I have been a Verizon customer for 14 years, including the earlier
companies purchased by Verizon.
On 4 Sept I went into my local Verizon store and spoke
with Kurt Crosbie, a customer rep that I have dealt with several times and had
a belief that he would serve me well and I could rely on his advice. I
explained that my business has been very slow over the past year and meeting bills
was getting very difficult. I needed to shed expenses. The current plan, which
was expiring, was for a Blackberry (which Kurt had recommended) with 2 incoming
lines and data (email) access. It was running about $170. Per month. My stated goal
was to lower it to under $100. We agreed to drop one of the incoming lines. I
put the remaining line on an old flip phone and gave the Blackberry back to
Kurt for a $15.00 credit. We agreed to
lower the plans minutes. I had agreed (at Kurts recommendation) to 1400
minutes per month and had carried it for 2 years, during which I rarely ever
got close to 500 minutes. When all was done, the monthly bill was down to the
$70.00 range and I was happy.
Then I asked about the hot spot Internet 4G device. I told
Kurt I was currently paying $70.00 per month for Time Warner cable Internet
access. I told him that my primary Internet
use was email, but sometimes looked at You
Tube model railroading videos, Flixxy videos, the Glenn Beck television show
and (infrequently) at RoKu. He explained that the 4G device would run $40.00
per month, so I agreed to it as well. I believed that my net savings would be
about $110.00 per month.
The first bill to arrive, dated 28 Sept, was for $256.88 and
included that I had used 14 gigs on the 4G device resulting in a $90.00 overage
charge. As well, the 1400 minutes of telephone usage still remained (and I had
used 186 minutes). Due to postal delays,
this bill did not reach me until about the 10th of October. I
immediately called the store and spoke to Kurt, asking for an explanation. He
accessed the account as he was speaking to me and told me he would suspend the
account immediately because I was currently at 45 gigs of usage under the
current bill (resulting in a $400.00 overage charge. He offered to credit me
with $90.00 for the September bill overage charge, but he said he could/would
do nothing about the $400.00 because they were justified charges. I told him
that I had no idea that there was a possibility that there could be an overage
charge and that fact alone would have been a deal breaker for me that I never
would have agreed to the contract if I had known it. Nothing I said made a
difference. Kurt did agree to waive the $175.00 fee to end the contract. He did
say that he would work with his supervisor on the balance and someone would
call me.
On 24 Oct, having heard nothing, I called the 800- number
and spoke to Arturo. I explained all of the above. He told me that he would
have someone call me.
At 11am, 9 Nov, having heard nothing, I called and talked to
Kelly and had to explain everything again. She promised to have someone call me shortly.
At 3:15pm, having heard nothing, I called again and spoke to Tasha. I went thru
the entire history again. I got shuffled to Frances who demanded the last 4
digits of my Social Security number. At this point I was upset and drew a line
in the sand every time I call I have to give these numbers. No more. After several
minutes of stonewall, I hung up.
I called again and got Tasha again. She demanded the SS
number and finally settled for setting up a different code. Tasha told me that
I was currently on a 450 minute per month plan the first notification I had
of the change. After working thru the entire explanation again, I was shuffled
to tech support who informed me that I had been warned of the 4G overages as
soon as they occurred. This was the first time I had heard such a story and I
objected I had never been informed of overage charges until the bill arrived.
I told her that I would have stopped the usage immediately if I had been
informed that I had overage charges. I was told flat out that I was wrong. She
told me that I had been sent alerts on 10/23 and 10/19. When I objected and
told her that I had never been contacted, she went on to say that their records
showed that I had been sent warnings on 9/11,9/15 and 9/16 and she would not speak slower or repeat these dates
even though I asked several times. I objected and she rattled off new dates
10/1,10/2.10/3. I kept asking for her to slow down so I could copy down all
of the dates she was rattling off, to no avail. It was very obvious that I would be given no
comprehensive explanation of all of the warnings that supposedly had been
issued to me. I asked just how I went sent these warnings and she informed me
that they were sent to the device and I asked how they appeared on the 4G
device. Was there a warning light? Was there a flashing beacon? How was I to
know to look at the device to see if there was a warning? She could not explain. I asked again how I got
the warnings and she told me that the warnings were sent on the phone and I
explained that no such phone calls had ever come to me.
After getting nowhere and having more questions, I demanded
a supervisor and was connected to Randall. Once again I related the entire saga
and was told there was no way that I was getting a full $400.00 credit. When we
got to the part about the overage alerts, Randall told me that I was informed of
the overages by email. I told him that I had never gotten any emails. I asked
for proof of the emails. I was informed that we could negotiate now for the overage
charges and forget about proof of overage alerts or the $400.00 charge would
stand and there would be no more negotiations.
He stated that the overage charges were valid charges under the
contract I countered that I did not believe that a valid contract existed.
Randall stated that I had signed a contract. I told him that all of the details
of the contract had not been explained to me. As a graduate of law school with
a Juris Doctorate degree, I know there is a contract term known as meeting of
the minds without which a viable contract cannot exist. The meeting of the
minds ensures that each side knows the terms of the contract and understands
the terms. Clearly I did not know about the overage possibilities and could
have never signed the contract had I been informed of the possibility.
Randall said I had been informed of the overage charged the
minute they occurred. I told him that was not the case and no one had been able
to tell me how I had been informed of the overage charges that I had never
been notified. After several minutes of back and forth, Randall told me that
the 4G device had to log in to get the overage alerts and I had to log into my
Verizon on line account to be warned. I asked what account? That I had
never set up an on line account.
Randall offered a $140.00 refund. I objected. He offered a
$165.00 refund. I asked for a supervisor and he said that I had gone as far as
I could, that no more credits would be issued.
Then he informed me that an on line account had been set up by me on 7
Nov. It was news to me.
Later that day I went back to the Verizon store in
Huntersville and spoke to Lisa, the store manager. I explained all of this in detail. She told me
that the overage alerts would be sent to me via email by the myVerizon account.
I told her that I did not have a myVerizon account. She told me that she could
not issue a credit and that I should take the offers. She refused to give me
names or numbers of anyone that I could talk to for help in this matter.
So the bottom line
here is that I was duped into a contract and sucker punched with a huge overage
charge (about $500.00 in about a month which in and of itself is proof that I
did not understand what I was getting into) and Verizon will stonewall and do
nothing about it. Nor can I get to talk to anyone with authority to resolve the
situation. When I did not pay the bill, my service was interrupted. The only
bright light is that at the end of the current contract I shall be out of
Verizon, never to return.
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