Verizon Wireless verizon in network calling scam poor customer service questionable billing practices Winston Salem Nationwide
My wife and I saw the add on TV for "in network" calling and thought it would be perfect so she called and had it added to our plan. It was a simple and painless procedure. Our next bill was $1500.00! That is 10X more than normal.
I have been a customer of the same wireless company for about 16 years. Though the names have changed I stuck with them through thick and thin, with all the poor service and billing problems, and up to this point at least have been frustrated at times but at least the problems were resolved and I continued my service.
Now things have changed. There is no customer service now. Trying to resolve a simple issue is futile.
Upon receiving our $1500 bill my wife called Verizon to clear up the matter after all errors do occur, it is unavoidable. To her surprise she was informed by a Verizon rep that "we used the minutes - pay the bill". When my wife said that the bill could not be right the reply was "mam, you can see for yourself, those are the minutes you used...". My wife could not get the girl to help us find out why our bill was so high!! Oh, she did offer to spread the payments over 6 months, thanks.
We went on line to get a copy of our bill and within 30 seconds found the first error! One call was 1100 minutes! Anyone could see it was an error because there was a 20 hour call with only 7 hours until the next billed call.
This information was given to Verizon. We thought this little episode was over though we were a little upset over the lack of help from Verizon customer service on this matter, but occassionally with any company you get a bad apple.
A few days latter I get a call saying that we are only getting a $500 or so credit. I told the rep that called that this of course still could not be right and if it was then we had a serious problem that needed to be fixed. She said she agreed, it still did not seem right, she would talk to her manager. Never heard from her again and she will not return our calls.
The next thing we know one day we have no service. We call Verizon and a rep tells us our bill is late. This was now becoming a nightmare instead of nuisance. The rep says that the account was reveiwed, a determination was made, thats what we owed, now pay the bill if you want service. Still no explanation about why it is still 700+ dollars too high! Oh and now to add insult to the situation we find our next bill to be over $400 and we had used the phones very little until we resolved the problem.
After talking to more reps the only response we could get was "well those are the minutes you used (dummy), you need to pay the bill". No one would help us figure out why our bill was out of control!!
We finally began to try analyzing the bill ourselves, which is nearly impossible but when we noticed that we were being charged for minutes that were from so called "in network" calls we breathed a collective sigh of relief for we had found the rest of the problem.... or so we thought.
Once again a call to Verizon dredges up yet another unknowledgable and uncaring rep. When told of the new mistake we found the response was immediately, "well if you had read your contract you would know that "in network" calling counts against your minutes if you are in "extended network".
Wait a minute! What contract?? We added the "in network calling" by phone. There was no contract! We accepted at face value what we saw on TV. Verizon phone to Verizon phone is supposed to be free!! The ad on TV did not say "free except for...". So now we owe an extra $900.00 (above the legitimate charges).
I now understand why so many people hate Verizon now. I had heard so many horror stories but did not believe they were true. You know some of the stories are really bad, much worse than mine, thats really scary!
It is very sad that a company can not work to reslove a simple issue or help a customer that stuck with them 16 years. Oh well I guess change is good. We shall move on.
PS We were getting ready to drop a couple of extra land lines at our business and add three cell phones because of the "in network calling". Thank goodness we learned our lesson before we added the phones!!
Thomas
Winston Salem, North Carolina
U.S.A.
Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Verizon
4 Updates & Rebuttals
Michelle
Virginia Beach,Virginia,
U.S.A.
KEEPING CALLING THEM
#5Consumer Comment
Tue, August 24, 2004
I know it is a pain but unfortunetly I found out the hard way that they will only fix bills for the last three months. My bills where messed up for a whole year but they only gave me a refund for the last three months. They said that they dont keep records or bills beyond three months. So if problems go on longer then three months they will repeat and repeat that no one is authorized to go beyond three months. And I will say it to "I hate Verizon". Come Octobter 2 I am done. And keep in mind every time you call or even go to there store they can extend your contract with your knowledge. Make sure your orginal date stays the same. If not call every day until it is changed to what it should be. Hope fully every thing works out. But with Verizon get out as soon as you can.
Caswell
yadkinville,North Carolina,
U.S.A.
BEWARE IN NETWORK CALLING !! Verizon just doesnt care
#5Author of original report
Mon, August 23, 2004
Well, I think it is official now. This has become a Greek tragedy.
I now hate Verizon. Now lets get you up to speed.
All manner of customer service avenues over the phone have been exhausted.
Phone has been "off" for three weeks now.
A 40 minute "one way" trip to our "local" Verizon store seemed the only hope we had. It was a wasted trip. The person we needed to talk with about "such a large issue" as this was not there. The gentleman at the counter was very courteous, the first of such creatures to be encountered at Verizon.
While waiting I stood admiring the beautiful wall map of "my" Verizon coverage area. What wonderfull coverage I thought. It must be bad luck that we had so many calls outside this area. Since this was my first trip to a Verizon store I was taken by all the new phones, maps and advertisements for "no worry" service and such. Then the saleman behind the counter showed me a different map...
NOW LISTEN CAREFULLY... The coverage area map for "in network" calling looks like the first map I got of my coverage area back in 1989. IT IS PATHETIC!! It is of virtually no value to us. Ok so we ask how do we know if we are in this pitiful network?? We were told that if the phone says extended network you may or may not be on the "in network" system. IN FACT I SEE NO POSSIBLE WAY TO KNOW IF YOU ARE ON "IN NETWORK" CALLING OR NOT!!
I am sorry but it just looks to me like the in network calling is just a scam to get other companies customers to switch thinking that if they have a Verizon phone the will indeed be part of the "IN" group and their phone bills would be greatly reduced. Sounds great. It did to us. But it is not true, period.
In this day of much improved coverage it is nothing short of criminal to nationally advertise a plan such as this knowing that you are playing a "bait and switch", but of course this really is not a switch because the service wasnt there to start with.
If anyone else or someone at Verizon can explain how we messed up so badly I am glad to listen, and I think that for $1,700 of my hard earned dollars I deserve someone to spend a few minutes with me and go over my bill so that we may avoid this in the future but of course that would only be in our interest, not Verizons.
PS Still waiting for return call from bill "expert" at the store. They were suppose to call today but it is after five so I assume this will not happen. Its funny when you owe them they can communicate with you in four or five ways, but if it has anything to do with taking money away from them you can not get a return call.
Oh did I mention that I now hate Verizon Wireless.
Sadly,
Customer since 1989
Caswell
yadkinville,North Carolina,
U.S.A.
Verizon Wireless New Lows in Customer Service
#5Author of original report
Thu, August 12, 2004
What has happened to Verizon?? This experience is absolutely horrible. Dysfunctional does not begin to describe customer service at this company.
Do you have to cal rep after rep until you get someone that will take the time to help you?! The only resolution a rep will offer is for us to just bend over, give in and pay the bill as it stands! This is totally unacceptable.
Anyway, we got a couple of calls from Verizon that we missed. Optimistically we thought this was someone that was going to apologize for all the inconvenience and explain how such a thing could happen to our bill... again we were wrong.
The calls were to let us know that our bill was late... it is enough to drive anyone mad!!
The Verizon tactic seems to be:
Step:
1. Send unsuspecting couple outrageous bill
2. Convince them they are stupid for a various number of reasons
3. Pretend to "analyze" their bill
4. Find only the mistake the customers found
5. Close investigation without telling customer
6. Cut off customers service
7. Try to force customer to think their only choice is to give in and pay the fraudulent bill
8. Call customer to badger them about fraudulent bill further reinforcing the need to pay
9. Verizon hopes couple will give in, say it is not worth it and pay the bill just to get it behind them.
Michelle
Virginia Beach,Virginia,
U.S.A.
FIT IT MORE... Everyone just needs to let VERIZON fade away.
#5Consumer Comment
Thu, August 12, 2004
I had a similiar probaby...After many phone calls my issuses where some what resloved. The bottom line is you never signed anything so they have nothing on you. Exprress that to them and call every day. They will evently get sick of you and do what you say. Also so you know every time you make a change (or the service rep make a change) your contant is exentend with out your knowlegde for at least three months!!! And sometimes even up to a year.
And this includes your change of address. aI would advise making sure your date is close of cancellation and losing Verizon. They are a nightmare. You will never get all the money back that you know is yours. I have not yet either but I am defently leaving Verizon come October. Sorry about your problems...Everyone just needs to let VERIZON fade away. Dont use them.