My husband travelled to his home country of Niger in December. Before leaving he called Verizon to ask about international roaming. He was told to buy a $25/month plan for 100MB of data roaming. Our billing cycle ended December 25th.
He sent some pictures through his phone while in Niger but they did not send and he therefore tried to pull them out of his outbox. To no avail. The pics were still sent. He came home to messages from Verizon that he had incurred over $500 in overage charges. We called Verizon and were told that he had been covered by the plan until December 25th but the charges came in on December 28th because of a "delay" in when charges are reported from abroad. We were told we could extend the data plan for another month for $25 and that would wipe out the charges.
Tried to call Verizon about something else and am routed to financial services where they demand to be paid the overage charges. When I explained the situation I was first told that because the charges were on the next billing cycle we couldn't do anything about them until January 25th. Second time I called they told me that the 100MB plan isn't valid in Niger so we were charged $20.89 per MB. And there's nothing they can do.
They are wrong. Here's what I'm going to do:
--put this query out on every forum possible to gather other folks who have had the same issue (it appears there are quite a few of us) and have everyone complain to the FCC and BBB and explore the possibility of a class action lawsuit
--officially dispute the charges and take Verizon to small claims court if they refuse to deal with it
--move my entire family to Credo Mobile which means that Verizon will lose a longtime customer and thousands of dollars of business.
Let me know if you've experienced something similar. I have no tolerance for corporate bullying and that's what's happening here.
http://ridgefield.patch.com/groups/opinion/p/us-supreme-court-limits-class-action-lawsuits
No class actions are allowed.
The international plan although highly overpriced for the little it gives does have certain limitations. It was up to your husband to research if the plan covered the country he was going to. That was not Verizon's fault. But he should have asked questions before he accepted the plan.
Under those circumstances the charges would have been billed correctly, Am I correct?
The small claims court will ask the same questions. But good luck with the filing.
T-Mobile has unlimited data and texts in over 100 countries and each minute you call is only .20 cents.
You have choices just use them.
Good Luck
I actually had the same thing happen to me, however when I called they were very deceptive about the charges and said they had no control over how much I was billed and that it was the foreign country that was billing me....very very deceptive, and a sneaky business practice if you ask me, blaming a foreign country's service.
Beware Vodafone Netherlands
Other scams - just got back from Europe. Verizon connections in the Netherlands are though Vodafone. Except, the Vodafone connection does not show up on my HTC Verizon phone as Roaming - so, setting the phone to deny data roaming does not function. As a result, various apps just do their thing and end up passing data, which Vodafone promptly bills at $20 a Mb.
The only way to stop the scam is to disable the entire mobile network on the phone.
Extended discussions with Verizon reps resulted in no solution (disallow the charges) and no indications they would fix the problem. Either the phone is not roaming (so no roaming charges) or it's a problem with their systems and so should not result in charges.
Call it what it is - billing fraud.
Care to update? I'm curious how this worked out. I hope you pursued all available remedies. (removed) You identified the issue before you went, you contacted Verizon to work it out before you went, and you relied on their representations. Only problem is that due to their incompetence and inability to give you accurate information, you got hit. Ridiculous. Recently had a Verizon sales person give me the wrong information, and I got hit with more in fees than promised.
Good luck.
Message was edited by: Admin Moderator
Elector, maybe you can tell me where I made a mistake or what I failed to do. A month ago I was near the border with Mexico and used my pc card looking up google maps, next day had an email about international roaming charges, called customer service and the lady removed the charge and said if there's any more like it to call. A few days ago I was near the border again and in VZW access manager found a "do not allow roaming using wwan connection" and I check marked the box. When I connected the available networks had 1 choice and was VERIZON WIRELESS NETWORK, no other listed or available, so connected to Google maps and after 10 minutes started receiving text msgs on my cell phone and emails on my Verizon connected laptop stating my international roaming charges exceeded $50.00, so I pulled the card immediately and called customer service, the ladt looked at the records and thought it was a tech issue since I checked do not allow roaming. The tech person, after a long explanation of what I had experienced offered to add intl roaming for $25 but I tolkd her that I don't take the laptop out of the country ever and she said that adding the intl roaming would bring the charge down to $25 and at the end of the billing cycle would remove the service and cancel the balance of the roaming charge so I would owe $0. I said I would not authorize any added services as I had relied on a verbal explanation of charges before and got taken, won't go into that now, and I wouldn't authorize that even if in writing in front of me and asked why go through all that and not just cancel the charges now, she only proceeded to repeat all the of the particulars I had just told her, I asked to be transferred back to the original service rep or to the next tier of tech support, she would do neither and kept insisting that I add the intl roaming plan and the scheme she had for canceling the charges, after 45 minutes on the phone I finally hung up. Now if I have roaming tuned off in the access manager but it doesn't turn it off is that negligent of me? And if the available networks show VERIZON WIRELESS as the only available network and I connect but I am charged for another network access, am I negligent for that also? I'd like to hear a rational explanation that doesn't look like Verizon towers close to the border somehow programed to bill Verizon customers that are not local residents $50 for 10 minutes use, and how do they offer service to the locals without this happening. And since the cell phones and pc cards use similar technology why doesn't my phone have the same problem?
I am not an expert on this. However I can see how a stronger tower takes over the service.
I noticed another post on the forum that a customer due to living near the Canadian Border was getting a similar situation. They stated they called Verizon and told them that they are in the USA and that they wanted Verizon to remove international use off their invoice due to the location they are to the border.
The poster stated Verizon looked at their address and determined it was ask am telling you.
This is an issue only calling in and having the engineer at Verizon verify. I would think if you turned off cellular and data roaming on the device it would not be a problem.
I would really get a support trouble ticket opened on your issue. And keep on them. Where I live once I get near Canada another service takes over. But my phone shows as Verizon and I have not got hit with huge roaming charges.
If Verizon won't help you I would file a complaint at http://www.BBB.org
Good Luck
Closing out my issue with Vodafone/Netherlands ... Verizon did the right thing. Extended discussions with customer service resulted in all the Vodafone related charges being refunded. The customer service rep was very pleasant to work with, though it took a while for the gears to grind through.
Verizon rep was unsure if their technical people were able/willing to follow through and find out why the Vodafone system does not give a roaming indication in the Netherlands. If not fixed, they'll likely see a lot more complaints.
For now, just a recommendation. If you don't want data roaming you should probably turn off all mobile network connectivity (can still select WiFi if you need to) while overseas.
We'll be staying with Verizon for cell phones. This was a head-scratcher but they worked through it with me.
I am currently stuck in France with NO GOOD WAY TO REACH ANYONE AT VERIZON. My husband and I both signed up for Global Data plans, and neither were activated! We didn't understand that this was happening, and i am sure we will incur roaming charges because of it. Verizon flat-out dropped the ball. It has caused us hours of time on the computer and our phones, trying to figure this out. I am sorely disappointed, because I must have spent an hour working this out before we even left the country, only to have it not function. We worked with someone named David [Removed] in the North Hills Verizon store in Raleigh, NC. Nice guy but his company is not backing him up.
International Support - Verizon Wireless
Follow the directions and call Verizon toll free from your location.
Good Luck
Start a new topic or ask questions in the open forum.
