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Fun with Verizon billing (Verizon math FTW!)

Medion

Medion

Android Expert
For a few years now, my wife and I have had separate individual calling plans. Mine was on Verizon and hers on AT&T (she's an iPhone user). I've wanted her to switch to Verizon for awhile, and we finally did it. Now I want to shoot myself.

My calling plan was the talk and text 450 (450 minutes, unlimited text, $59.99) with unlimited data. I was on a grandfathered promo that brought my data plan down to $9.99. After taxes and corporate discount, my monthly bill was $66. So, when I asked about putting adding her as a line, my concerns were;

-can you port her number?
-will I retain my $20 data discount?
-how much will my plan be?

They answered yes, yes, and $127 (before taxes). They also promised to waive her activation fee. What's happened since then?

-refused to port number, assigned new number
-stripped my $20 data discount (thank God I'm still on unlimited)
-raised plan to $145 (because of the above)
-charged me a $35 activation fee

Needless to say, we're pretty pissed. We're considering a lot of options. We'll be making our decision by Tuesday, since Verizon promised to get back to me by Monday. So far, they've apologized profusely, played back the recording of my order and admitted that they screwed up on all accounts, put in a ticket to refund the activation fee, put in another ticket to re-implement my $20 data discount, and are trying to find a way to port her number.

Since they no longer offer my $10 data plan, I expected them to fall through on it. If that's the case, I'm canceling her line within 14 days, refusing the restocking fee (and they can take me to court over it), and canceling the Nexus upgrade that I had planned. I'll take us both back to AT&T, or even Sprint if I have to. Right now, I'm furious.
 
What a total nightmare. :mad:

I debated myself about moving this from its original location in the Lounge to here in the Verizon area as it may be of general interest, but in the end decided it might be of extreme interest to those seriously following Verizon.

If you or others disagree, let me know, nothing has to be permanent. ;)
 
so sorry to hear that it sucks that you get screwed because of their screwup. although with that said i highly doubt you'll get your data back, i had to fight with 3 different levels of customer service for close to two months just to get one of my customers their unlimited data plan back, let alone a promo unlimited plan. best of luck!
 
The $35 activation fee has already been fixed. However, the "nice" lady reminded me that every new line is charged an activation fee and that they were only waiving it now as a courtesy. I then reminded her that I am aware of that and that a Verizon rep promised me a waived fee. So, do not talk down to me as if this was my misunderstanding when it was clearly Verizon's fault. Because, right now, the fact that I haven't gone to the FCC is merely a courtesy, one that could change at any moment.

Hopefully by tomorrow I'll know about my $20 data discount, as well as my wife's number being ported. We've already planned our exit strategy, and it looks like I'll buy an unlocked phone to use on AT&T, convert my wife's plan to a family plan, then use my upgrade to get her an iPhone 4s on AT&T. I might also be able to get myself unlimited data, but I won't make plans based on that.
 
I was told that they would look into my two remaining issues (phone number porting for wife, $20 data discount) and that they would call me back on Monday.

-I had to call them back, as they didn't call me.
-Rep had to dig, can't port my wife's number, apologized profusely (not his fault)
-My data issue won't be resolved until tomorrow

So, talked to my wife (we're still geographically separated for one more week). She said it's my call, she can live with the new number but would rather not. We're going to see what Verizon's response is tomorrow. If they give me back my data discount, we'll likely stay with them. If they either don't give me back the data discount, or don't call me back before 5PM to explain their resolution, we're bailing on them.

I'll tell them that we're not paying a restocking fee on the iPhone because they mislead us into buying it. I'll also demand that they waive my ETF due to a breach in contract (changing terms of my data plan without my prior consent or proper notice on their part). Already have my exit strategy planned, but won't go into that further until we see what they pull tomorrow.
 
Here's today's update. As with yesterday, they did not call me back, so I called them. I ensured that I was very polite (not sarcastically, sincerely) due to the fact that the person that I was going to speak to was not the person who screwed me over.

First rep - insanely polite, understood my situation, reiterated that a rep at her level could not fix it, and wanted to know if she could transfer me to a supervisor who may or may not be able to help me, as a last ditch effort. I agreed.

Supervisor - insanely rude, pretty much gave me the "too bad so sad" line. Afterwords, I asked to talk to his supervisor, declined. I then asked for his information, declined (all I have is a first name and time of transfer). Call ended.

Called back to cancel my wife's line. After some back and forth from the "loyalty" rep, who seemed mostly polite, we agreed to terminate my wife's line. I will get a full refund minus the $35 restocking fee. There will be no account credit, and no guarantee that I get my old plan back I'm furious.

So, getting ready to deploy my exit strategy to AT&T. Will post more as this occurs.
 
Medion said:
Here's today's update. As with yesterday, they did not call me back, so I called them. I ensured that I was very polite (not sarcastically, sincerely) due to the fact that the person that I was going to speak to was not the person who screwed me over.

First rep - insanely polite, understood my situation, reiterated that a rep at her level could not fix it, and wanted to know if she could transfer me to a supervisor who may or may not be able to help me, as a last ditch effort. I agreed.

Supervisor - insanely rude, pretty much gave me the "too bad so sad" line. Afterwords, I asked to talk to his supervisor, declined. I then asked for his information, declined (all I have is a first name and time of transfer). Call ended.

Called back to cancel my wife's line. After some back and forth from the "loyalty" rep, who seemed mostly polite, we agreed to terminate my wife's line. I will get a full refund minus the $35 restocking fee. There will be no account credit, and no guarantee that I get my old plan back I'm furious.

So, getting ready to deploy my exit strategy to AT&T. Will post more as this occurs.
Click to expand...

Please do as I am interested.

This post will be somewhat lengthy so please bear with me. This describes what I do and why when in situations similar to yours. This is not a comentary on your particular situation or even a recommendation to do as I do. Just (again) what I do and why.

I always go to a corporate Verizon store when making major changes/modifications/upgrading to our wireless account. That way I can test our phones in the store, when upgrading phones, swithching phone numbers between phones, ect. and I also walk out of the store with a written receipt showing all costs. i.e. my wifes corp discounts, activation fees, (whether waived or not) and features. (with cost breakdowns)

Just recently, (well last Feb.) my wife and daughter had a family plan with AT&T (they wanted iPhones) and I had an individual plan with Verizon. When Verizon got the iPhone, we decided to drop AT&T (and their dropping of calls) and switch to a family plan on Verizon because ir would save us money, among other things. We went to the store and got the Verizon iPhones, ported their numbers over and walked out of the store knowing the iPhone #'s were ported over, because we tested them in the store before we left. We also had the receipt showing our new family plan, all the features we wanted including insurance ONLY on our daughters iPhone, and showing all discounts, waived activation fees and phone costs.

Again, I'm not saying this is what you should have done because after all Verizon does offer the sevice of talking to a real person to make changes and also, people (like you possibly) aren't within reasonable proximity to Verizon corporate stores.

I sincerely hope this situation turns out well for you.

My wifes biggest complaint with her iPhone on AT&T was the dropped calls, and we live in a reasonably large metro area. (Honolulu, HI) and says she has had none since she switched to Verizon. Don't know about my daughter though, she's going to school in Sacramento, CA and I've never asked her about it.

Just my lazy commentary on a quiet Tues afternoon here in Hawaii.

Again, best of luck.....
 
Wow, that sucks, Medion. I'm sorry they screwed you over like that. Good luck in finding much better customer service.

At this point, if I were you, I'd get the FCC involved pronto. If they played the recording back and saw that they're reps screwed up, it's also a case for the BBB - since (in effect) it as also false advertising.
 
johnlgalt said:
Wow, that sucks, Medion. I'm sorry they screwed you over like that. Good luck in finding much better customer service.

At this point, if I were you, I'd get the FCC involved pronto. If they played the recording back and saw that they're reps screwed up, it's also a case for the BBB - since (in effect) it as also false advertising.
Click to expand...

Filed a complaint with the BBB, FCC, and my state's AG. That should get their attention. I left AT&T about 14 months ago due to horrible customer service. Verizon was good until this point. Even now, I talked to MANY reps, and most were sincerely polite and TRYING to bend over backwards to help me. It just came down to the fact that the first rep lied and promised things that Verizon could not deliver. They made me some counter offers, but in the end, every offer they made me would cost me more than what I was paying before we merged accounts.

I'm currently employing my exit strategy. I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch, but I'll report back. As of right now, subject to change, it looks like my wife and I will be able to use an AT&T family plan with 550 anytime minutes (unlimited mobile to ANY mobile), unlimited text, and 2x unlimited data for $113.79/mo before taxes. Again, we'll see if this falls through.
 
As an update:

I got in touch with Executive Relations as per my three complaints. They admitted fault and agreed to correct everything. Specifically, they agreed to;
-credit me the $35 restocking fee
-credit me roughly $45 in charges for having the 2nd line opened
-credit me the $35 activation fee (because it got re-billed to me after it was re-waived)

Instead, what happened was;
-I got charged two restocking fees
-I finally got the activation fee credited
-The removed the charges for the second line and then billed me overages for the usage at $0.40/minute for talk time and $1.99/MB for data.
-Got charged a $350 ETF and a $115 ETF.

So, after "fixing" my bill, I got a bill for over $500! However, I didn't find this out from them. No, you see they closed my online account, so I called to find out what my final bill was. I then asked for a line-by-line explanation and they told me it would be a $10 fee for that! I finally got it waived and a copy sent to me (and removed my automatic billing to prevent the bill from being charged).

Bill came in the mail today and is due on 12/28. I'm still fighting it.
 
To the OP,

I really feel for you. I personally have not had a problem with Verizon CS reps ever. However I haven't been through your situation.

More and more ibthink about going to prepaid (boost or simple mobile) as much contract draws to a close.

My girlfriend has boost and (aside from a mid range phone with just over 100mb for apps that sucks) loves it! Eventually it will only cost her 35 per month for unlimited everything.

We do have the advantage of living in the middle of the I-95 corridor where there is a lot of coverage for boost.

Hope everything works out for you and your wife.

-Sev
 
Medion said:
For a few years now, my wife and I have had separate individual calling plans. Mine was on Verizon and hers on AT&T (she's an iPhone user). I've wanted her to switch to Verizon for awhile, and we finally did it. Now I want to shoot myself.

My calling plan was the talk and text 450 (450 minutes, unlimited text, $59.99) with unlimited data. I was on a grandfathered promo that brought my data plan down to $9.99. After taxes and corporate discount, my monthly bill was $66. So, when I asked about putting adding her as a line, my concerns were;

-can you port her number?
-will I retain my $20 data discount?
-how much will my plan be?

They answered yes, yes, and $127 (before taxes). They also promised to waive her activation fee. What's happened since then?

-refused to port number, assigned new number
-stripped my $20 data discount (thank God I'm still on unlimited)
-raised plan to $145 (because of the above)
-charged me a $35 activation fee

Needless to say, we're pretty pissed. We're considering a lot of options. We'll be making our decision by Tuesday, since Verizon promised to get back to me by Monday. So far, they've apologized profusely, played back the recording of my order and admitted that they screwed up on all accounts, put in a ticket to refund the activation fee, put in another ticket to re-implement my $20 data discount, and are trying to find a way to port her number.

Since they no longer offer my $10 data plan, I expected them to fall through on it. If that's the case, I'm canceling her line within 14 days, refusing the restocking fee (and they can take me to court over it), and canceling the Nexus upgrade that I had planned. I'll take us both back to AT&T, or even Sprint if I have to. Right now, I'm furious.
Click to expand...

In fairness, I don't think they're "refusing" to port her. Some numbers aren't portable. They have every reason to want to port the number. And it looks like they have the other things covered, right?
 
spookiewon said:
In fairness, I don't think they're "refusing" to port her. Some numbers aren't portable. They have every reason to want to port the number. And it looks like they have the other things covered, right?
Click to expand...

Before purchasing the phone, we were assured that they would port the number. They even checked to see if it could be ported. After the sale, they were no longer interested/able to port the number. They lied.

On top of that, they had other billing errors, and when they fixed one billing error, another cropped up.

They finally sent me a $500 bill after promising to correct their overcharge. So I'm sorry to disagree, but no, they haven't covered anything.
 
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