I transferred five phones from another provider back in June of 2022. I've never worked with a corporation as fundamentally incompetent as Verizon. The individual support employees have tried to help me, but they seem to be stymied by Verizon's ridiculous corporate structure.
When my order of phones failed to ship. I called Verizon and I was told that the order had been cancelled. The Verizon rep encouraged me to place another order for five phones with her. A few weeks later I received all ten phones!
I checked with Verizon to see which phones to return and sent then five extras back as soon as possible. Unfortunately the double order confused Verizon and activating the phones, applying my trade-ins, and getting the promised gift cards became a nightmare. It took numerous calls (including taking a day off work just to stay on the phone with Verizon) to get most of it straightened out.
After three months of regular calls, I was down to two issues:
1 Verizon sent me a paper bill on an un-activated account for the full price of one of the returned phoned: $871.99
2. On my activated account (paperless), they failed to apply one trade-in and keep charging me a monthly fee for the phone.
I called Verizon in September and they promised to refund the un-activated $300 at a time every two weeks until the $871.99 is gone. When I got another paper bill in October for the $571.99 remainder. I called them and the supervisor said that she would handle it and personally guaranteed me that I wouldn't get another paper bill. This month (November) I got both a bill from Verizon for $571.99 followed by a letter from a collections agency.
For the activated account, they continue to bill me for a phone after I've been told by Verizon numerous times that they've corrected my account by applying my trade-in. Every month they promise that "in 30 days" I'll see the bill corrected and they'll credit back the over payments, but it never happens.
Does anyone have advice on how to reach a supervisor at Verizon who can actually fix their messes? Has arbitration worked for anyone? Do I need to give in and over pay Verizon to end the harassment?
Wow. Verizon keep surprising me with their incompetence.
I called again yesterday. The support rep confirmed that Verizon received the returned phone in July, but she couldn't do anything to fix it. She tried to call the collections agency to resolve it. Unfortunately Verizon hung up on me after about 2 hours.
I guess that I'm obligated to stay with Verizon until my phones are paid off, but I can't in good conscience recommend them to anyone and I'll be moving to another provider as soon as I can.
Hello, there! We want to be sure any issues you've been experiencing are resolved. We're sending you a Private Note to continue.
*Andrea
Verizon reached out to me based on these posts and told me to call Financial Services. The rep that I got said that she couldn't access my account since they had sent it to collections. She transferred me to the Billings Department.
The call with Billings lasted over four hours. I had to take the afternoon off from work to stay on the line so long. Four. Hours. Even after the call everything wasn't resolved. They admitted that both problems were Verizon's fault, but they couldn't correct everything.
They claim to have fixed the trade-in issue. They promised that I'll see back credits by Nov 24th. I've been promised that before. I guess I'm overly optimistic and I believed them again. I'll post back on the 24th to see.
For the zombie account (where I returned all the phones, but Verizon sent me a bill for one), they again admitted that it was their mistake. They approved a credit to cover the $571.99. When I pointed out that they had already sold me to CBE (the collections agency) they didn't have a way to contact CBE and clear the debt. From what I read online I have 30 days to open up a dispute with CBE and if I miss that window I'll never be able dispute the charge. They suggested that I call CBE, but I'm worried that if CBE does me like Verizon and claims to "fix" it and the 30 day window passes I'll have to pay for a phone that I returned.
My plan is to send a letter of validation to CBE. Hopefully when they respond they'll contact Verizon and find that my "account" is at $0. If CBE responds and says that they think that I still owe I'll have to detail this whole mess to them and hope they close the case. Fortunately I know how a few texts from Verizon admitting the error (not just verbal admission). From what I hear CBE is just as likely to take me to court over this no matter what I say. Oh... and I get to pull my credit from all three agencies and be prepared to dispute any negative reports from Verizon/CBE.
So: Be warned. If you have a billing problem with Verizon DO NOT ACCEPT them saying that it'll be fixed eventually. Demand that they put a credit hold on your account and escalate the issue until they take care of it immediately. They may just send you to collections, apologize a bunch, and do nothing to correct the record with CBE.
One more point. Without exception every Verizon rep that I've spoken with has been both polite and apologetic. From what I can tell the problem is not the staff but rather the company structure itself. They don't give their employees enough authority to fix problems and instead create byzantine processes to try to wear everyone down. I'm fortunate that I can afford to fight this. I can't image how horrific this would be for someone who couldn't easily take time off work to spend a day on the phone.
Hello, jsloan2. We want to ensure you receive the help you need to resolve this issue. We are sending you a Private Note to assist you further.
*Cassie
Another day, another Verizon rep contacts me just to say that Verizon made a mistake, but is unwilling to contact CBE themselves and fix this.
Letter of Validation sent to CBE. What fun it is to spend my time going to the post office on a Saturday to mail a certified letter with return receipt requested! For those following along, I found quite a few sample letters online, but this seemed to be the best: http://usacreditlawyer.com/debt-collection/rights/Sample-Debt-Validation-Letter.pdf.
The more I think about it, I think that worst part of this ordeal is that Verizon sold my supposed debt to CBE knowing that they were mistaken. On September 12 they started crediting the ZOMBIE account, but failed to complete the additional credits. While I'm waiting on CBE's response it seems prudent to file complaints with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission, the FCC, and my State's Attorney General.
Has anyone filed these kinds of complaints before? My AG has a simple web form so that'll probably be where I start.
Since my last post I've received several private messages from Verizon. One rep said that Verizon can't do anything and that I should call CBE, the other gave me the number for the Verizon collections and recovery department that I've already contact.
I completed my complaint filing with my state's Attorney General's office. I'll probably call Verizon tomorrow to confirm that the "debt" on Verizon's side is down to $0 as Verizon promised it would be on the 18th.
jsloan2, protecting your credit is important. We apologize for this experience and everything you had to do to work toward a resolution. We would like the opportunity to check into options for a resolution through Verizon. A Private Note has been sent to you, so we can gather more details about the account.
-David
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