We were in the Caribbean and did not want Verizon's Travel Pass assistance/charge with calls as going to use the wifi from the resort exclusively (and we never made a call off the resort). What we didn't know what that Verizon automatically assumes you want to pay the $10 per day for their international services whether you authorize it or not when you land in the next country and turn on your phone from airplane mode - so we were charged $80 for a service we did not authorize or request. I contacted billing customer service who gave us $10 credit for one day of the charges on one bill, but then another $70 appeared on the next month's bill - which again, we didn't authorize or use. We only made calls/texts when we were on the resort's property but found that Verizon jumped into our phones while on the resort interrupting the wifi and charged the calls anyway (again on a service we didn't authorize). The very nice customer service rep Gavin tried very hard to get us credit for the 2nd charge of $70 but told us the floor manager would only give us $30 as it was half our fault for not knowing how to NOT use the "Travel Pass" service - uh really? Not authorizing or requesting a charge for a service you don't want does not seem to be our fault. I want the remaining $40 credited but can't get through to anyone at Verizon that can get past the floor manager (Gavin/customer service did say he would escalate our complaint and have someone call us but not sure if that was just to placate us for a while - time will tell if we actually do get a call back). Otherwise, I'm very satisfied with Verizon's service and system - getting charged for something we didn't authorize is just plain wrong.
Hello. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Travel Pass is not added automatically, as long as the phone is in airplane mode, does not have the SIM card, or is using an international carrier SIM card where it is available - and compatible at your Verizon cell phone. To avoid additional charges, you will be sent a text message to alert you that your device is connecting to international towers and this will cause charges for use or trigger activation of Travel Pass, if it has been used previously. It is very important to review international usage information or plans, according to your preference to avoid unwanted charges or usage while traveling outside the United States. We suggest you review the following link with valuable information. Please let us know if you have additional questions.
https://www.verizon.com/plans/international/international-travel/trip-planner-tool/
https://www.verizon.com/support/travelpass-faqs/
~Maria
The text message we received was not instructing us that we were getting the service whether we wanted it or not but just that it was available. Since we weren't going to use it, didn't respond - as understood that if we did, we'd get the daily charge. Again, how are we to NOT use something that we didn't want or intended to use or have knowledge of how it worked?? Not enough information was presented to us with the text to even respond NO, STOP or DECLINE to stop the service. We are not happy with this resolution so far being customers of Verizon for over 20 years. Not the way to treat long term clients.
Happy Monday! Before anything, thanks for your 20+ years of loyalty to the company, we truly appreciate your business. Our goal is to clear things up.
Can you elaborate and share what the text message indicated?
~Gilbert
All I can say is to go back and re-read the previous messages from us. It's disheartening to find we have to be wary of our long time cell phone carrier slipping exorbitant charges onto our bill with services we had no intention of using. We made all our calls on our resort property assuming we were on their wifi but Verizon snagged our phone signal somehow and charged us anyway.
RickRox, we can understand your concerns receiving charges that were unexpected. We will be happy to take a closer look at your account so that we can better understand what took place. Please be on the lookout for a Private Message from us.
-Andi
I am available for an hour or so.
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