When a customer is charged or billed for additional services without their knowledge or consent, it is referred to as cramming. This has been a common problem in the telephone industry, but energy industry regulators have taken steps to prevent this from occurring. A well-known method of cramming is a technique called negative-option billing, in which a customer is given unrequested services or features and billed at a higher rate for these additional services. The customer can only stop receiving the extra services by expressly asking the provider to stop delivering them.

No matter what form cramming takes, it is frowned upon in virtually all industries as an abusive practice.

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