I recently noticed two consecutive months of $10 "premium text messaging" charges on my cell phone bill and immediately contacted Verizon Wireless Customer Service. I was told I had subscribed to a third party for the messaging service and was responsible for the charges. The company I supposedly subscribed to was General Texting.com.
I had never heard of General Texting.com and certainly had not authorized $10 a month for premium texting. I felt like I was being sold out by Verizon so I did some research.
I discovered that Alltel and Verizon are the primary culprits allowing this to happen and I would bet that the abuse is rampant because people are not checking their bills.
I also discovered I had entered into a $1.99 per month "get it now" contract for "Power Chat" back in December 2008. What the ?$%# is power chat? Verizon was not able to give me an acceptable explanation on how that happened.
I've been a satisfied "heavy use" customer of Verizon Wireless for many years but I now feel like they have sold me out for a few extra profit dollars so I'm leaving them as soon as my current contract is up.