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Charged a hidden fee!!!

I called in this morning to upgrade one of my secondary phones to the Bionic. The caller was very nice and gladly took my order and said that I would be charged $50 on my bill but I would receive a rebate in the mail for that $50. She said I would have to pay taxes but I didn't care and said fine. She then called a number to accept the terms and conditions. No problem right..

Well I decided to order a new phone for my uncle. All he wanted was a basic phone so I picked out the cosmos 2 and ordered it. At the end of the order it said to accept so I did. I saw for a brief moment a $30 charge, but at that time my Internet Explorer blocked a pop up and the page went away. I received no confirmation of the order and did not receive an email so I decieded to call Verizon. They informed me that the order did go through and that the $30 fee was for an upgrade fee. I told him that I had been with Verizon for over a decade and that I had never heard of such a thing. He said that it was somthing new as of two months ago and that it was for everyone. He then proceeded to offer me some accesories as compinsation. I explained that I would NOT pay the $30 bucks as I did not have ot pay it for my bionic that I ordered just hrs before. He then proceeded to tell me that I DID get charged $30 already. At this point I was very upset and proceeded to try and cancel my order. He would not let me do so and he hung up on me (he could have just dropped me as he was nice up to that point not sure he just wasn't there anymore) I then called back and was told (yea I was TOLD) that I knew I would be chaged $30 bucks because "everyone knows" of the charge. I then asked to speak to a superviser which he let me do so. I talked the the lady and she begain to offer me a promotion as compinsation and then withdrew it after finding out it would not work on my account. After a long descusion I then gave in and offered to pay 1 of the 2 $30 charges as a way to end this dispute but she flatly refused my offer saying that EVERYONE has to pay this charge.

At this point I have done some research and I have found that MANY people have had this charger overturned as they too where tricked into this charge by a customer service rep that "forgot to explain" the charge. At this point I am thinking about filling a complaint with the BBB and seeing just how many of these "customer represenitive must have forgot" claimes have been made (and yea thats what the superviser told me).

If Verizon is going to charge any customer ANY fee it should be made BOLD and CLEAR that there will be a fee. How can someone expect to know there will be a fee if no one tells them?? and why does Verizon insist that it is MY fault that I have to pay this fee and that I "must have known" about the fee before hand. Or that "we have known about the fee for so long some of us may have been complacent" as worded by the first customer serves rep I spoke too.

This is not a valid fee and I would like some help having it removed.

Please advise

William Justice.

Comments

unknown

There is now a $30 upgrade fee. There is nothing hidden about it. All providers charge this fee now and many are higher than Verizon.

Ann154

It was announced and it is not going away. You can avoid it by purchasing a device at full retail price or bringing in a phone purchased from a third party.

http://news.verizonwireless.com/news/2012/04/bl2012-04-11.html

UpsetlongtimeCustomer

It was hidden as I have never heard of such a thing in over 10 years of being a verizon customer. and who anounced it? was there an email? or maybe a phone call to me? or even a text? no none of the above. Did the service rep say anything about a charge? no. At what point was I told? never. I only found out because I saw it on my web page order hrs after I ordered my bionic. I have had dozens of phones and never once in ALL my years of being a Verizon customer have I ever been charged an upgrade fee. I'm amazed by how you are just falling in place with Verizon on this. Oh yea sure go ahead and charge us all extra money and don't tell us or anything we won't mind???

I don't think so. Go to Verizon's website and click on a phone to order and it says NOTHING anywhere about a upgrade fee. It only shows up AFTER the phone has been picked out and you are on the very last step of the order process.

Take my case. I have always called in to order phones and depend on the customer service reps to advise me and direct me to an honest conclusion. This did NOT happen and at no time did I know of or was I made aware of these charges. This is the very definition of "Hidden charges". Just search the web and you will find many instances of the same thing happening to other customers as well. People call in order a phone or is advised by a rep that this is the best phone for your. Given a price that does NOT include the $30 fee only to find it on there bill later.

This is the very think that the BBB encourages consumers to report. If we, the building blocks of ALL enterprises do not stand together then we will always be taken advantage of.

For those of you that DID know of this charge and accepted it then don't post here, this thread is not for you. This is for the hundreds if not thousands of us that had no idea we would be taken advantage of.

Remember this IF I was told up front and given a choice there would never have been a problem. IF the automated terms and conditions said ANYTHING about an additional fee there would be no problem. If anyone at Verizon would have stood up and took responsibility for this injustice there would be no problem. Transparency, honesty, and integrity build a company and make it strong. What happened to me was not transparent, or honest in any way.

Ann154

There are already existing threads in the community discussing this fee.

Grothka

If they won't waive the fee then just refuse shipment on the phones. It's as simple as that.

commonsense101

if you listened to the recording you accepted, it states there is a $30 upgrade fee

budone

Commonsense is correct,. the recording DOES state there will be a $30 upgrade fee. Thus the reason for the recording to insure you ARE told, because some CSR's may forget. Since you had the recording, you were notified prior to you accepting the terms and conditions

UpsetlongtimeCustomer

The recording does NOT say it your wrong. No where does it say in the recording there will be a $30 fee. Even the superviser I spoke to agreed that it was not there and also admited that it is the Rep's responsobility to make me aware of the fee. She also elaberated further saying that the had special training in order to ensure all rep's made all customers aware of the fee.

Grothka how do I know that just refusing delevery will remove my new 2 year contract and remove all charges already placed on my account?? What happens if I refuse delever and Verizon doesn't cancel the server or remove the charges. They are NOT an honest company and I may be left with a new 2 year contract on 2 of my phones and no phone to even use.

igovirginmobile

Call and harrass customer service on a daily basis, eventially they will give in. It worked for me.

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