This concerns deceptive/fraudulent business practices of Verizon. We have been Verizon customers for 18 years. At the beginning, we had only telephone service with them and then we added Internet Service (FiOS).in September we decided that we were going to add digital TV service, something we had never had with any company before.
I signed up for the new TV service in October, and on December 11, I received a shock when I saw that Verizon had billed us 525.14 for calls to Sweden. I called Verizon to tell them something must be wrong. A representative, Mrs. Thomas, told me I must have talked to a third party verification, who would have informed me that my international calling (which we have always had with MCI) would be switched. This is simply not true, I have never talked to anybody who informed me they would call MCI to cancel my international plan that I had with them. I would certainly not have changed a plan that cost me 10 cents a minute to one that costs over 3 dollars a minute! The bundle that they offered me was simply what I had before, telephone and Internet, plus now TV service. I even asked the representative if there were any hidden costs, which he assured me there were not. And the papers that I signed in the store (a kiosk in Montgomery Mall) does not have any information about international calls or that they would call MCI to cancel my plan with them.
The strangest thing in this whole situation is that we never received the October bill. Verizon deducted our payment ($301.24) automatically on November 24. That bill includes international callings for $121.52 according to Mrs. Thomas. Had I received that bill, I would have noticed earlier that something was very wrong with my plan, certainly before I was slammed with this bill. Mrs. Thomas promised (Dec. 12) to send a copy of that bill, which still has not arrived.
When I talked to Mrs. Thomas, she told me that Verizon has an International calling plan for $14.99 a month that includes 300 minutes of international calling. This seemed like a fair deal, so I signed up for that, and Mrs. Thomas told me that the toll-billing department would be able to back-date this plan to the time of installation, i.E. Erase the international calling that has been done since I signed up for TV service, i.E. $121.52 plus $525.14 = $646.66.
However, the people at the toll-billing department (Marcia and Lori) told me that they could not erase those calls, and that I had to contact the corporate headquarters in Annapolis, the so called Verizon Annapolis SRC. I wrote them a letter on December 12, explaining the situation. I sent it certified mail to be sure they would read it and respond. To this date Verizon has not acknowledged that they have received that letter. I wrote a new letter on Dec. 23.
Verizon was supposed to collect the last bill from our SunTrust account on Dec. 18, but I blocked that transaction since we are disputing the charges of 525.14 for the international calls.
To summarize:
We have been loyal customers of Verizon for 18 years and always paid our bills on time.
When we signed up for FiOS TV service, Verizon switched our international calling plan without informing us.
Verizon is charging an outrageous rate for international calls, over 3 dollars a minute, without informing customers that this would be the consequence of signing up for TV service!
Verizon never sent us a bill for October where we could have caught this problem early.
Verizon employees tell us to contact Verizon Annapolis CRC to settle the matter, but there is no person to contact, nor do they acknowledge that they even receive letters. Does this entity even exist?
Unless Verizon changes the amount for international calling in line with what Mrs. Thomas promised, i.E., back-date the international calling plan to the date of our signing up for cable, we will cancel our service for telephone/Internet/TV with Verizon, even if that will cost us extra. So, within a year, Verizon will lose more money on us than they will gain by these fraudulent/deceptive business practices.in addition, we will tell all our friends and family never to use Verizon. Our children are high school and college age and my husband and I are both professors. We are Facebook users and bloggers and will certainly use these means to let others know about Verizon's fraudulent/deceptive business practices. So, in the long run, Verizon will lose a lot more than they gain by this, but do they care?
Kerstin
Kensington, Maryland
U.S.A.
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