Two Marines, a husband and wife, found Verizon had an unpleasant welcome-home gift waiting for them when they got back from serving in Iraq: canceled cellphones, a $500 bill, and their phone numbers were given to other people. Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, when a soldier goes off to war, they’re able to send their deployment letters to their service companies and get their service put on hold. Apparently in the case of Haley Katz and her husband, that letter wasn’t good enough. When they complained a reached a manager, the manager told them it was their fault they owed the money, and then hung up on them. Read their letter as published in Stars and Stripes, inside…
At 3:30 a.m. [recently], my husband and I called Verizon Wireless to reactivate our phones, as we are returning home [from Iraq] soon and wanted to catch the company during its business hours. Upon speaking with a customer service representative, it became apparent that Verizon not only suspended our contracts, it disconnected our phones and gave our numbers away to other customers.
What is truly amazing is that the company took the letters our commanding officers signed regarding our deployment dates, and deemed the letters not worthy of suspending our contracts. It continued to charge us for those months without notifying us and when we did not pay, it disconnected the lines.
Long story short, when we called to reactivate our phones they told us our numbers no longer existed and that we owed them nearly $500!
When we asked to speak to a manager, we were told nothing could be done. When we did actually speak to a manager we were told it was our fault that we owed the money. The manager then proceeded to say “We’re sorry but nothing can be done for you. Goodbye.”
We were hung up on … in Iraq … at 3:30 in the morning. Real professional.
We spoke to another manager who was courteous enough to recredit our accounts and cut all remaining ties with their service. We are no longer with Verizon Wireless.
For all of the soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen out there, make sure you are checking up on the status of your accounts. Apparently, a letter from your command stating you are deploying is not enough these days. And aside from seeing servicemembers off at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point (N.C.), I am not sure what else they are looking for.
Marine 2nd Lt. Haley Katz
Camp Fallujah, Iraq
There’s gratitude for ya.
(Thanks to Casey!)
(Photo: nukeit1)
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If the letters from their COs were insufficient, then Verizon should have notified them of this so they could have provided a copy of their orders. Verizon knew why the bills were not being paid – it wasn’t jsut delinquency. I can understand if Verizon’s rules (or the SCRA) requires additional documentation, but shouldn’t they have at least made a minimal effort to obtain it?
It sounds like one very bad customer service manager at Verizon, not the entire company.
Their second call got them a courteous response and a credit.
The first guy should be made an ex-Verizon customer service manager.
@kc2idf:
It says “letters” not “orders.” I read that as “we had our commander write us a letter saying we were deployed”, not the official deployment papers from the Military. I’m not doubting that they sent something, I’m doubting whether it was “official” enough. I perceive a vast difference between official orders and a letter from your commander. Like the difference between a note from the doctor saying you’re sick and a note from mom saying that the doctor said you’re sick. Since Verizon is not obligated under the law to suspend, they are free to require whatever doc’s they want. If they didn’t get what they require, I can see why they reacted in the manner they did.
I don’t really see anywhere that Verizon acknowledged the fact that they received letters. To me, that is somewhat glossed over, which means that they probably didn’t get the letters. If they said yeah, we received your letters, and here’s a big f-u to both of you, then it’s definitely a problem. If they never got the letter, which is impossible to decide based on the irate (justified) explanation posted above, then at least Verizon owned up and refunded the money. Not much they can do about the phone numbers.
@Pylon83: You know, I think you’re probably on the same internets as we are. These are things you could find out for yourself, instead of demanding that others prove your baseless assertions wrong.
Now, using the magical power of Google, I’ve found the text of the act. Why don’t you put a little work into your arguments instead of automatically gainsaying everyone else’s? Heck, you might even be able to prove yourself right.
I’m pretty sure there is a difference between a letter from their CO and official deployment orders. I bet if they were to furnish those, everything will be peachy, except for the fact their numbers are gone (don’t see how they are going to get those back).
Call Ermey…..he’s probably gonna rip their heads off and crap down their fiber optics.
@CumaeanSibyl: go, go google power!
@Pylon83: Can you cite the specific provision of the law that says they must excuse service contracts?
How about Verizon’s OWN POLICY? I searched for ‘military deployment’ on verizonwireless.com, was it really that hard?
[news.vzw.com]
Also you keep arguing about how maybe they didn’t send in the right paperwork, etc. Go look it up instead of posting 10 times about maybe this and maybe that. From that same link: “Be prepared to provide military base and commanding officer information.” To me that says an official letter from the CO is sufficient. And yes, I noticed that the link above is a 2007 news announcement about changes to the policy, but the policy for suspending service for military members was already in place before that date.
@graffiksguru: This is a difference but not much. A Commanding Officer (who is commissioned) has notary power. His signature on a document has the same weight as any notarized document. In addition, as an official of the United States government, a signed letter from a Commander almost always holds more weight than orders. There are many cases of orders being cut for a service member (or groups of service members) that are never executed (usually last minute issues that prevent their execution).
I’ll be changing service providers upon my return to the states as well.
Welcome home Marine!!
//
SGT Brandon True
US ARMY NATO
i have no opinion on cell phone service providers, but i’m glad you’re back home, safe, and in one piece.
Actually- I have a nephew who’s just been deployed, and this act applies to ALL credit accounts, including utilities, cell phones, leases,credit cards, etc. Verizon dropped the ball big time@Pylon83:
Some folks here are misinformed. The SCRA has several provisions. One allows servicemembers to terminate housing or vehicle leases, another requires lenders to reduce interest rates on revolving credit for reservists and those new to the service. Lastly civil court cases must be stayed until the service member returns so creditors cannot obtain a default judgement while the service member is deployed. As an Army legal assistance attorney I have had success in getting these types of fees reduced or accounts put on hold with a letter. Anyone finding themselves in a similar situation should go to their post/base legal assistance office to speack with a military attorney for free.
My Verizon wireless contract is ending in about a month. I’ll be mentioning this to the CSR as one of the many reasons I’m leaving them. It’s illegal and unethical, Verizon deserves to get a big slap.
@ClayS: Really?
I didn’t know they found proof of Al Qaeada’s operations in Iraq.
If Sprint and AT&T weren’t even bigger scum I’d leave Verizon when my contract expires.
The act states loosely that:
No military member shall be required to pay ANY SERVICE bill while they are deployed to an overseas war location. This would include cable, internet, cell phone, land-line phone, insurance, car loan (Maybe?), or any other SERVICE that they will not be able to use/utilize while deployed.
It also states that you can not be required to cancel or terminate a contract if one exists, but some companies will terminate your contract without fee if you ask them to. The companies are required to either not charge for the service or put it on hold until you return. Either way no bill for that service.
It does however allow for interest to grow on debt, even though payments are not required (I don’t know if this counts for Mortgages and homeowners insurance).
It also allows you to break a home/apartment lease without penalty.
This is all because it can be quite difficult to pay your bills from 8,000 miles away. Mail can take up to 3 weeks to arrive from your post office back home, and then take another week or two to make it back to the states. So paying bills on time is not easy/possible. Yes you could pay bills over the net, but not everyone accepts net payments, and then again, not every military member has internet access to begin with.
This was explained to us in our pre-deployment briefing. Basically to comply with this act you are supposed to send notification to your service companies that you are being deployed for over 30 days. This notification is not REQUIRED to be your orders; it can be an official letter from your commander stating the estimated dates. For my deployment, we didn’t get our orders until we were waiting for the plane to arrive and whisk us off to the Middle East. We were in quarantine so walking to the nearest copy machine to make copies of our orders, and then finding a mail box to send those orders to our service providers wasn’t exactly possible. Then once you are boots on the ground the last thing you are thinking of is “I need to make sure that Cox has my orders” it’s more along the lines of “How do I not get shot on my first day.” Besides, copy machines aren’t really readily available over there either. Something about the government not wanting to pay Halliburton $400,000 for a $6,000 copier or something.
Personally, AT&T/Cingular/AT&T tried to pull the $5 a month account suspension “maintenance fee” on me, and I told them about the act, and that I would not be paying any fee without them talking to base legal first. The CSR kindly “found” the correct military suspension code and took care of that for me.
But what this all comes down to, if something like this happens, this act is supposed to protect you. It’s a pretty decent catch all to corporations, “I’m risking my life for the country, wait for your money.”
Unfortunately your phone numbers are gone, and since they are reassigned you can’t really get them back. But you can press Verizon for some extra compensation, and just remind them of the act that they violated and the fact you risked your life to keep them free enough to rip you off.
ADDITION:
I wanted to also note that I didn’t even have to send AT&T/Cingular/AT&T a letter from my commander, I also never sent any orders, and they had it taken care of before I left, they never asked for either.
But I did take a letter to all of my local companies by hand. The other companies were all satisfied by the letter and charged nothing during my deployment.
@cmdr.sass: It’s only “Bush’s War” when his crew can claim some sort of positive spin on it. (The last few years it seems the White House hasn’t been giving themselves the well-deserved credit for lying us and Congress into the war and bankrupting the country that they so richly deserve).
I can’t imagine what a mess it must be to come back from a warzone to civilian life and try getting some semblance of a normal life back up and running, especially with PTSD so rampant.
@dweebster: Where is this coming from? Good night, you bush haters are worse than any religous zealot you love to complain about. I love how you to love to take the plight of someone who has a genuine problem and use it for your own hatred and loathing. Good night you people are abusers. Stick with the issue and don’t use someone else’s problems as an opportunity to bash the president. Take some responsibility for your self, I guess your name dweebster is an apt description of your maturity level. But then again that’s probably also President Bush’s fault as well.
its one thing to complaint about a carrier’s service/CS towards civilians, but its another thing when they treat military people like that. After this story, i’ve changed my mind and i will be looking towards one of the other carriers when my current contract expires. I refuse to give my hard-earned money to a company that doesnt respect the people putting their LIVES on the line each and every day.
F$ck Verizon.
@penarestel: A lot of people are still confusing the group “Al Queda in Iraq” with the Al Queda that organized the 9/11 attack. The latter organization was largely based in Afghanistan and had no presence in Iraq. In the chaos after the invasion a terrorist group formed in Iraq and borrowed the Al Queda “brand name” to get themselves some added clout. You won’t hear anyone in the Bush Administration pointing out that these are separate groups, however, because conflating the two bolsters their agenda.
If a copy of the actual orders were actually required, wouldn’t it suck if doing so would constitute espionage? Say, for a secret assignment?
Why don’t these Marines leave out the “Executive Email” part of EECB and just carpet bomb Verizon? They could write “Can you hear me now?” on the nose of the bombs
Gee, that’s funny because I had no big problems suspending my contract with Verizon when I was in Iraq for a year. I do believe they gave my number away, and I had to resubmit my orders after six months, but I was never charged any bogus fines. I am also pretty sure that if you just called them up and resubmitted your actual orders, they would clear everything up. I think this story is blown way out of proportion.
@MasterShazbot: That would be comforting for a little while, but then the bill for the bombs would come in, $500 would look like pocket lint compared to the bomb bill.
I may not support the War in Iraq (for the record, I’m Canadian), but those brave souls over there risking their lives for what they believe in deserve our support! If this wasn’t a law, Verizon should still have supported the troops! But, from what I understand, it IS a law! You guys have courts down there, make sure you make an example of Verizon…
@Phantom_Photon: That is unnecessary. They do it for us.
Seriously though, could Verizon ask for worse PR? Surely they didn’t believe that this would go unheard. Things like this make the mere mention of Verizon’s name around a VFW hall blasphemy.
if you have so many questions and concerns about how verizon handles military suspensions, maybe you should call them… they can give you the info right over the phone. the one guy was right.Verizon WILL actually temporarily suspend the service or disconnect for NO FEE-WITH the required documentation. And i’m almost sure you don’t even need documentation anymore. Just because of situations like this where so many people got pissed about something they HEARD and didnt know both sides of the story. Again, the guy could have been treated better, but we dont know how that went down either-