FTC Orders Sprint To Pay $2.95m Over Failed Customer Notifications

Uh-oh, it looks like Sprint is in a spot of trouble. According to the FTC, it seems that the carrier has been hit with a fine of $2.95 million in civil penalties to settle charges levied against them. Basically what the FTC thinks that the carrier did wrong here was that they failed to inform some of their customers that they were being charged more.

As there are some customers with good credit and there are some with bad credit, basically Sprint has been charging customers with bad credit a higher price. To be more specific, the carrier charged these customers $7.99 a month extra on top of everything else simply because of their credit score. However the carrier had failed to inform these customers of those higher/extra charges.

This is something the FTC wasn’t too happy about as in some cases, it locked the customer into a plan/contract that they could not get out of until it expired. According to FTC consumer protection bureau director Jessica Rich, “Sprint failed to give many consumers required information about why they were placed in a more costly program, and when they did, the notice often came too late for consumers to choose another mobile carrier.”

Assuming the courts agree to this settlement, Sprint is expected to provide customers with earlier notice in the future. In a statement released by the company, “Sprint puts its customers first and is always working to provide clear and necessary information to customers. We appreciated the dialogue with the FTC and we have already implemented the changes requested.”

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: ftc, Legal, Sprint