Double charges, sneaky fees, bad service: Monroe County resident complaints to the FCC
Sneaky fees, excessively loud commercials and scam phone calls are just a few of the hundreds of complaints filed by Bloomington and nearby area residents to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the past few years.
The FCC, which regulates communications by radio, television, satellite and cable, hears complaints for a wide range of issues, from affordability of cell phone services to the hosting of potentially inappropriate content on daytime television and radio.
Anyone can file a complaint through an online form, and in Bloomington and its surrounding areas, residents have made their voices heard. Complaints filed between January 2019 and October 2023 ranged from the more superfluous — reports of rude customer service on a phone call — to the more severe — double charges for hefty services that led to overdraft fees on a bank account.
Taken together, the complaints not only tell a story of what issues local residents are facing, but can act as a cautionary tale of what to look out for.
Loud commercials
Several people wrote the FCC to complain about loud commercials — seemingly exceeding the volume of regular programming — on their broadcasts.
“The littlepassports.com commercial start at the volume of the programming and increases volume significantly as the commercial plays. This has been observed on multiple televisions in our home. Some with direct audio input and others going through an audio receiver,” one complaint wrote.
Loud commercial complaints were traced back to the Hallmark Channel, E!, and the Hulu app.
“We have found this to be an issue with Hulu commercials regardless of show or advertiser. We find we need to reduce the volume several levels to keep from waking our baby,” one complaint read.
The FCC requires commercials to have a volume consistent with the programs they accompany under the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act, which was passed by Congress in 2012.
Sneaky fees, forced upgrades and double charges
DirecTV, Comcast and AT&T had several complaints filed against them for double charges, cancellation fees, and unreceptive customer service when people complained about being charged for services that they were unable to or didn’t plan to use.
One Comcast subscriber complained about having their bills increased shortly after signing a 2-year service agreement, all the while they were being sent promotional mail from Comcast about lower rates. The complainant said when they called Comcast, the company said the special rates were outside of their service area.
“Then why does Comcast send us the postcard with the prices for their current package to our address,” the complainant said.
Another complainant reported Verizon forced them into paying a higher bill when they shut down their 3G service at the end of 2021 and urged all 3G customers to move to 4G.
“Yet, they are able to charge a $35 upgrade fee on my first new bill. How is it they can make money on something they are forcing the consumer to do? What is the purpose of the FCC? I thought you were supposed to be regulating things like this,” the complaint read.
One complainant alleged that Comcast double-charged them for a bill over $600, leading to overdraft fees from their bank. The complaint alleges that Comcast had been “dragging their feet” in handling the complaint and offered no compensation for the money lost.
“I was told once again today that my ticket was submitted, but they are not willing to provide me any kind of compensation for my financial troubles caused by their mistake,” the complaint read.
Scam calls
Perhaps the most common complaint concerned scam calling, much of which fell into the category of “spoofing.”
“Spoofing” involves scam callers manipulating their caller ID, most often to give the appearance of a local area code, or even someone’s own number.
“In less than 24 hours, I have received 9 calls that showed up under my own phone number in the caller ID. I have reported the issue to AT&T,” one complaint read.
Other common complaints included scammers claiming to be credit agencies, banks, Amazon, Apple and even the Social Security Administration.
But perhaps no scam was more frustrating — or dystopian — as those that had neighbors calling them, notifying them that “their number” was being used for scam calls.
“I believe someone is using my number to phone spoof. I keep receiving calls from people, claiming I’ve been calling them multiple times a day when I haven’t,” one complaint read.
“Somebody used my phone number as CALLER ID for spoofing calls. Recently, I received several calls and they said to me that phone calls from my number and said that I left voice mail about amazon account and others,” another read.
Reach Brian Rosenzweig at brian@heraldt.com.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: What Bloomington-area residents complained to the FCC about
