In Jan. Of 1998 my husband signed up for long distance service with GTE Communications Corp. After five or six months of being ripped off I decided to end the service. I signed up with another long distance carrier who didn't charge a monthly $65 service fee on top of charges for calls, and waited for my final bill from GTE (now Verizon).in the mean time, I got billed from my long distance carrier as I made calls, come to find out i got another bill from GTE with charges for their long distance service. I tried to disconnect this service several times during a long four months by calling GTE and ending these "current charges", a phone rep.informed me that I had to get a Winback from my local carrier (I guess this is one of those things that is common knowledge in the big phone buisness but not to us common folk who have to pay for the services). I thought I was finally out of the nightmare but it just got started. Every month from then on, I would receive a bill from my local, long distance, and GTE select services (which I no longer had). Every month I called GTE and was assured the matter was resolved. I went though this until Jan. 2000. That month I received a "final bill" (which was written in itsy bitsy letters on the bottom of the statement) of course I called and the matter was resolved (again). January I received a letter from collections stating that I owed $860.00. I was floored and pissed. I hadn't received a statement since Jan. 2000 and now a year later I am sent to collections. I of course called what is now Verizon and was told that I had a balance of $0 and they assured me that the collection letter was incorrect and that they would correct this matter ASAP. Two months later a get a call from the collection agency asking if I received the letter and how I was going to pay for this. I again was floored! Since March I have been calling Verizon Select Services every other day to get this matter resolved. Every time I call my account has a different balance, I supposedly have a specialized team of researchers handling my account... But I am not allowed to talk with them. The only people I am able to come into contact with are the phone representatives. Meanwhile, my credit is going to crap because of something that is not my fault, that I have tried countless times to resolve, and (according to them) there is nothing or nobody that can help me at this time.
In my opinion, Verizon has found a great way of getting more money from us for a service that is already way too expensive. I guess all they have to do is charge you for services you don't use, keep billing you (even if you've disconnected), send you to collections (use your credit to force you to pay), get a different answer from every phone rep. You talk to, not let you talk to the people that can solve the matter at hand, and keep you in the dark just to shut you up and make you feel helpless...
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