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I've had a costly and surprising issue with the reliability and functionality of Travel Pass while traveling to the West Indies. After three separate discussions with customer service (each resulting in progressively worse and different proposed remedies), the issue was not successfully resolved. I have US mailed a letter to customer service regarding the issue but also would like an email address to submit the letter electronically.
In short, while travelling to St. Lucia (on business) for an extended stay, one of four numbers on my wireless account traveling to St. Lucia on this trip received the Travel Pass authorization text. (The Travel Pass often erroneously mistakes St. Lucia and for Jamaica but that is not the issue I'm addressing here.) I authorized the Travel Pass. The other three numbers did not receive the Travel Pass authorization text. Absent the authorization text, I presumed that my authorization applied to all the numbers from my account that were in St. Lucia at that time.
The lesson that cost me $1000 (or more) and three separate 1-hour, unproductive conversations with customer service is this -- the wireless customer must contact Verizon customer service from the international location if the Travel Pass Authorization text is not received, to request Travel Pass.
The Verizon international numbers (that presumably every customer must carry with them when traveling to an international destination) are 1-908-559-4899 or 008005005009 (from a landline). (I requested these phone numbers for my records during my third customer service call regarding this issue.) This customer service solution (that is the instruction to call customer service) suggests that the person calling Verizon customer service from the international destination to remedy the fact that the Travel Pass authorization text was not received must also have all the account credentials or be able to (on demand) add-in the person with the account credentials to the call with Verizon customer service at the same time. (The phone call from the international destination to Verizon customer service IF the Travel Pass authorization text is NOT received is a tall order by itself.)
To address my issue (after I realized the issue when I saw my bill), I requested that the Travel Pass be retroactively applied to all the numbers on my account that were in St. Lucia during the same trip, during the same billing period since the Travel Pass authorization text was authorized by one number and not received by the others. (From a billing/credit standpoint, my request was for the cost of the Travel Pass for the remaining three numbers to offset a credit for the international minutes charges for those numbers.) Incidentally, two of the four numbers involved in this issue are on the same device, and it was one of those numbers where Travel Pass authorization text was received and authorized.
Customer Service refused my request (simply because the Travel Pass was not authorized) and offered me a $100 courtesy credit to consider the matter closed. The fact that the Travel Pass authorization text was not received for all the numbers was irrelevant to the customer service decision.
I rejected the offer of courtesy credit. One of the numbers was in St. Lucia for the trip for 7 days and incurred $500 in international minutes charges when we thought the Travel Pass was applicable. For this number alone, the billing credit should be $430.
With years of experience in corporate governance and developing corporate policies, I continue to be surprised by the lack of a more equitable resolution to this issue given Verizon's stated customer-focused business objectives. I have no insight regarding why the Travel Pass authorization text may not have been received. (I had used Travel Pass previously on different occasions, both on St. Lucia and in other parts of the Caribbean, and I've had prior international billing issues successfully resolved so I'm at a loss on this one.)
The bottom line is this -- the burden is on the consumer to act from the foreign designation if the Travel Pass authorization text is not received. The Travel Pass authorization texts are for individual numbers, not for the account. If the Travel Pass is not received and the then necessitated customer service calls from the foreign destination to authorize Travel Pass are unsuccessful, the customer is at risk for international minutes charges. This customer service policy seems grossly out of step with customer-focused objectives, and arguably establishes a financial incentive for Verizon not to ensure the on-going and proper functioning of the Travel Pass authorization text system.
My letter requests that Verizon reconsider this policy to allow retroactive application of the Travel Pass, especially in instances where Travel Pass was authorized by one but not all of the numbers on the account for travel to the same location during the same billing period. It stands to reason that my scenario is a clear indication that the Travel Pass authorization functionality is flawed, or unreliable at best, and requires immediate attention.

