Verizon Wireless has responded to allegations by New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) that their ‘TravelPass’ service is scamming U.S. travelers to Israel.
The following is a statement submitted to YWN by a Verizon spokesman:
Let me first reassure you that there is no widespread billing issue related to our TravelPass service.
When a device loses signal from the mobile network it is roaming on, it will scan for a new network to attach to. The search for a new signal doesn’t consider a country’s borders. So, if a customer is traveling along the border of two countries, depending on the location of the cell sites, it is possible their wireless device would connect to the neighboring country’s network – because that signal is the strongest. And if that country’s wireless network is not included in TravelPass, international roaming rates would apply.
That in mind, we have safeguards in place to ensure our customers are not surprised when this happens. For instance, the first time a customer connects to a new international network, we send them a text message with that country’s name and billing rates. To further protect our customers from unexpected charges, in March, we introduced a feature that requires customers to respond and opt in to use data not included in their TravelPass plan. We will continue to look for opportunities to further educate our customers on important things to know while using our TravelPass service.
We appreciate the opportunity to work with New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind on this matter. We encourage any customers with billing questions on TravelPass,to give our customer care team a call at 800-922-0204.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
One Response
Nice and professional. It’s a technical problem and requires a technical solution. It would be interesting to investigate whether the people billed for calls and data in Jordan actually received the text message.