Last September, a woman in California contacted Verizon to set up internet access at the home of her ill mother. It won’t surprise some of you that Big Red, despite promises to the contrary, never managed to properly set the service up. In December, the mom passed away and the daughter called Verizon to cancel all service — including phone — to the house. So of course Verizon continued to charge for internet access it was never able to provide in the first place.

According to the L.A. Times’ David Lazarus, when the woman complained to Verizon about the $108 bill for service she’d already canceled, and which the company had failed to properly set up, they cut that amount in half… and then forwarded it to a collections agency.

“It’s like Verizon never heard us,” she tells the paper. “Something is clearly broken here.”

But a rep for Verizon tells the Times that this kind of grievous error is just the company showing its human side:

In the vast majority of cases, customers are heard by our company… But there are circumstances where mistakes are made. No one is perfect.

Let’s see how far that excuse flies with Verizon the next time you’re late with paying your FiOS bill.

Verizon continues billing customer months after death [L.A. Times]

Thanks to Alexander for the tip!

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