When moving from NY to CA in June 2014 we cancelled our Verizon FIOS account and returned the set top box and remote by UPS delivery as instructed by the Verizon agent I talked to. The charges for the equipment kept showing on our account so I called Verizon four times over the next several months. Each time the agent said not to worry - the charges would be removed. In December I got a collection letter from a collection agency which I disputed by including the proof of delivery from UPS. A few weeks later I called the collection agency and they said Verizon had recalled the debt. Then in January I got a collection notice from another agency and I noticed that my FICO score had dropped 100 points because Verizon reported the collection to the credit bureaus.
From reading several similar posts on this forum it appears I am not the only one this has happened to. This points to either gross incompetence in their accounting and/or inventory departments or they are trying to make a few extra bucks from departing customers. I hope for Verizon's sake that the latter is not the case.
Verizon: making repeated calls to your help line and writing dispute letters is a pain in the neck but a big drop in credit score has a MAJOR EFFECT ON PEOPLE'S LIVES. Fix this .