NO VERIZON ON MY HORIZON!

In mid July 2009, I walked up to the Verizon kiosk at a local mall and inquired about their “Friends & Family” plan. My youngest son was born totally deaf after my Vietnam combat exposure to Agent Orange and unlimited text messaging was a God send in opening his world of communication. My ex-wife is one of my best friends and my oldest son lives in Vegas. I felt the Verizon package to be beneficial communication with my family. We purchased 4 phones, one upgraded with a keyboard for my deaf son and skipped off into the sunset thrilled with our new service and tools.
My glee ceased when I received my first bill estimated at the time of subscription to be $248; it was over $700 and included all the phones I had already paid for, insurance on 4 phones which I had declined in writing, excess minutes and a host of other things too numerous to mention. I returned to the mall kiosk and found that the attitudes of Verizon employees change to customer contempt when they are confronted with legitimate questions. I was told they would get it straightened out and get back to me with a properly credited bill and was instructed to sit down and shut up. Their next step was to shut off my service for not paying the erroneous $700 bill. Now my deaf son who had just started a new job (the likes of which depended on his ability to communicate via text messaging) was left without communication. After several more confrontations with each side questioning the others competency to qualify as humans; several of the overcharges were removed, I paid the remainder and our service was reinstated. However, now they added a $60 charge to reconnect the 4 lines which dramatically involved the gaggle of technicians they show on television as backup and it took one of them damn near 7 minutes to reinstate all 4 lines for the $60.
From that day forward for two years now every monthly billing has become a personal time consuming nightmare.
1 They advertise that there is no charge for calls between Verizon customers and “off-peak” calls; true statement however the call minutes on all of these categories are deducted from the specified monthly amount of minutes contracted for which of course runs you out of minutes and overage charges accrue each month after that contracted plateau is reached. I have repeatedly requested of Verizon employees both verbally with witnesses and in writing that I be shown where those minutes in question are deducted from my contracted allotment prior to billing as I was told in every instance, however to date they have refused to show me.
2. My calling plan has changed 3 times in two years, clearly shown on the billings and I am now told in writing that it is all the same plan, only the name has changed 3 times in a year.
3. I added another phone to the “contract” and was told it would not change the terms of the “contract” whatever they may be and this presented a whole new series of events which I will not go into now. My 2 years of aggravation and servitude under some sort of adhesion “contract” ended on the 26th of July 2011 and I switched 3 lines to another service. I went directly to a Verizon store and cancelled the remaining two lines and was told it would be an additional $60 unless I waited until July 24th. I swallowed the heartfelt comment almost uttered but the drone behind the counter sensed he had fallen into bad water and called a manager who quickly approached from my left and displayed the stereotype image of a fat slob with nickel sized objects inserted into his pierced ear lobe holes and shaking in time to his belly fat which had also un-tucked his shirt in various places around his belt overlapping middle. The irony of the whole employee scenario directly linked to Verizon caused me to laugh out loud. I asked for and got a receipt and left the premises. Today Verizon called on one of our original Verizon numbers now transferred to a new service and said I have a $550. bill and threatened to “interrupt“ my service. This time they will be required to justify this present amount along with every penny charged over the past two years under the scrutiny of a microscope manned by many previous Verizon customers who have figured out their deceptive billing practices. I personally have kept every communication, billing and have printed out call details monthly as have others. The call records are available monthly on the Verizon Website for their customers but are displayed in headache provoking 4 pt type.
4. Feeling as though I had become a whiner and complainer and was just a victim of a serious run of mistakes I googled specifically “Verizon Complaints” (restricted to that exact phrase only) and got a whopping 18, 000 websites and contacts ranging from a few people to 5, 000 people each and after reading several of the websites found my situation repeated ad naseum by thousands of other people. While it did give me a warm fuzzy to know that I was not alone, it also disgusted me that such a situation exists in America.
5. My small investigation led me to the fact that Verizon Wireless has a contract providing cell phone service to Federal government employees. As a courtesy to Verizon I informed them via email that I was preparing FOIA requests to the appropriate government accounting offices for a copy of said contract. I received a call stating that such was a private contract to which I replied to with the fact that it was a contract between Verizon and approximately 160 million taxpayers who are paying the bills. It will be interesting to see what Verizon is charging us along with whom and how often our government servants are calling on our nickel in these economically challenging times..
All I ever wanted on July 26, 2009 was to subscribe to a service for a specified monthly amount in order to make and receive a few phone calls and provide my deaf son with a means of communication. It turned out to be a hideous marriage in the beginning and went downhill from there. I requested Verizon to honor the fact that I went into mortal combat in Vietnam, raised a deaf son as a result, and it was all done to protect their right to treat me like garbage. They did not respond to this request either. My service including that of my deaf son has been interrupted six times over the past two years when I have questioned a bloated bill; contrary to specific guidelines in the Americans With Disabilities Act and incurred $60 to &75 dollar reconnect fees on each occasion with nothing but road apple and meadow muffin explanations from Verizon employees.
I have spoken with several attorney’s who agreed to take the case and felt certain a victory would be the end result; they humorously responded however that I should be advised to do the math. If a large company overcharged a million of their customers $50 a month while only a few complained and even filed charges that settlement refund of 2 or 3 or even 5 million dollars was nothing compared to their monthly 50 million dollar profit. They advised me that I had little chance of stopping a large corporation. I don’t want to stop them; all I ever wanted is my overcharges refunded. The only bonus to me would be to see people stop subscribing to their service. I will post the complete details of my ordeal on numerous websites for anyone interested. I will also post the results of our investigation into the marriage of Verizon and the Federal government. Right now I mainly feel a sense of relief being free of monthly horror of receiving a Verizon phone bill.
Sincerely,
Dennis Grover, American

I have just completed a two year contract for a mobile web device with Verizon Wireless, and we had decided to switch to local DSL because they offer faster internet, and at a better price than I get through Verizon. The customer service rep asked why I was disconnecting, and I told him better speed for considerably less money, and told him the 38. dollar rate for 3.0 Mbits speed. He said, they have a current offer that I can get 3 GB for $35.00 a month, but it would take a 2 year commitment, and new device which would cost me under 50 dollars.

We signed our agreement two years ago for 59.99 a month, with a 5GB cap on data, and our average was 2.7GB a month We found the service availability good, the speed on the slow side, but loved being able to carry our connection anywhere.

I agreed to the new price, and as soon as the equipment arrived, I activated it. In this shipment was a catalog that showed the 3GB for 35 offer, so obviously it was good, and I didn't give it any more thought. Until I found I was being billed 59.99 a month, on a new contract, that I had agreed to by activating the device. I called, and was told the 3GB for 35 had expired before I activated, and there was nothing I could do...and if I disconnected the device I would be billed $175.00 early termination fee. I told them that was not fair, not right, and that I would protest it. My advice: this is a bait and switch technique, and is illegal. They already tried this on me in December with a smart phone. So write down every agent you speak to, every offer, and detail everything carefully! There must be most people paying up or they would not be this foolish! BUYER BEWARE!!!

My husband and I purchased 2 HTC Thunderbolt smartphones from Verizon (April 2), of course you have to sign a 2 yr. contract to get the discounted price for the phones. We spent $200 each for the phones. Well the 14 days that they give you to cancel or return the phones, they worked pretty good. On May 12th, there was an update sent out, so I thought great the phone will be better than before. Well this update made them power down and reboot almost daily. And sometimes several times a day. Every time we go to Verizon or email them, we just get the runaround. We stopped in at Verizon in Warsaw, In. and the Representative said that the update was being pushed out now and we should get it in a couple days. He also did a master reset on my phone saying that by doing this it may push the update to my phone quicker. Well this did not bring the update to my phone. I came home and emailed the Better Business Bureau and this is my email to them:
My name is Sandy and I have a serious issue which I have tried to resolve many times with Verizon Wireless by email and going into the store.
On April 2nd, 2011 I purchased 2 HTC Thunderbolt cell phones from the Warsaw, In. Verizon store for myself and my husband. We have had issues with the phones almost since the beginning. The problems are: Rebooting, shutting down and freezing. Each time we contact them or go into the store, the issue is not resolved. The first time we went in with the problems, they said that we were the first to complain about this, the Verizon Representative took my husbands phone and looked at the apps on it and said that one of the apps may be the problem, so he took it off. Well this did not help at all. The second time I went in about the problems the Representative looked it up online and found where people were complaining about the problems. All he did was put a note on my account stating my complaint. My husband went in another time and the representative told him it wouldn't do any good changing to a different Thunderbolt, that many people were having the problem and it was a software problem and they are working on a fix. We went in this afternoon, July 5th 2011 and the representative told us the same thing but told us that they have been pushing the software update for a few days and we should get the update in a day or so. He also checked my phone for updates and there were none, so he said maybe if we do a master reset on the phone then check for the update it will be pushed to my phone. Well I handed my phone to him and he went through what it took to do the master reset, he then completed all that needed to be done and checked for the update, there was none. Since I have been home, I also have been checking, none is found! Well this has been so frustrating to us, we asked about getting out of the contract due to the problems and how unsatisfied we are with Verizon Wireless. The representative today told us we could not break the contract without paying $350.00 per line, we have 2 lines, ($700.00).
They give you 14 days only to cancel your service or change phones. Well the problems didn't start during this time, so we were and are locked into the contract with them for 2 years.
Is there anything you can do to help us just get out of this contract from them without paying such an ungodly amount of money.

I am sending you what I have sent to Verizon Customer service and the response I received back.


My first email to Verizon:

On April 2, 2011 I entered a contract for service with Verizon wireless. We purchased 2 HTC Thunderbolts with the 1400 min. plan. The phone's have had many issues, rebooting, shutting down and freezing. I am very unhappy with this. It has been only 3 months today since I started this service. I would like to get out of my contract without being penalized with a huge payment. I really believe I should be able to get out of the contract and return the phones and get my money back. After all the phones don't work properly. I can be in the middle of a conversation and it shuts down, then it is hard to get it started back up, or it reboots. I can also be using an app and it freezes, then I have to pull the battery. I am wanting to find out if there is some way we can resolve this issue? If not I will go and get council from my attorney!

Please respond!

This is my second email to Verizon:
On April 2, 2011 I entered a contract for service with Verizon wireless. I purchased 2 HTC Thunderbolts with the 1400 min. plan. The phone's have had many issues, rebooting, shutting down and freezing. I can be in the middle of a conversation and it shuts down, then it is hard to get it started back up, or it reboots. I will sometimes not even be using the phone then get it out and it has shut down and not even realized the phone had shut down.
I emailed HTC with the issue of rebooting and shutting down, they just gave me suggestions on a fix for it, none work. I have been in the Verizon store concerning the issue with the phones, they just say to take 3rd party apps off and do a master reset, this doesn't work. They also have said that a lot of people have had this problem and I am stuck with the phones, due to the contract. Is this really the way Verizon goes about their business?
I am very unhappy with this. It has been only 3 months since I started this service. I want to get out of my contract without paying an early termination fee. I really believe I should be able to get out of the contract and return the phones and get my money back. After all the phones don't work properly.
I am wanting to find out if there is some way we can resolve this issue?
I will also be sending the Better Business Bureau this letter concerning this issue.
Please respond!

After I sent the BBB the email I sent the same on to Verizon so they would know that I did file a complaint with the BBB. Here is the response from Verizon:

I am very sorry to learn of your dissatisfaction with your HTC Thunderbolt devices. My name is Roy and I understand how frustrating it is when you must visit a number of different channels (store, then E-mail) to resolve a situation, and for that I apologize. Our Worry Free Guarantee provides you 14 days from the date of purchase to return your phone for any reason and cancel your service with no penalty. As our records indicate this time frame has expired, we do not have the ability to take the phones back and cancel your services with no fee.


I see it noted in your account that you visited the store location on Tuesday, July 5 after writing this E-mail. The representative there attempted to verify whether a new software version is yet available for your device, and at the time it was not. I too can assure you that HTC is in fact working feverishly to develop and successfully test new software to resolve the matter, in an effort to get it pushed out to affected customers. We appreciate your patience while this patch is being developed and approved by our equipment team.


Thank you again for your email regarding the continued use of these HTC Thunderbolt devices. I hope you continue to find the “Contact Us” section of verizonwireless.com

a helpful option to resolve any issue you may experience the first time you email us. We appreciate your business and thank you for being a valued Verizon Wireless customer.


Sincerely,


Roy

Verizon Wireless

Customer Service


As you can read on the response from Verizon, Roy is stating that they are working on a fix. I have read on many posts that the fix was to happen June 30th, well there still isn't any. The Representative in the Verizon store in Warsaw yesterday said that there was a fix, but it hasn't made it to our phones yet. Well I think Roy had it right and it is still in the makings and not completed yet. My complaint is that Verizon holds you to a contract for 2 years even if your phone is not working properly. My husband used his phone for work, well the phone is not reliable. I think Verizon should cancel the contract and refund our money for the phones.
Sandy

I had a contract with Verizon thru our government employer. Since their contract was terminated two years ago, I still continued the service. Sometime in Februay 2011 their customer service advised me to have switch to personal account so I can access easily without going to customer service. Which I did. Next billing I received two billings, one from old account which showed that I had an overpayment of $88 and another invoice for new account. When I learned I had a refund, I called the customer service how to get the refund. Customer Service No 1. got my call. I asked how could I get the refund or transfer it to my new account. CS1 (Customer Service 1) said, eventhough it showd negative 88, I was not overpaid. I asked him, do you know how read negative and positive figures. Then he asked, in what way I paid my bill, by electronic transfer, by credit card or by check and if it were a check what is the check number. I told him it had nothing to do how I paid. This conversation would not result to anything because CS1 did not know anything. So I asked the supervisor, CS1 put me on hold for 6 to 10 minuntes, until somebody picked up the phone which was not the supervisor but anthoer customer service represantative (Customer Service 2). I told him to look to my old account. This is what he said "We overpaid you, how do you want to refund you, by check or by transferring to my new account. I told him just transfer to my account... Scene 2 -- I received call from Verizon (CS3) that I was overdue for payment for my new account (this kind of service they are quick). I told CS3 that I paid that amount and checked my old account it might went there. Which it did and at the same time I inquired to CS3 if the $88 from my old account had been transferred to my new account. CS3 said no, because this was with the contract with my gov't employer. Somebody from that agency needs to contact Verizon if it would be alright to refund the money to me. I said the contract between you and my employer had been terminated two years ago and they had nothing to do with this now. Your telling me that the money I paid to my new account which went to my old account it should be my employer to ask you to transfer them to my new account. CS3 said yes. I gave CS3 two examples: (1) This what I said, first of all, the payment that went to my old account should be rejected because that account had been closed, just like the bank, you can not make deposit or make payment in closed account. Example 2: If somebody from other States made mistake and the payment went to my old account, what would you tell them, to contact my employer. CS3 paused and consulted CS3's supervisor. This was advised to me, "call my bank and request reverse or recall the payment." .. I followed that. They told me something and they did different. I found out they just transferred the payment to may old account. If they could do that, why do they need to tell me to contact my bank. And my refund for old account, yes I received it after two months but payable to my employer. My employer endorsed the check payable to me. Scene 4 --- I got tired of Verizon's attitude, so I switched to T-Mobile (which I got better government discount than Verizon) on May 14. My Verizon bills run every 2nd of the month. T-Mobile told by switching the phone numbers it should automatic terminated the contract (but not for Verizon). I was counting I should received refund from Verizon from May 14 to June 2 (no service ever rendered from Verizon at this period. I tried to use my old phone, it was disconnected already. That means no service, but Verizon disconnected my service effective June 2 eventhough no service provided between May 14 to June 2. CS4 said the Verizon did not pro-rate. --- I call this a robbery. If you missed the payment, you received call right away from Verizon, but if you have a refund...sorry!!!

Verizon Wireless is claiming to be a leader in the industry but the truth is Verizon is following at&t. Starting July 7th of 2011, Verizon Wireless will no longer offer the $29.99 Unlimited Smartphone & Email feature. Verizon Wireless will offer $30 for 2 GB, $50 for 5GB, $80 for 10 GB allowance per month.