Verizon Telephone Co Put charges on my bill for directory asst. which I have never used. Refuse to credit my account. Dallas Texas
For the past few years, every few months, the phone company adds a charge to my bill, for Directory Assistance. I have never used directory assistance, my husband and I are the only occupants, do not have anyone else in the house, we know that these calls are not coming from our phone.
When I contact the phone co., they insist that the calls come from our phone and we know they do not. How can we get them to check their equipment, or whatever it takes, so these errors don't keep occuring. It is very frustrating to spend a couple of hours on the phone every few months, to be called a liar, for something that is entirely out of my hands, and has nothing to do with me.
It has been suggested that, in this age of automatic bill payment, most people would not notice this error and it would get payed automatically. I would hate to think any company would stoop that low. We have no other phone service available in our area, any assistance you can give me will be appreciated.
Anonymous
Fredericksburg, Texas
U.S.A.
4 Updates & Rebuttals
Anonymous
Everett,Washington,
U.S.A.
False Local Directory Assistance Charges
#5Consumer Comment
Wed, June 03, 2009
My wife and I are having the same problem. Changing from traditional POTS to FIOS has made no difference; every few months we get charged for one or two "local area" Directory Assistance calls, even though we have never used the Directory Assistance service. The logged call times are either in the middle of the night or during times of the day when no one is even home. Verizon Repair insists that it is not a problem on their end and thinks our DECT 6.0 cordless phones are somehow being compromised, which I don't believe is probable. We asked Verizon Repair for options to block outgoing 411 calls. They said they could not disable those calls, but...
Verizon does offer a residential calling feature in some areas (available in at least in DC, DE, MD, NJ, PA, VA and WV from what I can tell right now) by the name of "Call Gate"; for $5 / month, you could supposedly block outgoing calls to particular numbers (including 411, etc.). Since these false charges are only adding up to $1.25 or $2.50 per month for us, we just keep calling up Verizon and get them to put a credit on our next bill. However, we do anticipate at some point that Verizon will eventually refuse to honor our claims due to the frequency with which we have had to call. If your directory assistance charges are becoming excessive, you may want to talk to Verizon Repair about using Call Gate to stop these directory assistance calls. Obviously though, it is pretty frustrating to contemplate spending another $5 / month to prevent being falsely billed for directory assistance calls that you are not making. I would rather have the option to disable directory assistance altogether.
Good Luck!
Anonymous
Everett,Washington,
U.S.A.
False Local Directory Assistance Charges
#5Consumer Comment
Wed, June 03, 2009
My wife and I are having the same problem. Changing from traditional POTS to FIOS has made no difference; every few months we get charged for one or two "local area" Directory Assistance calls, even though we have never used the Directory Assistance service. The logged call times are either in the middle of the night or during times of the day when no one is even home. Verizon Repair insists that it is not a problem on their end and thinks our DECT 6.0 cordless phones are somehow being compromised, which I don't believe is probable. We asked Verizon Repair for options to block outgoing 411 calls. They said they could not disable those calls, but...
Verizon does offer a residential calling feature in some areas (available in at least in DC, DE, MD, NJ, PA, VA and WV from what I can tell right now) by the name of "Call Gate"; for $5 / month, you could supposedly block outgoing calls to particular numbers (including 411, etc.). Since these false charges are only adding up to $1.25 or $2.50 per month for us, we just keep calling up Verizon and get them to put a credit on our next bill. However, we do anticipate at some point that Verizon will eventually refuse to honor our claims due to the frequency with which we have had to call. If your directory assistance charges are becoming excessive, you may want to talk to Verizon Repair about using Call Gate to stop these directory assistance calls. Obviously though, it is pretty frustrating to contemplate spending another $5 / month to prevent being falsely billed for directory assistance calls that you are not making. I would rather have the option to disable directory assistance altogether.
Good Luck!
Anonymous
Everett,Washington,
U.S.A.
False Local Directory Assistance Charges
#5Consumer Comment
Wed, June 03, 2009
My wife and I are having the same problem. Changing from traditional POTS to FIOS has made no difference; every few months we get charged for one or two "local area" Directory Assistance calls, even though we have never used the Directory Assistance service. The logged call times are either in the middle of the night or during times of the day when no one is even home. Verizon Repair insists that it is not a problem on their end and thinks our DECT 6.0 cordless phones are somehow being compromised, which I don't believe is probable. We asked Verizon Repair for options to block outgoing 411 calls. They said they could not disable those calls, but...
Verizon does offer a residential calling feature in some areas (available in at least in DC, DE, MD, NJ, PA, VA and WV from what I can tell right now) by the name of "Call Gate"; for $5 / month, you could supposedly block outgoing calls to particular numbers (including 411, etc.). Since these false charges are only adding up to $1.25 or $2.50 per month for us, we just keep calling up Verizon and get them to put a credit on our next bill. However, we do anticipate at some point that Verizon will eventually refuse to honor our claims due to the frequency with which we have had to call. If your directory assistance charges are becoming excessive, you may want to talk to Verizon Repair about using Call Gate to stop these directory assistance calls. Obviously though, it is pretty frustrating to contemplate spending another $5 / month to prevent being falsely billed for directory assistance calls that you are not making. I would rather have the option to disable directory assistance altogether.
Good Luck!
Anonymous
Everett,Washington,
U.S.A.
False Local Directory Assistance Charges
#5Consumer Comment
Wed, June 03, 2009
My wife and I are having the same problem. Changing from traditional POTS to FIOS has made no difference; every few months we get charged for one or two "local area" Directory Assistance calls, even though we have never used the Directory Assistance service. The logged call times are either in the middle of the night or during times of the day when no one is even home. Verizon Repair insists that it is not a problem on their end and thinks our DECT 6.0 cordless phones are somehow being compromised, which I don't believe is probable. We asked Verizon Repair for options to block outgoing 411 calls. They said they could not disable those calls, but...
Verizon does offer a residential calling feature in some areas (available in at least in DC, DE, MD, NJ, PA, VA and WV from what I can tell right now) by the name of "Call Gate"; for $5 / month, you could supposedly block outgoing calls to particular numbers (including 411, etc.). Since these false charges are only adding up to $1.25 or $2.50 per month for us, we just keep calling up Verizon and get them to put a credit on our next bill. However, we do anticipate at some point that Verizon will eventually refuse to honor our claims due to the frequency with which we have had to call. If your directory assistance charges are becoming excessive, you may want to talk to Verizon Repair about using Call Gate to stop these directory assistance calls. Obviously though, it is pretty frustrating to contemplate spending another $5 / month to prevent being falsely billed for directory assistance calls that you are not making. I would rather have the option to disable directory assistance altogether.
Good Luck!