Although most people have a smartphone and a service plan (and I am one of them), many people still use cell phones that take prepaid \u201cload\u201d cards. These cards are usually in denominations of $5, $10, or $20. You scratch off a strip on the back, call the company and enter the code. Then you\u2019re good to go\u2014for 30 days. Then the phone company will get whatever\u2019s left.<\/p>\n
Yes, some of the cards have a little disclaimer on the back\u2014that the money you put in is only good for 30 days. After that, your money is gone because it\u2019s been swiped.<\/p>\n
But wait. This is your money, not theirs. If you put money in the bank, it stays there forever, unless you take it out. It should be the same with the phone cards. So if you put 10 bucks into your phone, it should remain there until you use it up, whether it\u2019s one month or one year.<\/p>\n
I called up a customer service person at one of the local phone companies and we had a pleasant conversation. He said that I was the first person to ever complain about the cards, but I am a New Yorker and you can\u2019t get anything from me without my noticing.<\/p>\n
In my view, what the phone companies are doing is outright theft. Therefore they should change the little disclaimer on the back of the card, \u201cIf you don\u2019t use the full value of the card within 30 days, we will get whatever is left.\u201d<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t believe I am the first (and perhaps only) person to spot this. It\u2019s an easy way for the phone companies to score a little extra cash, at your expense. I wonder how much money they make from prepaid cards over the course of a year? Good question. <\/p>\n
At present, there are three phone companies in the Commonwealth. Of the three, two of them have prepaid cards, and they all expire in 30 days. As Elvis might have said, \u201cUh, that just ain\u2019t right\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
So the question before us is this: what is the AG\u2019s Office of Consumer Protection doing about this? Hello? Anybody home? This is a crime, and redressed via an indictment, especially if the crime is willfully committed. <\/p>\n
The defendants might protest, as they certainly will. \u201cWe didn\u2019t know it was a crime to take money from our customers without their consent.\u201d Yep, try that before a judge and see how far you get.<\/p>\n
I also talked with another customer service rep from a different phone service provider. He told me that he bought five 10-dollar cards at a time so he would always have telephone service. He was obviously throwing his money away, money which was his, which had earned. But he played by the lousy rules and knew that whatever he didn\u2019t spend, the phone company would just take it.<\/p>\n
No matter how you spin it, or what excuses the phone service provider trots out, theft is a crime. No person or business or institution has the right to take your property, even if it\u2019s via a phone card. <\/p>\n
In a more perfect world, the money you put into your phone stays there until you use it up. It would be exceedingly kind if the phone provider sent you a little text, \u201cYou have $1 left on your account.\u201d I would love that instead of \u201cYou have a zero balance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Russ Mason<\/strong> Although most people have a smartphone and a service plan (and I am one of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[68,17136,67,13702],"class_list":["post-253994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters-to-the-editor","tag-ag","tag-new-yorker","tag-people","tag-russ-mason"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253994\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAs Teo, Saipan<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"