Very Poor Customer Service. Very Disappointed.

[singhja]

I am sending a letter of complaint due to the unsatisfactory customer service and the unresolved issue concerning fraud with one of my cellular devices. I am EXTREMELY disappointed that I am having to take my issues this far and possibly even further because I have never had a problem with Verizon before and have always bragged to people that they offer the best service. I am very sorry to say that once we get this issue resolved, I will no longer be a customer and will inform everyone that I know of what happened and how poorly Verizon handled my situation.

December 7th 2011.  

I first noticed that something looked funny when I logged into my account online sometime in early December 2011. I normally do not look at my account because my phone bill is usually around the same amount each month as we rarely go over our minutes. (I was actually looking to make a phone upgrade) So I looked to see where the extra charges were coming from and it was a few calls made my from my In-Laws cell phone and were due to roaming. At the time there were only a few calls and the origin were from India. (The calls were made in the beginning of November) My in-laws did go to India and they did have their Verizon cell phone, however when they travel, the phone off and locked in their suitcase and they have another cell phone that they use while in India. (We can provide that number for proof if necessary) The only reason why they actually bring the Verizon phone with them is so they can call us once they land at the airport for us to pick them up. So I called them to find out what happened, and they confirmed that the phone was in the suitcase and the battery was dead because they had not charged it. (The phone is older and requires a charge every day and it dies very quickly) So I called Verizon to notify them that something was going on and that our phone number had been compromised. The representative that I spoke to put me through to the fraud department and the lady informed me that my number had not been cloned. She then proceeded to tell me that my in-laws did make the calls because they were coming from the device. She was very rude and did not provide me further assistance and transferred me back to a customer service rep. She said that I should have reported the phone stolen when I noticed it! She also said that if someone stole my number or phone I would see tons of calls, not just the few that I was seeing. At this time the charges on my bill were only an additional $40 and I felt upset that I had to pay it, but I figured that I would freeze the phone number and just release the hold when my in-laws returned. I asked the representative if she could see any more phone calls coming through on my next bill (because I couldn’t see anything else online) and she did see some for the first few days in December (about 25 minutes or so), but she did say that I would not be responsible for those charges because I was reporting the issue to them now and also because I reported the phone as stolen.  (You can review your call logs and the conversations that I had with the representatives) So at this point in time I felt some relief and that I didn’t have to worry anymore.

December 30th 2011.  

I logged on early in the morning because I had to release the freeze off of the cell phone because my in-laws were returning and needed a phone to call from the airport. So I logged in and released the hold….then I just wanted to see my statement to see if anything happened. To my surprise my phone bill was $600!!!! I couldn’t understand how this happened if I put a freeze on the phone, so I called again. The first person I spoke to was very concerned and she told me that the fraud department was not in yet, so she had them call me back. When they called back they told me that the calls were made from the device and that it was not cloning, so there was nothing further that they could do and they passed me over to a customer service rep. I must have been passed around to about 4 or 5 people and had to re-explain my story each and every time. I was fuming because it seemed like nobody wanted to help me or even look into the situation further. The last woman that I spoke to was very rude and kept telling me that I would see when my in-laws returned that they made the calls! I was furious and went online and put the phone back in stolen status because at this point I had no idea what was happening. What really shocked me is that Verizon didn’t flag my account or contact me that all this was happening even after I reported that something was going on. I asked why they never contacted me and they said that do and they call you on the phone that it is happening on. Are you serious….I suspended that line and this is the method they use? Nice customer protection. I also thought back to my first conversation with the woman in the fraud department in early December and she said that when a phone is stolen, you don’t just see a few calls you see many. Well, 53 calls in 7 days is a lot of calls and way more than the normal activity for that line.

In a period of 7 days there were a total of 53 phone calls made to 3 different numbers: 919-XXX-XXXX, 919-XXX-XXXX and 919-XXX-XXXX. If you review my history of calls with Verizon, you will see that we very rarely go over or minutes, have no roaming (or very little) or make this number of calls on this line. You can also see that we have never in our life called any of these numbers. In fact, we decided to call the numbers to see if we could investigate on our own because Verizon was not helping us out at all. The most frequently dialed number (919-XXX-XXXX) is not even a working number any more! That is fishy to me because if it is a number that we had to call so much in 7 days, why all of a sudden is it no longer in service? So then we called the second number (919-XXX-XXXX) and actually got a hold of someone. The man was very helpful and gave us his name and where in India he was from (The state of Orisa in India). We asked him if he remembers who called him from our number on December 4th and of course he didn’t remember. We do not know anybody in that state and have no reason to call. Then about an hour later the phone that was supposed to be frozen rang! I picked it up and it ended up being someone we knew, but I couldn’t understand why the phone was working when I put a freeze on it. I had to go back online a re-freeze the number. So I decided that we needed to go to the Verizon store to talk to someone in person because I was not getting a resolution over the phone and I kept being passed around.

January 2nd 2012. 

My wife and I went to the Verizon store in South Barrington. The sales rep was very polite and explained to us that he couldn’t help us, but that he could call customer service for us. So he did that and he explained the story to the representative and then put me back on the phone. So again, I had to go through my entire story. The man on the phone again told me the same thing that we must have made the calls. I was beyond disbelief at this point. Then the sales rep in the store noticed that our phone was not set up for international calling and that it shouldn’t have worked in India! Once again I felt relief and the representative on the phone also looked further into it and informed me of the same thing. I couldn’t believe that the fraud department didn’t look at it from this angle and that I had to go through so much and get treated so rudely from so many representatives. So the man on the phone opened up two tickets with the Diamond Team for each bill that I reported the charges on and said they would call me back in 72 hours. Since this was a Monday, I expected a call back by Thursday. I didn’t hear anything Thursday or Friday, so I had to call back again on Saturday. The girl that I spoke to looked at the notes on my account and said that the Diamond Team conducted their investigation and the results were that the calls did come from the device and that the phone can be used in India. She then told me that I was responsible for the bill! Why didn’t I receive a call back with what they found? I had to wait the entire week and then call back to Verizon again. EXTREMELY disappointing customer service!

I feel absolutely helpless and very upset that Verizon is not being more compassionate about this entire situation. I have been a customer for 5 years and have never once in my life had such a high phone bill. I am very shocked that Verizon cannot look at my customer history and take that into consideration and help me out a little more. And what really upsets me is that even after I froze my phone number, Verizon still allowed the charges to come through on my account and didn’t even bother once to call me and ask if the calls were legitimate. I understand that all of the calls were dated prior to me freezing the phone number, however Verizon was aware of my issue and still let the charges flow through. Thank GOD there were not more calls made and that I noticed it when I did because Verizon did ABSELOUTLY NOTHING to protect me as a customer or even make a courtesy call and ask if I was using the phone outside of the country. I didn’t even think this phone could work outside of the States because it does not have a SIM card.

I will pay the bill that I am responsible for, but I refuse to pay these charges and will continue to fight this with Verizon. I will be sending a copy of this letter to the FCC and to anyone who will listen because I do not want this to happen to anyone else. I will put this all over every social network and even inform my local news stations so they can get the word out. I am sure it appears to Verizon that we made these phone calls because it looks like they came from the device, however technology changes every day and people are finding new ways to hack and steal from innocent people. I can assure you that we did not make these calls and it should be obvious that I am going to great lengths to prove that.

[mdram4x4]

please look up paragraph

a wall of text often gets ignored

[Wildman]

I agree because it is to hard to make any since of what point is trying to be made... 

No disrespect and this is helpful information, If you inputted the data on your phones browser you can use <br><br> to add line break.

[budone]

This is a CUSTOMER to CUSTOMER forum

Also, as others stated this is a very hard post to follow

[singhja]

Sorry, I have cleaned it up a little bit. I basically copied the letter I am sending to Verizon.

We got charged $600 for calls we didn’t make. Verizon is saying we made the calls but we didn’t. We think somehow the phone was cloned.

Customer service keep transferring us around. No one seem to know who should handle our issue. Customer service agents were very rude. They had we don’t care attitude.

[singhja]

Thank you. Cleaned it up a bit.

[Wildman]

If I gave a guess of this situation, you probably was made liable for the bill because you froze a account for fraud and the turned around and activated the account again instead of requesting a number change because if the number was compromised freezing the account for a short time wont resolve the number being used without your permission and knowledge.  Also since the calls showed from India from a phone that happens to be in India at the time that the calls was reported this leaves thing in the suspicious realm.. 

Sounds like the solution has been overlooked by you and the company that left a possible solution to be found correctly.

One more thing...  I am not taking any side but just voicing a opinion, other than the family member reporting that they did not use the device, have you questioned yourself if the calls was made from the phone and you wasn't told the whole truth?  Since the calls showed from India from a phone that happens to be in India at the time that the calls was reported this leaves thing in the suspicious realm..

[singhja]

Yeah I am sure the phone was not used.

We travel to India every year.  When we get there we put all our belongings in a locker.  We use the local cell phones.

This has never happened before.

And the numbers that was supposedly dialed, we have never called that number before.  We dont even know who it is on the other end. 

[budone]

Without going to look again, what device?

[Wildman]

I understand, just figured I would throw this out there because I am sure that this probably been considered by Fraud Department.