Deceptive Cell Phone Television Commercials :: Media

It may seem like cell phone television commercials are straightforward and easy to follow, but many people would agree that after a few monthly bills start flowing in, they may form a different opinion. These â€Å"so-simple† cellular phone plans that the companies advocate are often quite misleading to consumers. This is largely due to the fact that companies present viewers with a vague explanation of their services. This is successful in making a person feel the need to sign-up without any apprehensions. Many individuals do not realize that they have been deceived into a contract that they will eventually regret after it is too late. The most common misleading topic that cell phone commercials try to avoid expressing is the costs of the unknown bill charges and where they come from. Cell phone companies work hard to hide as much of the costs as possible from their consumers. They may say a certain rate in the advertisement, but this is the bare minimum in most cases. What they are not telling their costumers are the roaming charges, long distance contingencies, and, if available, text message rates. Indefinite bill charges are very popular problems that occur for most customers. For example, a Sprint customer experienced first hand how Sprint was increasing their monthly rates. The customer had signed up for a $50-a-month plan but did not know what he was paying for until, â€Å"he heard the news that Sprint PCS had been quietly imposing rate increases, tucking them under ‘fees and surcharges’†(Ballheim,2003). People are often not aware of what the whole plan includes because just pieces of favorable information are told to them. When the customer finally realizes the extra costs, and want to change companies, they are slammed with even more charges. The man who was mentioned previously still had to pay another $150 dollars as a penalty fine in order to cancel his service (Ballheim, 2003). This is an all too familiar case with false advertising a cell phone plan. It seems as though the cell phone companies should be the ones who should pay the penalty fine. But, we, the customers, keep paying these deceiving companies to mislead us and charge more money when they do.