We joined Verizon "Veriations Freedom" in 2003 our first several bills were overcharged, at the regular long distance rates for calls instead of the unlimited long distance we were told 5 times was active on our line. Finally they fixed our account and started charging the flat rate monthly.
We had stupidly asked when DSL would be available and were told it was they sent us a "self install" kit and gave us a ready date. After the first time it wasn't ready on the ready date - we had to call our old internet company and ask them to cancel the termination request for our service as Verizon's DSL was NOT working. We kept getting new ready dates from the company and waiting for it to actually work until we received a bill for $160 for the DSL equipment.
We called and were told our order was cancelled and we were to send the equipment back and didn't. We were never told the order was cancelled. We returned the equipment and forgot about getting DSL - several months later they called back and said it was working in our area - we again stupidly let them send us a self-install kit and give us a ready date - again it didn't work and we immediately returned the equipment and let it go until Feb '04 when our neighbor actually got the service and it indeed worked. So we went ahead and ordered it as it would save us $25 monthly plus a $5 bundle credit.
The bundle credit was never applied - month after month one of us had to sit on hold with them to get the bundle credit applied, were told to deduct $5 when paying and the following month - the $5 would still show on the bill plus a late fee. We were told it'd take 3 months for the credit to show and that they would stop the late fees.
Finally after several months of complaining we were issued a $35 credit for the over-charges. The credit appeared on our June bill - however we were also billed on our June bill for the DSL service dates that we had already paid for on the May bill as well as the new charges. Thus voiding the $35 credit. We were told to deduct the 35$ and that they didn't know how the computer could have billed us for the same dates twice, but that it would be fixed.
We had enough and switched all of our verizon services to cable including phone and terminated all of our accounts with them. This month we've gotten a bill from them for $96.00 that included service dates after the termination date because they failed to terminate the service on the requested date as well as the $35 over-charge still being listed plus it has acquired late fees.
When we called and asked we were told that was not our final bill and it would show up in about a month or so and we should pay the full amount in the meanwhile to avoid being sent to collections. Collections?!?! For their billing error? I asked what would happen when the final bill was a negative amount once they finally added the credit on (if they ever do) and they said we would be issued a "credit". I reminded them we no longer had services with them and the operator informed me she didn't know what they would do and perhaps we'd be issued a refund check.
I've had enough and am forwarding copies of the bills to any and all agencies and consumer reporting companies I can find. Don't deal with Verizon in Virignia, you'll just end up with a headache.
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