My boyfriend and I bought cell phones a little over a year ago. We chose a 2 for 1 deal with Verizon as our provider. I called to activate the phones and the rep who assisted me was not at all familiar with the model phones I had. This caused him a great amount of confusion and distress. I spent in excess of 2 hours on the phone with him as I guessed which number he needed from the back of the cell phones to activate them. He actually became noticeably impatient with me. After all was (supposedly) said and done, only one phone was activated. Not only did he only set up one phone, but he didn't activate it with the plan I requested. He had me paying $140 for two separate plans (instead of a shared plan) and only one phone to use...and none of the "free" minutes they advertised. It took two other reps, two days and an email to the president of Verizon to correct the mistakes, which still showed up on my first two bills. That was just the beginning of a long string of events. Other billing errors occurred and simple questions/issues took at least 2 reps (only about 50% of which spoke English with any kind of fluency) to answer or resolve. The technical aspect of the service was always good, but customer service-wise I felt like I was being literally ignored.

Our contract was up this past May and I called first thing that day to cancel. I was assured the service was canceled and I just had my last bill to pay for the last month of the contract. My boyfriend called the next day and confirmed the cancellation. We payed our last bill and then started a new contract with our new cellular provider. One month later I received an email from Verizon saying, "Your bill is ready for online viewing".

My What!?!

It was like we had never spoken to those TWO reps and canceled our account. We called right away and sure enough we were still fully activated (with Zero minutes of usage of course). We spoke with Charles Simpson at extension 3013 (who luckily spoke English very well) who assured us our balance was now $0. We emailed Verizon as to cover ALL bases and confirm our cancellation and balance in writing. It wasn't over. They said we still had one bill for $70 to pay. We wrote again and told them that was incorrect. At this point it felt like we were talking to a wall. We had to email the Pres. again and we received the following response...

"Thank you for directing your comments to the Office of the President. We appreciate the time you have taken to contact us. Verizon Wireless strives to provide the best customer service in the industry. We are truly interested in all comments from our customers and we are pleased we have exceeded your expectations.

We are sorry you have decided to discontinue service with Verizon Wireless. You have been a valued customer since May 21, 2001. As requested (THREE TIMES!!!), your mobile numbers******** has been canceled as of July 11, 2002. Please be aware that you will be receiving an additional bill dated July 11, 2002. This bill will be prorated from July 8, 2002 through July 11, 2002."

Ok, so I know this is getting old, but we had to write again and explain again how we had canceled on May 21, 2002 and we weren't going to pay any kind of bill.

I especially liked the bold portion of the email above. They didn't even bother to take out how they exceeded our expectations. Do they even read what they're sending? We have since received another response saying that our balance is indeed $0 even though the last bill I received was for $12. I'm beyond disgusted with Verizon Wireless.

Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 70/month