I have been a Verizon Customer for over a decade. I have been enrolled in Verizon's "automatic payment" option for several years. I moved to a new address in June and have had a late bill three (3) times since the move.
The first time my bill was late, I contacted Verizon. The representative informed me that "Verizon has been having troubles with automatic billing lately." I mused aloud that, although the customer service representative was just doing what she was told, wouldn't good customer service involve informing customers of this problem in a timely manner so that we could pay our bills on time? She didn't understand what I meant. I explained that if Verizon knew that they were "having troubles," perhaps they should let the consumers know so we could pay our bills without accruing late fees and damaging our credit ratings. This logic was lost on her.
So here I am. The third time in less than six months with a late bill on an automatic billing plan.
I recommend that those with automatic billing take a close look at their accounts every month.
Should we accrue late fees because of Verizon's mistakes, our contracts give us very little recourse. All disputes go through arbitration these days. Interesting NY Times articles recently on arbitration and big business.
Oh well. Fortunately, I don't watch tv, and there are other choices for internet and cellular phones. I don't have a land line. I guess I can't trust the automatic billing process. If Verizon can't get its act together I'm gone.