Verizon
Reviews and Complaints

Am formally disputing a claim made by Verizon, which went to an outside collection agency.

After having a Verizon telephone line and Verizon FIOS for several years, our family decided that the land line was no longer necessary ($31.00 per month, and we never used it). In June of 2008, I contacted the Verizon telephone service billing to have the telephone line discontinued, but that we wanted to keep the FIOS Internet service. This process seemed to go okay.

The same month, June 2008, the router for the FIOS Internet service went bad. Verizon FIOS Internet technical support mailed us a new router for the bad one, which we installed. They also sent us a second router (identified on the June 20 bill for $139.99 + $6.95 shipping). We returned the second router, via FEDEX, the middle of July 2008, once we realized what they had done. I called Verizon FIOS Internet technical support AND BILLING, and advised them it was being returned. I spoke with them again in AUGUST 2008, and they supposedly credited the account ($147 + 99.00 = $246).

On page two of this letter, you will see that Verizon charged us for the additional router, and then unreturned equipment (highlighted in blue text). You will also notice on the second page of this letter that a credit of $38.33 (billing cycle correction), leaving the secondary account number, 007471409xxxx, for Verizon FIOS Internet still active (discontinue of the land line service shifts the internet billing to the first of each month). The FIOS Internet bills one month in advance, to my credit card, and has done so since August 2008 (you will see that account is up to date). I do not receive paper bills, and with the xxxx account cancelled, I do not see any billing cycle.

We have attempted to contact Verizon telephone billing, FIOS billing, and spoken with billing supervisors, who say that the account has been credited (obviously not). The DSL Unreturned equipment charge was disputed twice in August 2008, by both myself and my SO. We have spoken to Verizon land line billing regarding account number ending is xxxx, only to be told that they cannot see any charges on this account. They then transfer us to Verizon FIOS technical support, then to Verizon FIOS billing. We have both been on the phone with customer service at least twice a month since JULY 2008. The last two billing service managers that we both spoke with OCTOBER 10 (because we were on the phone with them at the SAME TIME) said they removed the first DSL equipment charge, and the unreturned router charge from the FIOS Internet account for a total of $246.00. For some reason, they cannot seem to credit xxxx. Each time we call, it is a minimum of two hours, being transferred here and there, but we have spoken with billing managers each time, only to have this occur again.

JUNE 20 BILL

My Bill for: 06-20-2008
Amount of last bill $73.27

Payment received on Jun 18 . Thank you. -$73.27
New Charges

Verizon Charges $23.28 (telephone)

Verizon Online Charges $203.93 (internet)

Total New Charges due Jul 19 $227.21

Verizon Online Charges

New Charges for Account 007471409xxxx
Verizon Fios Internet Service Jun 1 - Jun 30 $49.99
Additional Wireless Router $139.99
Fios Shipping 1 Item $6.95
Total Verizon Broadband Services $196.93

Taxes, Fees & Other Charges
State Tax $5.60
County Tax $1.40
Total Taxes, Fees & Other Charges $7.00
Total New Charges $203.93

Total New Charges for Verizon Online $203.93

JULY 19 BILL

New Charges for Account 007471409xxxx
Verizon Broadband Services
Verizon Fios Internet Service Jun 8 - Jun 30 -$38.33
FiOS Internet Service Jun 8 - Jun 30 $40.63
FiOS Internet Service Jul 1 - Jul 31 $52.99
DSL Unreturned Equipment Charge $99.99
Total Verizon Broadband Services $155.28

State Tax $4.00
County Tax $1.00
Total Taxes, Fees & Other Charges $5.00
Total New Charges $160.28

Bill Date: Aug 1, 2008 Page 1 of 2

Account: 007471409xxxx
Invoice: [protected]
Account Summary
Previous Charges $160.28
Payment Received. Thank You. - $160.28
Past Due Charges $.00
New Charges
Verizon Broadband Services $61.86
Total New Charges $61.86

Total Due $61.86

You will see on the SEP 2008 FIOS bill that there is a credit of $104.99 which credited the second router charge of $99 from the JUL2008 bill on the FIOS account, instead of the telephone account as it was supposed to.

Bill Date: Sep 1, 2008 Page 1 of 2

Account: 007471409xxxx
Invoice: [protected]
Account Summary
Previous Charges $61.86
Payment Received. Thank You. - $61.86
Adjustments - $104.99
Credit Balance - $104.99
New Charges
Verizon Broadband Services $57.99
Total New Charges $57.99

Total Due - $47.00

Bill Date: Oct 1, 2008 Page 1 of 2

Account: 007471409xxxx

Invoice: [protected]

Account Summary
Previous Charges - $47.00
Payment Received. Thank You. $47.00
Past Due Charges $.00
New Charges
Verizon Broadband Services $57.99
Total New Charges $57.99

Total Due $57.99

At this time, I do not believe that sufficient corrections have been made by Verizon Telephone Billing, nor Verizon FIOS billing, to correct their error. I will not pay this amount until such time that the telephone account is credited accordingly, and the 139.99 and $6.95 charges from JULY 2008 removed.

Is this sufficient to get the collections company back on Verizon instead?

My mom died 4/08. She had everything (no internet) with verizon. I called to explain to them she had died. They wouldn't talk to me because I wasn't on the acct. I tried to give them a copy of the death cert, again, they wouldn't talk to me. Tried for 5 months. They kept racking up her bills. Finally my sister got a compassionate person to stop the bills. I paid what they said was owed (100.00). Turned in the equipment. Now they want what is left on the contract (800.00) and me to pay for equipment I already turned in. They told me when I turned it in they only give receipts for boxes because that is all they charge for. Now, they say I owe for remotes, which I turned in. I will personally not ever get Verizon when it moves to my county, and will tell everyone I know how they are swindling my mom. The phone service/acct was in my dad's name. Am going to tell them to talk to him about the bills...he died in 99.

Lots of hoopla about additional HD channels but, to get them Verizon had to invent a new upgrade package. I already pay for a Premier package and a sports tier and it has some HD versions of the channels included. Now they want me to pay more for the newly added HD versions of the same channels. I pay for Speed tv already but they want me to pay for the new package to get the new Speed HD tv . No way.

I’ve decided to publicly vent about my frustrations with Verizon Fios because the situation has just gotten so ridiculous that I had to share.

So the background to the story is that I purchased a home in Northern Virginia. The monthly home owners association fee with the community includes Verizon Fios TV, as well as internet. This comes at a cost of course, as the HOA fee is higher than normal. As soon as I knew I was going to get the home for sure, I called Verizon to get everything setup so I could make sure to have internet by the time I moved in.

I found out there is a special number to call that directly handles HOA Verizon. This was about a week and a half before my move-in date. I call to set things up, and I deal specifically with one representative (who I’ve been dealing with since as it seems to be a small office). After figuring out exactly what I need, I find out that the order cannot actually be processed until the previous owners call to stop their service.

At this point, I call the sellers agent to have her talk to the owners and setup a stop date for the Fios service. She got back to me right away and said everything was good. I call Verizon back up to setup my service, and the rep tells me that I actually can’t setup my service until the previous owners service has actually stopped. They setup to stop their service on my closing day (a Friday) since they were in the home up to the night before.

The fact that Verizon can’t setup an order without the previous service actually stopped is pretty ridiculous. t doesn’t allow for any leeway, like in my case. But ok, not the end of the world, I’ll call on Friday morning and get everything setup for that weekend for installation. Friday morning rolls around, I speak to the same rep. Service has stopped, but it will take 24 hours to process, and since they’re closed on the weekend, I’ll have to wait until Monday. Ok, that sucks, but again, understandable situation.

Monday comes around, and this is where the insanity really starts to begins. I call to setup service, but I’m told that it cannot be done because something happened in the system and our order is not “flowing” through correctly…Ok…They tell me they’re working on it, and will let me know once it has been resolved so I can get everything setup.

I call every day for a week, I still get the same excuse. The previous owners order is not clearing out properly, which is not allowing my order to flow through the system properly. They have submitted a ticket to their IT team, and that was pretty much the only thing they could do. They listed the ticket and the order as urgent, and from a management level request.

The fact that it can take a week for an IT team at a multi-billion dollar company over a week to figure out how to clear an order out of a system is insane. I even mentioned the idea, why not just cancel our order, put a new one in, and maybe it will work. The rep tells me that will not do anything because the problem lies with the previous owners service.

Week 2 rolls through, and I’m starting to become livid. There is still no progress, and every day it’s the same excuse. IT team is looking at, it has already been told to supervisors, and there’s nothing that can be done but to wait. I feel completely powerless. I’m tied into Verizon because of my HOA, and the HOA doesn’t reimburse money if I decided to get DirectTV or Comcast or something. So even if I don’t use Verizon, I will still pay for it.

By the end of week 2, a friend that knew somebody who worked for Verizon had been told about the situation to see if he could do anything, and I had also contacted the HOA. The HOA gave me the contact to their IT person who should be able to work with Verizon to get this resolved quickly. I e-mailed him the situation, and I get a response saying he’ll contact them and work on it. So I’m trying to get this situation resolved from 3 different angles now.

Surprisingly enough, the next day I get a call from Verizon saying that the TV part of the service has been fixed, but the data part is still not flowing properly. They are trying to resolve this, and she’s confident they will do so by that day. She kept mentioning October 14th as well (which was about 4 days away). That night I call because I hadn’t heard anything back, she says they weren’t able to fix it yet, keep waiting.

Saturday comes along, and I get an E-MAIL (remember, I don’t have internet setup yet) saying the install date is on October 14th, but the time hasn’t been chosen yet. Ok, awesome, they figured it out over the weekend, and finally on Tuesday I’ll have everything setup. So Monday comes up, and I call Verizon. Hey guys, I got an e-mail with a Tuesday install date, but there’s no time, can you tell me when they’ll come so I can come home from work at that time? The rep says they will call me later that night with that info. I finally get a call at around 7:30pm telling me that they actually haven’t figured out the data part just yet, so there is no install time, but they were very confident they will get it working that night or by morning…so just call back in the morning and get the time.

Morning comes, and I call my usual rep. Guess what? Data still not working, order not “flowing” properly. They recommended her to cancel the order, and resubmit it…wait, didn’t I suggest that 2 weeks ago, and they told me it wouldn’t do anything? Anyway, she said they should have things good to go tomorrow or the day after (Wednesday or Thursday). The request is in at an executive level now. Great.

Friday comes around, still haven’t heard anything from Verizon. I call them, same story as before, ticket is still in with IT, she hoped putting the executive level on it would do something, but it hadn’t.

It has now been 3 weeks, since I moved in, and over a month since I originally called. I have no internet or TV in my home, and I now have the perception that Verizon has an IT team full of ###s who need over 3 weeks to figure out how to fix an ordering glitch. The crazy part is that my rep tells me this has happened a few times in the past ever since a system update was made a few months back. Those people have actually been resolved, you’d think maybe they could use the same resolution to either fix my order or fix their system.

How does such a big company with so many resources have so many problems with what you would guess was a pretty minor issue? I wish I fully understood. I wanted to speak with the IT people, but my rep wouldn’t allow me to do so.

How much longer can this go? Have you ever had a similar experience with Verizon like this? If you have any contacts or any suggestions to getting this resolved, please don’t hesitate to let me know. In the meantime, I’ll keep my fingers crossed every day, and I’ll be sure to update this post with the latest.
Update Tuesday 10/21/08 (Day 25):

I received an e-mail from a Verizon rep in the customer advocacy group for Verizon Enhanced Communities. She said the issue had been escalated to her this morning (I would assume from the HOA contact I had gotten, but may have also been from the friend of a friend Verizon employee).

Good afternoon Mr. Pitlyuk,

Your issue with getting Verizon Fios service installed was just escalated to me this morning. I wanted to touch base with you and let you know that I am checking into the issue. I completely agree with you that waiting a month for service is unacceptable. I am researching to find the problem and correct as soon as possible. I will keep you updated with the progress of your installation.

If you have any additional questions or concerns please feel free to contact me.

At least it’s some sort of hopeful progress. I hope to hear some updates shortly.
Update Friday 10/24/08 (Day 28):

On Wednesday, I was finally told that Friday 10/24 I would finally have installation and that all issues were resolved. I was ensured that there would be 100% chance that I would get installation.

So Thursday around noon, I call Verizon confirm we’re still on for everything. Everything still good.

Then Thursday night around 7:15pm I receive a call from a Verizon call center. Sir, there is a problem with the order. There was apparently duplicate orders, and because it was too late in the day, they couldn’t clear one of the orders, so it never actually goes out to dispatch. Therefore I would not get installation on Friday as planned. After trying a bunch of things and yelling at the poor guy for about an hour, I gave up. No installation on Friday, yet again due to some order problem in the system.

Then about 9:30am on Friday I get a call from Verizon. Sir, the tech should be arriving in the next hour. Huh? Oh last night…that wasn’t the HOA Verizon, so they got confused about something, we’re still good. In fact, since you already have the router in the house, you can already connect to the internet. WOW. This entire time the internet could have just been enabled! Unbelievable.

Anyway, the tech arrives. Nice guy, and was helpful in getting everything setup. Until we turn on the TV and find that none of the program information or DVR software functionality works. Tech goes back to his car, and is on the phone for about 30 minutes. Comes back in and says the orders are messed up, something about them putting the order in as the previous owners name and not mine, they are fixing it, will take another hour. Another hour passes, and he comes back in and says that they are still working on it, they will fix it on their end and it will just start working on the TV. It’s now about 10 hours later, still doesn’t work.

Then we went to activate the internet account. Verizon’s systems are down. I have to keep trying to do this throughout the day, hopefully it will be back. 10 hours later I still get this error:

System Error

Due to technical difficulties, we are unable to process your request at this time. Please try again later.

Error Code: 303101

Verizon’s entire ordering system and everything else behind I have absolutely no faith in. Hopefully these last little things will get resolved soon, but at least I have internet now, which is what I cared most about.

Please share your horror stories in the comments.
Update Monday 10/27/08 (Day 31):

I was happy to at least have internet on the Friday above…Unfortunately I wake up Saturday morning…internet is not working. Oh, and also the program information on the TV still doesn’t work.

I give Verizon a call, and they aren’t able to pull my order up. My name or phone number doesn’t work. The rep finally is able to find it, the account is under some random name, with a backup name of the previous owners! IS IT POSSIBLE FOR VERIZON TO GET EVERYTHING CORRECTED IN THEIR SYSTEMS ALREADY? Does it really take over a month to fix this, and they still botch it? Anyway, we try a couple things, and found a yellow light on the router. Verizon tells me this means the router is bad, which is also why the program info is not showing up on the TV’s. The earliest they could get a tech out is Wednesday. They couldn’t get somebody out faster. I waited a month to get service with constant excuses of order issues, and the internet works for about 8 hours before not working already. Now it’s almost another week before I can hopefully get it fixed…which I’m not so confident about.

More updates to come I guess. Hopefully one that says everything finally works.
Update Tuesday 10/28/08 (Day 32):

It was finally Monday yesterday so I sent an e-mail to the Verizon contact I was speaking with earlier basically explaining why my situation was still ridiculous. I also happened to CC Consumerist, my HOA community contact, and a bunch of people from Verizon’s media/PR department (Eric Rabe, Bobbi Henson, Clifford Lee, and Heather Wilner) hoping that somebody would do something (sorry for the bad grammar, but I was just ranting out quickly and sent this).

Short version is a tech finally came out on Friday. The account was not in my name, it was under somebody else’s name (some Sarah Lee or something), as well as the previous owners name (Michelle Taylor). None of the program info on the TV’s were working, he left telling me that it would be fixed on Verizon’s end and start working.

Saturday morning I wake up, internet doesn’t work. TV still has nothing program info on it. I call, they aren’t able to find my info because nothing is my name because the orders are still messed up. They say the router is bad, and they will have somebody out on Wednesday. I’ve already waited a month of constant excuses, issues, and order mess ups. Is Wednesday seriously the earliest somebody could come out and fix this? Can I please feel like Verizon is doing something about resolving this and give me a little priority? I’ve already wasted probably hours and hours of my time between trying to get updates, being on hold, explaining this story a hundred times to different techs, dealing with different departments, trying to get help from different parts of Verizon, etc.

Can somebody please step up, fix whatever order/account issues there are in the system, and get me the fios service right away?

Please do not hesitate to call me and discuss if needed. XXX-XXX-XXXX.

I received responses later on in the day from the Verizon contact and HOA telling me they are sorry, and will escalate this to try and get somebody to come out and fix everything asap. Great, somebody is doing something.

Actually, not so great. 3:04pm the following day, I haven’t gotten any sort of follow up. I e-mailed them for a status. No response.

So now it’s 7:53pm and I’m finally talking to a Verizon rep that took 28 minutes on hold to get to through their main Fios number. At least I’ve confirmed that there is an appointment still tomorrow for a tech to come by and hopefully fix everything. That is until they call in an hour to tell me there’s a problem in the system and they can’t come…at least I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens.
Update Wednesday 10/29/08 (Day 33):

A tech came this morning, and when we went to look at the router, the light that used to be yellow was now green. That’s funny, because the tech on the phone when I called support told me if the light was yellow then the router is bad. I argued with him for a little saying that didn’t make any sense, but he told me that was the case. When the tech arrived, he told me all he did was reset the Verizon box…that’s all that was needed to make the internet work…they could have done that on Saturday and nothing had to be down for 5 extra days.

Regarding the TV program info not working, the tech found out that it was because the video order was actually done through the previous homeowner. The actual order I made was still pending. Since they were separate orders, nothing was communicating properly so the guide wasn’t working.

I was told this similarly last week as well, and still nothing was done about it. I’m told that it will be fixed by the end of today, so we’ll see.

All I know is that right now, my internet is down again. Will this ever work?
Update Thursday 10/30/08 (Day 34):

I got home, and my internet was in fact down again…with the yellow light on the router. I call the Encore group, the people the tech that came in the morning told me to call…They have no idea what I’m talking about, and don’t handle this stuff.

I called my HOA group to verify they don’t do support…nope they just take new orders, please call another number. So I call the other number, and again, it takes me 30 minutes on hold before I can speak with somebody. They again cannot find anything that links my information to my order. I have them call the HOA number to try and find my account info, and they get on the phone. I re-explain the situation again, for the 100th time, and she says there is nothing they can do that night. Call this specific number in the morning and work it out with them to get the issue to their “war room”.

I call the number at 8am today, they can’t find my info as usual. Then they tell me they have no idea who it was I talked to yesterday (even though she said they would know), and they don’t even handle Fios.

I call the HOA line again, and plead with them. “I know you don’t do tech support, but please I placed an order through this department, nothing is working, it has been over a month, can you do something. I’ve been running around in circles and nobody can help me.” The person I spoke to looked into everything further, and seems to understand what the problem on Verizon’s end is. The first person to actually seem to understand why nothing is working. So she submitted it to their “war room”, and is updating me throughout the day on any updates. She’s telling me she thinks I’ll have things up and running today or tomorrow.

I’m basically ready to cry now, but there may be light at the end of the tunnel. It only took about 10 hours of my time on the phone, 2 days home from work, and over a month of time. Crossing my fingers yet again.
Update Friday 10/31/08 (Day 35):

No surprise updates today, another day of the same BS. I get a call back from the above person I’ve been dealing with (Barbara Bell), telling me that the main problem was the original people did not actual close the service from the previous owners. They took care of this, and literally once it propagates into the system, it will automatically put mine in and everything will start working.

Then around 3:30, I receive a call from dispatch saying they have a tech coming to the house to fix the video part of the order. I was confused, Barbara told me that everything would just start working. I felt like there were two separate stories going on, so I asked the dispatch lady to call Barbara and ensure they are on the same page before I waste my team by leaving work and potentially waste a tech’s time coming to my house.

Dispatch calls back and says that Barbara agreed to send the tech out. Ok. I go home and wait. The tech comes, goes downstairs, looks at the yellow light on the router, and turns to me saying “this won’t work”. Ahhh, of course not. He said that the order flowed through the system, but on the last step there were errors, so it didn’t actually go through all the way. He goes back and forth between the house and truck a few times, and the last time he just says “I have no idea what to do, your orders are just completely jacked up”. Of course they are, they only told me on the phone that everything had been cleared up. Apparently people had been ordering and canceling and ordering and canceling and changing names, etc that everything was just a huge mess.

So I get on the phone with the HOA Verizon group, who can’t do anything because everybody is home. Even though they are open until 8pm, they apparently can’t actually do anything. The tech was just amazed at how ridiculous the situation was. So after being on the phone for another 45 minutes of getting nowhere, I just told the rep I would call Barbara in the morning since she told me to. I call her around 9am, she’s on the line with somebody else and will call me right back as soon as she’s off. It’s over an hour later, still no call back yet.

I can’t wait to see what happens today.

I had a similar experience with the Verizon of being way overcharged.

I subscribed to the offer Verizon Triple Freedom for 59.99 - $10 for first six months = 49.99 (also it said First Month of TV and Internet FREE).

I moved to a new apt. and the apt. i moved in, had a live telephone service, which was not disconnected by the previous tenent and hence, i could not order the service over the internet as i was not authorized to disconnect my service and i had my landlord to call Verizon, which was an experience of couple of hours with the CSRs transferring from One Dept to another, still he called couple of times and requested the cancellation, the BS part of Verizon was, after he called, i cant still order over the internet as they told me that they will honour the same price as above over the phone as they only can order over the phone for me due to previous service (Which I still dont understand why it would be like that), after a month, when i got my bill, it was $175.xx, i called on my day off to Verizon, they said, it cant be that price and the CSR said, there is only a note to give discount of $30 per month for 6 months. I was so much pissed off having already so many problems previously, i still went with them thinking i am getting a better deal. I asked for the Manager/Supervisor, CSR told he is not available and i gave my cell phone # to have him call and CSR told me that manager will call me in 24-48 hours, no calls yet after 3 days and my Billing Due Date is approaching. i dont want to pay this much high bill.

I was charged full amount for next month @ 94.99 and $3x.xx for partial month (15 days) and all other were so many diferent charges.

Do i have any choice left being stuck with 1 year contract with them.

Following is a copy of a report I sent to Stephen Six, Kansas Atty. General:

'On June 13th we discontinued cell phone service with Alltel as we had changed providers to Nex-Tech, our local rural telephone company. Our billing cycle with Alltel was from the 9th of each month so we received 4 days service in June from Alltel. We were billed $60.59 and when I called them they said it was their policy to bill for the entire month when service is discontinued. This is outrageous. I sent them a check for $10.00 and told them my policy is to pay promptly and in full. I marked final payment on my check. This month we got a bill for $50.59. I called again and this time talked with a Supervisor and again I was told this is policy. I did not get the names of those with whom I spoke but I did make those two phone calls in an attempt to correct what I consider to be unfair billing. I told them I would be filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. When I talked with BBB, I was referred to your website.

Do I have any recourse? I do not think we should have to pay for service we did not receive. Oh, and we paid in advance the first time billed which was in November of 2003. Our 2 year contract with them expired years ago. Any help you can give to me will be greatly appreciated.'

I have not received a response for the Atty.General other than to request documentation which I have sent.

While my daughter was attending Penn State, I had a landline hooked up . At one point I was late paying the bill (another story) and they sent a dunning notice. I paid that bill. We continued to do business with them for another 7 months until my daughter graduated. That was 3 years ago. Now it appears that despite having been paid, they sent the bill to a collections agency who is hounding my daughter. When i called them, Verizon said they show a credit on that line of $3. BUT after disputing the bill to the collections agency, THEY came back to us with a copy of the original bill for $97 and insist we still owe it. Verizon says they cannot give me any more info. Only the collections agency can get it! Verizon cannot understand how illogical it is to say we haven't paid, but show a continuing relationship and an ending credit of $3! They will do nothing about the collections agency . This is affecting my daughters credit rating. I do not know what more to do.

Apparently the policy is for Verizon to just keep the money of the current balance if a person does not Refill their prepaid phone. There is no warning of this policy in any of their written material, including the sales receipt, or given verbally by the salespeople that the remaining balance is forfeited if you do not Refill your phone with an additional 15.00-29.99 every 30 days.

I wanted to have a simple cell phone on hand in case of an emergency and Verizon plan seemed ideal. I would only pay for calls when I used the phone at the rate of 0.99 cents daily use fee and 0.10 cents per minute/text. I was told the phone needed to be Refreshed before the end of 30 days for another month of use without interruption of service. This can be done by calling customer service or by going to any Verizon store.

I asked the salesman what Refreshed meant and he said it means that what is leftover in the account would be rolled over to the new month, so it is truly pay as you go. He recommended prepaying 30.00 so I will not have to worry about it till October. He did explain that I needed to purchase the phone, there was a one-time activation fee and he made sure I understood that part of it.

I used the phone twice in the 2 month period and had a balance of 27.03. I had purchased the phone on 14 Aug 08 and so I called customer service on 12 Oct 08 to get it refreshed before the end of service. I was told I needed to pay 15.00 to keep the phone active for another month and that was the first time I heard this policy. I said that can not be right, but my balance should cover it anyway. I was then told the service expires every month and requires a 15.00 prepayment or you loose the existing balance. I went to the store and the customer service manager confirmed that is in fact the policy of the Verizon as explained in the brochure. I terminated the service before the 30 day expiration and even then they would not refund the remaining balance.

The brochure says: Control how and when you make payments. Use a credit or debit card, sign up for Auto Pay or add a Refill Card/PIN. It also says at the bottom of the refill chart: Refill your account before it expires and your existing balance will be carried forward. I understood that to mean the balance would be carried forward until it reached zero. It does not specify that you can not use the existing balance as payment for the next month or that your balance will be forfeit if you do not pay the required additional minimum of 15.00.

In other words, if I did not pay another 15 dollars every 30 days, Verizon gets to keep the remaining balance regardless. I paid in advance for services that were never rendered. That is like prepaying for gas and not getting your change back when you only needed 3 gallons. Or prepaying for a meal and only getting the salad unless you pay an additional amount to get the rest of the course. Services should be given for money paid unless clearly stated otherwise. I would like to be given the phone service for which I paid as explained to me by the salesman or get my money back.

I recently had Verizon FIOS installed . Four days ago my tv would not work. I called Tech support. They could not fix it and informed me that the receiver box was defective. They promised I would have a new box sent to me and I should receive it in one day, two the most. As of this time four days later I still have no TV. After waiting a half hour to get the first tech. on the phone. I tried again today and held on for half an hour and hung up.
Does anyone have any idea when I should receive this converter so I can at least watch the last games of the world series?

I had an old Primeco phone, and Primeco was bought out by Verizon Wireless, so I switched my plan over. I had a one year contract which in brief said I agreed to keep the companies service for a year, and of course they would provide service for a year.
About a week into the service my phone is cut off, I attempt to contact customer service, but the customer service number I was given was no longer valid, so I walk to a pay phone, I contact Verizon Wireless wanting to know why my phone was off. Verizon wireless stated that it was due to non-payment. I was confused, I just turned it on, my bill wasn't due yet. I explained, they reconnected it. The next billing cycle came, I paid the bill, and two days later my phone was off again. I walked to a payphone and contacted Verizon Wireless. They said it was due to non payment. I informed them I did pay my bill. They found it in the computer where I had, and turned the phone back on. The next day, it was off again, and so on and so on...
Finally, after over a month of problems with the service I contacted Verizon Wireless again from a pay phone, and informed them I wished to cancel my service. They gave me no problems as far as that went. I let them know it was because they were not upholding their end of the contract. They ended the contract. A month or two go by and I receive a bill from NCO Financial, a debt collection agency I previously worked for, for $300. something dollars. I contact NCO and inform them of the problem I had with Verizon and why I dropped the contract. NCO doesn't take it any further, and notifies Verizon that they were not going to handle this account. Fast forward a year and a half. Verizon now has their own collections department, and is hounding me about the $500. something dollars they maintain I owe them. I contact them requesting an explanation of the charges and they refuse to provide one. Instead they contact Experian, Transunion, and Equifax, and report on me. I dispute these charges, and inform the CRA's that I am not responsible for this as Verizon failed to uphold their end of the contract. Verizon contacts the CRA's and me back, and changes their reason for the alleged debt, saying that the charges resulted from phone calls I made from the phone, everyone of which came after my date of cancellation, for a phone that I did not keep. For 7 years now I have been fighting this, and for 7 years no matter how many times Verizon Wireless changes their story on why I owe them money the CRA's continue to report it. It is a horrible thing that these mullti billion dollar companies can get away with this type of stuff against the poor people of our society. But hey, I am glad we finally have something like this, because the BBB and other organizations are not here for us, but for companies like Verizon Wireless.

Verizon have been laying cable for months in my neighborhood. Shortly after they laid the cable I had a service rep at my door wanting to 'explain' the service. I listened for an hour but still had no clear idea about how much it would cost. I said I'd think about it. She asked me to sign a 'satetement that she'd talked with me'. I questioned a part of the 'statement' saying I'd be purchasing the service. She assured me it wasn't a contract, that I'd have a couple of weeks to think about it and someone would call me then. I have three witnesses to her her 'assurance'. The next day I had a message from Verizon on my phone, asking me about my service transfer. I ignored it. The next day I had a call, asking again about my service transfer. When I said I didn't have a contract with Verizon, I was told I did. It took over an hour of expensive cell phone time to finally get rid of Verizon leeches. I did finally find out what the cost would be; $20 more per month than I was currently paying and no guarantee they wouldn't raise the cost of the service in six months. I'm relieved I got away from Verizon. My elderly mother was not so lucky. Brighthouse asterik hunter, where were you when she needed you? She was 'visited' by Verizon and three days later she has DRV boxes all over the house, charges she never agreed to, a broken television and no idea of how to work the system. That's an issue my sisters and I will be taking up. I feel like I got off lightly. My poor mom didn't. Verizon should be shut down!

I received a text message informing me that a subscription has been confirmed for ringtones. I did not order this and continually ignored the so called renewals. I never used any ringtones that did not come with the phone. The charge of $9.99 is unwarranted and not authorized. I do not want any ringtone subscription. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Back in April 2008, I signed up for a "free 30-day trial" of Verizon broadband to use strictly for internet access, which I was told was available in my area. I received the equipment and within a day discovered that I'm just outside the coverage area for broadband and so this solution would not work for me for internet access.

I promptly returned the equipment the same week (well within the 30 free trial) along with a signed letter requesting that they close the account. I did it that way because it is impossible to get a human being at Verizon on the phone and they don't include a "close my account" option in their phone menu.

I continued getting bills for the account, progressively higher each month. I talked to them on the phone no less than 3 times, explained that I verified with the post office that the equipment was delivered to them on 04/22/08, well within the 30 day free trial (they "lost" it). They continued to rack up charges, continued to send me bills and relentlessly called multiple times every day.

I wrote yet ANOTHER letter, explaining in detail all that had transpired and included copies of my first letter to them AND a copy of the receipt from the post office proving the date the package was delivered to them. I explained that they were trying to charge me for a SERVICE THEY COULD NOT PROVIDE, and that if they didn't clear the balance off my account and close it immediately, I would file formal complaints with both the BBB and MPSC.

These idiots are not only still sending me bills (to the tune of $322 now), but I just learned they have reported it to the credit agencies, which is going to royally screw me, as I am attempting to refinance my home!

It is a shame that this happened to you but... there is oh so much more to the FIOS story of Scamming Both Consumers and Employees... I am an insider... And I do know much of the truth about the Marketing Slime currently in place by Verizon to Scam the Nation... I will tell a "Little bit" now and see if this board has many readers... then add as I see interest...

1. Did you Know that Verizon uses a 3rd Party Vendor who hires 4th Party Vendors to do the actual telemarketing function? This is an attempt by Verizon to hide their slimy activities... Which are:

To the Poor Consumer:

1. You are being called by convicted Felons, and/or incarcerated Prisoners... that are given your personal financial records to assist in convincing you they work directly for Verizon... and scam then scam you into 1 and 2 year Contracts...

The use of the Felons is for Profit to Verizon... Cheap labor... (practically Slave labor)...

The Call Centers (where the tm operations are) are Drug and Sex Havens for the Convicted Felons who make more money getting drugs at the center, and taking them back to lock up... than they do from the TM Job itself...

When you tell them exactly how may TV's and Computer and Other Appliances (laptops, Blackberries, etc etc) and give them your private email... as well as when you are home... you are opening yourself to known Identity Theft, Burglary, and home invasion (if you are old)... Even Worse when you give them a Credit Card...when you need to cover a bill or do a Deposit...

80% of Agents and Supervisors have Criminal Records... Including Fraud, Drugs, Prostitution, Burglary, Armed Robbery, etc etc etc...

I am so shocked I almost can't type this! I tried to access my own social/ business page on a network I belong to and Verizon cut off my page I was on( my own personal web page with my name) and asked me if I would rather search for male enhancement sites on Verizon Live Search! Who do you report this one to? I wasn't even on a search engine. Which means Verizon must of cut off my home page and thought this was funny. And you can't send it to anyone to complain because I have tried every agency in the U.S. So other married, 48 year old housewives beware. I know one thing, their phone workers are never come near my home unless my husband is here!

I called Verizon Tech support after being disconnected in the middle of working from home for the umpteenth time. I was not reconnecting with the usual techniques (restart modem, reboot, etc). Tech support was very nice at first but persisted in asking about the modem hardware and refusing to offer tech support when the hardware was not Westell. I explained to tech support that modem settings are standard (such as PPPoE and VPI/VCI of 0 / 35 ) across manufacturers, and tech support should not be stumped by different manufacturers. Tech support did confirm that line was OK.; did not comment on why paying customers get kicked off sessions so often (overload?); and was unable to offer any further support.

I am wondering if there is a class action lawsuit against Verizon for training tech support on only their modems. Isn't that a bit monopolistic? Or is there a legal loophole that allows Verizon to get away with this?

I had ordered Verizon DSL. There was a problem with the Phone lines. So I had to wait for phone line repair. 3weeks later and 2.5 hrs on the phone
Once repaired...Could not install Modem. Called again...another 2 hrs with no results.
Ordered interenet service with cable co. instead. Called to cancel Verizon. I was told to preview both servies and compare. I tried again to install modem. Called for support... 2 hrs later and many phone transfers. At this point I said CANCEL. I was told that a label was to be mailed so that I may return modem.
1 month later I get a bill from verizon in collections. I call again ... another two hours of phone transfers and was finally told that they have no note in their system to cancel therfore I am still responcible for the bill. I told them that I am not to be held responsible for their notes in their system and that if they look ... It was NEVER used. Why ? Because it never worked. Could not get it to run. They tell me that they do not go by that and that it is the customers responcibilty to cancel. I DID cancel but there were not any notes to that on their system.
I spoke with management to try and rectify this matter. I should not pay for a service that I did not only use but could not RECEIVE! Management informs me that not only am I responcible fo rthe bill but I have an early cancelation charge as well !
Dear Lord ! what in the world is this place coming too ? HELP !

I thought i'd help my sister and pay her Alltel prepaid phone bill for her by phone with debit card. I go through verizon wireless. I told them i am her sister paying her bill for her. Well the next month my sister calls me and tells me that Alltel took money from me and my husbands bank account and that she will pay me back. I said ok, and let it go. Well the next month no money was taken from us. 3 months later, im looking at our bank statement and here Alltel took money from our account for the past to months again. I called my sister and she couldnt believe it. My sister had a bank card and a child support card on file for
alltel and here alltel kept my debit card information on file without my permission and when my sister said would call wanting to pay her bill she said yes she wants to use the same card she used last time to pay the bill and alltel just decided to use my debit card information that was on file and charged to my account. I called alltel and asked them why are they taking money from my account, im not even a customer. They told me there's no proof that it was taken from my account that i need to send proof. Well i had the proof faxed yesterday. They tried saying that my sister or someone authorized those payments and wasnt giving our money back. My sister lives in ohio, i live in georgia. I paid her bill for her in georgia and never gave my sister my card number. I asked them what right do you have to keep my information on file and not even tell me or warn me that this could happen. They know they took our money without permission and just because one of the payments was 2 and a half months ago and we didnt notice till now, that they shouldnt have to give our money back. my bank can only go sixty days from the day of my complaint, so i cant get my money for the month of july. everyone out there, watch out. If you help a family member with a bill and pay by debit or credit card, be careful, because they will take your money without permission and then say they arent paying you back.