Verizon
Reviews and Complaints

For the past two months there has been a charge of $19.98 on my cell phone bill labeled "Premium TXT Messaging".
I have never authorized any such service, and only rarely use text messaging at all.
In talking today with Verizon customer service I was informed that they cannot refund the charges or cancel the service.
I spoke with a supervisor and got the same unacceptable answer. They say that they are only acting as the billing
agent for the provider, therefore cannot refund the money, even though the charge is made on my Verizon bill.
The bill does not anywhere identify any other party involved other than me and Verizon. They said the charge was
from Solo.com. No such site offering text messaging exists per google search.
This is an unbelievable situation. And the fact that Verizon can bill me for a service that they are not providing
and deny any responsibility for the charges is infuriating.
Obviously this is come kind of scam in which Verizon is a participant either knowingly or innocently, but the
refusal to take responsibility even though they threaten to terminate my service if I don't pay is unacceptable.
But I really don't know where to turn next

Prior to July of 2009 my cell phone service was with Alltel and my service was good, account was also in good standing. Since July 2009 I have had numerous problems with the phones service, poor customer service that required me to waste countless hours of sitting on hold or being bounced from department to department to resolve my problems. At one point Verizon technical department wanted me to drive around and look for areas where the phone service discontinued to function and the report the address of the locations, a big waste of my time. When billing was contacted to negotiate the bill it again took many calls, hours and department bouncing to get to an individual that could reimburse me for loss service but not loss of time wasted dealing with the poor service and poor customer service. Since the loss time was not compensated I send an invoice for a fraction of my time wasted dealing with Verizon's low performance, the invoice 2266 dated 09/29/09 is still unpaid after many attempts to collect the debt. Verizon has not adequately relieved me of financial loss and I still continue to have poor cell phone service and more wasted time dealing with the repeat of the above mentioned items. I am canceling my service with Verizon due to nonperformance and filing whatever complaints through whatever avenues I can find to bring about justice to such negligence. I had no previous problems with Alltel and ever since Verizon has taken over the service the account has been plagued with multiple problems. I would hope that the Complaint Board will take whatever measures to help in bring about justice where a large company can neglect and abuse its customers.

Verizon FIOS customer service is an absolute joke. The company is completely unregulated and argues that regulations aren't necessary because the competitive marketplace for Cable TV services is sufficient to enforce the company to have decent customer service. But Verizon's argument fails if for the simple reason it competes with the cable industry! An industry with an equally horrible reputation for customers service. Well, if Verizon FIOS' customer service is being policed by competition, then I guess Verizon FIOS is doing everything it can to match the Cable industry's lackluster reputation.

I've had FIOS for about 3 years. Love the service, but if there's a problem -- WATCH OUT! Better grab a bottle of Xanax, a tall drink, and make sure you take the day off of work. Why? Because you'll need patience... lots of patience... and you'll need time... lots of time. Don't have any loaded weapons b/c after the 3rd of 4th or 5th time you repeat your problem to a different "department, " you'll want to blow your brains out. That, or put a hole in your flat screen TV with the blank void staring at you.

Mind you, this isn't the first time I've experienced a problem with FIOS over the past few years. I actually say prayers at night hoping not to have any technical, billing or other issues with FIOS because I dread making that call.

Here's a recap of my most recent experience earlier this evening...

Come home from work at 5:30 to a blank screen with the following announcement --

THIS CHANNEL IS CURRENTLY NOT AVAILABLE... CHANGE CHANNEL OR CALL THIS NUMBER - [protected]...

So I make the call.

After going over my telephone number, name, rank serial number, mother's maiden name, and showing them a picture of the mole on my ### to confirm my identity because I had the misfortune of NOT also having a "Verizon Telephone Number" on my account (yes, I of the audacity to choose a competitive telephone provider over Verizon), I finally get ahold of someone who can access my account.

VZ: What's the problem sir?

ME: Well, I don't know, you tell me. My TV tells me to call this number.

VZ: It looks like your account is suspended.

ME: Really? How did that happen? I'm on auto-pay and the payment has been deducted every month for 3 years, without fail.

VZ: I can't say, sir. I'll have to transfer you to the billing department. We don't handle billing issues.

ME: Ok. Can you transfer me to a human being account rep [cue on hold music] resentative!

... ON HOLD MUSIC CONTINUES FOR THE NEXT 25 MINUTES... good, gives me time to eat dinner as I sit in front of my blank TV screen.

Enter Billing Department representative.

VZ: Sir, can you provide the Verizon Telephone Number associated with your account...

Oh God, here we go again... 10 minutes later and I've once again provided the rep with a picture of the mole... finally, my account information is up in front of her... finally, I can get this issue resolved and get TV service restored... finally...

VZ: Sorry, sir, yes this is the Billing Department, but we don't handle payments... that's another department... and I'm sorry to say that the payments department is only open from 8AM to 6PM and it's now 6:30 PM, you'll have to call back in the morning to have your service restored.

ME: Wait, you mean there's nothing I can do to identify the cause of the suspension this evening? Possibly have you restore my service?

VZ: No sir, even if we could, service wouldn't be restored until tomorrow during normal business hours.

ME: Well... thanks for wasting the past hour on the phone with me... had you bunch of idiots provided me with the right damn phone number from the get go, I would have been in touch with someoene during NORMAL BUSINESS HOURS!

And mind you, this is not a rare occurance. I'd say I've had to contact Verizon around a dozen times in 3 years. Each time the service experience gets worse and worse and worse. And no matter how many times I call, it takes 10 minutes and all the personal information in the world for them to even access my account information... and that's 10 minutes every damn time I'm transferred to one of Verizon's infamous "Other Departments."

How many Departments does Verizon have? It has as many Departments as are necessary to make sure 90% of the complaining customers who call them get so fed up being transferred to a different Department they simply give up!

Please... FCC... Virginia Corporation Commission... Attorney General... someone... please help!

I purchased a cell phone in August 2007at the Verizon store located in BJ's Warehouse in East Setauket, New York. The vendor/sales representative (J. Velez) took the battery out of the new cell phone and replaced it with another battery. That battery wouldn't keep its charges for no longer than 4 hours without using the cell phone. If the cellphone is used, the battery would only last at the most 2 hours. I returned to the store in September 07 and dealt with the same vendor who originally sold me the phone. I explained the problem and asked him to replace the battery since it is frustrating to have to charge the new phone's battery every day. He took the phone from me, opened it and replaced the battery with another phone's battery. I asked him if he'd instill a new battery in the phone. He replied yes. A few days later, I began to experience the same problem. This time, I followed his instructions and went to the main Verizon store located in Lake Grove, NY. The customer representative checked the phone. He looked in his computer for the sales date of the phone and then told me that he couldn't help me because the battery in the phone is 2 years old, past the warranty. I was ripped by the sales rep. and felt cheated. He was dishonest and unethical.

A few days ago, I noticed that Verizon FIOS has started inserting extra commercials and preempting the beginning of the next programming segment by a noticeable amount. I have noticed this on Fox News Channel, but I don't know if it's true for other channels, too. This is very annoying, to come back to a segment "already in progress." Being the Verizon monolith that they are, I don't know how to voice this complaint (they don't make that every easy, do they?) nor do I feel that anyone at Verizon would really care ... pitty.

Verizon charged us over $100 in roaming charges while we were vacationing in Alaska (we thought we were still in the US). Our phones never gave us any indication that we were in "international waters" (Alaska coast) or that we were outside the home network, and we never imagined we were being billed $2.50 a minute for the incoming phone calls/voice mails that we never even answered. We would have shut our phones off completely had we known that Verizon can randomly charge "roaming" rates at any time without warning by claiming that we are "out of the Verizon home area" even if our phones indicate that we are still within the home network. I couldn't believe this when I heard it, so I looked it up in their contract fine print, and there it is. Even when the phone indicates you are not roaming, you might be roaming off the Verizon network, and be billed at obscene rates without knowing it. We had filed a claim against Verizon's (what we thought were) unauthorized international roaming charges with the FCC, which achieved absolutely nothing, since Verizon came back at the FCC with the fine print in the contract. During the two months when the dispute was before the FCC, Verizon gave us less than a week from the time they sent us a bill in the mail for the "roaming charges" before they suspended our phone service for "nonpayment". We had spent less than two months with the new carrier, and quickly returned to T-mobile (we'd been with them 4 years, and switched to Verizon because of supposedly better networks, but we kept dropping calls with Verizon when we hadn't before with T-mobile). Verizon then chose to add over $500 in various early termination fees and the like to our bill, and they decided to make daily harassing phone calls to our home after 9pm threatening to take us to collection over the bill, while they knew the matter was still under review by the FCC. We just paid the full bill to avoid further harassment and collection action. Overall, a disgusting experience with a self-inflated, inhuman, and abusive organization.

I was trialing several different cellphone companies, because I was planning on switching to one I liked better than my current provider. I will never, ever recommend verizon wireless to anyone. I trialed their service for 4 days, they sent me a bill for almost $300! They told me I had 700 minutes to use, but when I cancelled my trial period because of poor signal in my area, they took away the minutes I was told I had to use, and left me with 100 minutes, and charged the rest as overage. Be forewarned... Stay away from verizon wireless. Nowhere in their contract, or terms of service, does it state they can do this. It's absurd for them to tell someone they have a certain amount of minutes to use, let that person use them, then take them away and charge major overage charges. This should be illegal. How are you susposed to trial a cellphone service, if you have no idea how long to talk, or how many minutes you have? According to them, this is the case, you just gotta guess. I will never pay the bill, I will let my credit score drop a few points over this. I do not owe them anything but $35 for data usage. Just stay away from this company! I learned from experience, they are thieves!

Customer service at its poorest, paid for a phone line for 6 months that had no dial tone. Called them to say that we had no dial tone for them to come out and fix it. When they showed up they dialed the phone number they were coming to fix and, obviously, got no answer so they LEFT! the records showed that we were not home, after i had taken the day off from work to sit at home and wait for them! THEN they come a week later to fix it again, get a dial tone, leave and an hour later, no dial tone again, like they had flipped a switch and turned off my line! complete ###s these people are. they have a manual that they follow with no common sense!

I bought a new laptop and signed up with verizon wireless internet service in sept of 2008. unfortunelly my laptop and internet card was stolen in dec, 2008. I made a police report and reported it to verizon wireless with a police report. accordinding to verizon wireless I signed a two year contract with them so they validity decline to terminate contract, instead verizon validity suspened the contract and countinued to validity bill customer due to not properly terminating the contract although verizon validity acknowledge there were a discussion but adamantly said they are correct in justifing for the two year contract which I've heard so much times from verizon wireless. After making so much complaint's towards BBB and the state attorney general the problem has been unsatisfactorty at this point and unresolved. I also went on line at justanswer.com and talk to an attorney for a fee. I was told my best bet is to sue for the remainder of the two year contract. But when I sued for the remainder of contract, verizon counter with a in-advance payments. I only paid $60.07 monthly until I tried to terminate. In dec.2008 I was chagered additional $10.00 fee with internet serve fee of $60.07 monthly. I never paid late but somehow verizon wireless has the right to suspened my contract without any notice to paying customer. I tried my complaint to all places. I am upset with verizon wireless I came comming to a point theres nothing I can do. I hope theres people looking at this message and dont signed up with verizon wireless. I think verizon wireless is a turncoat of a bussiness.

I got collection calls from ER Solutions regarding a Verizon Wireless bill. Verizon said I signed a 2 year contract and had an early termination fee. Totally ridiculous, but that's not the point. I spoke with a rep from ER Solutions that told me that I avoided paying bills and "am a person that makes consumers look bad"...I said are you serious, this bill is completely wrong! He continued to be little me, I finally got annoyed and hung up. Worst of all though, I sent in a letter explaining my situation. Of course, now they don't want to talk with me and say my complaint is in a long line. At first they called me everyday, since i sent a letter... they wont get back to me. Horrible company, I am actually considering going after them legally even though I will lose money in the end. I can't stand this company or its representatives! I never complain about anything, but this company is ridiculous!

On 7/2/2009 I activated a non-contract, personally owned, cell phone with Alltel's prepaid service with total charges of $140.00 with the assurance that when Alltel and Verizon merged that my balance would transfer and that the $100 payment(the other $40 was an activation fee) for future minutes included in that amount would not expire for one year.

Upon transfer of the account to Verizon no balance was transferred by Alltel, despite less than 20 minutes of time being used, according to Verizon. Alltel states that a balance was transferred and that they can no longer access my records as Verizon is now the sole holder of the account.

I spent over an hour on the phone with Verizon tonight. Initially speaking with "Brandon" in the Verizon prepaid call center, who could not resolve and who offered no further assistance I requested to be transferred to a supervisor. After some time I finally spoke with a supervisor, "Porsche, " in the Verizon prepaid Georgia call center in an attempt to resolve. She could not resolve my issue and told me "this is not a 'known issue, ' told me there was nothing anyone could do and promptly hung up on me! Needless to say she was quite rude.

So I am out $140, with no prepaid phone service despite making payment in good faith.

On 11/16/09 I received a confirmation letter from Verizon Wireless confirming that I had opened a mobile account with them. I immediately called customer service as I had opened no such account. I was told that Verizon had closed the account on 11/11/09 due to fraud. Five (5) phone numbers were associated with the account and 5 blackberry storm phones had been ordered. The representative also told me that it had been opened using my name, address and social security number. For any additional information I would need to speak with their fraud department. Several phone calls later I have yet to speak with a frauds department representative as they are always "experiencing unusual call volume". I have been placed on hold on 6 different occassions only to be disconnected after 20 minutes! One one occassion I was able to leave a voice message and was assured someone would call back, but I've yet to hear from anyone. What makes matters worse is that I intend to file a police reeport and cannot get any information from Verizon on how this fraud was perputrated! Review of my credit report at all three credit agencies revealed no credit inquiries from Verizon. Are they just giving away phones to theives? This attitude just increases the liklihood that identity theft will occur. As I do have a Verizon landline, I have to wonder whether this fraud and identity theft was committed by Verizon employees. I'm canceling my landline, have reported them to the FTC and NYS Attorney General. How can we protect ourselves from identity theft and fraud when companies like Verizon Wireless won't assist the victims?

Verizon lost the phone that I returned to them, they charged my account 434.59 refused to take the charges off and now they are threatening to shut off my phone?

Canceling after 10 years of service since 18. I'm about to cancel as well, my plan is a "grandfathered plan" ($30 a month for 300 minutes) and they have been falsley overcharging me for years. These conglomorate phone companies are the worst, they are the rich that ruin the country with scams.

I heard reported from many people that at&t slips in extra pennys, dimes, and nickles on your bill that you don't notice and if you do call and tell them they immediatly remove it and say 'goodbye thanks'. Pennies under our noses is a million extra to them. When I was in the army phone cards are all we have to call back home and they're outrageously priced and when you get one and use it you are charged your precious minutes for making calls or even breathing over the phone... It's rediculous, anyone there knows. It's dishonest and creepy, [protected]@#$ing our soldiers over so clownishly.

Verizon is no different. For years in and out fo contracts I have always paid full and on time at their stores in-person. My bill isn't ever just $30, it's 37-40. It fluctuates wildly with new and old # charges all the time. Something to look for on your 10 page bills if you print them: notice how all the major charges on your bill are rounded out to even numbers... I eyed this for years. The first few times you present this with evidence in their stores they will waive or adjust your bill but it's good for 1 time normally.

They were claiming I was using the internet on my phone when I didn't know anything about the option or let alone use it; said I was being charged for 3 uses. I had internent and apps and even the fluctuating costs of texting disabled inside the store (Always do from person-to-person). Everything, even texting was disabled, all I could do is call people and get voicemail.

Lastly, I never use my phone, I never have conversations unless it's short and work-related, that's it. I have had many $70-50 bills from my average 35 every few months dotted in. If you present it to them and back them into corners in arguments and show facts and want to know "who is at this address that I am being charged for I did not call" they shrug, shrug shrug shrug everytime. They also take your highest amount of minutes on your bill and use it against you... Ok if I have 300 minutes in 1 month, and I made about 7 calls and recievd 5 averaging 5 minutes or less, and then 1 call that lasted 30-40 minutes how does that pass 300+ worth $58 isntead of my normal unsurpassed 300... They can never explain that either, just throw your 1 30 minute call in the month in your face.

So many people in the past were requesting their bills they stopped printing them in office and said "go here online to this page and you can view and print" which never worked either, always broken links and # like that. Typical abuse of accumulated power, their customer service over the years has gone way down, they have such a huge network and growing company that they don't care at all about lesser customers they just tell "bye".

I hope to god my cancelation after 10 years goes smooth I want away from this crap, being a long term, responsible and honest customer means nothing to them and I am the proof; my opinion is that verizon are dishonest skunks.

I had Alltel wireless for 6 years. Everytime I went to their stores I was asking about my bill which was usually $250.00 up to $500.00 per month. I always paid on time. My last months bill was $260.00. When I approached a Verizon associate about it here in San Antonio he began to inform me of all the added things like "game stop, international calling, wizard and other things all which cost $9.95 per month and was added to my account. I informed him I never ordered those items (my base plan with text, internet ect was $139.00) we began to review my account but he was not interested since he had other customers to sell to so he dumped me off to some other nerd. In the end I paid my last hugh bill, I dropped their service, bought me an IPHONE with AT&T got a plan better than Verizon for $129.00 a month oh yea, AT&T had rollover minutes something Verizon won't offer.

For those of you 80million who are on VERIZON I would PAY close attention to that bill and do not go green you need that paper bill if you have a dispute.

Good Luck

Verizon Wireless is really good for releasing phones with faulty software to the public. I've had Verizon for just under two years and have had the LG Venus (defective and slow reacting touch screen), the LG EnV2 (The screen went out twice, the keyboard went out twice, and my "OK" button on the external keyboard would not work), and now I currently have the LG EnV3.
After serious complaints to Verizon Customer Service, I finally told the supervisor that "I am not getting another EnV2 since they clearly don't work, I am not using my upgrade nor am I paying for a cell phone when chances are that this one will mess up too. I told him I was on the way to the closest Verizon store and I needed a new working phone, that day." I was harsh with my tone but I did not curse or yell.
When I arrived to the store, I told the lady who helped me what I just explained and she went back talked to the manager, and came back out with my EnV3. I never talked to the manager and all the associate told me was if I wanted to exchange it for another phone I would need to bring it back within 35 days and there would be a restocking fee. I said thank you, I signed the receipt that had a $0.00 total at the bottom and left.
The other day I was on MyVerizon, and found that I am no longer for an upgrade and that they extended my contract for another two years. The manger did this without telling but had the associate put it into the computer and she did not tell me either. The other thing is, I am the primary line on the account, but the account is not in my name so technically I do not have authorization to do this.

Basically, Verizon extended the contract for two years without telling the account holder. The only way to reverse this is to do an early termination or argue with the manager until they correct the situation.

Verizon may have wonderful cell phone service but as far as the actually cell phones and in-store customer service goes... it's terrible.