Telco & internet disputes

The single most useful thing to know about a US carrier dispute is that the FCC complaint process is free, takes about ten minutes, and obliges the carrier to respond to you in writing within 30 days. That obligation is why FCC complaints routinely resolve billing disputes that months of phone calls did not — and almost nobody uses it.

If you are being billed for leaving, check what the charge actually is before you fight it. The major wireless carriers largely abandoned early termination fees years ago; what they bill when you leave is usually the remaining balance on a device instalment plan, plus the promotional credits that stop when you go. That is a real debt for a phone you kept and disputing it as an unfair penalty will not work. Genuine termination fees are more common on home internet, TV and bundled promotional contracts.

For a price that jumped, the leverage is disclosure. Since 2024, internet providers must publish a standardised broadband consumer label stating the monthly price, whether it is introductory and what it becomes, every recurring fee, and any early termination charge. If your bill does not match that label, you have a documented gap between what was promised and what was charged — and a documented gap is what makes a complaint work.

Two rights are worth knowing regardless of what you owe. A carrier cannot refuse to release your phone number because of an unpaid or disputed balance: the debt and the number are separate, whatever you are told on the call. And unauthorised third-party charges on your bill, known as cramming, are prohibited outright. Your state attorney general handles the deceptive-practices side, and several have brought large actions against carriers over billing.