New Unlimited Plan but charged for Previous Month

I talked to two CS reps who haven't been able to truly explain this concern with any comforting detail, so, I am hoping to see if someone here can dumb this down for me a bit.

Details:
I signed up for new Unlimited service this Monday, 11/4. I signed up with four lines.
Monday 11/4 we ported Two lines in to Do More Unlimited plans
Tuesday 11/5 we ported the other Two lines in with Start Unlimited plans.

All Four phones were unlocked previously purchased Samsung devices. So no contract here. These are BYOP.

Issue/Concern:
Service started 11/4. Two lines ported that day, the other two the next day.
However... My first bill is in, due on 11/25 (21 days later). This bill is for the billing period of 10/4 to 11/3.
I did not have service in this month. My next bill shows billing period of 11/4 to 12/3 which is expected.

Can anyone explain this a bit for me? Why The billing period shows last month when I did not have service.

To top that off, this bill is only for three lines, CS said the fourth line will be added on the next bill. That is about the most detail I could get from the two CS reps. I understand this is postpaid, but the fact that the billing period is showing the previous month does not reflect the fact that I am paying for the month ahead, but rather I am back paying for the month prior.

Thanks

Accepted answers

rcschnoor

Are you being charged for 2 full months on this bill?

Verizon charges a month in advance for service on your monthly bill. Unless you are being charged for 2 full months of service on this bill, it is most likely the charge you are seeing on this bill is for service from 11/4 thru 12/3.

Regardless, it is certainly hard to believe you have already received a bill only 2 days after you first started service. This is even MORE unusual as your monthly bill is not normally available until 4-5 days after your billing cycle ends. To be available 3 days after your billing cycle ends which was BEFORE you even started service certainly makes one scratch their head.

All comments

rcschnoor

Are you being charged for 2 full months on this bill?

rcschnoor

To show an example from my most recent bill, the "billing period" on the first page of the bill states 9/16 thru 10/15. This bill became available to me on or around 10/19. In the details of the bill, each line on the account lists the charges as being for service from 10/16 thru 11/15.

So, as you can see, even though the billing period for this bill is from 9/16 thru 10/15, I am paying for service from 10/16 thru 11/15 on this bill.

ShaunRyan

First of all, thanks bud for your reply.

I talked to a third rep. (3rd times a charm).

What we have found is exactly as you described.

@rcschnoor
wrote:
So, as you can see, even though the billing period for this bill is from 9/16 thru 10/15, I am paying for service from 10/16 thru 11/15 on this bill.

So every web page online, or in the mobil app. shows Last month as teh billing period. Only in the PDF detailed document does it show line for line that the service is actually for 11/4 to 12/3 (this month). I feel sorry for the reps. This has got to be confusing for so many customers. And to your point about the bill coming in early.. indeed I got my bill on 11/5 (day after I started service).

Though we ported in two lines on 11/5, one of those lines Verizon activated a day prior, on 11/4, even though it was not ported in until the next day. Therefore On this months bill we are paying for 3 lines. In other words. Because the 4th line was activated one day after I started service, they will not charge me for that until next month. I can't complain, I get a month free on that line.

Thanks again for your reply.

SLYFIELJ

Actually when I started service I was billed two days after. that's because they now determine your bill date based on when you join Verizon and they bill you immediately which means no prorated bills to star . Of course when you add and remove stuff later that will be prorated and will be adjusted on a future bill.

I actually appreciated this, coming from Boost Mobile.

Disappointed_cust

Just had similar experience as I charged plans mid-cycle. The rep said my bill would be prorated and start today. I pulled up my account online and it said the upgrade was effective 10/21, not today. I called back, spoke to Zam who represented himself as a manager. He was extremely rude and didn't even let me finish explaining what happened, as he kept interrupting me and saying I was wrong. He continued to be condescending, which I pointed out to him.

The previous time that I contacted Verizon about considering a phone upgrade, I had a dissatisfied experience as well going through the chat with a rep feature. The rep would answer a few questions and if I wasn't ready to immediately order $2500 in new phones, they would drop off the chat and a new rep would be on wanting to start all over. This happened 6 times over a 15 min timespan. Like revolving door of reps. I gave up and decided I wasn't ready to make a big purchase from such a company after that experience. I'm really hopeful things improve at Verizon for the customer experience.

1Trenell

I had the same issue. I had a trade in and I figured that I was paying the taxes on the device that I was trading for. So, while I was told that the deal was to just bring your phone into the store, trade it and start a new contract I somehow assumed that all I had to do was give them my information but not have to pay anything until my first bill.

In addition, when I received my first bill, I received a notice saying that I owed already for the previous month. I had no service in that previous month. That previous month kinda had me struggling for a few months to keep the bill paid on time because the next months bill is also added to the current month bill on a certain day while all this previous month charges are already there. At one point, my bill was at $900. That is absolutely ridiculous for a cell phone bill. Not to mention that the system moved slow as snails to update bill changes that I made such as plan changes so to reflect on current bills. It took many phone calls to customer service for months to communicate and get the proper answers as to what was actually happening. I paid it because I’m on contract and matters could be worse. At one point I was paying $200 towards one phone bill twice in one month because of incorrect fees, wrongful disconnections, the account not being properly updated, etc. I don’t mind paying my phone bill once a month but paying a phone bill 2 and 3 times in one month because of bills not being paid in full previously because I was already being charged for services that I didn’t use and it seemed like the new bill was always being added the day after I made any payment towards the bill.

Oh yeah and if an agent assisted me over the phone with promise to pays, each agent would bill my account $10 and the $10 would appear in my account immediately but any changes that I made to my account took months to reflect on my bill. I had to stay on them and keep a close eye on my bill. Many times I was on a call for over an hour with customer service. Not on hold but with an agent. They are too quick to add all of these fees and late fees or whatever. For a while, I didn’t see why my bill was increasing by up to $50 or more on each bill. They kindly gave me credits to my account mostly because they can see that I will call them and we are going to get an understanding before charging me for every little thing. Plus, I always kept my promises to pay after I figured out how this money sucking machine was working.

For what it’s worth, I do enjoy Verizon wireless service. I’ve been with them since the 90’s. Started as prepaid and personally I don’t like contracts for these devices and services but I understand the reasons. I tried other phone services but if it’s not the service that goes crazy, it’s the bad devices. So I came back to Verizon. However, the previous month charge before my first bill is a big issue for me.

Verizon_Support

Hello, 1Trenell. We want to make sure your billing concerns have been been fully addressed. Please send us a Private Note, if there is any we need to help you with.

*Cassie