Verizon Wireless Reviews

First Verizon told me the account was suspended until the phone was fixed. Then another rep. said this wasn't done and couldn't be done. Somebody from Verizon actually asked me who told me to go to Radio Shack? Anyway, I was getting fed up and wanted to terminate my relationship with them, if possible. I had been an AT&T customer previously and I knew that they let you cancel within 30 days with no termination fee. I asked if this applied to Verizon as well and was told by a supervisor, April, that this was indeed true with them too and that if I canceled there would be no charge. I was also told this by a rep. named Frank and another named Ken, both of whom could not seem to terminate my account for various reasons. Ken told me he would lose his job if he cancelled my account but that his job was cancelling accounts? Scott, who finally did cancel my account also told me that I would not incur a termination fee. He said they would not take the phones back since they had too much use but there would be no fee. I figured that was fine with me since the two phones only cost $39.

Well, now that I have terminated my account, they refuse to waive the fee. Since two phones were involved it costs $350. A helpful representative, Erica, is trying to help, but they don't seem to want to waive it for her efforts either. A rep. named Tasha told me today that she knows that if an account is cancelled within 30 days there is no fee but that if a supervisor denied it she couldn't do anything. I was well within the 30 days. The account was opened on 9/27/00 and closed 10/17/00. I would not have cancelled if I knew there was going to be a fee, so I feel this is a real bait-n-switch. I feel I'm going to get stuck paying the fee soon - the payment is due 11/16/00 - since the account is on my husband's credit report, which is spotless. I made a decision based on information from them!

I am so worked up about this I'm having trouble sleeping and am becoming a bit obsessed. It's just not fair they can get away with being so incredibly incompetent and making me pay for it.

Now that Verizon (alias Bell Atlantic) has merged with Airtouch, they says that I can't raise or lower my minutes unless I buy a new phone from them.

I no longer needed my higher priced minutes and wished to lower them so that my bill would be cheaper, they say no deal I have to pay the higher price until the contract is up, but they no longer will honor the Airtouch contract. But they said if I try to cancel my worthless contract they will charge me for doing so.

See how beneficial these mergers are for consumers?

Thomas of Ronkonkoma, NY, writs:

I could go on for days. It started in the tail end of 1999. I had one mobile phone from Bell Atlantic and one from Omnipoint for my girlfriend. I had no major problems with the Bell Atlantic phone billing but many repeated billing errors with Omnipoint. After many months of problems with Omnipoint I decided not to renew my Omnipoint contract (expiring December 1999) and to replace my girlfriend's phone with a Bell Atlantic phone and to renew my existing contract for another year. This was the begining of my problems with Bell Atlantic.

So my girlfriend chucked her Omnipoint phone and spent money for a new phone with Bell Atlantic. As my 1999 Bell contact had me renting the phone I too purchased the phone that was on special when renewing my contract. When establishing the two new contracts in the Bell Atlantic store, I asked the rep. to put both phones on one bill, thinking they would be itemized. Not so. When I got my bill I saw the charges were all lumped together and called customer service to review the charges and request the billing be seperated.

I was told that would be fine and that next month I would get seperate bills for each line. But I noticed a few things in reviewing the charges. First Bell Atlantic without asking me placed a $3.95 monthly charge on each phone for phone insurance in case of damage or loss. I did not request this insurance and when I told the rep that she insisted that Bell does not put that on your bill unless you request it. So I was credited and those charges and they were removed.

I do not remember the exact dates of these events but I renewened my contract from my existing contract on the day the prior one expired yet I was charged a fee for forward billing on the new contract (I am fuzzy on this detail); the rep said that even though I renwewed my existing line the same day the old one expired she never saw anyone get away from some type of forward billing charge (as they bill a month in advance) When I asked the rep what the exact amount of my normal monthly charges should be for each phone the rep said she could not determine that "because fees and taxes are different in each area."

Although I was amazed and insistant that they figure out what these charges were for each of my phones they would or could not tell me how much the the bill for each phone should be if I stay within my montly plan ($29.99 for 200 minutes and free weekends). I can not believe that no one could tell me what taxes and fees are or how much my bill total should be. Sounds insane but it's true. (I have asked several times over several months)

The next month the bills for the two phones were seperate but had different totals due to my requesting they be billed seperatly and my girlfriend's phone had additional/partial charges due to the forward billing. Also the two bills/phones were on different billing cycles and were now due at different times of the month. So I requested they both be put into the same billing cycle so the would be due at the same time each month. This caused the bill totals to not match again the following month (as I have identical service contracts for each you think they would) Next month I was sent a weird bill for $13.95 on my girlfriends phone. When I called Bell to inquire they said don't worry about it, we made a mistake. By this time I was into March and still waiting for the bills for two phones to match. But no, I think at this point the started charging my phone for the weekend promotion that was supposed to be free.

After several hours and calls I was told that although the free weekend promotion was reinstated on my account for the next few months it would appear on my bill although when I call to make payment with a credit card they would have the correct totals on the computer and that rep would follow the account to insure I was not being charged. The reason quoted for Bell's inability to correct the billing immediately was what Bell refered to as an "open window request". Then the April bill came and now they were charging me for "text messaging" on my phone that I never requested. More time on the phone and several calls later that charge was removed.

Next month on the May bill they were charging me for the weekends again. I opened my bill on the LIRR train going home one night and imediately tried to call on my Bell Atlantic cell phone to see what the deal was. Twice I called in a one hour time frame and twice I got a recording telling me that "The system was down and to call later". Finally on the third try I got through, punched through the maze of options, input my cell number and started to address the issue with a rep when the call got dropped. I called right back only to have the same thing happen. Outraged I called them back from my land phone at home and the woman I spoke to, Tanya, said she saw the problem and also saw there were other mistakes on my billing for both accounts. She put me on hold several times. She put me on hold and came back to tell me as I had all these problems on both accounts she was going to pull all my bills from January on both phone and review them with her manager and get back to me by Wednesday 5/24.

Shockingly she did not call back. I called her back twice again going through the rat maze of prompts only to leave her two messages. The following week with still no reply from Tanya I called the main number and got a Sue L on the phone> at this point I was irate and asked her what the deal is with Tanya, why after nearly six months with these two phones with the same rate I did not ever have two bills that match. Again I requested the total correct amount with taxes and fees on each bill if staying within the allotted minutes to be told again they can not tell me that.

I was borderline ranting at this point when I asked who is the head of customer relations? Is there a VP or someone I could complain to? No, I was told I could only complain to the rep on the phone and they would decide whether or not to pass my complaint on to their supervisor. Amazed by this reply I was told that all major complaints go through a appealsn board. A faceless nameless committee. ...

Tanya finally did get back to me. She claimed to have reviewed my billing and started asking me a bunch of questions and putting me on hold. When she came back from putting me on hold with another question I told her "look, every month I have to spend hours on the phone with you/Bell resolving billing errors that are Bell's fault. I am very busy at work and can not spend any more time on hold or answering your questions. The situation is quite simple, I have two phones with the same plan yet for the last five months the bills never match. resolve this and call me with the outcome."

Fine, she said and moments later she called and left a message that she had resolved the issues. I called her back and she said, yes, there was an error on them charging me for the weekends and they had made the mistake before and not credited me for it perviously, so now I was due a credit of $11.94 and my bill would be like $29.94 which made no sense to me as my normal rate is $29.99 plus taxes and fees adding about $6.00 to $7.00 for a total of about $37.00 dollars. So how do you (Bell/Tanya) get to $29.94 after crediting my account $11.00 and change from $37.00 total. She was at a loss.

And so it goes ... One other comment, I can not hold a connection on the phone from my own house. The phone drops the call. When I filed a complaint about this I was told they would check it out and get back to me. Never heard a thing. Several months later I complained again online on the Bell Atlantic web page and this time I got a call from rep who said, "Oh I know what you're going through. I have the same problem at my house" and in effect there is nothing they can do about it.

When my computer used these numbers, they connected without me setting my computer up to dial these numbers with 1 or 0. In all my other dealings with any phone service, a one or zero are required to place a long distance call of any kind.

When I spoke with their representative to establish my phone service I was not told of their policy of direct dial for long distance. When the installer came out to my house to hook the phone up I was not made aware of this policy. I did not receive my phone book until no earlier that August 16.

As I was thumbing thru it one afternoon, I came upon the direct dial policy of Bell Atlantic. I took immediate action and reset my computer to use a local call for my residence taken from the information given solely by the phone book.. This was on August 17th after normal business hours.

I called Bell Atlantic the following morning and spoke to a representative. She informed me that she could take no action at that time but told me to call Bell Atlantic when I received my bill and they would adjust the charges.

I received my bill on August 28. I called Bell Atlantic and spoke with their customer service again. When I asked, I was told that the record of my call from August 18th was still on their screen. The representative read it to me.

She then transfereed me to one of the "toll" representatives. She listened and then connected me with Mr. J. I again discussed with him my concerns. Those being...1. I was not aware of their policy of direct dial for long distance calls by anyone in their company prior to or during the setup of my service. 2. I did not receive my phone book for 2 weeks so as to be informed of that policy.

Mr J informed me they are not willing to adjust my bill. He argues that it is MY responsibility to have asked about this policy. And that I am responsible for these charges. He suggested I call my internet provider and attempt to have them adjust these charges. The internet provider is harmless in this as I was connected with them in Omaha, my last residence.

My argument is that it was not my responsibility but Bell Atlantic's to advise me of its policies regarding local long distance charges. After all it is a policy of their making and not mine.

Unfortunately, there may not be many options only to Robert. Local calling areas are established by the state regulatory agencies and it's pretty much up to the customer to acquaint himself with the lay of the land.

This is a real danger of the Internet, since what appear to be "local" numbers often are not.

the phone was warrantied.

Two weeks later I still did not have my cell phone back and
I got a phone call from Bell Atlantic Mobile telling my th manufacturer
would not honor the warranty and it would cost $100 to fix the

phone.

The service manager I spoke with was incredibly rude and would

give me no information as to why my phone was not covered.

It turns out the phone was covered under warranty and even
if it wasn't, the manufacter was only going to charge me $85

to fix it as opposed to the $100 that I was origionally told.

I feel like Bell Atlantic was trying to scam me out of money
by overquoting me, not sending in my warranty info, not following
up with the repair, and not following up with me as a customer.

In addition, the service manager was extremelly rude.

The phone will be repaired for free, I had to call the manufacturer
myself and get it straightened out. Bell Atlantic still can't
tell me why they over quoted me and I have not gotten any sort

of decent customer service.

The other day, my 11 year old son got a busy signal while dialing his cousin. He got the same message, but being a child, he just did what the recording instructed him to do. When I asked him why the phone kept dialing our home in such an odd manner, he told me about the message on the line. I was concerned but thought it was some one time thing.

Now, however, since I have also gotten this message attached to a busy signal call, I decided to contact Verizon and inquire about it. I was told that this is an "enhanced service" offered by Verizon to all its customers. When I asked how long this service had been available, the woman from Verizon stated she didn't know. I asked if there was a charge for this use. She said yes there was.

I told her that I thought it was not proper for Verizon to automatically place this message to its customers in the middle of a call. She informed me that they do state in the message that there is a fee for this service. I told her that the fee statement is so quick that most people would not even hear it. And, I told her that a child would not understand what that part about "may be charges attached" would mean and go ahead and do as the recording instructed. The Verizon employee then told me that it was up to the parents to make sure the child knows and understands about the use of this service.

How can a parent tell a child about this "service" when the parent isn't even aware of it? I then told her that I felt it was just a scam by Verizon to get money out of their customers without them knowing about it. She said "Well, we can block the 'enhanced service' to your line." I said yes, do that.

I am certain that there will be a charge on my next phone bill for the time my child was "tricked" into dialing #3 when he got that busy signal that day. I just wonder how many other customers are being taken by this "enhanced service" that has appeared on our phones?

I feel we were taken advantage of. I was not aware that this "enhanced service" had been added to our phone service. It was a bit of an intrusion to suddenly have this message telling you to dial a number because the number you were dialing was busy. It made me angry that my child was duped into dialing the number and Verizon sees nothing wrong with it. And, as I stated above, I don't yet know what charges may be on my next phone bill.

My final and ONLY option now was this: She would give me a new phone of the same value of the originally purchased defective phone. This sounds great except she also told me I needed to sign a NEW One Year contract. I called Bell Atlantic Customer Service from the store. I spoke with Scarlet from North Carolina. She also spoke with Bonnie, the store supervisor. Scarlet then told me that she could not overrule a store manager's decision. I then asked Scarlet if I could speak to a Costumer Service Manager. She told me that there were no managers available. She told me that a manager would call me the next day at 1:00 P.M. So, I left the store with a loaner phone.

I did NOT receive a phone call from a manager on Friday, 11/13 at 1: 00 P.M. as promised. I called Customer Service on Monday 11/15 at 10:40. I spoke with Delor. I explained my situation again and asked him if I could speak to a manager. He told me that there where no managers available and that one would call me back. Delor called me back to tell me the manager, Brian Duggan would call me between 5:00P.M. and 6:00P.M. that evening. Well, I finally got a call from a manager (Marchella), on my voice mail at work, at 8:27 P.M. on 11/15/99. They never called me on the cell phone number. I don't feel I should have to sign another One Year contract in order to receive the cell service I originally signed up for.

A second issuue is that they told me since I changed my calling plan 90 days after my original one year contract they extended my contract to one year from the date the calling plan was changed. I did change the calling plan within the 90 days but they did not input it into there system until August. This is evidenced by a calling plan CREDIT in August and September granted to me to make up for there mistake. I was never informed until last Thursday 11/12/99 that my calling plan was extended in August.

They are driving me crazy by giving me the runaround. They never call me back when they say they will. I have a very busy work schedule and don't have the time to spend disputing issues with BellAtlantic Mobile. As far as the service contract being extended due to the service plan being changed this will cost me an additional $360.

the inside where my phone would sit.

My daughter who has one of the other phones had the same thing

happen to the bottom of her phone, it also was burned.

I called Bell Atlantic and spoke to a very nice lady. She told
me that I should remove my charger from the socket to keep from
having an electrical fire and to bring the phones to any Bell

Atlantic office to have them replaced free of charge.

I opened up the back of my phone and found a sticker that said
the battery expired on 5/1/99. So I went to a Bell Atlantic
phone center and told one of the sales representatives the story.
He did replace the two defective pieces, but said that the burning
was my fault for keeping the phones on the battery charger for

more than 4 hours.

As to the battery expiring after having it only 3 months there
was nothing that he could do. If I wanted I could purchase another

one for around $70.00.

If I want to use the phone until my contract is up at the end
of January 2000, I will have to purchase a new battery and return
it when I return the phone. It seems unfair to have me return
a new battery for someone else to use. I was also very upset
to think that an electrical fire could start because of the

phones' defect.