I entered into a two-year contract with Verizon Wireless in 2005. At the time, I knew I would be moving from Indiana to South Carolina in a few months, and I asked if it would be a problem to change my number. The sales rep said no. I later changed my calling plan, and as a result was required to extend my contract by a year. When I did move, I had my number changed, which for some reason required closing my account and setting up a whole new one.
Soon thereafter, phantom charges started popping up from my OLD account, and — lo and behold — no representative of Verizon seemed to be able to help me or even ACCESS the account — because it was in a different "region." Verizon wants to promote an image of its "strong" network and nationwide coverage, but it can't coordinate "regions" from Southern Indana to Upstate South Carolina?! Anyway, after a few months, I got sick of wrangling back and forth with them over the old account versus the new account, so I terminated our relationship and stopped paying.
In mid-October my service was shut off. I paid all the outstanding charges, then was contacted about paying the $175 early termination fee (plus tax). Fine. We worked out a payment agreement for me to pay $61 a month for three months, the last of which was to be made this month (March). Today (March 16) I received a bill in the mail for $181.82.?!
As Verizon is wont to do, it failed to provide even a single reference to what the charge was for. I called a service rep, who first told me that there was "activity on the account, " then claimed that it was a charge for the early termination fee. I said I'd been paying that for two months, and she then attempted to tell me that it was effective as of January 9. I said, "You mean to tell me that I'm being charged on an account that hasn't been in service since October?" She then told me that my balance as of November was $303. Complete balderdash. Those charges are completely fabricated.
I'm sick of Verizon sending non-itemized bills with phantom charges on them — charges that were never incurred. These people are outright criminals, in my book. I don't see how they stay in business. I will fight this to the death, and if ANY of this shows up my credit, I will dispute it and get a lawyer. I'd rather give a lawyer $1,000 than give the crooks at Verizon another red cent.
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