Military PCS and customer service

[tdizzle0624]

During a military PCS from the US to Japan I have had a miserable time with Verizon Customer Service in trying to get my lines suspended as it afforded to military personnel. I visited the verizon store in person and they assured me after showing them my PCS orders that i would no longer be charged for services and my lines would be put on hold. I not only clarified this with the rep in store but also with a rep on the phone while in the store. after this i was still being charged and since i had auto pay set up the money was automatically being taken out from my on file account. after i stopped auto pay i was still being charged after several months of contacting verizon no solution was resolved. I then completely cancelled my account and verizon still chaged me after i paid off all cell phones and remaining balances which shoul not have been charged in the first place. I believe there is some glitch in their system that no one has the care to address for me as if one hand isnt talking to the other. as a final cherry on top verizon has sent a final bill to a collections agency.  If this is how verizion is going to "Value" military customers I have little faith in them as a service provider. 

[SynthpopAddict]

Sorry to hear of your experience.  I'm not entirely sure of how the military deployment suspension policy is worded, but for any other suspensions of service, the maximum you are allowed to suspend is 90 days per calendar year.  You still get billed, but at a much lower rate, while your line is suspended.

[tdizzle0624]

thanks for the reply.  Every time I have done the suspension it has been for deployments and the completely stop billing you for the time on your orders. It should be the same for Overseas PCS as well. 

[SynthpopAddict]

You're welcome.  From what I could find on the website regarding military suspensions, it applies to being deployed overseas where you can't use your Verizon service because Verizon doesn't have any network outside the US.  And you don't get billed while the suspension is in effect, which can last for up to 3 years and 90 days.  However, if there are subscriptions to things which other people in a group account can use such as streaming services, those will continue to be billed.  Not sure what happens if you are the only one on the account and you don't cancel a subscription for a perk...

The military suspension also can't be applied to lines which are not phone lines.  So if you had smartwatches, tablets, mobile hotspots, or some other devices which aren't phones running through Verizon, those would still get billed unless you disconnect the lines entirely and lose the "phone numbers" associated with them.  I think I read something several months ago about the suspension policy being changed somehow, so this could have been part of it.

If you only had a phone line(s) and suspended them all, but were still getting billed at the usual rates every month, then someone messed up by not putting in the suspension at all.  Sure hope it gets sorted for you and in your favor.  Good luck.

[vzw_customer_support]

This is not the experience we want for any of our customers, let alone our military members. Sending a private note now

-Anthony

[SynthpopAddict]

@vzw_customer_supportI looked up the policy on the website regarding military suspensions and it's different than the 90 day maximum vacation suspension.

https://www.verizon.com/support/voluntary-suspension-policy/

The OP should be compensated for their bills methinks.

[vzw_customer_support · Accepted solution]

We reached out via Private Message to continue seeing about your account issue. Since we’d need to get more details to try and locate the account, we’ll want to continue via Private Message. Please reach out to us if you still need support. 

-John