Pathetic customer service
Written: Nov 19 '00
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Pros: good if you use your phone a lot, I guess
Cons: pathetic customer service, rate plans "disappeared" when they took over, don't care about infrequent cell phone users
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| LauraRN's Full Review: General Reviews of Verizon Customer Service |
My husband and I have had cell phones for about 3 1/2 years. We originally signed up with Time Warner Cellular, which became On-Air Wireless, which became Verizon Wireless. We are not heavy users and only use 2-5 minutes per month, my husband rarely uses any.
The last time we signed a contract was in April of 1998, when they were On-Air Wireless. Our agreement was that we would pay $14.99 per month and each contract (we both have phones) would get 150 free minutes to use until they are done and would never expire. When the one year agreement expired, we continued with this rate plan and worked on using up our free minutes. This was working out fine for us.
Enter Verizon Wireless
I think the takeover was systematic. We were first notified we were going to be with Verizon in I think August, but didn't get a "new bill" until October. I opened up the October bill and to my surprise, our $14.99 fee had suddenly turned into $28.95! And to add insult to injury, our airtime was billed at 32 cents per minute, which was supposed to be free. October happened to be a month that both of us had used our phones more than usual.
I immediately called customer service and was told that there were "billing problems" in that area and that our account would be credited. I was told to pay the whole bill and then I would receive a credit later. I reluctantly agreed to this.
When I went to pay the bill, I realized I didn't know exactly how much the bill was supposed to be because the taxes and other assorted charges were based on the higher monthly access fee. I decided to go to the store to speak to someone in person.
We went to the store, explained the situation to a customer care rep and he actually tried to help us. He figured out approximately how much the bill was supposed to be (minus the difference of the taxes, he didn't know how to figure that part out) and told us approximately how much our credit was supposed to be. He told us that our free minutes hadn't disappeared and we could still use them. He did talk us into paying the entire amount for both bills (approximately double what each bill was supposed to be) because he was afraid it would take a while for the credit to get to us and we might get a late charge. We paid both bills, got receipts and waited until the next bill. The guy was nice, but we had spent about an hour explaining ourselves and not once did anyone acknowledge that this was their fault and apologize for us wasting our time.
They still didn't fix it!
The next bill arrived Friday. They gave us credits, but not as much as they were supposed to. My bill also charged me for the airtime for the calls I made this month. So we went back to the store, hoping to talk to the same guy. Unfortunately, an idiot was working today. This guy told us he couldn't fix it but decided to call customer service for us. (How helpful...) After trying to explain the problem AGAIN to him while he was on the phone with the customer service rep telling her the wrong stuff because he didn't listen to us the first time, he told us that our 150 free minutes didn't exist, they never existed and obviously we must have been making it up. He told us we were on a plan where we paid $14.99 a month and got 10 free minutes, which wasn't true. (Even if it was, why did they charge us for the airtime??) He told me that they would credit me for the usage this month but that was all they are going to do. He was shocked that we were still using 150 free minutes from April 1998.
Verizon still owes us some money. The problem is, I don't know exactly how much they owe us!! They seem to cater to people who use their phones a lot, not customers like us. I am really upset with these people, not only are they overcharging us, they're rude about it and call us liars!!!
They've definitely lost our business. We're going to find another cellular provider and then they will be getting a nasty letter. If you are only an infrequent user of your phone, Verizon is not for you.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 14.99
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Epinions.com ID:
LauraRN
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Location: Rochester, NY
Reviews written: 64
Trusted by: 22 members
About Me:
Nurse practitioner seeking employment.
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