Victor, who picked up Verizon’s new iPhone competitor, the Droid, says Verizon billed him for $40 a month in redundant charges.

He writes:

Good morning, I came across a very VERY interesting method of sneaky business when pricing out my Verizon Droid this morning. Verizon is double charging for packages, and ripping customers out of $40/month for those that aren’t paying attention.

When purchasing the plans online, there are options for a Nationwide Select, and one called PDA/Smartphone Nationwide Email & Messaging. Nationwide Select has 450 minutes, unlimited texting and requires the $29.99 Smartphone Data Plan. This comes to a total of $89.99/month. Now when I select the PDA/Smartphone Nationwide Email & Messaging it comes with 450 minutes, unlimited texts, UNLIMITED WEB BROWSING, VZ Navigator, and VZMobile Email. Upon checkout even though I’ve selected a plan with Unlimited Web Browsing, it still charges the $29.99 plan. It’s taking an additional $40 for the same thing. Surely some people are going to buy that plan, not knowing that VZ navigator is useless when compared to Androids Turn By Turn, and the fact that VZ navigator doesn’t work for Android. ALSO that email is built in, there’s no reason to purchase the VZMobile Email application. What bothered me the most was that the plan SAYS unlimited Web browsing, yet upon checkout, it still hits the $29.99 data & email plan.

I called Verizon to get the answer as to why, and the gentleman stated the $29.99 Unlimited Data is for tethering. But there’s no option to remove it. And it’s packaged and labeled the same for both plans. So if the Nationwide Select has a $29.99 data package, and the PDA/Smartphone package has a $29.99 data package, THEY ARE DOUBLE CHARGING FEATURES THAT ARE EITHER BUILT IN THE PHONE, OR CHARGING FOR FEATURES THAT CUSTOMERS HAVE ALREADY CHOSEN IN THE PLAN SELECTION PAGE.

Please pass this on to the readers, they need to know that Verizon is scamming consumers out of an additional $40 month.

Droid users, did you face similar treatment when you signed up?

(Photo: Guy With A Rebel)

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