, according to the suit.
The fees, the suit alleges, are an effort by the company to conceal a rate hike,
which is a breach of existing customers' fixed-rate contracts.

Both Nextel and Sprint declined comment on the lawsuits. Neither Flaherty
nor Drugan could be reached for comment.

Last month, a Sprint spokeswoman defended the company's policy on fees,
while also conceding that the surcharges were designed to avoid rate hikes.

"Our fees allow us to keep our per-minute costs low," Angie Makkyla said.
"It's all about the billing strategy."

On Thursday, Sprint and Nextel reached a settlement with Missouri's attorney
general that requires them to use clearer language when describing fees on
their bills.

"Other cellphone companies have included these charges as part of their basic
rates, without tacking them on as separate items and potentially misleading
customers," Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon said in a statement.

Fees have been a recurring problem for consumers, and not just with
telephone companies, according to Greenfield, who said he filed many actions
against banks when fees in that industry exploded during the 1990s.

[email-masked]
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/business/content/auto/epaper/editions/wednesday/business_f3b079db168b02f4009a.html

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