- Report: #244297
Complaint Review: Verizon Horizon ESBI Enhanced Service Billing Inc Integretel The Billing Resource - San Antonio Texas
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Verizon Horizon ESBI Enhanced Service Billing Inc Integretel The Billing Resource
P.O Box 14792 San Antonio, Texas, U.S.A.
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Verizon, Horizon, ESBI Enhanced Service Billing Inc, Integretel, The Billing Resource Hidden Charge(s) added to Verizon Billing by a company you never heard of. Don't Pay It! Ripoff San Antonio Texas
Received an ordinary monthly Verizon Bill. Hey, what's this?! Something called Horizon Telecom says we owe them $4.99 per week for what they are calling HorizonBizPlan2. Never heard of it, never got a service from them. And here's the embarassing part... discovered we had PAID them for the same charges the previous month. What Dupes! Anyway, called Verizon to inquire and were told that OTHER COMPANIES are allowed to add charges to your monthly phone bill.. all they need is a phone#. Verizon recalculated the bill for their charges only, and advised us to request that "no miscellaneous" charges be allowed on our phone. We requested that, sure. But now the task is to speak to someone (other than a phone-answering drone who's reading from a script) to get ALL CHARGES REMOVED so as to not end up with a bad credit report. And to find out who/what decided to bill us for a non-existent service in the first place. Seems "we" ordered this in December '06, using an email account (a legitimate one of ours) and a birthdate (bogus). And even though we were being billed for what we were told is "long-distance service".. that particular telephone # doesn't have long-distance and hasn't since last summer, as we now use our cellphone for that. Someone named "Anna" advised us to send a notarized copy of the correct birthdate in order to get the charges removed... as if we'd give Horizon/ESBI/etc any additional info about us! Have yet to decide how best to handle this... suggestions welcome!
Doreen
waterville, Maine
U.S.A.
Doreen
waterville, Maine
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Diane
Derry,New Hampshire,
U.S.A.
Miscellaneous charges
#2UPDATE Employee
Sun, May 20, 2007
I am a Verizon employee and talk to customers every day. This subject comes up frequently. Please understand that VERIZON is NOT doing anything underhanded, nor are we trying to 'rip you off'. Let me explain. Verizon has a contract with MANY, smaller, communications-type companies to do their billing for them. This is all legitimate, done with the FCC's full knowledge, and is intended to make things easier for the consumer. (so you will get one single bill for all of your communications services) These smaller companies contact Verizon when a customer has ordered a service from them, and tells Verizon how much that customer owes for that service. Verizon then bills the customer and pays the company what they are owed. Verizon has to assume that all of these charges are legitimate (usually they ARE legitimate charges for services ordered either accidentally by not reading fine print or by someone else in the household) Occasionally customers call and question us about the charge and we have to refer them to the specific company because we only bill what they tell us to bill. We do not have any info about who ordered the service, or when or how it was ordered. When the customer calls the company, if the charge indeed is an error (or the customer cancels the service), then that company will contact us and credit the customer's bill, plus they will stop any further charges. This is the best way to get the problem solved. However, if a customer has tried to get the situation resolved by calling that company and has not been successful, then (and only then) Verizon can do a 'recourse adjustment' to send the charges back to the company. We can also put a 'miscellaneous charges block' on your account so that no charges can be placed onto your phone bill except those for Verizon landline phone service. A 'recourse adjustment' is a last resort because it will not stop future charges from being sent to us. When the company gets the charges sent back to them from Verizon, they will contact the customer to ask why, and/or they will start billing you separately (because you haven't told them you want to cancel it) Bottom line, Verizon is NOT 'ripping anyone off'. Everything Verizon does (not Verizon wireless, mind you, I'm talking Verizon landline) is watched under a microscope by the FCC because of all the laws and regulations that telecommunications companies have to abide by. Diane - Derry, New Hampshire U.S.A.
