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SBC to Give Voice Mail Customers Compensation for Misleading Marketing Under Class Action Settlement Negotiated by CUB CHICAGO, March 26 /PRNewswire/ -- SBC will change its misleading voice mail marketing and pay as much as $40 million in compensation, under a class action settlement negotiated by CUB and approved by a Cook County judge on Friday.The settlement, approved by Circuit Court Judge Peter Flynn, is a vast improvement over an earlier proposed agreement that was negotiated by private attorneys. Cook County Judge Robert Boharic rejected that settlement in 2002, after CUB objected to the proposal on the grounds that it gave no benefit to consumers. This is a giant improvement over the original settlement, CUB Litigation Director Robert Kelter said. Finally, SBC voice mail customers will know exactly what they're getting charged for the service, and they'll get some compensation for being misled by the phone company. Under the new proposal, residential customers who subscribed to voice mail for a year or more would get a $15 credit on their phone bill; customers who had voice mail for six months to a year would get a $10 credit; and customers who had the service for less than six months would get a $5 credit. In addition, customers will receive four clearly written notices regarding voice mail's actual charges, and SBC will have to include the same clear description in its solicitations to new customers. Compensation under the settlement will be paid as a credit on SBC phone bills. Customers who are no longer with SBC will receive a check. In order to receive the compensation, customers must respond to notices that will be sent by SBC. Private attorneys filed the class action lawsuit in 1999. It argued that SBC misled voice mail customers by not disclosing that, in addition to a monthly fee of about $5 per month, they paid about 5 cents every time somebody left a message in their voice mail system. That hidden charge led to huge bills for some customers. Although it had not been part of the lawsuit, CUB intervened to oppose the original settlement, arguing that it was an unfair deal for customers. On top of that, the proposed settlement did not require SBC to fully disclose the voice mail charges. Judge Boharic agreed with CUB and rejected the settlement, setting the stage for the new agreement approved Friday. CUB is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, statewide utility watchdog organization created by the state Legislature to represent the interests of residential and small-business utility customers. For more information on CUB and its efforts to protect consumers, visit http://www.citizensutilityboard.org/ , or call CUB's Consumer Hotline, at 1-800-669-5556. CUB CONTACT: Rob Kelter of CUB, +1-312-263-4282 Web site: http://www.citizensutilityboard.org/ |