My most recent Verizon phone bill contained a charge of $12.95 from ESBI, on behalf of 'Enhanced Services.' The description of the service was voicemail monthly fee. Neither my husband nor I ever signed up for this service.
I called ESBI to dispute the charge. The representative asked me to identify myself, and then informed me that someone by my name had indeed signed up for the service over the Internet. He kept insisting that I had signed up, and it sounded to me like he was not going to remove the charge.
He only changed his tune when I said that I would file a complaint with the FCC. Then he agreed to remove the charge.
He really had me wondering what stupid thing did I do while web browsing. Then I remembered that I had already given him my name, so it wasn't hard for him to then use my name as that of the person who allegedly signed up.
I reported the charge to Verizon. While I was on the phone for a long time with Verizon, I found their representative much more helpful. She put a third party block on the account and said that she was filing a cramming report (I think that was an internal Verizon thing).
I also filed a complaint with FCC.
What torques me is that every time I call Verizon to make a change in my phone service, I have to give them a lot of personal information to verify that I am who I say I am, but some company I've never heard of can just waltz in and slap a charge on my bill.
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