Verizon Wireless billing trick, scam $40 "mistake"

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

Two of my relatives just signed up for Verizon Wireless' "America's
Choice" plan.

On the surface it sounds good, 400 shared peak time minutes
per-month, unlimited nights and weekends usage, no long distance
charges and additional benefits.

They have been with Verizon Wireless for about 10 days and the 1st
bill came, with some surprises:

1/ TRICK

Their "month" did not start when the phones were activated,
SURPRISE ! -- it started 4 days later. We learned that your "month"
can start anytime - the dealer told us today it is sort of random,
3-days after you sign up, or 10 days or 15 days.

The problem for them was that the first 3 days were treated as a
pro-rated partial month. They got screwed because they used their
beautiful new cell phones a lot those 1st 3 days thinking they had 400
peak minutes to spread over 30 or 31 days, but Verizon Wireless
pro-rated the 3 days at 13 peak minutes each which, in their newbie
enthusiasm, they had exceeded - resulting in a 3-day [ at 45-cents per
minute ] charge of around $7 for "excess minutes".

2/ SCAM [ adding insult to injury ]

The scam is the use of 13 minutes per day for the pro-rated period.
Apparently they get that figure by dividing 4800 minutes per year by
365 = 13.15 minutes per day.

The accurate number should take into account that weekends are free.
2x52 = 104 free days. 365-104 = 261 days to which peak minutes apply.
4800/261 = 18.39 minutes allowance per peak day.

3/ $40 billing computer "mistake"

They advertise: "One- or Two-year agreement required per line. $35
activation fee per line on one-year agreements, and $15 activation fee
per line on two-year agreements."

My relatives signed up for 2-years, confirmed by Verizon's billing
department and the dealer today. But the bill shows two $35
activation fees, not two $15 activation fees. One can assume that
their billing computer makes this "mistake" for everyone.

Comments welcome, especially about any tricks we may ahve missed.

QE in NJ

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

Did they sign up at a VZW store or an agent?
The stores are usually very thorough to point out the
prorating to a billing cycle. Let me guess -- billing
cycle is the 25th of each month? Not very random.

This is so commonly misunderstood that customer
service usually has the overage charges refunded before
you finish explaining what happened. Same will apply
if you change plans in the middle of a billing cycle but
they are not so apt to give you the auto refund then.

Your idea of not counting holidays is interesting.
Plans are monthly. Contracts are for years. When
prorating they figure by the month. Unused minutes
do not carry over from month to month and not all
months have holidays in them. How would you
resolve that?

The activation fee was probably the mistake of the
sales person entering the contracts.

Here is a trick it sounds like you missed:
Try calling customer service and explain what
happened and ask what they can do for you.

-Quick

QuienEs wrote:
> Two of my relatives just signed up for Verizon Wireless' "America's
> Choice" plan.
>
> On the surface it sounds good, 400 shared peak time minutes
> per-month, unlimited nights and weekends usage, no long distance
> charges and additional benefits.
>
> They have been with Verizon Wireless for about 10 days and the 1st
> bill came, with some surprises:
>
> 1/ TRICK
>
> Their "month" did not start when the phones were activated,
> SURPRISE ! -- it started 4 days later. We learned that your "month"
> can start anytime - the dealer told us today it is sort of random,
> 3-days after you sign up, or 10 days or 15 days.
>
> The problem for them was that the first 3 days were treated as a
> pro-rated partial month. They got screwed because they used their
> beautiful new cell phones a lot those 1st 3 days thinking they had 400
> peak minutes to spread over 30 or 31 days, but Verizon Wireless
> pro-rated the 3 days at 13 peak minutes each which, in their newbie
> enthusiasm, they had exceeded - resulting in a 3-day [ at 45-cents per
> minute ] charge of around $7 for "excess minutes".
>
> 2/ SCAM [ adding insult to injury ]
>
> The scam is the use of 13 minutes per day for the pro-rated period.
> Apparently they get that figure by dividing 4800 minutes per year by
> 365 = 13.15 minutes per day.
>
> The accurate number should take into account that weekends are free.
> 2x52 = 104 free days. 365-104 = 261 days to which peak minutes apply.
> 4800/261 = 18.39 minutes allowance per peak day.
>
> 3/ $40 billing computer "mistake"
>
> They advertise: "One- or Two-year agreement required per line. $35
> activation fee per line on one-year agreements, and $15 activation fee
> per line on two-year agreements."
>
> My relatives signed up for 2-years, confirmed by Verizon's billing
> department and the dealer today. But the bill shows two $35
> activation fees, not two $15 activation fees. One can assume that
> their billing computer makes this "mistake" for everyone.
>
> Comments welcome, especially about any tricks we may ahve missed.
>
> QE in NJ

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

Talk with customer care. Make that "worry free guarantee" work and let us
know

"QuienEs" <QuienEsREMOVETHISandthis@optonline.net> wrote in message
news:4dm6e05tfdvl32f838hr55bftnci06bgb0@4ax.com...
> Two of my relatives just signed up for Verizon Wireless' "America's
> Choice" plan.
>
> On the surface it sounds good, 400 shared peak time minutes

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

My god, hasn't anyone read my posts about this company? They will of course
make EVERY mistake in their favor. Never will you find a mistake in your
favor. The billing system was written very carefully NEVER to make a favor
in the customer's favor. If that happened, the company would go bankrupt or
fall apart because the incompetent work force wouldn't have a clue where
their money went. *Some* customer's just blow it off and forget about
it...and there's the rub. Those customer's that do that just dumped millions
into Verizon's bank account. If you make *mistakes* to millions of
customer's your bound to get some money out of it. And that's Verizon's
thinking. Welcome to my world of the fat greedy frauderlant mouth of
Verizon.

"QuienEs" <QuienEsREMOVETHISandthis@optonline.net> wrote in message
news:4dm6e05tfdvl32f838hr55bftnci06bgb0@4ax.com...
> Two of my relatives just signed up for Verizon Wireless' "America's
> Choice" plan.
>
> On the surface it sounds good, 400 shared peak time minutes
> per-month, unlimited nights and weekends usage, no long distance
> charges and additional benefits.
>
> They have been with Verizon Wireless for about 10 days and the 1st
> bill came, with some surprises:
>
> 1/ TRICK
>
> Their "month" did not start when the phones were activated,
> SURPRISE ! -- it started 4 days later. We learned that your "month"
> can start anytime - the dealer told us today it is sort of random,
> 3-days after you sign up, or 10 days or 15 days.
>
> The problem for them was that the first 3 days were treated as a
> pro-rated partial month. They got screwed because they used their
> beautiful new cell phones a lot those 1st 3 days thinking they had 400
> peak minutes to spread over 30 or 31 days, but Verizon Wireless
> pro-rated the 3 days at 13 peak minutes each which, in their newbie
> enthusiasm, they had exceeded - resulting in a 3-day [ at 45-cents per
> minute ] charge of around $7 for "excess minutes".
>
> 2/ SCAM [ adding insult to injury ]
>
> The scam is the use of 13 minutes per day for the pro-rated period.
> Apparently they get that figure by dividing 4800 minutes per year by
> 365 = 13.15 minutes per day.
>
> The accurate number should take into account that weekends are free.
> 2x52 = 104 free days. 365-104 = 261 days to which peak minutes apply.
> 4800/261 = 18.39 minutes allowance per peak day.
>
> 3/ $40 billing computer "mistake"
>
> They advertise: "One- or Two-year agreement required per line. $35
> activation fee per line on one-year agreements, and $15 activation fee
> per line on two-year agreements."
>
> My relatives signed up for 2-years, confirmed by Verizon's billing
> department and the dealer today. But the bill shows two $35
> activation fees, not two $15 activation fees. One can assume that
> their billing computer makes this "mistake" for everyone.
>
> Comments welcome, especially about any tricks we may ahve missed.
>
> QE in NJ

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

QuienEs wrote:
>
> Two of my relatives just signed up for Verizon Wireless' "America's
> Choice" plan.
>
> <snip>

Have you asked Verizon for a "corrected" bill?

Notan

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

>
> They advertise: "One- or Two-year agreement required per line. $35
> activation fee per line on one-year agreements, and $15 activation fee
> per line on two-year agreements."
>
> My relatives signed up for 2-years, confirmed by Verizon's billing
> department and the dealer today. But the bill shows two $35
> activation fees, not two $15 activation fees. One can assume that
> their for everyone.


I had the same billing computer mistake, It is how the Executives at VZW
make thier xmas bonuses. ;-)


--
peter_may_day

To email me, remove underwear, and insert, my name
my_name@yahoounderwear.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/who-called-me/
Directory of unlisted phone numbers

--

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

In article <pOKEc.2$YK5.1@fe32.usenetserver.com>,
"Killer Madness" <killermo@cnet.com> wrote:

> My god, hasn't anyone read my posts about this company? They will of course
> make EVERY mistake in their favor. Never will you find a mistake in your
> favor. The billing system was written very carefully NEVER to make a favor
> in the customer's favor. If that happened, the company would go bankrupt or
> fall apart because the incompetent work force wouldn't have a clue where
> their money went. *Some* customer's just blow it off and forget about
> it...and there's the rub. Those customer's that do that just dumped millions
> into Verizon's bank account. If you make *mistakes* to millions of
> customer's your bound to get some money out of it. And that's Verizon's
> thinking. Welcome to my world of the fat greedy frauderlant mouth of
> Verizon.

You know, I've had a few issues with Verizon over the last couple of
years... but the good *far* outweighs the bad.

For example, they recently sent me 3 phones at *NO* cost to me when they
didn't even have to give me the time of day.

I had problems with my 3 Motorola V60s phones I bought 2 months ago. I
went to a local re-seller (Grand Wireless of Warwick Rhode Island) and
re-upped my contract for 2 years. I then upgraded from 2 V60i's to 3
V60s's for $40 bucks each.

After about 3 weeks, I noticed that I was not getting some calls. The
call would come in to the phone, and the phone would not ring. It
wouldn't show on the outer or inner screen - but would show up in the
Recent Calls Log on the phone. You could call it with the phone in your
hand, and there was no indication that a call was coming in... but it
definitetly *was* receiving a call.

( - Check out old threads on this group for the full story - )

Then I noticed that it was happening at random times to each of the 3
phones. Same phones, in the same room, with good battery strength and
great signal strength. One phone would *not* work, while the other two
were fine. Rebooting the phone fixed the problem for a time

Motorola tried to flash upgrade the software, but that didn't work. I
then found out that there were others out there with the *exact* same
problem. Grand Wireless didn't want to hear it. The gave me a few lame
suggestions, but really didn't want to bother.

So I called Verizon Customer Service. THEY called Grand Wireless and
got them to agree to swap out my 3 phones for 3 different models. To
make a long story short, Grand Wireless agreed to this, but proceeded to
give me the runaround for a week and a half - but finally told me to
come in and swap out the V60s's for LG 4400's. (Their choice, not
mine....)

When I got down there, they informed me that, yes, I could swap out the
phones... but I would have to pay an extra $79.99 per phone for the
privilege. That's an extra $240 bucks, on top of the $120 I'd already
paid originally.

Well, screw that! I called Verizon back and read them the Riot Act.
(Not because they did anything to cause my problem... but because they
laid the initial ground work with Grand Wireless for the swap out.)

I talked to a Supervisor who asked me what I wanted. I said "3 new
phones that work". She asked me if I had any particular phone in mind -
and I told her about the Samsung a530 I had researched on the net. She
took my name and address down and said they would take care of it.

Two days later, I received 3 new Samsung a530's via FedEx. I activated
all 3 in about 20 minutes over the phone. Problem solved.

To cap it all off, I called back and asked for the address I was
supposed to send the 3 Motorola phones back to - and was told that I
could "keep them as backups". Since I didn't buy them from Verizon,
they had no interest in getting them back. She said I could keep them
as Emergency phones, since any cell phone can dial "911", even if you
don't subscribe to a service.

> Welcome to my world of the fat greedy frauderlant mouth of Verizon.

Not in this guy's opinion... I got 3 brandy-new phones for zip... I
got great customer service.. and I got that bad taste out of my mouth
from pricks at Grand Wireless.

Fred

--
"Light moves faster than sound. That's why some
folks appear bright until you hear them speak..."

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

Those negotiations will take place tomorrow or Friday, must be done
by my relatives, you know the drill - they want to be talking to
their subscriber.

What I can promise is to post a follow-up - after the negotiations and
when I have time.

The purpose of my OP was to divulge the scam and trick to the readers
of this NG, and see if we missed anything.

Why am I involved you might ask ? Because I told them that Verizon
was worth switching to, from ATT. So, I caught some flack. I'm
still on ATT because VZW doesn't have good signal strength in my
wife's work building.

QE
===========

On Thu, 01 Jul 2004 00:51:51 GMT, Notan <notan@ddress.com> wrote:

|QuienEs wrote:
|>
|> Two of my relatives just signed up for Verizon Wireless' "America's
|> Choice" plan.
|>
|> <snip>
|
|Have you asked Verizon for a "corrected" bill?
|
|Notan

 

[Tom]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

QuienEs wrote:
> Those negotiations will take place tomorrow or Friday, must be done
> by my relatives, you know the drill - they want to be talking to
> their subscriber.
>
> What I can promise is to post a follow-up - after the negotiations and
> when I have time.
>
> The purpose of my OP was to divulge the scam and trick to the readers
> of this NG, and see if we missed anything.
>
> Why am I involved you might ask ? Because I told them that Verizon
> was worth switching to, from ATT. So, I caught some flack. I'm
> still on ATT because VZW doesn't have good signal strength in my
> wife's work building.
>
> QE
> ===========
>
> On Thu, 01 Jul 2004 00:51:51 GMT, Notan <notan@ddress.com> wrote:
>
> |QuienEs wrote:
> |>
> |> Two of my relatives just signed up for Verizon Wireless' "America's
> |> Choice" plan.
> |>
> |> <snip>
> |
> |Have you asked Verizon for a "corrected" bill?
> |
> |Notan
>

They did the same thing to me when I switched to the family plan in the
middle of the month. I refused to accept losing nearly 200 minutes
because Verizon has a policy to always extract the most from their
customers. Since I wasn't told the policy upfront, customer service
agreed to allow the total minutes I would have had coming, had they not
"pro-rated."

I have dropped Verizon dsl, pots, and just as soon as another provider
builds up their network to the point where they can provide the service
I need, I will finally drop Verizon wireless.

If you think about it, "Killer Madness" may not be as "mad" as he
appears. The fact is that your relatives would not have to worry about
customer service making things right if Verizon didn't have a policy
that unfairly penalizes customers.

Tom

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

On Wed, 30 Jun 2004 18:01:53 -0700, "Quick" <dhorwitz@NOSPAMcisco.com>
wrote:

|Did they sign up at a VZW store or an agent?
|The stores are usually very thorough to point out the
|prorating to a billing cycle. Let me guess -- billing
|cycle is the 25th of each month? Not very random.

As I recall, it starts on the 14th. As to the rest of your post, it
looks like you cut-and-pasted in some "boilerplate" - I did not
mention holidays. Nobody carries over minutes except Cingular
around here. As to calling them, read my post above.
|
|This is so commonly misunderstood that customer
|service usually has the overage charges refunded before
|you finish explaining what happened. Same will apply
|if you change plans in the middle of a billing cycle but
|they are not so apt to give you the auto refund then.
|
|Your idea of not counting holidays is interesting.
|Plans are monthly. Contracts are for years. When
|prorating they figure by the month. Unused minutes
|do not carry over from month to month and not all
|months have holidays in them. How would you
|resolve that?
|
|The activation fee was probably the mistake of the
|sales person entering the contracts.
|
|Here is a trick it sounds like you missed:
|Try calling customer service and explain what
|happened and ask what they can do for you.
|
|-Quick
|
|QuienEs wrote:
|> Two of my relatives just signed up for Verizon Wireless' "America's
|> Choice" plan.
|>
|> On the surface it sounds good, 400 shared peak time minutes
|> per-month, unlimited nights and weekends usage, no long distance
|> charges and additional benefits.
|>
|> They have been with Verizon Wireless for about 10 days and the 1st
|> bill came, with some surprises:
|>
|> 1/ TRICK
|>
|> Their "month" did not start when the phones were activated,
|> SURPRISE ! -- it started 4 days later. We learned that your
"month"
|> can start anytime - the dealer told us today it is sort of random,
|> 3-days after you sign up, or 10 days or 15 days.
|>
|> The problem for them was that the first 3 days were treated as a
|> pro-rated partial month. They got screwed because they used their
|> beautiful new cell phones a lot those 1st 3 days thinking they had
400
|> peak minutes to spread over 30 or 31 days, but Verizon Wireless
|> pro-rated the 3 days at 13 peak minutes each which, in their newbie
|> enthusiasm, they had exceeded - resulting in a 3-day [ at 45-cents
per
|> minute ] charge of around $7 for "excess minutes".
|>
|> 2/ SCAM [ adding insult to injury ]
|>
|> The scam is the use of 13 minutes per day for the pro-rated period.
|> Apparently they get that figure by dividing 4800 minutes per year
by
|> 365 = 13.15 minutes per day.
|>
|> The accurate number should take into account that weekends are
free.
|> 2x52 = 104 free days. 365-104 = 261 days to which peak minutes
apply.
|> 4800/261 = 18.39 minutes allowance per peak day.
|>
|> 3/ $40 billing computer "mistake"
|>
|> They advertise: "One- or Two-year agreement required per line. $35
|> activation fee per line on one-year agreements, and $15 activation
fee
|> per line on two-year agreements."
|>
|> My relatives signed up for 2-years, confirmed by Verizon's billing
|> department and the dealer today. But the bill shows two $35
|> activation fees, not two $15 activation fees. One can assume
that
|> their billing computer makes this "mistake" for everyone.
|>
|> Comments welcome, especially about any tricks we may ahve missed.
|>
|> QE in NJ
|

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

On Thu, 01 Jul 2004 00:24:07 GMT, QuienEs
<QuienEsREMOVETHISandthis@optonline.net> wrote:
>The problem for them was that the first 3 days were treated as a
>pro-rated partial month.

This is old news. When I signed-up at a Verizon store, the agent
explained this to me and told me exactly how many minutes I would have
for peak, off-peak, and mobile-to-mobile during the first two days.

If you call them (and be nice!!), you'll probably find that they refund
the extra amount with no problems. A co-worker of mine just had this
problem with a plan change in the middle of the month, and Verizon
refunded the money with no hassle.

>My relatives signed up for 2-years, confirmed by Verizon's billing
>department and the dealer today. But the bill shows two $35
>activation fees, not two $15 activation fees. One can assume that
>their billing computer makes this "mistake" for everyone.

Actually it looks to me like the dealer made the mistake. (There are
Verizon stores all over New Jersey. Why didn't you go to one of them?)
But mistakes happen, and you'll live longer if you don't get so
aggravated about them. I'm sure they'll fix the problem.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

Clarification to my OP

I posted it to document what they did and get some joy that it will be
archived in Google Groups forever, and to see if I have missed any
other tricks. I wasn't a reader of this particular NG until today.

What KM says below is in sync with my feelings. Maybe someday there
will be a class action suit about the 13-minutes vs. 18-minutes scam.
Over the years I have automatically received the benefits of such
suits, no great shakes, but I got several free calling cards from MCI
and AT&T. The trick there is that they run out too soon if you don't
use them. The lawyers got paid in cash.

BTW, after years of suffering from this kind of corporate abuse, I
already know how to handle this with Verizon and agree with the
posters who said call them up and be nice. But why should we have to
waste time on that ? And what about the millions who don't check
their bills carefully ?

Pragmatic, pessimistic QE
======================


On Wed, 30 Jun 2004 22:38:15 -0400, "Killer Madness"
<killermo@cnet.com> wrote:

|My god, hasn't anyone read my posts about this company? They will of
course
|make EVERY mistake in their favor. Never will you find a mistake in
your
|favor. The billing system was written very carefully NEVER to make a
favor
|in the customer's favor. If that happened, the company would go
bankrupt or
|fall apart because the incompetent work force wouldn't have a clue
where
|their money went. *Some* customer's just blow it off and forget about
|it...and there's the rub. Those customer's that do that just dumped
millions
|into Verizon's bank account. If you make *mistakes* to millions of
|customer's your bound to get some money out of it. And that's
Verizon's
|thinking. Welcome to my world of the fat greedy frauderlant mouth of
|Verizon.
|
|"QuienEs" <QuienEsREMOVETHISandthis@optonline.net> wrote in message
|news:4dm6e05tfdvl32f838hr55bftnci06bgb0@4ax.com...
|> Two of my relatives just signed up for Verizon Wireless' "America's
|> Choice" plan.
|>
|> On the surface it sounds good, 400 shared peak time minutes
|> per-month, unlimited nights and weekends usage, no long distance
|> charges and additional benefits.
|>
|> They have been with Verizon Wireless for about 10 days and the 1st
|> bill came, with some surprises:
|>
|> 1/ TRICK
|>
|> Their "month" did not start when the phones were activated,
|> SURPRISE ! -- it started 4 days later. We learned that your
"month"
|> can start anytime - the dealer told us today it is sort of random,
|> 3-days after you sign up, or 10 days or 15 days.
|>
|> The problem for them was that the first 3 days were treated as a
|> pro-rated partial month. They got screwed because they used their
|> beautiful new cell phones a lot those 1st 3 days thinking they had
400
|> peak minutes to spread over 30 or 31 days, but Verizon Wireless
|> pro-rated the 3 days at 13 peak minutes each which, in their newbie
|> enthusiasm, they had exceeded - resulting in a 3-day [ at 45-cents
per
|> minute ] charge of around $7 for "excess minutes".
|>
|> 2/ SCAM [ adding insult to injury ]
|>
|> The scam is the use of 13 minutes per day for the pro-rated period.
|> Apparently they get that figure by dividing 4800 minutes per year
by
|> 365 = 13.15 minutes per day.
|>
|> The accurate number should take into account that weekends are
free.
|> 2x52 = 104 free days. 365-104 = 261 days to which peak minutes
apply.
|> 4800/261 = 18.39 minutes allowance per peak day.
|>
|> 3/ $40 billing computer "mistake"
|>
|> They advertise: "One- or Two-year agreement required per line. $35
|> activation fee per line on one-year agreements, and $15 activation
fee
|> per line on two-year agreements."
|>
|> My relatives signed up for 2-years, confirmed by Verizon's billing
|> department and the dealer today. But the bill shows two $35
|> activation fees, not two $15 activation fees. One can assume
that
|> their billing computer makes this "mistake" for everyone.
|>
|> Comments welcome, especially about any tricks we may ahve missed.
|>
|> QE in NJ
|
|

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

Thank you Tom. And of course we'll come to expect people saying, "did you
read the fine print", or, "did you ask those questions before signing". I
bet half the people in this group has been robbed or has had money taken
from them every month without even knowing about it. Not a lot of money to
notice right away...but like I said before. When you have billing *mistakes*
happen to hundred of thousands of people, your going to get a lot of money
out of it.

"Tom" <tom@cox.net> wrote in message news:a3LEc.16232$rf7.8402@lakeread02...
> QuienEs wrote:
> > Those negotiations will take place tomorrow or Friday, must be done
> > by my relatives, you know the drill - they want to be talking to
> > their subscriber.
> >
> > What I can promise is to post a follow-up - after the negotiations and
> > when I have time.
> >
> > The purpose of my OP was to divulge the scam and trick to the readers
> > of this NG, and see if we missed anything.
> >
> > Why am I involved you might ask ? Because I told them that Verizon
> > was worth switching to, from ATT. So, I caught some flack. I'm
> > still on ATT because VZW doesn't have good signal strength in my
> > wife's work building.
> >
> > QE
> > ===========
> >
> > On Thu, 01 Jul 2004 00:51:51 GMT, Notan <notan@ddress.com> wrote:
> >
> > |QuienEs wrote:
> > |>
> > |> Two of my relatives just signed up for Verizon Wireless' "America's
> > |> Choice" plan.
> > |>
> > |> <snip>
> > |
> > |Have you asked Verizon for a "corrected" bill?
> > |
> > |Notan
> >
>
> They did the same thing to me when I switched to the family plan in the
> middle of the month. I refused to accept losing nearly 200 minutes
> because Verizon has a policy to always extract the most from their
> customers. Since I wasn't told the policy upfront, customer service
> agreed to allow the total minutes I would have had coming, had they not
> "pro-rated."
>
> I have dropped Verizon dsl, pots, and just as soon as another provider
> builds up their network to the point where they can provide the service
> I need, I will finally drop Verizon wireless.
>
> If you think about it, "Killer Madness" may not be as "mad" as he
> appears. The fact is that your relatives would not have to worry about
> customer service making things right if Verizon didn't have a policy
> that unfairly penalizes customers.
>
> Tom

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

Sorry...that's not going to work. You'll get an arrogant incompetent
customer service person helping you out who doesn't like your attitude and
then you'll never get any kind of customer service satisfaction at all.
Remember, they have the best cellular network in the world...so we have to
bow down to them and let them take advantage of us and charge high prices.

"Alesandra" <rubyebbyrdNOSPAM@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:2khbe8F2akdeU1@uni-berlin.de...
> Talk with customer care. Make that "worry free guarantee" work and let us
> know
>
> "QuienEs" <QuienEsREMOVETHISandthis@optonline.net> wrote in message
> news:4dm6e05tfdvl32f838hr55bftnci06bgb0@4ax.com...
> > Two of my relatives just signed up for Verizon Wireless' "America's
> > Choice" plan.
> >
> > On the surface it sounds good, 400 shared peak time minutes
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

Baloney..... C'mon already, knock it off......!

PC

"Killer Madness" <killermo@cnet.com> wrote in message
news:0FUEc.3364$YK5.2588@fe32.usenetserver.com...
| Sorry...that's not going to work. You'll get an arrogant incompetent
| customer service person helping you out who doesn't like your attitude and
| then you'll never get any kind of customer service satisfaction at all.
| Remember, they have the best cellular network in the world...so we have to
| bow down to them and let them take advantage of us and charge high prices.
|
| "Alesandra" <rubyebbyrdNOSPAM@hotmail.com> wrote in message
| news:2khbe8F2akdeU1@uni-berlin.de...
| > Talk with customer care. Make that "worry free guarantee" work and let
us
| > know
| >
| > "QuienEs" <QuienEsREMOVETHISandthis@optonline.net> wrote in message
| > news:4dm6e05tfdvl32f838hr55bftnci06bgb0@4ax.com...
| > > Two of my relatives just signed up for Verizon Wireless' "America's
| > > Choice" plan.
| > >
| > > On the surface it sounds good, 400 shared peak time minutes
| >
| >
|
|
|

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

QuienEs wrote:
> On Wed, 30 Jun 2004 18:01:53 -0700, "Quick" <dhorwitz@NOSPAMcisco.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Did they sign up at a VZW store or an agent?
>> The stores are usually very thorough to point out the
>> prorating to a billing cycle. Let me guess -- billing
>> cycle is the 25th of each month? Not very random.
>
> As I recall, it starts on the 14th. As to the rest of your post, it
> looks like you cut-and-pasted in some "boilerplate" - I did not
> mention holidays. Nobody carries over minutes except Cingular
> around here. As to calling them, read my post above.

Yes, it probably does sound like some "boilerplate". You
(or your relatives) must be about the 1,532,349th person
to not hear about/listen to/understand the initial prorating.
So the answer is pretty much refined to something that
sounds the same every time. Sorry, you haven't unearthed
some previously unknown Enron magnitude "scam". To
the best of my knowledge customer service has refunded
the overage in 1,532,337 of those cases for new customers.
Thank you for trying to protect all of us though.

What's the hold up on your relatives calling customer service?
*611 works 24x7. You and they have free long distance.
Should take all of 15 minutes including your posting the results.

-Quick

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

Jack Hamilton <jfh@acm.org> wrote:
> "Proconsul" <nospam@nospam.org> wrote:
>
>>Perhaps you should have your therapist adjust your lithium dosage - you are
>>excessively "enraged" over what is, in reality, a trifle....
>
> That was uncalled for.

No, it wasn't. Have you read KM's posts? All he wants to do is scream about
how he's being screwed. If he was serious about being screwed he'd already have
taken action against Verizon, including dropping them and going to another
carrier.

I used to be a wage-slave flunkie working at a gas station owned by one
of the big oil companies (now I'm a self-employed, slightly better-paid
flunkie

I recall an experience with a customer who was a cantankerous jerk (though,
in his defense, he was also an extremely loyal, regular customer).

At the time, we were selling a small bottle of V8 for 89 cents and tomato
juice (the same size) for 99 cents. Or it may be the other way around; the
important thing is that one was 89 cents and the other one was 99.

So the customer pumps his gas, and walks in and picks out the 89-cent
product and brings it to the counter, but I mistakenly think it's the 99-cent
product. HOWEVER, I catch myself before I ring it up and, thinking out loud,
I say, "Oops, this isn't 99, it's 89."

This, of course, prompts the customer to tell me I'm trying to cheat him.

Duh, if I was trying to cheat him I'd just have rung it up at 89 and kept
the dime. Besides, if I was going to risk my lousy little minimum-wage job
by screwing over a customer, I'd have attempted to screw over a customer
for a lot more than a dime. A dime is not worth the trouble.

Point being - there *are* people who will take a situation and twist it around
to portray it in the worst light possible. KM seems to be one of those people.
OTOH, maybe he's just an idiot troll.

--
JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, http://JustThe.net/
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net
PGP Key available from your friendly local key server (0xE3AE35ED)
Apple Valley, California Nothing scares me anymore. I have three kids.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

Steven J Sobol wrote:
> Jack Hamilton <jfh@acm.org> wrote:
>> "Proconsul" <nospam@nospam.org> wrote:
>>
>>> Perhaps you should have your therapist adjust your lithium dosage -
>>> you are excessively "enraged" over what is, in reality, a trifle....
>>
>> That was uncalled for.
>
> No, it wasn't. Have you read KM's posts? All he wants to do is scream
> about how he's being screwed. If he was serious about being screwed
> he'd already have taken action against Verizon, including dropping
> them and going to another carrier.

Ummm, KM has *never* given any particulars about what tripped
his trigger. The only thing he said was that he was a VZW subscriber
for years that he is now with AT&T with a COOL phone. I'm sure
he is only here for altruistic reasons to help all of us to see the light
as he did after many years of suffering.

-Quick

 

[Tom]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

Proconsul wrote:


> | > Actually it looks to me like the dealer made the mistake. (There are
> | > Verizon stores all over New Jersey. Why didn't you go to one of them?)
> | > But mistakes happen, and you'll live longer if you don't get so
> | > aggravated about them. I'm sure they'll fix the problem.


It is not a mistake, it is Verizon policy. Apparently the customer
service rep. is supposed to mention the "pro-rating" upfront, but if
they don't and you don't catch it, too bad. The policy was NOT
mentioned to me.

Picture this - I have an 800 minute plan and exactly midway through the
month I decide to add a line with a family share plan. If I had used
600 minutes at this point leaving me with 200 minutes left to use over
the balance of the month, I would have, under Verizon's pro-rated
method, used 200 minutes more than I am allotted under their pro-rating.
Despite the fact that I have 800 minutes to use at any time during my
monthly period, Verizon will penalize me by charging me for using 200
minutes in overage, in my case 200 X $.45 minute = $90, instead of
allowing me to use the actual 400 minutes that I had not used. In other
words, Verizon says I should have only used 400 minutes halfway through
the month, despite the fact that it is normally my choice when and how I
use the minutes.

I do not consider Verizon's pro-rating policy to be customer friendly at
all. I also object to spending my time trying to have money returned
that should have never been taken from me in the first place. I do
agree that it is better to be "nice," since this is a policy of Verizon
management, not the csr. Tom

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

Tom <tom@cox.net> wrote:

> It is not a mistake, it is Verizon policy. Apparently the customer
> service rep. is supposed to mention the "pro-rating" upfront, but if
> they don't and you don't catch it, too bad. The policy was NOT
> mentioned to me.

Everyone pro-rates. I was told by Sprint that if I add a phone on the
date my bill cycles (normally the 29th) I won't have to be pro-rated,
otherwise I will. I've had the same situation with Verizon in the past too.

But there is absolutely no excuse for not telling a customer up front.
If a VZW employee fails to tell people about prorating on a regular basis,
IMHO they should get canned, as they are pissing off customers unnecessarily.

> I do not consider Verizon's pro-rating policy to be customer friendly at
> all.

I do agree, not about the fact that they pro-rate being ufnair, but I agree
that the way they do it is ridiculous. Hell, even most of the VZW CSRs I've
talked to about the subject agree with me.

--
JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, http://JustThe.net/
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net
PGP Key available from your friendly local key server (0xE3AE35ED)
Apple Valley, California Nothing scares me anymore. I have three kids.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

Tom wrote:
> Proconsul wrote:
>
>
>>>> Actually it looks to me like the dealer made the mistake. (There
>>>> are Verizon stores all over New Jersey. Why didn't you go to one
>>>> of them?) But mistakes happen, and you'll live longer if you don't
>>>> get so aggravated about them. I'm sure they'll fix the problem.
>
>
> It is not a mistake, it is Verizon policy. Apparently the customer
> service rep. is supposed to mention the "pro-rating" upfront, but if
> they don't and you don't catch it, too bad. The policy was NOT
> mentioned to me.
>
> Picture this - I have an 800 minute plan and exactly midway through
> the month I decide to add a line with a family share plan. If I had
> used 600 minutes at this point leaving me with 200 minutes left to
> use over the balance of the month, I would have, under Verizon's
> pro-rated method, used 200 minutes more than I am allotted under
> their pro-rating. Despite the fact that I have 800 minutes to use
> at any time during my monthly period, Verizon will penalize me by
> charging me for using 200 minutes in overage, in my case 200 X $.45
> minute = $90, instead of allowing me to use the actual 400 minutes
> that I had not used. In other words, Verizon says I should have only
> used 400 minutes halfway through the month, despite the fact that it
> is normally my choice when and how I use the minutes.

Sure. *IF* you have your plan for the entire month. You decided
to terminate your plan in the middle of the month and switch to a new plan.
How do you propose they charge you? How should they charge
if you used 1500 minutes of a 2000 minute plan by the middle of the
month and want to switch to a 400 minute plan?

I must have switched plans 10 times over the past years. *Every* time
the CS rep. has strongly suggested that I wait until the end of the billing
period so as not to get caught with prorating charges. It actually bugs
me somewhat that I have to take the time to tell them that I am actually
capable of grasping how prorating works and am then forced to listen
while it is explained again in excrutiating detail. If I was VZW I would
cut a lot of overhead by simply not allowing people to switch plans in
the middle of a billing period.

I'm pretty sure I've seen the prorating explained in writing as well
(wasn't it on my contract?)... maybe in the brochures I got with
every new plan?

-Quick

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

Steven J Sobol wrote:
>
> I do agree, not about the fact that they pro-rate being ufnair, but I
> agree that the way they do it is ridiculous. Hell, even most of the
> VZW CSRs I've talked to about the subject agree with me.

And the alternative method would be? (must work for switching
to a smaller plan too).

-Quick

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

QuienEs <QuienEsREMOVETHISandthis@optonline.net> wrote:
: The problem for them was that the first 3 days were treated as a
: pro-rated partial month. They got screwed because they used their
: beautiful new cell phones a lot those 1st 3 days thinking they had 400
: peak minutes to spread over 30 or 31 days, but Verizon Wireless
: pro-rated the 3 days at 13 peak minutes each which, in their newbie
: enthusiasm, they had exceeded - resulting in a 3-day [ at 45-cents per
: minute ] charge of around $7 for "excess minutes".

...when I started up my plan, the rep explained when "my month" started,
and that the first x days would be pro-rated. Their rep should have told
them that too (and I'll bet they have it in writing on the contract(s)
they signed, too).

: 3/ $40 billing computer "mistake"
:
: They advertise: "One- or Two-year agreement required per line. $35
: activation fee per line on one-year agreements, and $15 activation fee
: per line on two-year agreements."
:
: My relatives signed up for 2-years, confirmed by Verizon's billing
: department and the dealer today. But the bill shows two $35
: activation fees, not two $15 activation fees. One can assume that
: their billing computer makes this "mistake" for everyone.

I had an activation fee on my first bill which shouldn't have been there.
I called Verizon and the guy took the charge off. Have they tried that
yet?

-Charles

--
Charles Robinson
Minneapolis, MN
charlesr@visi.com
http://www.visi.com/~charlesr

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

Killer Madness <killermo@cnet.com> wrote:
: I'm taking a dump. You can't be serious to *have* to be nice to get some
: help, specially when it's a known billing mistake or a frauderlant code
: written in their billing software.

Please - it's "fraudulent", not frauderlent.

...and I know that when I deal with upset customers, I'm much more inclined
to help out the people who are calm, rational, and polite.

If your angle is to always be confrontational and angry with them (which
it sounds like you are recommending) then it's not surprising that you
don't get satisfaction from calling customer service!

--
Charles Robinson
Minneapolis, MN
charlesr@visi.com
http://www.visi.com/~charlesr

 

[Tom]

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

Quick wrote:


> Sure. *IF* you have your plan for the entire month. You decided
> to terminate your plan in the middle of the month and switch to a new plan.
I didn't consider myself to have terminated my plan; I thought I added
to it. Point of fact; had the rep. told me of Verizon's policy, I would
have emphatically said, "No thanks."

> How do you propose they charge you?
I should have had the balance of the month to use the balance of my
minutes (had I only 10 minutes left for the month, that is the time I
would expect to still have after making the change). I would then
expect to pay a pro-rated amount for the time I had the additional
benefit of the family share plan. At $19.99 mo. per line, a half month
should have cost me $10.

How should they charge
> if you used 1500 minutes of a 2000 minute plan by the middle of the
> month and want to switch to a 400 minute plan?
Your example is not at all like what I described, but in your example I
would expect to pay the over usage fee of 500 mins. X $.45, since I
would be downgrading to a lower minute plan.

> I must have switched plans 10 times over the past years. *Every* time
> the CS rep. has strongly suggested that I wait until the end of the billing
> period so as not to get caught with prorating charges. It actually bugs
> me somewhat that I have to take the time to tell them that I am actually
> capable of grasping how prorating works and am then forced to listen
> while it is explained again in excrutiating detail. If I was VZW I would
> cut a lot of overhead by simply not allowing people to switch plans in
> the middle of a billing period.
Like I said, the csr did NOT mention the pro-rating. Had he done so, I
would have simply waited until the first day of my new billing cycle.

> I'm pretty sure I've seen the prorating explained in writing as well
> (wasn't it on my contract?)...

I don't remember; by the time I finished reading the contract I had a
headache and truly wished I didn't need a cell phone.

Tom