"Why I Never Want Anything To Do With Verizon Ever Ever Again"
Verizon is finally installing FiOS in my area. But I'll never use it. I'll never sign up for another Verizon account in my life, and I'm encouraging my parents to change to a different service when their Verizon cell contracts end soon. Over the course of eight months, I've become completely appalled at the horrible customer service I've gotten from that company.
This all started in March of this year, St. Patrick's Day, to be precise. While out with friends, my phone slipped out of my pocket without me noticing. It wasn't until the next morning (Sunday) that I realized I didn't have my LG Chocolate phone. I traced my footsteps back, hoping I'd be able to find it, with no luck. A couple of hours later, when my roommate woke up, he realized he had a missed call. Hours after I lost the phone, someone had called his number from it. They left no message, and when we tried calling the phone back, it would go straight to voicemail. Hoping that whoever had the phone would call back again, I held off on contacting Verizon to report the phone stolen. By Monday morning, having still not been able to contact the person who had my phone, I called Verizon and reported all the details I've relayed so far - not only that my phone was lost, but that someone apparently had the phone. I was told that the phone would be placed on Verizon's lost/stolen list so that if someone else attempted to register the phone on a Verizon Wireless account, they would be able to do so (although I would not be given this information to help me find the phone). The phone would also be deactivated for a month and would be removed from my account.Yuck! We certainly do hope that Verizon is able to call off the debt collectors because there's not much you can do once your debt has been sold. We have some tips for dealing with abusive debt collectors by phone, and a sample letter for disputing a debt collection notice.Writing the phone off as gone, I bought a used Verizon Razr off eBay, which I received within a few days. I once again called up Verizon Customer Service. In that call, I registered the Razr with my account, and also checked again that my old phone was off my account. I was told that because my account was a single-phone plan, there was no way for both the Chocolate and the Razr to be registered simultaneously. The Razr was associated with my account, and therefor the Chocolate could no longer be used with my account.
Fast forward one month, towards the end of April. I logged into my bank's online access, and realized I had a negative amount of money, when I should have had a few hundred dollars. Looking at the pending transactions, a charge of $435.03 had been debited from my account the day before. I was stunned. The only bill I pay that's over $150 is my rent - there was no reason I should have such a large debit on my account. I hadn't lost my debit card, so I first checked those accounts which are automatically debited from my checking account. It didn't take long to find the culprit. Verizon showed a just-paid bill - sum $435.03. I opened the bill online and quickly scanned it - I had a couple of new media services that had been added to my bill (which then charged me for the prorated current month, plus next month for each of the services). But the kicker was the hundreds of dollars of data downloads. Music, games, ringtones - if you could get it from VZServe, it was charged to my account.
Remember also that this is the end of April - the 20th, in fact. I have to send my rent check out, but I have negative money. I call Verizon, and explain the situation. I'm already pretty sure of what's happened - the month that the Chocolate was deactivated for is over, and whoever has it is using it to make charges to my account. To make a long story short, I talk to numerous customer service reps over the next few days, explaining and reexplaining the situation. I am told that it is impossible for the Chocolate to still be able to charge downloads to account. I am told numerous times by supervisors and regular reps that they're looking into the issue and will call me back in an hour/this evening/tomorrow morning. I am told that I am lying, and that I must go to my local Verizon store and show them my Razr to prove that the data downloaded is not on that phone. I spend two hours sitting in that store, waiting as the store rep talks to the customer service rep, on my phone. It is determined that the data is not on the Razr.
Finally, on the 26th, I get somewhere. A database tech hears about my problem and looks into it. Apparently, when the Chocolate was deactivated and taken off my account, there was a problem. The Chocolate was removed from my account for the most part, but in some database, it was still connected to my account. This might, incidentally, explain why there were times when friends would call me and the line would ring and ring, without going to voicemail, and without my Razr ever actually ringing. Troy Brice, the supervisor I've been talking with for the past day or so, apologizes again and again. Yes, they can cancel my service. No, they won't charge me an early termination fee. They'll refund my entire bill (even the part that was actually my bill), and they'll even pay me back the horrible $100 overdraft fee that my checking account incurred for being so overdrawn (though I was required to send them a screenshot of my online checking account to prove that I was charged an overdraft fee). I get only apologies for the fact that I haven't had any money for the past week, as this fell between my biweekly paychecks. I should get my money in 4-6 weeks. Yeah, 4-6 weeks. This is, obviously, not acceptable. Troy and I chat for a little while, and he discovers that he can expedite the transaction. I'll have my money in 2-3 days - the amount is just under $600.Late the next week, I do get my money deposited into my checking account - about $300. This pissed me off. I had no problem paying my actual bill, but my actual bill was only about $55, not $300. I go to their website and attempt to log into my account, but I can't. That was shut down when I closed the account. So I call customer service again and explain the situation. Again. They grant me limited access to my online account so that I'm able to see my last couple of bills. I quickly spot the problem - they're still charging me for the extra services and the data downloaded through them. I call Troy's line and leave a message. No reply back. Ever. So I go back to the regular reps. Again and again, they can't help me. My calls are dropped. They can't request refunds. When they can and take my bank information, the refund request is gone when I call back later to see how it's going. There are no supervisors available.
Finally, after dealing with this for over a month, I give up. I got some of my money back and I'll never have to deal with them again - I've got a new Cingular phone. Not a perfect solution, but better than nothing.
Fast forward to yesterday, December 10th. I have, in the intervening time, moved. I go to my mom's house, where I still get some mail because I used it as my permanent address while I was in college. And I have mail! I owe Verizon $114.07 and they've sold my account to Miracle Financial Inc, a collection agency. Add the agency's fees, and they want $134.60 from me. I have 30 days to dispute the validity of the claim.I call the agency's number, at about 5:15 PM, and talk to [redacted], who is surprisingly polite and helpful, though she does ask me multiple times if I'd like to settle the debt, even though the first thing I told her was that I was calling to dispute the entire thing. She asks me to explain, and I do. She tells me that she can put a comment that I'm disputing the debt in the notes on the account, but that I should fax a letter, detailing why I'm disputing the debt, to the agency's Client Service Department, and gives me the fax number. They will then contact Verizon directly and discuss it with them.
I then call Verizon. At this point, I now want all my money back, so all I want right now is my bills. I'd had copies of them on my laptop but, foolishly, I'd deleted them after a few months. I need them in order to itemize each item and see what I should and shouldn't be charged for. Zach (who won't give me his last name), the supervisor who I explained my situation to, cannot give me access to my Verizon online account. He also cannot email or fax the bills. He can only send them by mail, which might take a few weeks for me to actually receive them. I inquire as to when I was first billed the $114.07 - July. So my account is already, in Verizon's eyes and quite possibly in the eyes of various credit reporting agencies, five months past due. Plus, I've got that 30 day deadline to dispute the debt.
A quick sidenote - Zach checked what address they had on file for me - it was my previous address. I'd never updated them because I had no business with them anymore. So I never received the bill back in July. Why I was billed in July for a service I cancelled in April, I have no idea.I told Zach to please send me the July bill, and the last three bills before the account was closed.
I then went to consumerist.com and looked up Verizon's Executive Customer Service number. I called the number, and left a message, detailing my tale much more concisely than I've done here and asked to be called back. It's now 9:30 AM, and I haven't heard back yet. I'll call again later this morning. As soon as I send this, I'm writing a fax to send to the collection agency, ccing it to whatever fax numbers I can find for Verizon.I'll send updates as more happens (or doesn't happen, which is more probable given Verizon's track record on this issue).
Veronica
(Photo:Ben Popken)
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Comments:
I just called Verizon Wireless this morning to request a credit for the 5 spam messages I received Sunday night - they were obscene, and vulgar. The most a manager said I would get credited: $0.50! I asked to speak to cancellations, and then they gave me $25 for my inconvenience.
Also, I can't log into MyAccount on Firefox anymore, and verizon wireless has stated, "yeah, we no longer support Macs."
Seriously?!?!
Comcast did something similar to me a few years ago- I canceled my account and moved halfway across the country. Lo and behold, a month later I have a bill for 200 bucks. The people that moved in after us were not only able to keep the service, but add on premium channels and add a pay per view package. Luckily my situation was a little more obvious, as I proved my new residence and saved all my paperwork for returning my boxes. It was still a hassle though- you'd think it would be a fairly obvious situation.
I ditched them after six years of cellular service because they refused to refund a HUGE erroneous bill which drained my bank account and caused my student loan checks to bounce, thereby trashing my 100% pays on time discount and raising my interest rate 2%.
Verizon regocnized their error and started the six week process to get me a credit. I told them that was unacceptable - if you can take it out instantly you can put it back instantly. I was told that if I didn't pay (even though it wasn't my fault) they'd send it to collections!
I ported my number to Cingular an hour after the call. Verizon called me two days later (on day after the loan checks bounced) asking what they could do to fix the issue and bring me back - after all I'd been a loyal customer for six-years.
I asked them to credit my bank account for the erroneous billing, which they did while I was on the phone (why couldn't they do that before?) and then asked for $5000 to cover the interest they cost me by billing me five-times my normal monthly rate. The guy laughed. I said I was serious. He was silent. I hung up on him.
5 spam messages? 5 x 10cents to receive = 50 cents, no? Am I missing something?
So very annoying!
This is a major reason why I don't let the vast majority of my vendors auto-debit from my account. It's a lot harder to get money back from them compared to giving it to them.
PS - T-Mobile, you still owe me $150 plus an apology.
The evil cell providers will be taken down someday by the consumers of the world.
1) If you're going to auto-debit use a credit card
at least then you can dispute the charge
2) Keep your dispute letter brief
something like--
"Pursuant to the FDCPA I dispute these charges.
They were made from a stolen phone after it
was reported stolen to Verizon. It is inconvenient
for you to call me at any time please send all
communication in writing"
I would send it certified mail -- return receipt.
Then you wait for them to either fix it or call
you again. If they call you after being
asked not to in writing... I would then march
down to small claims and sue them as
allowed under the FDCPA....
I had a similar situation involving a
"zombie" debt collector and an ancient
bill they were trying to collect
from my wife.
I never let a company auto debit from my account. If a company needs to bill me then I have a credit card specifically for that. I've already worked for my money once. I do not need a heartless company incorrectly taking my money and making me work again to get it back.
If a company screws up I only pay what I know is owed and make them fix the problem.
A bit of a digression, but in no way a "blame the victim" comment...
Why do so many let companies automatically draft from their accounts? My wife and I have Verizon, and they've never indicated any savings whatsoever for allowing the automatic drafts from my checking account. In fact, the only automatic draft I have set up is one of our student loans, and only because there's a 0.5% interest discount is I allow that.
I've gotten slammed before with a huge unexpected bill - from Verizon no less, for $550 when my normal monthly bill is less than $100. Even though the bill was entirely my fault, you're in a much better position to negotiate when they don't already have their money. In my case I had them rerate my entire contract and didn't pay a dime of the $450 in overages I had that month.
Verizon doesn't like to pay money it owes. After a year of fighting them on an ETF they falsely claimed I owed them, I just gave up. Still haven't paid but it will be off my record in a year or so.
Great story. I'm not surprised. I used Verizon's FIOS on Long Island, and (Honest to God) each time I call they have NO RECORD OF MY ACCOUNT! The last time I called, I swore. The person literally told me, "I wouldn't talk to me that way if I were you. I know who you are and where you live." I know that was BS, because he had no record of who I was!.
Solution, and I know this is old tech, pay all your bills with checks or credit cards. Credit cards are better because they have legal services that pursue your money when you get screwed.
"And I have mail! I owe Verizon $114.07 and they've sold my account to Miracle Financial Inc, a collection agency. Add the agency's fees, and they want $134.60 from me. I have 30 days to dispute the validity of the claim."
Uh, correct me if I'm wrong, but debt collection agencies cannot add on any fees beyond what you owe the original creditor. Check "Unfair practices [15 USC 1692f]" of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
@Caswell: I use auto-debit with Verizon and they always send me an e-mail 5 or 6 days before they take the funds out stating how much they're going to take out, which leaves me plenty of time to take auto-debit away or call them to renegotiate before they have my money.
I've had extremely poor experiences with Verizon as well. I changed to Earthlink VOIP (another nightmare) and canceled my Verizon landline. I had made the mistake of having them auto debit my account; when I canceled the account I wanted to cancel the auto debit, something that I could never figure out how to do. I called Customer Service and was told that they were closed because even though I live in California, CA's customer service is based on the East coast - after finally contacting them and being assured my auto debit was stopped, it never was. Months later after running up a sizable credit balance with them, I received a refund check in the mail. It has been over 6 months since I've canceled service and I still receive statements from them. At least my balance is zero.
But don't take that last comment as support for Verizon. I've been a customer of theirs for 5 years. I moved to a new apartment where the phone averages 40-50 dropped calls a month. Finally I couldn't take it anymore and called them to tell them I would be switching - only until I moved someplace else, mind you. I emphasized how well the phone has worked literally everywhere else, and that I would re-join Verizon once I was in a place where the phone worked.
My contract expires January 15th, and after 5 years of loyal service with never a late payment, they wouldn't let me end my contract 4 WEEKS EARLY without charging me the FULL $175 early termination fee. This is after talking to 3 or 4 CSR's and being very polite and concise with each of them. Well guess what? Once the contract is up, I'm never going back. They lost what would have amounted to thousands of dollars over $175.
What ticks me off on Verizon's setup is they gimp their cellphones so they can't sync address books etc.
When my contract goes up and this phone dies, I'm getting an iPhone.
@Caswell: I let everyone charge my credit cards. If they bill me for something unexpected, I can chargeback the transaction. Plus I get my rewards payments from my CC.
@form3hide: Well, I think that verizon should be a little more accountable - more than $0.50 - for letting vulgar spam slip through on a motherfucking Monday morning (Sunday night) at 3am. $25 is fair, $0.50 is a slap in the face. Their solution was to allow me to "block text messages altogether." It's a shame that you have to go through the cancellations department in order for anyone to be held accountable.
And seriously, I'm not the only Mac User (or firefox user) in the country. I shouldn't have to go to work just to pay my bills online because some company is chinsing out on making a website accessible from both Firefox and IE.
I completely agree with not allowing automatic withdrawals.
A number of years ago I even had a problem with a pre-authorized cheque. The long distance phone carrier I was dealing with decided to change my fixed monthly fee without telling me and started withdrawing more money from my account, which eventually resulted in cheques bouncing. My bank insisted that they could only stop a cheque if they knew the amount, and that they trusted the carrier's bank to verify the amount on the cheque, and that they couldn't tell me what the carrier's bank was for privacy reasons. I ended up closing the account, changing banks and I have never allowed any form of automatic withdrawal again.
First off, Verizon is screwing you.
Hopefully you will have some luck with the executive custumer people. HOWEVER, when you lose your credit card to you wait around to see if you can find it? No way! You report it lost imidiately. Same thing with you cell phone. If you legitimatly lose it then call and repot it so things like this don't happen.
@Buran: Yes, but only if you opened your account after a certain date - Verizon only started doing it for customers that opened their accounts this fall.
Veronica was lazy and dumb. Verizon, and any company that sets up automated payments for fluctuating accounts, just took the obvious advantage of said laziness and dumbness.
You are responsible to protect yourself at all times. Quit being lazy and dumb. Cancel the automated payments and review your bills before paying them.
@aparsons: Are you kidding? Receiving unwanted texts damaged you to the amount of $25??? Your compensation was disproportionate to your loss, yet you feel like you deserved it or even more.
Don't ever let any company, even one you like, into your bank account with permission to routinely take what they think they are owed. Make the rounds of the web sites each month and pay them what you think you owe them or write a frigging check now and then. The mail folks have to eat, too.
Pre-pay is the only way I will deal with those people. If you can call them people.
I was woken up to obscene spam text messages. Five times. And then I wasted an hour trying to get into pay my bill online. $25 is fair.
I use Sprint wireless (contract's up in August, yay!), and while I do have automatic payments set up to charge on my credit card, it doesn't charge my card until about 3 weeks after receiving my statement. I just make sure to actually *look* at the statement and not ignore it.
my bank account is like a castle with a mote full of alligators around it. I will NEVER let anyone in without my permission. Automatically drafting money from your account is just plain stupid.
However, As a verizon wireless customer I find it completely stupid that their website no longer supports Firefox.
So the hate for IE (or the love of Firefox) is so great that people would rather default on an account, spend quality time with an automated phone system, or waste time at work than simply install IE to be used once a month to perform a super simple task?
Where is the logic in that?
@HOWIE_IN_AZ: Thanks for the tip. I don't plan on paying either Verizon or Miracle Financial money that I don't owe in the first place, but I didn't know that a collection agency couldn't charge their own fees.
@CHRISHOP - I would normally agree, but I didn't see why whoever had my cellphone would call one of my contacts. And I have this nasty habit of believing the best of people until they prove me wrong. Either way, the charges didn't start until after the phone automatically reactivated, 30 days after I reported that it had been stolen - nothing was charged in the day I waited.
While I don't use automatic debit anymore for any account, the ultimate issue here is that Verizon allowed someone to use a phone I'd reported as stolen a month before, a phone that was not supposed to be connected to my account in any way, to charge data downloads to my account. Then, two months after they realized and acknowledged their mistake, two months after I completely closed my account and was assured that I owed nothing more, they charged $114.07 to me and then sent the bill to an address I no longer live at.
Um, the real lesson here is not to set up automatic payments where issues like these can happen from your BANK account.
If the payment was done thru a credit card, you dispute it and the cc company takes care of it.
@APARSONS
Are you using Firefox from a Mac, and it's the Mac they don't support? I just used Firefox from a PC to pay my VZW bill without any problems.
How does their website no longer support Firefox? I used Firefox to pay my wireless bill less than a week ago?
And not to pile on, but you should never allow any company to directly debit your bank account. This is what happens.
For me, the biggest lesson here is not to use autopay. I have always been appalled at how many people sign up for auto pay with their phone bills, electric, credit cards etc . . . if they have your money, they don't want to give it back. Even if you autopay on a credit card vs. debit, it's still a big hassle. I once disputed a charge on my credit card for shoddy services--they sent me a thick enveloped of paperwork I needed to fill out. It was a pain in the butt and time consuming and I lost which meant the charges reappear.
I have T-Mobile and though I am never late cause I know my due date and it hasn't changed in 3+ years, the late fee is only $5 if in case I forget to pay it. I pay online, but there's mail, there's any T-Mobile kiosk, and there's a payment center next to my post office, bank, grocery store etc . . . All I can say is once they have your money, or the charge on your card and there is a disupte, it is that much more time consuming and harmful than if they had zero money and you are in a much better position to play hardball.
@wesrubix: I have to dispute that--it's autopay period. I have disputed a credit card charge, had to fill out the paperwork, was denied, filed an appeal which means more paperwork, was denied, and the charge reappeared. It's still a pain in the butt and if you lose, you have to pay it or worry about interest fees, etc . . .
I use Firefox and Verizon's website works just fine. So I don't know what commentor-above's problema is. A
nyway, I have their auto-bill-pay and I get the email that it's coming up and it's charged to my credit card. My cable bill, and most of my other bills get charged to that credit card and then I only have to do a 1x a month online bill-pay to that credit card from my checking account. Super sweet.
@youbastid: Indeed. I tried to cancel my account recently and was informed of this.
I had a lovely encounter with Verizon recently. On their website my usage said I was 100 texts under my plan (with my cycle ending that night). When I got my bill I found out I was actually 50 messages over. When I tried to complain about that, they said that the 'usage' page on their site is just an estimate (even though it doesn't say "estimate" anywhere on the page).
And then when I inquired (nicely) about what incentive I had to stay with Verizon when my plan expires in a couple months the lady got all annoyed/defensive saying "well sir, those are our plans, we can't make up a plan where we give you more minutes and charge you less!"
I feel for you. I went through a similar situation with Sprint and Cingular/ATT.
1. Document everything
2. Submit it to the Better Business Bureau
3. Submit it to the Attorney General's office in your state. (cc Verizon - its amazing how fast they try to resolve issues when its escalated to the Attorney Gen office)
4. Don't ever sign up for auto payment. You basically have to close your bank account or change your credit card number to stop the reoccuring payments.
Good luck to you.
@aparsons: Looks like something was up on Sunday night. I received 2 spam texts but I deleted them immediately since I was mad. The next morning I wondered if I dreamed the whole thing.
As for the OS/browser problems, I just tried to log in to my Verizon account on my Mac through Firefox and had no problem at all. Perhaps they already fixed this?
I am using safari on a mac to access my account. If you have a mac you should have safari. (Granted I still can't figure out the bookmarking on this browser - so crappy compaired to firefox), but i have no trouble accessing verizonwireless.com through this browser. Also - a word to the wise, firefox, while agreed - awesome, uses up a lot of RAM and can mess with other programs that are running. Just an FYI.
So the hate for IE (or the love of Firefox) is so great that people would rather default on an account, spend quality time with an automated phone system, or waste time at work than simply install IE to be used once a month to perform a super simple task?
IE requires Windows. Windows requires paying money to Microsoft. This, I refuse to do, because I can get a superior product (Ubuntu Linux) for a much lower price ($0.00).
A company called AFNI handles most of Verizon Wireless's Customer Service. Just keep in mind, when you call "Verizon" you're actually talking to outsourced employees who only are doing what their script tells them to do. Even the supervisors have scripts to go by. It's illegal for someone to take money out of your pocket on the street, but its okay for Verizon to take money out of your checking account. You're best bet is to go to your bank and dispute the charges and say that they were not authorized. What happens then is.. You are credited the money back into your account, Verizon loses that money, and has to pay $35 as a chargeback fee. If Verizons chargebacks equal over 1% over a month, they will lose their privledges to process credit cards.
I've had similar problems. My wife got her phone stolen. They didn't properly execute the protection plan we purchased - so it wasn't on the account. My wife goes in, and tries to get a new phone to find this out. After some battle with them, they pretty much tell her to "f off". Yes, the guy actually used those words. I'm driving on my way home when she tells me this. I stop by the store and make a fairly large scene. It was the manager of the store that actually said this! I reported it to Verizon, and they were willing to give me a whopping $25 credit.
Long story short - we've been with Verizon for over 7 years. I want to cancel my contract. I'm tired of the bad customer service, the poor billing practices, etc. Problem is, I don't want to pay the cancelation fees. If you look at their contract, THEY can terminate the contract if they see so fit based on comments made. I feel I should have the same right, considering what they told my wife. In short, had to get a new phone - was cheaper than canceling the service, which would cost me $325 according to them because there are 2 lines with the contract!
I've had really good experiences with Verizon, and reading this makes me sad. What is it about their support that the CSRs have to be constantly reminded of this poor gal's story? How can they not dedicate one intelligent manager to her case? I'm so baffled by this. I've worked in support (for software, mind you, and for a smaller company with many few clients) but we're so careful to develop a good relationship with customers, and that includes maintaining detailed records of our interactions with them.
Also, even though it's illegal, I think we as consumers should all start recording all of our phone calls to CSRs. I don't care if it's admissible in court. It's only fair that we should have a record of what's been said.
I have had only one experience with Verizon Wireless's customer service representatives in the 5 years that I have used their services.
I recently purchased a house in April only to find out that my Verizon RAZR and my fianceés Samsung phone (also through Verizon) did not receive any signal inside our house. The reception out in our front yard and back porch was almost as bad.
Calling Verizon, I had to jump through one or two minor hoops such as visiting the store to get a technician to look at the phone. However, every representative was courteous and helpful and none refused to give me their full names.
My experience with their customer support team actually made my (almost) regret leaving them. However, I've never been happier with my new service provider (even though I am sure they are probably just as evil as the last).
Sue. Sometimes it takes the threat of a judge ordering a company to get them to do something.