PHONE USERS GO TO COURT OVER BILLING.Byline: Dereck Andrade Staff Writer An $80 million class-action lawsuit accuses Verizon Communications
Verizon Communications, Inc. Inc. of fraudulently billing more than 100,000 of its California customers for rent on rotary telephones they hadn't used in years. The suit claims Verizon - formerly GTE GTE General Telephone & Electronics GTE Génie Thermique et Énergie (French) GTE Gas Turbine Engine GTE Global Tropospheric Experiment GTE Geothermal Energy GTE Gas Turbine Efficiency plc (Sweden & USA) Corp. - fails to disclose that a $4 to $6 monthly rental fee on customer bills is for rotary phones that in many cases no longer exist. The suit was announced Wednesday during a news conference at the Pasadena law firm of Hadsell & Stormer Stormer may refer to:
Marc Coleman was born and brought up in Dublin, went to school in Marian college, spending some time in Erlangen, Germany. He was a member of Fine Gael in the 1980s and 1990s. . ``It's a greedy effort on GTE's part,'' said Coleman, co-counsel for two couples from Long Beach and Los Alamitos Los Alamitos (lôs ăləmē`təs, lŏs), city (1990 pop. 11,676), Orange co., NE of Long Beach, S Calif., in a suburban area; inc. 1960. Los Alamitos Racetrack and U.S. military installations are nearby. named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit. ``It's deceptive and all GTE had to do was explain on customers' bills what the charge was for,'' he said. Julia Wilson Julia Wilson is a rower from Australia, who has won Rowing World Championships gold medals in the Eight and Four for her native country in 2001 and she picked up a silver medal in the Eight at the 2002 World Championship. , a spokeswoman at Verizon's Thousand Oaks corporate offices, declined to comment because the company had not seen the lawsuit. The lawsuit, filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges Verizon adopted a policy of renting phones to consumers following industry deregulation Deregulation The reduction or elimination of government power in a particular industry, usually enacted to create more competition within the industry. Notes: Traditional areas that have been deregulated are the telephone and airline industries. in the late 1980s. Many of those phones were rotary, according to the lawsuit. Lawyers for the plaintiffs said Verizon consumers have paid more than $500 for a $20 phone. ``It's a rip-off and a fraud,'' said Eva De Bruin, a 58-year-old Los Alamitos resident who is suing Verizon along with David and Jennifer Cundiff of Long Beach. De Bruin said she learned of the rental fee when she looked closely at her bill. ``So I called up GTE and they told me I was being billed for a rotary phone that I never returned,'' she said. De Bruin said Verizon officials said they would give her $40.80, a one- year refund. The lawsuit seeks an injunction against Verizon to halt the charge that appeared on bills as an equipment rental. As for Jennifer Cundiff, the Verizon customer said she became aware of the charge a few weeks ago when she and a neighbor were comparing long- distance telephone rates. ``I feel strongly (Verizon) is taking advantage of senior citizens,'' she said. ``It is unjust on Verizon's part.'' Both De Bruin and Cundiff said they have no idea what happened to their old rotary dial phones. |
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