Business Week

SAN FRANCISCO

California Attorney General Jerry Brown has won a settlement from AT&T Mobility to stop charging customers who say they lost their mobile telephones.

The lawsuit filed by Brown in San Francisco Superior Court on Wednesday accused the telephone company of illegally charging customers for services they didn’t authorize.

AT&T has agreed to stop the practice and to credit customers’ accounts after claims of theft or loss, or immediately investigate those claims. The phone company also has agreed to reimburse customers who can show their mobile phones were used without their permission since 2003.

Brown’s office also will be paid $500,000 by AT&T for investigative costs.

“We have agreed to these extra steps for the protection of our customers,” said company spokesman Ted Carr. “While AT&T has admitted no wrong doing in this matter, we believe today’s agreement is the right thing to do.”

The attorney general said the probe was launched after his office began receiving customer complaints in 2006.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 12th, 2007 at 10:30 and is filed under Consumer Complaints. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.