Verizon Cancels Returning Marines' Cellphones, Gives Their Number Away, Charges Them $500
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.There's gratitude for ya.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
(Thanks to Casey!)
(Photo: nukeit1)
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Comments:
Soldiers and Sailors Act has you covered.
All you need to do is drop those four words and if they protest, ask to speak to the legal department re: federal compliance issues.
/Marine
That's enough.
Someone publish the EECB address for Verizon. Then lets ALL carpet bomb them.
It's the least we can do for these two heroes.
It sounds like they may not have sent a copy of their deployment orders, as required by the act. Further, I'm not sure, from a cursory reading of it, that cell phone contracts are covered by the SCRA. It speaks to apartment leases and installment contracts (which a cell phone is not), but not to service contracts. Unfortunately, unless they are probably out of luck with regard to their numbers, but a whole-hearted plea to the company will likely result in a resolution.
Verizon is just full of scums.
You stay classy Verizon!
That is the lowest of customer service.
Every customer deserves the best of service, but this is disgusting. These servicemen are fighting for Verizon's right to be greedy, self-absorbed bastards. And, as repayment for their fighting, these Marines are treated to a $500 bill, disconnected service and an infinitely rude manager at 3:30 am?
Applause is in order, Verizon. If this story were not so far behind the polls, you would be winning the Worst Company of the Year Award. Congratulations.
It's their own fault. They should've known that Verizon would keep billing them and arrange for payment to be made. Really, just because an act of Congress says the account should have been temporarily suspended, what do they want, Verizon to actually suspend it?
Good enough for ya, Dualityshift? ;)
We should stop letting the actions of one person or few people mark an ENTIRE group/community.
This is really sad that Verizon would be a such an ass to our servicemen/women overseas...
Um, last time I checked, that is a LAW...doesnt that mean they could sue? If I was Verizon, I would tread very lightly.
Oooooh boy, Verizon stepped in it now....
Semper Fi, give 'em hell!
you know, i didn't think it possible, but this just bumped virizon past comcast for me as worst company of the year.
thats just cold hearted. Verizon for shame. I wonder if they also sent these two to collections and are ruining their credit. Our soliders deserve better, i spit on verizon.
I am a Verizon customer, and recently had to do go on active duty. Verizon took care of my service correctly. I had to fax in a copy of my orders, tell them the date I wanted service suspended, then they turned it back on for me within 10 minutes of my calling to re-activate.
Sounds like they got unlucky and talked to a bunch of jerks, but just wanted to let you know Verizon did it correctly for me.
Lt Katz,
When you find your next wireless provider, remember to get your military discount. A few weeks back someone posted as message with ALL the wireless providers discount percentages. I'm currently with att, in my opinion they're better than what I had with Sprint. To each their own.
The link to the article
[consumerist.com]
Welcome home!
V/R
A1C Matthew Wilson
Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ
@Pylon83: In my experience with the older version of the act, you are correct. Cell phones probably arent covered. (I say this because I accepted what the phone company told me. D'uh) BUT Cingular placed my cell on a suspended status for 5 dollars a month and allowed me to receive voice mail. So, it worked well for me -- I would pay 5 bucks a month for that service, even overseas.
Funny enough, I never needed to show deployment orders. Even when I left my apartment. Granted, I was already in Kuwait when my buddies packed me out, but the complex basically told me to come back safe.
My experience? All cell phone carriers suck! Verizon, in my opinion, sucks the least. YMMV.
Lt. Katz,
There was an article posted on this site yesterday that I would recommend you checking out to see if you can launch an EECB on the Verizon CEO to get this all worked out. If there is a law, then Verizon clearly needs to abide by it or face a lawsuit.
I wonder if Verizon Wireless is now going to hire Hanoi Jane and Baghdad Babs Streisand to represent their company in commercials now.
@Pylon83: i dont remember if the Act says exactly "cell phones" but i do believe most if not all the major wireless providers provide some sort of "hold service" for military members.
I know that Sprint/Nextel and att both do. now if they sent in the correct info or not is to be decided. the Lt said they sent in a letter with their Commander's signature on it, this should suffice. TDY orders are not always required by a company. usually just a letterhead kinda deal anyways. Verizon doesnt need to know all the deployment info anyways, just that "i'll be gone for abit then im coming back".
Yowzers, bad bad bad bad PR move on Verizon's part.
@Pylon83: Huh? Did you even read it? They article says that the company (Verizon) took the signed letters before they deployed.
They need to get the military/government in on this. Maybe send some of the Verizon management over to Iraq for a few months and see what it's really like.
Personally, I'd love to see a platoon of Marines show up at Verizon's HQ in full combat gear demanding an explanation for how horribly they treat their customers, especially their military customers.
@Imakeholesinu: They re-credited their accounts, so I think they are probably "made whole." However, its a good heads-up to other service members.
@That-Dude:
I'm not saying that Verizon is in the right here, I'm simply not saying what I fell they did was illegal. It would seem that the "proper" thing for them to do in this situation would be for them to pursue a similar course to that of Cingular. I think a nominal monthly charge is appropriate to keep the account open, but I don't believe it should be a "law."
What I meant with regard to the "orders" was that from what he said, he simply sent a letter, not a copy of his orders. If verizon requires a copy of the orders, and he sent a letter saying "Bob's getting deployed" signed by his commander, Verizon was probably right to reject it. I think we need some of the details (regarding that) filled in.
I've been with T-Mobile for 4 years now. I know if my number was suddenly taken away (possibly illegally), a simple credit for fees I didn't owe to begin with would not make me fill "whole" again.
@OminousG: well, unless you can show actual damages, it would be hard to argue that you are not in the same position if you owe no additional fees. Now, if your number is something like 1900 WEDUCKU, and you run a chat service, you may have an argument.
Granted, it sucks, but I don't know how you can place a price on losing a phone number, and most courts won't either.
@Smitherd: They're fighting for Verizon's rights over in Iraq? Really?
Which rights are those?
Last I checked Iraq was nowhere close to invading the US and since we aren't defending our borders from invasion I don't see how our rights are being infringed upon by anyone other than our own government.
Not to knock any of our service members. I wholeheartedly support all of them, I just don't support Bush's war.
@penarestel: Eh. Good call.
I agree about the unnecessary status of this war. Personally, I think it's all a load of crap. I also agree with you that the soldiers deserve every bit of the thanks and appreciation they get. If nothing else, they are just under the command of an incomptetent government, and simply obeying orders, albeit clueless orders. That's the mark of a good soldier, when they follow the orders of their superiors.
I suppose the point I was trying to make is that soldiers fight for our freedoms, whether or not this war is relevant to said freedoms. Next time, I'll try to make my point a little clearer. Thanks for calling me out on clarification.
@penarestel: I know it helps you sleep at night, but when Congress authorizes and continues to fund said war, it isn't just "Bush's war".
so much for that battalion of verizon folks following you around wherever you go.
i'm generally a pretty civil guy, but even i want to grab a torch & start burning shit every once in awhile.
i think now qualifies as one of those times.
@Pylon83: It is illegal. It's a law. Want to change it? Contact Congress. Until then, company has to respect it, or get fines.
@cmdr.sass: You still believe that Congress follows the will of the people, don't you?
They follow money, everyone does.
If everyone had 11 billion dollars* to pay off enough members of Congress then we all know that things would be completely different.
*11 billion is a completely random number. I don't actually know how much it would take to pay off 2/3 of Congress
@chouchou:
Can you cite the specific provision of the law that says they must excuse service contracts? I'm saying I don't think the law says that. I encourage you to prove me wrong. Further, if you'd read my other comments, I'm not disputing whether or not they sent ANYTHING, I'm disputing whether or not they sent what was actually required. Perhaps you should follow your own advice and read before commenting.
@cmdr.sass: Yes and no. Bush can start a war, and for 60 days it can continue; after this time, Congress must approve its continuation. This keeps the President's power in check, as only Congress can officially declare war. In this sense, yes.
On the other hand, Congress rarely declares war without the President's initiation, and they also rarely deny his war powers. Almost every war the United States has entered into began with the President and Congress then followed suit. They have very rarely stopped his war once it started. So, in this sense, no. It is still technically "Bush's war."
Did they throw puppies off a cliff?
1. Being a hero does not mean you can demand hero benefits -- it is only given and never asked for. The true reward for defending a country is a country defended, and the defender would naturally be satisfied with only that much. If there are bonuses great, but if there aren't, you did what you meant to do for the country. Don't use your hero designation to demand special treatment. It's obscene.
2. Classic example of someone being treated unfairly to a very marginal degree, and then making a giant blanket statement that "company x treats all people-of-my-group like crap!" without bothering to gather further evidence that their simple happenstance.
3. I'm going with Verizon on this one. The bill really is the writers' fault because they assumed Verizon would honor the Act's terms -- by just sending off the letter and forgetting about it -- instead of doing the smart thing and calling them ahead of time to tell them the letter is on the way and to ensure that when the letter is received, that it will be taken care of. What the the writer has instead decided, was akin to throwing to tossing a medicine ball into the air and made elaborate plans for the ball not to bonk them on the head when it came back down -- and is angry that their plans were ruined for extremely predictable results.
4. According to information from the SCRA link in the article, cell phone services are not described even remotely under available protections.
@penarestel:
They are fighting Al Qaeada in Iraq. Al Qaeada damaged Verizon property at 140 West St. on 9-11-01.
I always knew the Verizon guy looked like a terrorist!
Verizon is a big company and it has managed to employ some idiots.
Make the next call. Be civil, explain calmly, and mention the law without mentioning lawyers.
Verizon is big enough that they also employ someone intelligent enough to fix this.
If that doesn't work, get a lawyer.
Those numbers will be hard to get back, unfortunately. If they were vital, you may need a lawyer earlier.
This just makes me want to punch the "can you hear me now" dude in the face even more.
remember what the president just said...
"We should THANK the telecom companies!"
Thank you, Verizon!
@Pylon83:
t sounds like they may not have sent a copy of their deployment orders, as required by the act.
I'm not sure I agree with you. From the article:
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.
In order for this statement to be valid, the letters would have to have been presented, don't you think? I could be wrong, of course.
Blame the Marines in 5... 4... 3... 2...