After Verizon launched their unlimited free anytime minutes to other Verizon customers, they failed to tell me that this did not apply to secondary lines on family accounts (sure, it's in the fine print, but I feel customer service reps are obligated to mention this information up front when promoting this feature on our contract). I had to pay over $250 in calls that I would not have made if I had known they weren't covered under this promotion.
After Verizon launched their unlimited IN network text messaging, I was continuously overcharged for text messages to another Verizon Wireless customer (the ONLY person I ever text messaged). They always credited my account for the overcharges, but I had to call customer service EVERY month! This went on for at least six months until I finally got so frustrated, I told them just to remove the text messaging service from my account. How many customers haven't paid attention to their bill and were unknowingly overcharged for text messaging?
The final straw was when I was charged $9.95 for some crazy "Joke of the Day" service that was supposedly downloaded to my phone from an outside company called Dirty Hippo. I went around in circles with Verizon Wireless customer service about this charge. They kept trying to reassure me that I was fully responsible for this charge, even though the one and only time I ever downloaded anything was a few ring tones from one of the sponsored ring tone providers straight from my Verizon cell phone. I asked if this service could have been accidentally downloaded when I was retrieving ring tones, and they said it could not. For this particular company, Dirty Hippo, I would have had to signed up on the internet or via phone, I would have received a text message prompting authorization of the download, and then I would have to accept the download. Well, I obviously would have remembered doing this, and I never ordered or got any such prompts to authorize this service.
They kept telling me there was nothing they could do, and excused it as apparantly someone I knew got ahold of my phone and downloaded it. I told them that this must have been some great anomoly considering I was a single female living alone, and my phone never left my side unless it was being charged at night when I was home alone. I never let anyone TOUCH my phone, much less use it. After explaining all this to many customer service reps and the fact that there is no way I would pay $9.95 a month for some silly daily jokes, they still persisted that I was completely responsible for this charge. Finally after hours of exhausting explanations and refusals, one of the supervisors allowed the credit to my phone as a "courtesy gesture."
I had planned to discontinue my service as soon as my contract was up, but allowed my phone service to be disconnected the next month after I saw another erroneous charge on my account for some crazy unexplained service.
Customers beware - check your billing statement monthly!
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