UCAN

A new federal law provides a minimum 90 days' eviction notice to most tenants affected by residential foreclosures. This is 30 days more than the current California law which provides 60 days' notice.

Read more

Cell phone users along the Mexican border from San Diego to Brownsville have reported being billed for international roaming calls that originate in the United States.

A current Sprint customer was charged for overlapping international roaming calls and charged for calls that appear to be made at the same time on both sides of the border.  Many of the alleged calls were to the same unknown numbers for which the customer and his family had no connection.  UCAN checked the billing history and also called the unknown numbers to see if these numbers were connected to the customer or his family in any way. Furthermore, the customer's bill showed a 6-minute call at 12:54 pm, a 1-minute call made at 12:56 pm, a 10-minute call made at 12:57 pm and another 1-minute call made at 1:05 pm.  The first call overlapped the 2nd and 3rd calls by 3 minutes.  The 3rd call overlapped the 4th call by 2 minutes. 

If you are a Sprint customer near the border and charged international roaming for calls made while in the United States, or similar issues, please let us know by filling out our Telephone Bill Complaint Form.  Please also fill out the complaint form if you have been a victim of international roaming to Mexico while in the United States while using another cell phone provider, such as Verizon, T-Mobile or AT&T (formerly Cingular).

UCAN interviewed with Channel 10 news reporter Michael Chen regarding a new twist to the tax reassessment letters offering to lower your annual property taxes for a fee.  The letters are very official looking and even include late fee penalties. As will be shown by Michael Chen, the service is free of charge through the San Diego County Assessor's office.  Go to http://www.10news.com/video/18747844/ to see the entire story including an 82-year old victim who paid the requested $186.00 for a promised annual savings of over $600 on her property taxes.  She hasn't heard from the company since she sent and received her canceled check showing it was deposited quickly.

Wireless Tip:  Family Plans mean you share minutes.  Each phone added on the plan shares the total minutes unless the plan is "upgraded".  If you have 2 phones on a Family Plan and decide you only need one, then you no longer get the Family Plan rate.  With one phone you become an individual at whatever the going rate for that phone is at the time of the change.  The trick is to be careful to review the pros and cons of so-called great deals.