Back in September I had a long conversation with Stacy S. from Verizon regarding changing my plan agreement. I had been overpaying on my plan for about a year by having data overages each month, and even though I wasn’t under contract I never got around to getting onto a more modern plan and taking advantage of a subsidized phone offer. I told them that I was considering going with a different carrier because I thought I had been overcharged (even if it was by my own negligence) and I had seen better plans advertised from other carriers. Stacy S. said they wanted to keep me as a customer and said she could offer me a $50/month plan that would include unlimited texts, unlimited calls, and 4 GB of data. She also said that since she was getting me this “special” deal (“I am a manager” she told me), she could not offer me my usual employee discount that is offered to employees at the company where I work. I was fine with this since I was getting a good deal. I agreed to a two-year service agreement with Verizon over the phone with Stacy S., which got me a subsidized phone.
After I received the phone, I called Verizon in order to activate it. The person I talked to mentioned that there was an additional $40/month “line access fee”. I told them that this is not what I agreed to over the phone. They said sorry, but that was the deal: $90(plus taxes), not the $50 I was told. They tried to offer me plans that weren’t as good (bait & switch) and I told them I wanted them to get Stacy S. to call me back and figure this out. (I knew she’d remember since we had a multiple-hour talk) The Verizon rep left a note for Stacy S. and her manager on their system and said I would get a call back. Within a day I realized I was going to need to call Verizon back, because they weren’t going to get back to me. I called again and this time a representative told me that the person I had talked to earlier had misread the system, and that my plan was in fact for $50/month with “no line access fee”. The representative said this was not standard, but did confirm that this is what the system indicated, and attributed it to Stacy S.’s managerial authority. I thought “great, my plan will cost only $50, like I was told."
Fast forward a month (after my one-month interim plan had expired and I was now in the middle of my first “unlimited talk/text and 4GB data for $50 a month” plan), and I realize I am going over my 4GB data limit. I called Verizon to see if I could add more data to my plan. The guy on the phone switched me to the $60 for 6GB (and unlimited talk/text) plan. After he made the plan changes he noted that I would have the standard “$40 line access fee” too. I told him I did not have the “line access fee” in my previous plan. He said that was impossible because Verizon didn’t offer that kind of deal. I said you can check the recording with me and Stacy S. He said Verizon doesn’t do that, and even if she had offered me this plan, it didn’t matter because Verizon was still going to charge me the “line access fee.” I explained that I would have never entered into a two-year service agreement if I knew I was going to be paying $100/month. He said it didn’t matter.
I asked to not be under the service agreement contract since it was misrepresented when I agreed to it. Verizon said they couldn’t do that even if the contract was entered into under false pretenses. I was flabbergasted by this policy, so I asked them to put it in writing. They said they wouldn’t do that. (Who wants to admit terrible practices?) While talking to multiple Verizon employees over the phone, the message was clear: We don’t care what was told to you on the phone when you signed up for the subsidized phone, you are under contract now and we’re going to be charging you $100/month.
I got my first $100 bill today. Not happy. I was told I would have a $50/month plan. I was told that even if the contract agreement was misquoted, I would still have to live with it. It’s interesting that Verizon thinks they can say whatever they want when making a verbal contract over the phone and then not live up to it. And on top of that, they say that even if the contract was misquoted, it doesn’t matter; I’m still obligated to do business with them at a higher rate for two years. If that’s the case, why not just tell people they'll get a $1/month plan over the phone in order to get them to agree to getting a subsidized phone in exchange for committing to a two-year service agreement. This is a class-action lawsuit waiting to happen!
Jon
p.s. I find it funny/frustrating that people who work for a communications company cannot contact other employees that also do phone support for Verizon in order to clear up confusion. You wonder if this practice is intentional. There excuse of having "different call centers" does not preclude their ability to communicate via phone and email in the 21st century.
