Verizon Consumer Reviews - Page 11

BURNSVILLE, MINNESOTA -- Back in 2001 I had serious problems with customer service at Verizon and I didn't know which outlet to express my complaints. The reason I am writing this now is because their mistake is STILL affecting my life. I first became a Verizon customer in 1996 so it wasn't until years later I had this problem with them. I know exactly what happened now, as I later became a service rep for a local phone company. I had called to change my plan to an upgraded plan with more minutes as I kept going over my allowed amount. I chose the plan with 2400 minutes for $74.99/month that was available back then. The rep agreed to make the change and I hung up.

My next bill I received was about $600. I don't' remember the exact amount... but when I called and asked why so much as I hadn't gone over my minutes because I had the 2400 minute plan... she said "no you don't- you have no plan- your plan was removed, but no new plan was added so we billed $.25 a minute." I explained to her that the new plan should have been added at that time I removed. She said the charges were incurred and I owed that amount. I asked for a supervisor several times after arguing with her about the amount owed. She FINALLY agreed and transferred me... and the call was dropped before I got anyone.

I called back, time and time again... only to have the same thing keep happening. Each time waiting on hold for 30-40 minutes each time... going through the whole thing again with the new rep... asking for the billing dept supervisor, or for complaints dept. Each time, I was disconnected. I was working full time and a student. Kind of made my time limited to be making these calls. I managed to cancel my service during one of these calls but I kept getting the same bill with these charges, plus additional charges for the next month. I didn't pay the bill because I was disputing it.

This went on for about 5 months... at which point, I received a summons to go to court in the mail. This was already on my credit and still is on my credit. I paid it in full in 2001 when I got the summons. I couldn't take time off work to go to court over it. I wish I had. Maybe I'd be able to buy a house now or get a car loan without a co-signer. I don't even know whom to call over at Verizon at this point to ask them to take if off my credit report. They didn't help me when I was a customer- why would they help me now? It was completely their fault; they took no responsibility and I know exactly what happened.

The rep removed the code for my old plan and didn't enter the new code. It was probably an accident, but surely they could see that I wouldn't have chosen no plan at all as it would be billed at whatever rate they wanted. They easily could have gone back and changed the dates of the new plan and the charges would have been changed to reflect that plan instead. These people completely screwed over a student who had been a good customer.

PENNSYLVANIA -- I have spent months trying to straighten out some international phone calls that were made to the Cook Islands from my computer line. I have contacted Verizon, MSN, the FCC, the Attorney General of PA and the Public Utilities commission. I know that this is computer fraud and that I am not alone as I found many people have experienced the same as me. I hope that someday there is a class action lawsuit against Verizon for this. They have not been cooperative at all and out of frustration we finally paid the bill.

The phone line that these calls were made on is a separate phone line that I had just for the dialup modem I was using for my internet access. I thought that I was protected from things like this with my Norton anti-virus software and Norton Firewall but obviously not. The fraud department at Verizon had told me that I was not going to be liable for this and that they were researching several other cases similar to mine. In fact they mentioned that I was lucky as they had some other customers whose bills ran up into the thousands.

I am grateful that they shut off my long distance service as soon as they saw what was happening but I am now being told by the billing department at Verizon that I am liable for this since it happened on my computer. In fact, when I got home this evening from work, there was a letter from Verizon threatening to suspend all of my Verizon services unless I pay the bill by June 25th.

I really believe that this is internet fraud and that consumers should be protected from these kinds of crimes. I have had a block put on my account against any international calls which hopefully will protect me from this happening again.

I have searched on the internet and am attaching for your information, articles from the FCC website related to this and some postings I found on the Spybot website that are talking about this dialer malware. There is another Verizon customer from NY who mentions that Verizon did not make them pay for this. There are also others who are noting the same phone number to Cook Islands - ** - showed up on their phone bills as was on my phone bill. The Spybot website notes that there are Attorney Generals in several states that are pursuing this.

There is another article that states that in a Philadelphia Inquirer interview that Verizon admits publicly that they are participating in what they know to be fraud and continue to collect the fees from the victims. This is in the copy of the Spyware Weekly newsletter dated June 15th, 2004.

NEWINGTON, GEORGIA -- TouchWiz popup 25-30 times an hour. 3g with spec of signal, constantly drops calls, 5 plus attempts every time to open internet. Services at store or 611 service useless!

VIRGINIA -- 3 PHONES THAT DID NOT WORK. Refused to send new phone. Dropped calls w/ 4G LTE. Phone had no functionality, i.e. contacts, phone, messaging would not open. Spoke to Elisha (Supervisor), Jeremy (Tech Support), Zack (Tech Support), Brittany (Customer Service), none of whom were helpful or offered any solutions that made sense. HORRIBLE. HORRIBLE. HORRIBLE.

EUGENE, OKLAHOMA -- Unwilling to reinstate automatic payment after they undid it on their end. Five months of calling, going through the same process to reset automatic payment. Being called a liar on the sixth time calling and still left without auto pay. Approximately $600 To $800 in fees I had to pay extra. Finally did reinstate and I had enough of their crap. Canceled even though it is going to cost me money.

PUEBLO, COLORADO -- Salesperson lied to me. Told me I was going to get all this free stuff and when I got my bill was charged for everything. They suck. Don't ever use them. All they want is your money.

MASSACHUSETTS -- There was a reason we dumped this company a few years ago. I called them just to inquire about cable services. Could not get past a guy who would not stop asking questions about our personal information. All I wanted was to find out about a plan and compare to Comcast. I finally hung up. Boy, does that company suck!

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA -- I called my friend's family many times - Can't get through to them. Verizon Network is no good. I am on the beach in Fort Lauderdale Florida Metropolitan area big city for the most part and had metro PCS for 12 years - switched to Verizon this year. My first two months I want to get out of my contract and go back to Metro. What was I thinking?

USA, CALIFORNIA -- I transferred my service after having no contract. Was encouraged to buy a droid which turned out to have major problems. They won't exchange for a new phone - it's been all of 17 days - offering a refurbished phone. I paid $200 for this phone so a used phone offer is a joke. Sales guy told me I had 30 days to return. Turns out the fine print is 14 days. Time to switch back to Sprint and have them buy out Verizon. Total crap and waste of time.

SCOTCH PLAINS, NEW JERSEY -- In the past three weeks I have been bombarded by Verizon's promotion of the Al Jazeera channel. Living across from the World Trade Center I watched it being decimated by Islamic terrorists that Al Jazeera praised and promoted. Many of my friends died there. If Verizon's greed means more than the death of American citizens, then I will search for service that does not promote terrorists or resort to Netflix. I have told Verizon and I ask that all Verizon users let them know how you feel.