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)

Poor iPhone. Or, smartphone-like device that resembles an iPhone. According to Verizon, its 3G coverage means that it has no place in this world except the island of misfit toys.

Other commercials declare that AT&T users will experience a blue Christmas, and that only the naughty will receive AT&T phones as holiday gifts. Ha ha! Sigh.

Verizon Wireless Launches Three More Anti-AT&T 3G Network Commercials [Gizmodo]

Why would they do such a thing? Not just for the sake of greed. It's because of their "buy one Blackberry, get one free" promotion for the holidays. WIthout the ETF hike, this could have led to an exciting new way to subsidize your purchase of a sexy new Tour: get another Blackberry of any type on the second line, cancel it, eat the $175 ETF, sell it on eBay and profit from the difference. Instead, there's now a $350 ETF, which will decrease by $10 for every month that the phone is activated.

Confirmed: Verizon Wireless to charge up to $350 early termination on "advanced devices" [Boy Genius Report] (Thanks, GitEmSteveDave!)

(Photo: Honou)

Apparently, AT&T is quite concerned that less technically savvy potential customers will look at the maps and think AT&T doesn't work in Montana or something.

Verizon has already changed the commercial to include a disclaimer that voice and data are still available in the white space on AT&T's map, and have removed a reference to AT&T customers being "out of touch." This, however, was not enough for AT&T.

From their lawsuit:

By continuing to use a "3G" coverage map in its advertisements, Verizon is still conveying the message that AT&T has no coverage in the white or blank space included in the map, and thus AT&T customers cannot use their phones in large portions of the United States.

You can read the lawsuit here.

AT&T sues Verizon over 'there's a map for that' ads [Engadget]

(Click chart to view full-size)

"Total Cost of Ownership: Motorola Droid vs iPhone 3GS vs Palm Pre vs MyTouch 3G" [BillShrink]

Here's a list of bullet points from the Motorola press release:

· World's thinnest slide-out QWERTY keyboard

· 3G Web and full HTML browser

· Cinematic 3.7" high-resolution display with more than 400,000 pixels

· Powerful and fast Google voice-activated search

· Run up to 6 apps simultaneously and customize the homescreen with thousands of apps and hundreds widgets from the Android Market

· 5 megapixel camera with flash, DVD-quality video capture and 16GB memory card included

· Integrated work and personal email pushed right to you

· Google Maps Navigation (Beta) with free turn-by-turn directions

The phone is out Nov. 6 and costs $199 with a $100 mail-in rebate and a two-year contract. Verizon owners, are you gonna go for this? iPhone owners, have you stopped laughing yet?

For $79.99, you get unlimited calling, text and data, that's $70 cheaper than Verizon and AT&T, and $20 cheaper than Sprint. There's no discount for buying a new phone, so interested parties should bring their own unlocked phone to the game. Bring on the price wars!

Project Dark Is A Go! [TmoNews] (Photo: emdot)

The problem kept continuing, though, and now Verizon sent the phantom bill to collections. He writes:

I am contacting you because I really could use some help with Verizon high speed internet and phone. My (now) wife and I moved out of our old apartment on 6/15/09, and notified Verizon that we were canceling our service effective immediately.

Every month since then, Verizon has continued to try and bill us for either the phone, the internet, or both services. Every month, I call them and get the charges waived and the account closed again. Every month, they fail to close the account and another month's bill shows up.

This month, Verizon decided to send the bill to a collection agency. So now this is negatively affecting my credit report, not to mention that I still have to deal with this month by month. At this point, "IC Systems" is handling the debt so I assume Verizon is no longer going to work with me on resolving this.

What should Gregory do? Maybe send an Executive Email Carpet Bomb to the company's top brass?

(Photo: Matt McGee)

Now Bonnie wants to help them get back the $600 they overpaid, and Verizon will only meet her 25%.

My senior-citizen parents just discovered that Verizon has been
billing them for both dial-up internet and DSL for two years. They
live in Ventura County, CA. Apparently, when they switched over from
dial-up to DSL two years ago, Verizon just kept billing them for the
dial-up along with the DSL. My folks are older, and not assertive or
tech-savvy, so they never thought to question their bill until two
weeks ago when a computer tech who was fixing their email looked at
the bill and noticed the dial-up charge on there. When my dad
contacted Verizon's customer service to ask about this, they removed
the $24.95/month dial-up charge, but refused to credit them for any of
the two years of overbilling. 24 months of dial-up charges would total
$600.

When I heard this, I was outraged and called up Verizon's customer
service myself last Thursday. The rep I spoke to said that they would
issue my parents a 6-month credit for $149. When I said that was
unacceptable and asked to speak to his supervisor, I was told that the
supervisor, would call my parents within 24 hours. Of
course, they never received a call. From an online search, I found
the phone number for the Verizon Consumer Advocate, and received an
address to mail a written complaint. We are in the process of
composing a complaint letter requesting a full credit.

To me, this is simply outrageous. It would be one thing if my parents
had mistakenly been signed up for additional services or add-ons that
they did not request. In that case, I suppose that Verizon could
reasonably assume that by paying the bill they were tacitly agreeing
to the charges. However, in this case, I can see no justification for
continuing to bill them for an old service that they had replaced with
an upgraded service. To confirm this, I called Verizon New Accounts,
and the sales rep I spoke with said that it was standard practice to
discontinue dial-up when DSL is initiated.

Verizon is clearly at fault and should credit my parents with the $600
they are owed.

This story serves as a very obvious public service announcement: read and understand all of your bills.

The key question is: did Bonnie's parents still have access to dial-up even though DSL was installed and in use? If the dial-up account remained active but unused for the two years, that poses a problem in getting a refund.

On the other hand, if Verizon failed to cancel their dial-up account, as was standard practice, then the original situation is their fault. The length of time it went on, however, is not.

Who do you think is at fault here—Bonnie's parents or Verizon?

(Photo: *nomad*)

William writes:

I have actually been pretty happy Verizon Wireless until very recently.

I have one regular cell phone line with Verizon, and one of those nice little usb broadband modems. I have had both since about 2004. The great thing was that I had the unlimited broadband plan on my modem. They do not offer it anymore so I was proud of being able to keep my unlimited broadband plan.

Earlier this year, my wife and I got divorced. Among the thousands of matters to attend to, was to split our Verizon account into his and hers. I called up Verizon and explained that I needed to remove her from the account and have the account only in my name.

The rep said this was no problem, and it was quick to do. I asked him specifically to ensure there was no changes to account, and if the broadband account would remain the same. He ensured me that this would be the case, and even commented on how cool it was that I had the Unlimited plan. He told me I needed to make sure I kept it. Wise words.

I kept getting bills in the expected amount so I did not verify further at that point. This month I did read my bill, and I notice that my broadband plan has changed from Unlimited as expected to their new 5GB plan. This was clearly an error so I call up VZW to have them correct the error. I spoke at that time to rep number. 322590. She assured me that she would put in a request to have my account updated back to the grandfathered plan and I would get a call back the next day.

3 days passed and I received no notification so I called VZW back. This time I spoke to rep 319729, who was a supervisor she said.

She looked at my account, and said that VZW had refused to put the unlimited plan back on my account, and there was nothing they could do. I requested that because they had failed to provide me with what I was contractually entitled to, that they should release me from the termination charges on the account and allow me to close the account.

Rep 319729 said that it was impossible for VZW to give me the plan and I wanted, and it was impossible for Verizon to release me from my early termination. Now they are charging me $59.99 per/month for a service I did not sign up for, and do not want.

Rep 319729 said that there was a website that listed the terms and conditions that apply when VZW makes a change to the account, and it was my duty to read this mythical piece to understand what they were allowed to do, when they make changes to the account. Rep 319729 did not say what the Url for this document was.

What can I do? They took advantage of me, in a very trying time in my life, and they refuse to fix it, and they even rub my face in it, with this mythical website I am supposed to have read before calling to change my account.

Not cool, Verizon.

(Photo: daysofthundr46)

On her Oregonian blog, Laura Gunderson writes about the cool part — the couple insisted on paying only the $77.99, and even drew up a contract that said that's all they'd have to pay, having a Verizon rep signed it. Verizon didn't honor the contract and cut the couple off in August, after a couple months of service.

Gunderson writes:

"We did everything but pound on the table in order to stress that we would sign up providing there would be no extra fees or charges," said Streed, who also has an online order confirmation stating his monthly bills would be $77.99.

And yet his first bill was more than twice the agreed-upon amount, Streed noted. "Can a person trust Verizon?"

Oregon's Public Utility Commission has received a bunch of complaints about Verizon-Qwest bundles and has asked the state attorney general to investigate.

What are your bundle blowout tales?

Verizon's service bundle brings no joy [Oregonian]
(Photo: Eric Hauser)
(Thanks, Steve CVX9T!)

Dennis writes:

Five days after I moved into my apartment in Brooklyn, NY in April of 2009, my car was towed for parking near a fire hydrant. I ended up spending $300 to get my car back. Later that month, I saw a Verizon van parked directly in front of a fire hydrant on the same street in Brooklyn for several hours. Even after I called the police, nobody came by to tow the Verizon van. So why does Verizon and the NYPD think that Verizon vans parked directly in front of fire hydrants is not a safety hazard?

We understand that the NYPD has a lot on its plate, but don't they have a dedicated parking enforcement division? We'd think that someone calling to say "hey, there's a van parked next to a fire hydrant" should sound like "here's $115 plus impound fines for the taking." Get on it.

If anyone from Verizon is reading, here's that plate number: 21500JR.

"Verizon Scraps Palm Pre Plans, Report Says" [PC World]
(Photo: idovermani)

Verizon Wireless provides service to you. In doing so, we may collect certain information that is made available to us solely by virtue of our relationship with you, such as details regarding the telecommunications services you purchase, including the type, destination, technical configuration, location and amount of use of such services. This information and related billing information is known as Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI). Verizon Wireless has a long–standing policy of guarding personal customer information, and the Federal Communications Commission and other regulators require Verizon Wireless to protect your CPNI.

In order to better serve your communications needs and to identify, offer and provide products and services to meet your requirements, we need your permission to share this information among our affiliates, agents and parent companies (including Vodafone) and their subsidiaries. The protection of your information is important to us, and we acknowledge that you have a right, and we have a duty, under federal and state law, to protect the confidentiality of your CPNI.

It's on customers to opt out if they don't want their info spread around. Here is how to do so:

1. Call us at 1–800–333–9956 and follow the recorded directions. You will be asked to provide either your account password, the last four digits of your social security number or your tax ID for validation purposes.

2. Call 1–800–922–0204 from 6am to 11pm to reach a Customer Service Representative who can process your opt out for you.

3. Visit www.verizonwireless.com, register for My Verizon, and opt out by updating your profile

Legal Notice Customer Proprietary Network Information [Verizon]
(Photo: The Consumerist)
(Thanks, Steve!)

More specifically, the new principles are:

5) Non-discrimination — broadband providers cannot discriminate against particular Internet content or applications.
6) Transparency — providers of broadband Internet access must be transparent about their network management practices.

And to recap, The "Four Freedoms" are:

1) Freedom to Access Content: Consumers should have access to their choice of legal content
2) Freedom to Use Applications: Consumers should be able to run applications of their choice
3) Freedom to Attach Personal Devices: Consumers should be permitted to attach any devices they choose to the connection in their homes
4) Freedom to Obtain Service Plan Information: Consumers should receive meaningful information regarding their service plans."

With the fifth principle, it's like they're staring directly at Comcast.

"Preserving a Free and Open Internet: A Platform for Innovation, Opportunity, and Prosperity" Prepared Remarks of
Chairman Julius Genachowski The Brookings Institution, Washington DC September 21, 2009 [FCC]

David says:

You guys need to start reporting on the failures of Verizon's DVR service.

I am on my 5th (yes 5) set-top box. Finally after taking your suggestion, I sent a letter to the president of Verizon. Their executive cust service person called me and acknowledged tons of problems and said that they are planning a software/firmware update, but it wont fix many of the current problems:

The 1st Gen box doesn't erase programs on the box. So the % used fills up and you cannot record more unless you power cycle the unit
The boxes [fail to] record programs
The boxes crash often (3 times during the NY Giant game yesterday)
The remote barely works unless you are 4 feet directly in front of the box

I've never had a worse experience. I yearn for a new Tivo.

How about a questionnaire to see if people are as fed up with Verizon as I am. I'm hoping your reporting on it will place more emphasis on fixing the problems and less on advertising that stupid commercial.

Your wish has been granted.

Leave your thoughts on FiOS' DVR in the comments or tell us about your experience at tips@consumerist.com, put "fios dvr" in the subject.

(Photo:ianphilipmiller)

Of course, for an extra $30 a month, Sprint will give you unlimited calls to everyone, everywhere — and other carriers, including Sprint-owned Boost Mobile — offer unlimited plans for as little as $50 a month. But if you're a diehard Sprinter (there must be some of you out there) and need to spend hours on the phone with folks on AT&T, Verizon or other cell networks, it could work out in your favor.

AnyMobile Plan [Sprint]
Thanks, Randall!

A very pissed off consumer writes:

I get these direct mail pieces from Verizon several times a week. I know...everyone hates junk mail, but here's the thing: Verizon doesn't provide FiOS TV at my address (the address they sent this piece of mail to). Furthermore, they will not offer the same deal on their non-premium [read: inferior] services.

In other words, there is no way - none whatsoever - to get TV, internet, and phone from verizon for $79.99 per month (for the first 6 months) - and yet these ads have been clogging my mailbox in the month since I moved here. When I went online to look into this deal, the first thing the website prompted me to do was to enter my address (the address printed on the other side of that piece of mail). Based upon that information, the website was able to tell me that I could not take advantage of this deal. Does Verizon not have an internet connection? Couldn't they do this themselves before wasting paper, ink, and another previous piece of my sanity?

This is unacceptable, not only from the perspective of the consumer, but for environmental reasons as well. How many thousands (millions?) of these heavy card-stock, two-page brochures are being sent to households where Verizon cannot provide this service? Get your sh*t together, Verizon. All you've managed to do is alienate me so that I will no longer consider FiOS...if it is ever available to me.

You know, I doubt this was the effect Verizon was going for.

We join our hero as Verizon tells her that she and her family must have been "accidentally" using the internet. I would accept this immediately with no backtalk because using the internet is somewhat akin to breathing for me, but her family apparently doesn't suffer from this problem and didn't find this explanation credible.

From the Plain Dealer:

My patience with this issue ran out last month. I went to a local Verizon store and told the nice salesman, Jason, that I wasn't leaving until the mysterious, recurring $1.99 "data usage" charge was resolved. Lo and behold, he was able to look up what day and time my son most recently "accidentally" accessed the Internet for one minute and one minute only.

It turns out this $1.99 charge showed up on my son's line on a day when he was grounded from his phone. His phone was in my dresser drawer. And we were out of town that afternoon. Oops. No accidental Internet access going on that day. I erupted.

Verizon's next explanation was that it has a "backup assistance" service that automatically backs up your contacts list without your knowledge in case you lose or break your phone. Some people get charged $1.99 a month for this, even though it's free.

Jason told us he could fix it so we'd never get billed for this again. Yes, it can be done. If customer service tells you otherwise, they're wrong.

The paper has some instructions for getting your money back from Verizon, so we'll pass them along:

Take a look at your bill

Where to look for the data usage charge:

The first page of your bill should have a section labeled "Quick Bill Summary." Look under the summary for "Usage Charges, Data."

What to do if you spot an error: Call Verizon customer service (800-922-0204) or visit a full-service store to investigate the charges and ask for a credit.

If Internet usage is the issue, ask technical support to track down the Web sites visited, and dates and times.

If premium text messages are the issue, determine whether you have applications that are downloading information automatically. Go to your "menu," then click "media center." You may need Verizon's help determining what applications cost money.

You can block features you don't use and don't want to be charged for by accident, such as Internet access or the weather forecast. Access your account online, call customer service or visit a store.

Verizon's $1.99 'data usage' charge ended, but it wasn't easy: Money Matters [Cleveland]
Verizon offering refunds because of mystery 'data usage' charges [Cleveland]
(Photo:Tom Simpson)

She writes:

I need to vent about this issue I am having with Verizon that I'm SURE at least a few of your readers have had the same problem.

The year was 2009, the date, August 15 — I decided to finally upgrade my Vzw Dare phone to a Blackberry Tour- its new, fast, shiny, oooh. On my way home from buying and activating it, it was still all shiny and fresh I get this super random text. This text, little did I know, would soon become the bane of my very existence.

The text is coming from number: 118012222269 (count the digits, its too many!) and the text reads " //BREW:0104F4BC:OZMAILCI=D4FB0CD4BD32249DD09ADDB44131923B MC=2 To stop these messages simply reply to this one (charge may apply)"

Last time I checked this wasn't District 9 and I do not speak di.gi.ta.lly!!! I naturally tried responding, sending STOP, UNSUSCRIBE, blank texts, expletives and nothing. The text's keep coming, 20 a day! A quick google search told me that other people were having this problem and to call Verizon and they will take care of it. I am going on my fifth phone call, well into the 2nd hour of talking to these people and explaining the story over and over and they have no idea! The tech I just talked to told me to forward him the message and that they are 'aware' of the problem but don't have the 'resources to fix it so they have to get their network involved.' Ummm, excuse me. Really? Because I thought that when I called the Verizon wireless Blackberry Technical Support number I was contacting my NETWORK! They have disconnected my blackberry twice, reconnected my Dare, I've done everything and yet they can't figure it out!

The moral of the story is that now I have an OPEN TROUBLE TICKET and my issue may not be resolved until 5 days!!! At that point I will be on day 15 of 20 texts a day from some robotexter, I am beyond aggravated right now. That's 300 texts! I have been with VZW since 1999! That is 10 years, they were Primeco back then, I pay at least $100 a month to get sh*tty technical support and super rude customer service!? Awesome!

Maybe the robot is just starved for attention and wants someone to exchange sweet nothings with. In any case, it's a shame Verizon can't stop the harassment sooner.

(Photo: sfxeric)

Ryan found a discussion on the Nokia Support forum regarding Verizon/Intrigue issues, which made him suspect it wasn't necessarily a lone defect in just his phone. He then brought his phone to Verizon to fix the problem. This is what happened:

I headed down to my Verizon Wireless store and consulted one of their technical guys. What I was told was that Verizon has never heard of this error. I told the tech about the accounts of this same error I found on the net, and even explained as he worked on the phone what would happen with what he tried to do, based on others accounts. When he gave up on the phone he told me he could have a new Intrigue sent to me by Tuesday, and I told him that this would not be a fix as it was not a hardware defect. This was disregarded, so I asked him what would have to be done to switch this phone out for a different model. He said that I would have to pay full retail. In the face of that, I asked what would happen if the replacement model suffers the same error, and this is what I was told.

"To follow our procedure, we will have to be certain this is an issue from our end, so you might have to go through two or three replacements before we could consider switching you over to a different model phone."

The Nokia discussion we mentioned actually has a solution posted to it by other Intrigue customers. We don't know if the solution was there when Ryan first checked it out, but it shouldn't matter; Ryan should be provided a bare minimum level of technical support from the company providing the phone and service. In fact, I do have a lot of technical skillz when it comes to consumer electronics, and I have run into the same dullheadedness from support techs when I'm forced to escalate a troubleshooting issue to them.

This is a great example of one of the biggest failings in technical support today, which is that many tech support centers wall themselves off from the hivemind of the Internet where people are constantly discovering and sharing solutions. There is no reason the Verizon rep who "assisted" Ryan shouldn't have known about the IMEI-registration fix—that's what internal memos and emails are for. Or if he was really just a sales rep, why was he offering technical support in the first place?

If Verizon had known about the workaround listed on the Nokia user forum, they could have fixed Ryan's phone in 20 minutes and sent him on his way, and he likely would have credited Verizon with having some competence on phone-related issues. Instead, they failed a customer who came to them with a severe problem, and the only solution they offered was a drastic one that would have cost Ryan lots of money.

It just makes no sense, when the information was out there. Tech-savvy consumers already know that official tech support is usually the middle-to-last line of attack when troubleshooting. But not everyone has that skill set or interest level in consumer electronics—and you'd expect the company selling you the phone and phone service would be able to offer expertise at least as good as random forum postings, considering they can access those postings as easily as we just did when typing this up.

Okay, end of rant against impotent, overly formal technical support departments. Ryan, if you've got a second phone and can do the IMEI registration trick yourself, we suggest you do that. If not, try printing out the instructions from that Nokia forum board (we've reprinted them below) to bring with you when you return to Verizon.

Here is the workaround for Nokia Intrigue owners, from Nokia Support Discussions:

My 7205 started experiencing this continuous reset loop on 8/19. I brought it into a Verizon store the next morning to exchange for a new one. First bad sign: the greeter at the door seemed to anticipate my problem once he saw what phone I had. Of course, as soon as my # was connected to the new Intrigue, same problem. I decided to research the problem myself online and came across this forum. Seemed straightforward:</p

1. Assign my phone # to a different device using its EIN.
2. Startup the other phone and make sure all text messages & other undelivered stuff is picked up by the other phone.
3. Turn the other phone off, reassign my # to my 7205 Intrigue, and start it up. Problem solved! (Yes, it was!)

Some key points:

- you can do this yourself on Verizon online—if you have another operable device to switch to; otherwise, you can go into a Verizon store and have them switch to a test phone for you. Obviously, the other phone cannot be a 7205 Intrigue.

- after switching your # to this new device, you MUST wait SEVERAL MINUTES and confirm that all the msgs floating around in the system while your Intrigue has been malfunctioning are delivered to the new phone. The Verizon rep who first tried to help me in the store switched back and forth too quickly and the problem was NOT solved.

At one point during this ordeal I called Verizon customer support. The (snotty and completely unhelpful) technician told me that Nokia is aware of this problem and sent a bulletin on 7/30 stating that the bug will be addressed in the next software release for this phone (no target date specified, but the technician said it will presumably be "soon". By asking pointed questions, I also found out from her that Intrigue owners will not receive any notification when this software release is available, and that you will have to bring your phone to Verizon to have them load the update.

My advice, if your phone has this problem, is to do one of 2 things:

I. Unless you're attached to the Intrigue like me, exchange your phone for a different model and avoid this headache! (That is, of course, if you kept the original packaging which Verizon requires for exchanges of even faulty, nonfunctional equipment—don't let me get started.)

or

II. Call verizon, and see if the software update has been released.

a. If so, go get it installed on your phone. Problem should be fixed forever, we presume.

b. If not, do the EIN switch. If the problem happens again, go back to step II.

Hope this helps others out there.

-smlynev

"Re: 7205 Intrigue" [Nokia Support Discussions]

The New York Post says the tech attacked the customer after he asked to see some ID before allowing access to the apartment.

"You want to know my name? Here's my name," Benjamin snarled, slapping his ID card into Isakson's face, according to Isakson's account of the December 2008 confrontation.

"The guy essentially snapped. He cold-cocked me, hit me two or three solid shots to the head while my hands were down," said Isakson, a limo driver.

He said the pounding bloodied his face and broke his glasses.

But things got uglier, Isakson said, when Benjamin squeezed him around the neck and pressed him up against the wall.

"He's prepared to kill me," Isakson said. "That's all I could think of."

The customer broke free and ran away. The Verizon tech then chased the customer until he was subdued by a neighbor who was an off-duty cop.

The DA apparently agreed to dismiss the case and Verizon didn't fire the guy because, "In the months since this incident, his conduct has been blameless. As a result, we will not take further action."

THIS PHONE GUY'S WORSE THAN 'THE CABLE GUY' [NYP via Gothamist]
(Photo:20 buckz)

The carriers disagree that we're getting screwed, of course:

As you might expect, the wireless industry issued a press release proclaiming the study was based on "flawed assumptions" that "just don't make sense." If you look at the data the way carriers would like, you're getting quite the bargain. The CTIA does have a point that the OECD's usage categories seem low — particularly when it comes to MMS use. Another reason U.S. prices seem high? Carriers charge a hell of a lot of money for service. They also spend millions on lobbyists who tirelessly work to eliminate consumer protections and price controls.

Additionally, this dumb study isn't taking into account the cutting-edge technology our carriers employ, which is so far ahead of other countries that it's nearly lapped them and is now behind, or something like that. (I'm trying to think like a cellphone executive; it hurts.) As an example of what more than $600 a year buys you, just look at today's column from PC Magazine's editor in chief, Lance Ulanoff:

Back at home, some calls did get through, but all were so poorly connected-with frequent drop-outs-that I had to hang up and try again. I looked at my phone and noticed that 3G connectivity was hovering around a half of a bar. Every once in a while, the tiny bar would disappear. It was replaced by a bar and a half of Edge Network connectivity. I wasn't even moving and the phone was busy dancing around, trying to get me a reasonably good connection. At one point, I even moved outside to try and get a better connection. This helped a tiny bit: I think I got one more bar. Still, the call connection and quality remained unreliable-at best. The other problem was that I wasn't receiving calls. Everyone was getting bumped to voicemail. (I do give AT&T credit for delivering voicemail in a timely fashion. Sprint messages could take days to arrive.)

"Consumers In U.S., Canada Pay More For Wireless" [dslreports via Jesse Harris]
"Mobile phone calls lowest in Finland, Netherlands and Sweden, says OECD report" [OECD]
"Love My BlackBerry Bold, Hate AT&T 3G" [PC Magazine]
(Photos: thisisbossi, AMagill)

Verizon smacked her with a $448 phone bill, saying she went way, way, way over on her minutes. Erin called customer service and asked for a line-item statement, but Verizon said it couldn't access the info and she'd need to contact Alltel, which just refers her to Verizon.

Her story:

I purchased a new Blackberry Flip phone in June through Alltel in NC with a 500min/unlimited text/unlimited data plan with the service running $105.98 per month. I received my June bill from Alltel and paid it. I received notification that Alltel was being bought by Verizon in early July (but I was already aware of the buyout), and then received my July bill from Alltel. It was for $448.61! My $105.98 service charge plus a $293.81 for 734.5 minutes of Anytime Overage (plus some taxes and fees).

The bill claims I used my 500 minutes of anytime usage, 734.5 over that, plus an additional 4200 minutes in Mobile-to-Mobile and Nights-and-Weekends minutes! That comes out to 91 HOURS on the phone! In order to have done that, I would have to have spent 3.03 hours on the phone every single day of the month, which I know I did not do.

Of course, I called Alltel immediately. However, since the switchover to Verizon had already happened, they directed me to Verizon Customer Service. Verizon customer service was at first sympathetic. The man I spoke to told me that because of the switchover, he was unable to see my line item charges, but he could print out a paper copy of the line item charges and send them to me. I got the bill. It is the same 4 page bill I originally received, with no line item information at all.

Today, I called Verizon again and spoke with Stephanie. Stephanie did not seem to comprehend what the issue was. Her attitude was "our bill is right and you are wrong, so you need to pay this full amount." I refused to pay any amount at all with no ability to prove or disprove the charges. I then asked for a supervisor.

Wendy, the supervisor, explained to me that Verizon cannot see the line item usage from the period because of the switchover. She advised me to contact Alltel. I explained that I had contacted Alltel's Customer Service line and an automated system transferred me to Verizon because I am now a Verizon customer. She advised me to continue to call Alltel and get the line item usage. She put me on hold "while we get some additional numbers you can try" and left me there for 10 minutes with no further communication. I hung up.

I would like to know what to do now. Clearly, Verizon is not going to help me. Is it time for an EECB? Should I attempt to find Alltel's numbers on my own? Does Alltel even have a customer service department still operating?

I tried Alltel's customer service line (1-800-255-8351) and it seemed to be operational, but it's no wonder CSRs are trying to pass their problems on. Since Verizon is the big dog now, Erin may as well focus on that company and possibly its executive customer service desk.

(Photo: Eric Hauser)

"Verizon Offers $20 Naked DSL" [DSLReports via MichiganTelephone]

Is this a substitute for carriers removing the extraneous instructions? No, of course not, but it's a worthwhile stopgap until the carriers act on their own.

If you're a Sprint customer, you can cut out the annoying greeting altogether with these instructions:

Access your voice mail box. Press 3, for personal options.
Press 2, for greetings.
Press 1, to change your personal greeting.
Press 3, to add or remove the caller instructions. Follow the prompts to turn instructions on or off.

If you haven't already, tell your carrier how you feel about wasteful voicemail instructions:

• Verizon: http://bit.ly/FJncH
• AT&T: Send e-mail to Mark Siegel, executive director of media relations: MS8460@att.com.
• Sprint: http://bit.ly/9CmrZ
• T-Mobile: http://bit.ly/9CmrZ

Take Back The Beep, Part II [The New York Times]
(Photo: Ninja M.)

Now that they're looking for a way back out, noting that service has gotten worse since they've been back in Verizon's clutches:

My husband and I have a contract with Alltel that is supposed to end next year. When I heard that Verizon was buying out Alltel, both of us were extremely displeased, because we ended my husband's contract early with Verizon a few years ago because of extremely poor customer service, among other reasons. I have since been looking for a way to end our contract with (now) Verizon without having to pay an ETF. I wouldn't mind if they gave us an option of staying or leaving, but I am especially annoyed that it seems like we will have to get new cell phones at the end of the year, and that we'll have to pay full price for them. Not to mention, our service has actually gotten worse since the transition — all sorts of dropped calls, text messages that never reach friends, and so on.

In any case, I wanted to contact Consumerist because I haven't seen anything on the website about the Alltel/Verizon transition recently, or anything about being able to bail out of contracts as a result either now or at the end of the year.

Back in January, CNet posted a helpful Q&A about Alltel/Verizon changeover issues. And forums are raging. Have any of you had hands-on experience with the Alltel-Verizon switch?

(Photo: Jay Adan)

David Pogue, who is trying to start a crusade to do away with these long messages which are only designed to rack up illegitimate profits, says the trick is:

STEP ONE. Press 1. If it's Sprint, you get the beep, and you're done. If you hear an error recording, go on:

STEP TWO. Press *. If it's Verizon, you get the beep. If not:

STEP THREE: Push #. You get the beep for T-Mobile or Cingular.

You have to pause after each one, and you have to keep listening. But it's one small way to fight back. Remember: One Star Pound.

These long messages are no accident. Cellphone companies have entire conferences devoted to getting you to spend more time on the cellphone, and these really long messages are one of their favorite tricks. Another way to fight back is to send in piles of complaints to these locations:

* Verizon: http://bit.ly/FJncH.
* AT&T: Send e-mail to Mark Siegel, executive director of media relations: MS8460@att.com.
* Sprint: http://bit.ly/9CmrZ
* T-Mobile: http://bit.ly/2rKy0u

RELATED:
The Mandatory 15-Second Voicemail Instructions [NYT]
How to Bypass Stupid Voicemail Instructions[NYT]
The Cellphone Industry Strikes Back [NYT]
Verizon Wireless CEO responds to David Pogue's article on the American mobile industry [IntoMobile]
The Irksome Cellphone Industry [NYT]

(Photo: blueoneiam)

Aaron J. Fischman
Northeast Area Executive Relations
Laurel, MD
240-568-2459 - Phone
240-568-2726 - Fax
240-568-1771 - Secondary Fax

(Photo: Mat Honan)

Last week, I called Verizon to set up a landline for my mother, who had gotten out of the hospital and had to move to a new apartment. I told the Verizon rep that my mother doesn't have a PC right now, so I was only calling for a landline. The Verizon rep offered a bundle including DSL, and would throw in a free netbook. The cost of this package was only $20/month more than the landline itself, and I thought this would be a great deal and signed up for it. I was told that a voucher would be issued, I'd have to fill it out online for her, and she's have the computer pretty quickly.

My mother, of course, was thrilled.

Except, of course, the deal isn't that good. After my mother had the landline installed, I called Verizon back to see about the status of the voucher. Turns out that you don't get the voucher for at least 60 days after internet installation (which isn't scheduled for another 10 days), and she'd have to pay for 2-3 months of internet service before being eligible for the netbook offer. In addition, there's a substantial shipping and handling fee for the netbook (I've heard $45). And of course, you must pay all bills on time.

So it's going to cost about $80 or so for this "free" netbook. I don't have a problem with the shipping fee, but paying for two months of service that she can't use unless I find another PC is galling. Unfortunately, Verizon is sticking to their guns. I talked to the customer service supervisor's manager for NJ, Gerri Maclosky, and she confirmed everything. Despite the sales rep's assurances, my mother's not getting a netbook from Verizon for 90 days.

I haven't decided if I'm going to cancel the service for my mother yet.

What do you think? Does Ray have a legitimate complaint, or should he have known better than to take a sales rep's word at face value? Or, to flip it around, is it actually okay to mislead customers or misrepresent a deal to close a sale? Even if it was ignorance rather than intentional dishonesty on the sales rep part, shouldn't that be Verizon's issue instead of Ray's?

FiOs Bundles [Verizon]

(Photo: warrenski)

Lelah writes:"Dear:

Mr. Ivan G. Seidenberg

Mr. Robert E. Ingalls Jr.

Mr. William Barr

As President of my own company, I have to say, this is the first time in my career that I have gone so far as to send a letter to the top of the food chain regarding the unbelievable service I have received from Verizon. Let me say that if I had this type of service in my company, I would have fired the lot of them and held my head in shame as their leader. Verizon has taken customer no-service to a whole new level. Allow me to share with you my story. I am sure you will be as appalled as I am once you read through the nightmare.

THE VERIZON MELTDOWN:

Saturday, May 30, 2009:

2 door to door salesman wearing Verizon shirts arrived at my door on the morning of Saturday, May 30, 2009. The main salesman, Vadim Kushnirov announced that he was with Verizon and wanted to discuss the possibility of switching my Comcast service to Verizon. The other young man was in training. I didn't get his name however he was very inquisitive. A regular Q & A session that was so out there I had to really question who the heck interviewed him for this job in the first place. "So are you still married, he asked?" "Boyfriend?" "Your daughter is cute, almost as cute as her Mom." "Why did you get a divorce?" "Do you still love him?" "Does he pay child support?" "What do you do for a living?" "Do you make lots of money?"….HUH?" Ok…a little weird. Most would have asked him to leave, however, past the questions, he seemed like a nice kid. After Vadim offered a better deal than Comcast, (so I thought), I decided to switch services. I asked both inside my home for iced tea while Vadim proceeded to contact an office somewhere in the Midwest to get the set up started. While he was in the process of arguing with a gal over her misunderstanding of what needed to be done to get the order in place, the intern went to the couch in my living room, picked up my guitar and started playing it…a little singing went along with it. By the end of the very long session I was ready to smash the guitar over his head just to make him stop. Rude and annoying. Over at the counter, Vadim, obviously frustrated with the new gal on the other end of the line, went through several people to try to get the service set up. When the new gal got back on the line, she repeated the order back to me. It was incorrect and we started the process over and over again. This entire order entry took over 3 hours. I was patient but extremely annoyed that my Saturday was now completely shot due to incompetent customer service. When the order was finally placed, I was told by Vadim that the service would be installed on Friday, June 12. 2009. He left me his number to call if I had questions or problems. (503) xxx-xxxx. I must say, of all of the people in this entire process, he is the only one that really had enough integrity to get anything done. He did his job well, however, most of what you are about to read was completely out of his control.

Between May 30 and June 8, 2009, 3 different contractors (that I knew of) showed up at my home, unannounced, without appointments and to my knowledge, began a pre-set up for the Fios.

Monday, June 8: At approximately 10AM, a gentleman contracted by Verizon showed up at my home, unannounced. without an appointment, and knocked at the door. As no one answered the door, he proceeded to begin a set-up function that was connected with the Fios install. I happened to be at home (prior to going to my work appointment) and noticed someone in the yard. After about 10 minutes, I went outside and asked him what he was doing. He said he was with Verizon and doing some pre-set up. I went back inside and was trying to answer a few emails on my computer. Suddenly, the internet access was unavailable. I figured it was temporary but proceeded to contact Comcast as I thought the problem might be with them. The phone was dead also. I went to the neighbors home where their Comcast service was working fine. I contacted Vadim and mentioned that I thought whoever was here from Verizon, must have knocked out the Comcast Service. He asked me to turn on the TV to see if it worked. It was down also. I told him that I needed the service back up immediately. We have several users in the house and having the service down was not an option. I cancelled my appointment and stayed home from work as I thought someone would be back to connect the service. No one called or showed up until 4:00PM in the afternoon. It was someone from Comcast checking the lines. They asked me when Verizon was at the house, I told them that morning. He proceeded to tell me that whoever was there, cut all of the Comcast lines, left wires lying everywhere exposed and I wanted Comcast to reconnect, I would be charged to reset everything and re-install the lines. He was unable to do anything that evening but said he could come back the next morning and start the re-install. I told him I would call Vadim to see if we could move up the install date with Verizon. That afternoon at 4:35PM, I received a call from someone named Kirt (503) xxx-xxxx who scheduled the installs for Verizon. He told me he would have the install team at my home at 8AM sharp the next morning. Someone over 18 had to be there and it would take about 5 hours. I agreed and took Tuesday, June 9 off from work.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009:

…9AM, 10AM, 11AM….I call Vadim… "What's up, I ask?" "Where's the Network?" He's on it…. I get a call about 3PM…they are coming in the next few hours, (my thought is hurry up and wait)!

5:18PM, another lost day at work, the first of the Network makes an entrance. He has no service order and being Union, can't get started until the order comes in. "What do you want done, he asks." I explain the 6 rooms of cable connections, 2 phone lines and 300 channels of digital. He seemed annoyed and less than impressed considering it is now 5:30PM, he hasn't eaten all day and he is now on overtime. The rest of the Network shows closer to 6PM, about 5-6 of them. Still no service orders from Verizon. They all beam in on me and start discussing charges I don't remember ever hearing about. (connections, installation charges, etc). I call Vadim again as I feel like I have a bunch of guys coming up with their own set of rules and charges…Vadim shows up armed with electronic leash, headset and already patched into headquarters…He's on it, making the adjustments while arguing 2 hours in my driveway about the install charges with the Network. On with the install! 9:35PM…. I am trying out the new Fios! Wow…this is super fast…only 45 seconds to get Google launched. Who would have thought you could go faster than dial up? (I am kidding…considering I had a perfectly good high speed connection with Comcast prior to this install)! I called in the roommate to show off the new system! She was as impressed as I was! We immediately called in the Network to praise the fine work that was less than acceptable! We were told it wasn't the Fios, the awesome no-speed was due to the computer having issues? Hummm, funny how it worked just fine when it was on Comcast prior to 10AM, and since I switched back to Comcast, we are back to full speed. I made a note on Brian's (the technician) paperwork that stated the internet was less than acceptable. He left, he was on overtime, never heard back! Dennis, the phone guy is going on 4+ hours of OT…phones are not cooperating…no dial tone. "Perhaps a little CPR would help, is it dead, I asked?" He's done…no dial tone, it's time to go home…did I mention no dial tone….???? "I'll be back at 8 in the morning to get the line working, said Dennis." I suppose if I needed to call 911 for any reason, the neighbors are just 3 minutes away! In the mean time, I was supposed to be enjoying my new phone service with jimmied lines and splitters everywhere! Nice!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009:

Wednesday morning I noticed the trampling of some of my outdoor plants…basically where the lines went through the property. Not happy. I took the day off from work as I had to be at home for the set up at 8AM. Still no phone service and no technician to fix the problem… it's 9am….going on 3:41 PM…no sign of life from the Network and still no dial tone. Phone wires are lying all around my den. I call Vadim again…Vad, this is now out of your control…I need a Supervisor to call me right away. WAITING! 7:15PM, I get a 3-way call from Vadim and a Supervisor in Tech Support named James, no last name, no phone number. James assured me that someone would be out at 8AM on Thursday to set up the phone lines and make sure everything else was working correctly. It seems to me we have already had the 8AM conversation 3 times now. I told him I was done. I no longer wanted the service, Verizon or any part of the Fios experience. I would contact Comcast and have them re-connect the service in the morning which would in fact, cost me another day off at work to deal with the mess Verizon created. I also didn't want them to install because apparently, Comcast still held the phone numbers that were to be transferred to Verizon. Officially, these numbers were not going to be released until Friday, the original install date. I would have had my service reinstalled right away as I was still paying for service with Comcast. After 17 minutes and 27 seconds of conversation and making sure everyone understood that I didn't want Verizon service, guess what happened on Thursday morning?

Thursday, June 11, 2009:

Thursday morning my phone lines were full speed…guess who connected? (Verizon…after I specifically told them not to connect). Not only were the lines connected, they all went to the same phone number and gave anyone who called a fax signal! How special! Half the time the dial tone didn't work, other times people calling in would get a message that said the line was not in working order. Working order???? Was it ever? Another day off from work to deal with the nightmare. I called Comcast. They said unfortunately since Verizon took control of the numbers, It would take up to 2 weeks to get the numbers back. I was livid. Now I had to wait until June 18 to get normal phone service back. I had been using a cell phone throughout the week to contact Verizon…on hold most of the time or shifted from person to person. No one at Verizon seems to be able to make a decision, no less fix anything.

Friday, June 12, 2009:

I spent most of the day trying to figure out how to get everything back on track. It didn't happen. The phone lines were still recovery after the surgical mess left on both the inside and outside of my home.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN:

Many Calls between: Friday, June 19, 2009- June 28th!

I called the 888 customer service line early in the morning to make certain my Verizon Service was cancelled. To cancel the service, the entire process took 57 minutes, 42 seconds (I have a timer). Let me engage you in the cancellation process. It begins with prompts that send you to new prompts, that offer additional choices that make absolutely no sense considering all you want to do is cancel service. I eventually got to someone named Karen in Damage and Claims, told her the whole story. This went on for about 8 minutes. Guess what, I was transferred, surprise…. Repeat conversation…see above! 9:10AM…new supervisor, no luck, another transfer! Now I have someone named Mamour over in Dallas, the supervisor's Manager. A few order numbers thrown at me ON9xxxxxx and ORDROxxxxx…what this means is beyond me? They are all convinced that insulting me with an offer of a $25 performance guarantee reimbursement should do the trick… WOW…I'm impressed! That's some offer! Please…. It cost me more to write you this letter! I asked Mamour what I should do with the equipment that Verizon still has at the house. He informed me I would have to take them to a drop off station for credit. Hummm…Verizon left it here, now I am expected to drive it somewhere to get credit? One thing I found very interesting, I was told to call 2 numbers to get the closest drop off location. Ok, here we go 800-209-4455 (We're sorry, we can not continue to process your call, please hang up and try again)! I gave #2 a try, 800-436-1300…It's the HOME SHOPPING NETWORK… Am I now on the hook to sell this stuff at a discount? Frustration sets in as I do not want another 57 minute phone conversation with a Verizon female computer voice recorder that actually has attitude built into the voice when you don't give her the answers she wants.

One day a gentleman named Adam Brooks showed up on my doorstep. I opened the door. He was with Verizon. He wanted to know if I was pleased with the install? Does Verizon not communicate? For a communications company, I am a bit surprised that no one there does! Back to the story, one more time. He makes notes and tells me someone will be calling me. Actually, Adam was a really nice guy and seemed to have compassion for the situation. I have to give him credit for being very professional and following through. (503) xxx-xxxx. He said he would have the contractor that installed the lines contact me. I got a call from the contractor a week later, however, it appears that the cut lines were caused by Verizon when they installed the boxes on the wall. The contractor came out and showed me where everything took place and where the problems occurred. The contractor gave me a check for $43 to compensate for damaged plants on the property. I was told that someone named Dan Ferguson would contact me from Consumer Relations with Verizon, however, I never received a phone call from him.

Well now that everything was cancelled, I was told there would be no charges! Oh look, on June 25th, I was sent a bill in the amount of $157.50. Swell! Here we go, more phone calls.

July 16, 2009: I still have a balance of 157.50 on my billing. I contact Verizon again to have the charges removed. I spoke with Chris I think (not sure, a little confusion, see July 22 notes) who after 15 minutes of repeating the story again so that I could be compensated, she informs me her computer is down (it happened the day before as well-seems to be the norm there…If I can't get working internet service from a company who provides and charges for it, why should their customer service have access to working internet)? Go Figure! She said she would call me back…never did.

On Tuesday , July 21, 2009, 9:50AM. I contacted Customer Service and was connected to someone by the name of Neil 888-xxx-xxxx. Nice guy and he seemed to have it together. He read his notes and said that I talked to Angela on Thursday, she sits close by so he will talk to her and get the scoop on the billing problem and call me back. Angela? Well ok Angela, Chris… I've been through so many people at this point, I guess it doesn't matter because no one there can make decisions that make sense anyway. I get a call from Chris…she very firmly advised me that she was right and I was wrong in a very righteous way repeating statements from her notes that she perceived to be things that I said (considering her computer went down and she had to re-construct the conversation, I suppose anything goes…She also informed me (very directly I might add) that she left a message on my voice mail stating that the charges were reversed. I suppose if I had a message on my voice mail it makes all the sense in the world for me to call customer service and find out why no one called me to inform me of a credit…If I knew I had one, would I be calling??? I really have nothing better to do with my time. I am told that as far as additional compensation I could receive the really great performance guarantee check of $25…seems everyone there has the magic check to hand out. (I lost 5 days at work and about 11 days of phone service along with trampled plants in my yard. Did I mention Comcast has to rerun all of the lines again and bury them due to the cutting of the cables)? Ok, so the $25 again is a slap in the face. Chris tells me her supervisor will give me a call…she can't give me his number but assures me he'll call…Waiting…I talked to Chris around 10AM… Matt the Supervisor calls me at 11AM. Matt is not willing to work with me…he too wants to offer the $25 slap in the face and says he can not accommodate my 5 days of work missed due to Verizon not showing up when scheduled…although it's a different compensation when I was expected to wait for contractors that didn't show up as scheduled. I explained to Matt that if I didn't show up for the appointment, I am sure that Verizon would charge me…or would that be Frontier Communications that is taking over Verizon in the NW? By the way, no one ever informed me that my service provider would be Frontier Communications…I found this out from one of the Comcast contractors.

Now let me throw out a few more one liners that were fascinating to me:

Matt: I asked him for a supervisor. He was quick to tell me she was unavailable (how did he know that without even taking a breath to ask her, does he man the Supervisor calendar)?

Matt: I asked him for the supervisor's name, Kim he replied. I asked for a last name…He refused to give me the last name, stating that for security reasons, he is not allowed to give out last names.

Matt: I asked for Kim's phone number, he stated she didn't have one! (I am becoming amused)!

Matt: He also told me Kim would not be able to give me any answers that were different from his… Why have a Supervisor if her subordinate can always make instant decisions and answer for her? Glad we cleared that one up!

Matt: I asked him where the corporate office was. He said St Petersburg FL

Matt: I asked for the Corporate phone number: Classic response, "They don't have one!"

I am seriously amused at this point!

My response: "Wow Matt, A communications company that provides phone service all over the country and they doesn't have a phone of their own?" "No wonder my phones never worked!" "They haven't figured out how to hook up the first one over at headquarters! "

Matt: "I can give you an address, you can write to them!" PO Box ya da ya da ya da! Thank you, so helpful.

Matt: I asked for a physical address, he wouldn't give me one.

Matt: I told him I wanted compensation for the 5 days I took off from work to accommodate Verizon's necessity for me to be home, although they didn't show up when promised. His response…The $25 performance guarantee. I told him I make no less than $65 an hour and that's what I expect as compensation….8 hrs x 5 days even though I have spend endless additional hours trying to get this mess straightened out. He told me that he can not just whip out a check. It's against Verizon guidelines. I asked him to send me a copy of the guidelines. He said he couldn't do that. He told me that it is against policy to compensate for work lost or send out a copy of the guidelines! I asked him for a copy of the policy… No, he can't do that either. He also told me, and I quote "It was against FCC rules." That's a new one!

Well…he told me he would have Kim call me sometime between noon and 5PM! Nice… I wasn't sure how that would be possible considering Kim didn't have a phone! Am I missing something here?

1:30: Kim leaves a voice mail…with no return phone number! She must have borrowed a phone from AT & T! She said she would call me sometime the next day! So, do I wait for the call? Maybe sometime between 8AM-5PM!

Wednesday, July 23: Kim calls the other phone number that I rarely answer at 11:30AM. She is not willing to offer more than $25. As I mentioned to Matt, if I was going to hear the same song and dance each time I hear from another Manager, then send me to someone else. I told Kim the same thing. At least she didn't make any decisions for the next Manager in line. That would be James. He is supposed to call me sometime between now and 5:00PM. Hurry up and wait some more. I get the call from James at 3:30PM. Amazingly, he is one of the few at Verizon that is allowed to have a phone. I guess security isn't an issue for him and going against Verizon policy is ok, because he did give me his last name (Hobson) and a phone number where he could be reached. 636-xxx-xxxx. I did ask for an employee ID#, but he said he couldn't offer that as it was an internal number and policy not to give it out. (Lots of policies)! Of course I was offered the usual $25. I think if they keep offering the $25 dollars, I suppose it would add up each time and eventually I could collect a lot of checks for $25 until I got the compensation I deserve. I let James know that $25 is not acceptable and, like Matt, asked him if he would work for $25 a week. Of course he said no. I asked him why than should I be any different? As you can imagine, we wasted another 20 minutes on the phone going nowhere. I did ask for the Corporate number. He put me on hold for at least 5 minutes and came back with a "We can't seem to find it." He informed me that someone would call me within 24 hours with the number.

Well, as you can see, it is now Friday, July 24 at 9:35AM. No phone call from anyone, at Verizon Corporate if there is such a thing!

July 23, 2009: I received a call from Wendy Allen…somewhere in Texas. She proclaimed to be the Manager of the entire building, as she put it. She said she was in control of Texas, California and some other state (not mine). Twice she repeated these states, Oregon was never included. I asked her why she was calling me as she was not in my state. She corrected herself at that point and told me she had the west coast. Of course, $25 was her best offer and not acceptable to me. I am now frustrated. I told her I would locate someone on my own that could make decisions. Wendy's offered her number at 972-xxx-xxxx. So, I guess the policy doesn't work here either cause I got both last name and phone number. Different rules for different schools!

Next step? I will continue my quest and just keep adding to my list of notes from May 30 and send this letter out to anyone who will listen. My next step (consumer advocates who are receiving a blind copy of this letter), the FCC, government officials (I am well connected), who may have more contacts than I do. Eventually someone will listen but I would like to see Verizon do the right thing and just compensate me for the 5 days I missed from work. They expected me to be here, I lived up to my end of the bargain. It will be interesting to see what happens next!"

Read the details of the prank over at Zug.com. (That's right, if you're one of those readers who can't watch the video, you can read a full description of the prank there.)

"How Easy Is It To Get the Private Cell Phone Records and Address of Verizon's CEO?" [Zug via IntoMobile]

Some info you might want to pass on to other people who follow your blog. I consolidated my Verizon cell & Landline/Internet onto one bill.
End result? Big mistake.

We moved to another house and signed up for Verizon there also. Now for the fun part - I can no longer pay my bill on verizon.com - because my bill "one bill" account was linked to the old land line that is no longer valid. I can't pay the balance to Verizon Wireless - because Verizon Wireless apparently takes payment from the "Land Line" part of Verizon and shows me as paid up. I can't pay the bill via the 800 # and do over the phone pay because my landline & account number are no longer matching up.

Anyway - I've spent about 4hrs back and forth with various polite yet clueless people who can't figure out how to undo this. And - the best part is I'm getting late fees added.

My advice - if you have Verizon service - do not bother to sign up for one bill.

Gee, that sounds like so much fun.

(Photo:SL_SD)

Verizon Says It Will Limit New Handset Deals [Reuters] (Photo)

My new phone netted me a $70 rebate card in the mail a week ago Saturday, so I decided to take it for a day on the town. The card and I had some wild times at Wal-Mart, In-N-Out and Lowe's (man, do I know how to party). I was irritated that I couldn't use the card to get gas at Circle K because the card reader demanded I verify my identification by typing in a zip code — it wouldn't accept my own zip, nor that of the Verizon store where I bought the phone, and denied the transaction — but I blew off the inconvenience because I was confident that I'd eventually use up my $70 on purchases I would have made anyway.

Everything went to plan until I had just 11 cents left on the card. A less awesome person might have tossed it into the garbage at that point, but dammit, those 11 cents were mine and I wanted to use 'em. But every time I asked cashiers at multiple stores to debit 11 cents off my total purchase by using up the last of the card, the transactions were denied.

I called Verizon customer service and the rep tried to stop himself from laughing as he agreed to credit my account for the 11 cents I'd lost. It was a hollow victory, because although Verizon had made good that damned card still clung to a dime and penny intended for me, and like a clogged piggy bank just would not cough it up.

The fine print on the back of the card gave my conspiracy theory credence. After a year, Visa takes a $3 monthly maintenance fee three months after you last use the card. This means Visa-izon will get their dirty hands all over the 11 cents left on the card come October 2010.

Sure, 11 cents may not sound like much, but you've seen those Verizon commercials, right? The network of people following around the bespectacled Can You Hear Me Now Guy is quite the multitude. And if everyone on that network gets screwed out of 11 cents by Verizon rebate cards, you're talking a Scrooge McDuck money bin in lost rebates.

(Photo: Verizonuser)

Matthew has such a story — of how Verizon mucked up his online and entertainment world when he upgraded to fiber-optic service (FIOS) — and how his follow-up complaint led to him getting three months of free premium-channel bliss... and more:

On July 1, FIOS accidentally cut my service instead of changing names on the account (cause those are equivalent, I guess?). Since then, they've managed to restore my phone service and partially restore my TV service. They still haven't fixed the internet, which is not only hampering my ability to do my job (I work from home a few days of the week out of necessity), but also to watch any OnDemand content or even have a channel guide on the TVs. I've spoken to some really great people at FIOS, especially a tech support guy named Mike, but no one seems to be able to help me. They've admitted more than a few times that the screw-up is on their end, and I just got off the phone with yet another tech, and he has decided they need to send me a new modem, which won't arrive until Wednesday. They won't have one dropped off tomorrow because they have to charge me for that (which is unacceptable and I won't agree to being charged for support at this point), and waiting until Wednesday is really not an option. I just sent an EECB to their executives listed on your site, and I left a voice mail on the telecom president's answering machine, but I was wondering if there is anything else I can do aside for bide my time (which is quite difficult without the internet). I've copied the letter I sent them below:

Dear Verizon,

My name is Matthew Z., and my family has been a Verizon customer for a long time—first with Verizon Wireless, and now with FIOS for a little over a year. Until this past Wednesday (July 1st), everything was great with our FIOS service. On July 1st, our service stopped working completely. Since then, tech support and billing have helped me restore our phone service as well as video (though the guides and on demand content do not work, due to the Internet issue), though the Internet is still not working. The phone number on the account is XXX-XXX-XXXX, and other account information can be provided to you if necessary.

This all started when the name on the account was supposed to change from "Michael Z." to "Amy Z." following the finalization of my parents' divorce. Instead, it seems a disconnect order went in for all non-voice services. When I called on Thursday, support was great, and got my voice service back up. By Sunday, TV and Internet were still not working. Sunday afternoon, I called tech support, and spoke to two wonderful people. The first was a billing Representative named Crystal who helped me sort out the account name issue, and the second was a tech named Mike, who stayed on the phone with me on and off for about 5 hours working through the problems. Mike eventually restored my TV service (again, without program guides or on demand), but alas, he was not able to fix my Internet.

Despite the friendly, professional, and knowledgeable representatives' efforts, they have not been able to help me through this issue. Mike and another tech I spoke with stated that my situation was escalated, but no one can tell me what the result of that escalation was. I was also told that my service would be fixed by noon today. When I got home from work at 10PM EST this evening, service was still not restored. After spending the last hour and a half on the phone with technical support, I am at my wit's end. The last tech that I spoke to said that he wanted to send out a replacement router (even though all previous techs have told me it was a problem on Verizon's end), which wouldn't arrive until Wednesday (which will make it a full week without service), and that's not even a guaranteed fix. He also stated they can't send out techs to my house without charging me, which at this point is absolutely unacceptable.

All I want is for my Internet to be repaired. I have been incredibly patient thus far, but I really cannot go on like this much longer. I love FIOS, I really do. Its absolutely the best Internet and TV package I have ever used. The speed blows cable out of the water, and the picture quality is far better than what we had previously. Until now, I have always been a huge proponent of FIOS, encouraging my friends and their families to make the switch from Time Warner, Comcast, or Cablevision to Verizon. After this experience, however, I feel really let down by what was previously a great service. So I plead with you, please help! I need my service restored! Any assistance that any of you are able to provide will make a huge difference, if only in encouraging me to stick with Verizon. Please call (XXX-XXX-XXXXX) or email me at any time, day or night, if you are able to provide assistance.

A few days later, Verizon fixed everything by rebooting his router from afar, gave him the free premium channels, upgraded the internet service and told him they'd get send him a netbook they're offering to new customers. We bet Matthew will be hoping for another service problem in exactly three months.

(Photo: 20 buckz)

Hariette's story is long, but you'll alternately laugh and cringe as she shares what happened to her after her checkbook was stolen this past December. Hariette worked with her bank to quickly patch up any security holes from the theft, and soon she was set up with a new account.

Changing her billing info with Verizon was not so easy, however. Apparently Verizon's "e-center" has never been seen by any humans working at Verizon, but it's where you have to go to get anything done. Here's probably the most telling exchange Hariette has with any Verizon employee in the whole story:

As the 20th minute approached, the rep fearfully told me, "Ms. Surovell, I am only allowed to spend 20 minutes helping each customer. From this point on, you will have to hold for the e-center yourself."

"So, what was the point of your being involved at all, if you can't do anything for me?" I asked.

"Ma'am, I'd like to help you, I would, but I'll get in trouble if I don't get off the line now."

He was becoming frantic.

I stayed on the line, holding for the e-center until I got the announcement. It was 6 p.m., and the e-center was officially closed. I was welcome to phone back the next day between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m.

There you have it: a Verizon employee admitting that he has to not help solve your problem or his job will be at stake.

Our favorite person at Verizon now is officialy "T," the relocated Texan who is some sort of security agent for Verizon, and who used to work in Tampa, and who won't stop calling Harriette a "ticket" whenever she amuses him. Oh, also he keeps calling her from his Verizon cell phone, which goes in and out of range, and he suffers from road rage.

"Well, I gotta be honest here, Ma'am, and tell you that it's not looking good. Now, let me warn you, we're going into a zone, and my cell may go out, so..."

"I didn't hear the last thing you said. You're fading out."

"What? What did you say?"

"I said I can't hear you! I'm hanging up."

"What was that, Ma'am?"

A few minutes later, he called back.

"'T', I can't stay on the phone with you like this every day. These calls are taking a lot of time, and I need to use my time to be writing my articles. "

"Ma'am, you are a ticket! Hey, can you hold on there a minute, some people should not be allowed on the road (screaming out the window...) 'Lady, you fucking idiot, you goddamned moron, who the fuck taught you how to drive?!' (Without skipping a beat...) Pardon my language there, Ma'am, I hope I didn't offend you, but some people driving out there can really rile you up."

"I'm a New Yorker, it takes more than the f-word to shock me." I lied. "T's" segues from extreme formality (I was being "Ma'am'ed" more than Judge Judy) into gross obscenity unnerved me.

"Well you are a ticket, I tell you, that's what you are!"

Sure, that part of the story sounds like it's ready to be optioned for a movie, but there's no happy ending when Verizon is involved. In fact, if customer service is a priority for you, remember this response from Verizon when Hariette asked them to at least apologize for wasting her time for six months on what was supposed to be a simple account edit: "No, we will not."

Verizon Customer Diss-Service" [Matahariette]

Ivan Seidenberg [Charlie Rose]