On December 29, I had a business line connected in my home for my home office. I spent quite a bit of time on the phone with the rep who was very helpful in finding me the least expensive package available to fit my budget. She was very helpful and I was pleased with the package and price.
The rate is $25.50 for a basic line plus $9.77 for the features package, (caller ID etc., and $4.95 for voice mail totaling $40.22 per month before taxes which are around $5.
I get my first bill and there are an additional $3.64 in local calling charges. I called to ask what this was and was told that my calling package included calling to only certain prefixes and calls to all other prefixes will incur charges. I said I was not informed about this and that it probably will not work for me because the prefix I call most often, (the prefix for all of my clients) is one that will incur extra charges. I told the rep I would wait to see my next bill and see what the charges are before I change anything.
Next month, my bill has $9.86 in extra charges. I call Verizon to say this is not going to work and that these extra fees put me over my budget. They say they there is nothing they can do except sell me a more expensive calling package to include unlimited calling to any prefix. They said they don't know why the rep who signed me up didn't tell me about these extra fees but that the info is in the written information that I received after signing up. I said, actually, there is not one word pertaining to any extra fees or explaining the limited prefixes that were included in my calling plan. Of course, they don't have anything to say about that and had no option for me other than to sell me a pricier plan.
I said, this is one reason why so many people are cancelling their land lines and using cell phones only. Yes, cell phone companies can be deceitful too but Verizon really shows their lack of integrity in this case. And maybe it doesn't seem like such a big deal but, the clincher is - I said fine, I'm done, I'm going to cancel my phone service and use a cell phone for my business and I do not want to hear anything about how I will be hit with an early termination fee for the voice mail that I signed up for for one year at a discounted rate. The rep said that I indeed would have to pay the early out fee. I said, "even though my calling plan was misrepresented, which is called bait and switch, which is against the law?" Rep said "yep!"
So now I don't know what to do. Stick it out paying at least $10 per month more than I had anticipated or pay the early out fee and never use Verizon again... including Verizon Wireless.
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