My husband and I searched (endlessly) for the "perfect" wireless plan. We were very specific about our desire for a nationwide calling plan, plenty of minutes, and a reasonable monthly cost. We thought we had found the perfect deal when we purchased the Nationwide Calling Plan from Verizon. It was a little higher than we would have liked, but as the sales person pointed out, we would be saving money on long distance since the package came with free nights and weekends.
The sales person stated that the only "problem" areas were close to the state line, since we live near the NC/TN state line we confirmed that the problem was not in our area. When we took the phone home, we checked the roaming signal, we noticed that at home it was roaming. I immediately called customer service, and the representative confirmed me that we were not acutally roaming (as in being charged) the phone was simply looking for the strongest signal, but in no way were we incurring extra charges. Satisfied, we continued with the plan. We had 15 days to cancel with no further obligation.
When the bill came there were several roaming charges, I immediately called customer service. The representative stated that "if your roaming signal is on, you are being charged for roaming you need to check your signal". I said that I had previously contacted customer services and was told the exact opposite. She said "well I don't know who you talked to, but we are not capable of determining roaming areas here". She agreed to waive the roaming charges. Through the next month I checked where the roaming charges were coming from. Of course roaming charges showed up on our next bill.
I called customer service again. I stated that each time I was charged roaming, I was within 5 miles of my home, which was CLEARLY EXPLAINED TO ME at the time I signed the contract, that it WOULD NOT ROAM AT HOME!!! I was told again that nobody can really determine when you are roaming. That even though I was calling from the state line, the tower that was handling the call was 70 miles East of my home and well, I was out of luck.
I asked to cancel the contract, BAM I was informed that I would have to pay an early termination fee.
It wound up, that I am stuck with a 2 year contract, however after writing to the CEO of Verizon (see the website to get the info), I was able to reduce the contract to a few southern states and a lower monthly cost. That was the best I could do, and I have resigned myself to the fact that I got taken advantage of AND I wasted my time shopping around.
Needless to say, I will not renew the contract once it is up, and I will never conduct business with Verizon as long as I live.
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