Join me as I Submit my Verizon Cramming Settlement Claim

July 5th, 2012. By AbiK

Here we go. I’m starting to look at and submit my Verizon Cramming class action settlement claim and thought I’d bring you along for the ride. If you recall, I had a few of you join me for the experience of submitting a United Healthcare out-of-network claim (remember that one?)–and we had some good conversation going. Unfortunately, while some class action lawsuits have a pretty straightforward claim submission process, others do not; same goes for claims administrators—the folks who are court-appointed to manage the claims submission process—some seem to make things go easier than others. So here we go.

First off, some ground rules… Your situation may not be exactly like mine, but we’ll try to get through this together; and…DO NOT submit a claim here. You have to go to the claims administrator’s website to submit a claim–that website is www.verizonthirdpartybillingsettlement.com.

First question…

Am I part of the Verizon Cramming Class Action Settlement?

I know I’ve been a Verizon customer. But it takes more than that to be considered part of the “class”. Here’s a description of the class:

“All current and former Verizon landline customers who between April 27, 2005 to February 28, 2012 were billed for third-party charges submitted to Verizon by Billing Concepts Inc. a/k/a Billing Services Group Clearing Solutions or BSG d/b/a USBI and ZPDI, ACI Billing Services Inc. d/b/a OAN, Enhanced Services Billing, Inc. d/b/a ESBI, and HBS Billing Services Company (collectively, “Billing Concepts Inc.”), The Billing Resource d/b/a Integretel, The Billing Resource LLC (collectively, “The Billing Resource”), ILD Teleservices, Inc. (“ILD”), Transaction Clearing, LLC (“Transaction Clearing”); and PaymentOne Corp., d/b/a PaymentOne or Ebillit (“Payment One”).

You are not in the Settlement Class if:

• you were billed for only the following charges: (a) message telephone services (“MTS”) usage charges; (b) charges that relate to a change in the customer’s primary interexchange carrier (“PIC”); (c) charges billed by local telephone companies purchased from Verizon by Frontier Communications Corporation, FairPoint Communications, Inc., and Hawaiian Telcom; or
• you are a judicial officer to whom the Action is assigned; or
• you are the U.S. government or any State government or instrumentality thereof.”

 

Ok, so yes, I’ve been a Verizon landline customer during part of that time—though I can’t remember if I’d paid any third-party charges. And no, I’m not a judicial officer nor the U.S. government or any State government. We’re good—I can proceed.

Was I billed for any Third-Party Charges during the Verizon Cramming Class Period?

Well, sure as shootin’ I don’t remember every charge on every bill I ever paid during that time. Who would?

Now, I’ve read the instructions on the claim form that tell me… “You may submit a Flat Payment Claim for $40 or a Full Payment Claim for 100% of all unauthorized charges you paid.”

So I can either just submit a claim for the $40, or I can see if I’m actually due more according to the terms of the settlement—so long as I have a documentation to prove what third party charges I had.

Luckily, the claims administrator has made it relatively easy (I hope!) to find out what I may have been charged by a third party on my Verizon bills. All I have to do is fill out the form here in order to request “a free summary of all Third-Party Charges that you have been billed during the Class Period”.

Ahh, but of course nothing is that simple.

You need your basic name-address-phone info, but you also need the PIN number you received in the notification of the class action settlement that you should have received.

Given that I treat most mail (email, snail mail) from phone service providers as spam or junk, I probably did not retain the postcard that had the PIN on it. Actually, I KNOW I didn’t retain it. But, that PIN is needed…

So I’ve had to send an email to: , requesting further assistance.

It’s the first roadblock I’ve hit so far—but there seemed to be some help for it. We’ll see.

Back with more once I hear from the claims administrator—so stay tuned.

IMPORTANT: If, like me, you have misplaced or thrown away the Verizon cramming settlement notice, contact the Claims Administrator sooner than later! Claim forms are due on November 15, 2012 and if may take some time if you plan on requesting a free summary of your third party charges.

Tags: Class Action, Verizon, Verizon Cramming Class Action, Verizon Settlement, Verizon Third Party Charges

This was posted on Thursday, July 5th, 2012 at 9:27 am and is filed under Class Action . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.