iPhone 5 - Data Overages and Poor Customer Service by Verizon

[GAborn]

Well, as someone who has been dealing with this since I activated my daughter's iPhone 5 in November 2012, I am beyond upset with Verizon. I feel I have been ripped off by a company that I have been a customer of for 10+ years. I have called repeatedly EVERY month from Nov.2012 - July 2013 and NO ONE wants to address the issues. Instead, they blame Apple, they blame the User and more or less treat you like you are a liar or naive. I am
none of that, esp. since my Job is a fraud investigator. I feel like I was extorted by Verizon to pay for the overages for the ONE phone that was gobbling up data month after month. My daughter had a smartphone prior to getting this, so no, her habits didn't change overnight in using it. When she is at home, she is on Wifi. We never used, with 4 phones, probably over 2 GB in any month prior to getting this phone. I upgraded to a Razor Max in December 2012 and added an iPad Mini then as well and I only use 1 - 1.5 GB a month on these devices. I am OFF Wifi most of the day while I am at work or when I am on the road for work. My daughter goes to school (phone mostly off), Dance class, and home. From November 2012 - April 2013, her iPhone 5 supposedly used on average 10 GB of data per month. This is without streaming video, downloading movies or anything excessive. Basically, she doesn't even know how to do this...the main purpose of her phone is Text, @ 4000 a month, no joke! and for Facebook. In May 2013,
the phone supposedly used over 20 GB of data. For part of that month, she was out of school and at home on Wifi. Over the course of this time, I have had waaaay too many times where I was never contacted back as promised by Verizon CSR and Tech ppl. I had the phone replaced in January 2013 and there was no change. I took all her apps off at one point and have had the cellular data turned off for months. The only time I turn it on is for experiments via Verizon techs, etc. I took off her email as well and basically had an Expensive paperweight with no ability to use the phone as intended. I have heard it all...turn this off, take that off, reset the phone, your child must be lying about usage, etc....and of course the very best, SET DATA LIMITS - Yes, you like this because I HAVE TO PAY EXTRA FOR THAT! As of this month, I have a Verizon Tech person who, surprise, surprise, hasn't contacted me back since I sent her the email over a week ago that I got the SIM card (yeah, that is the next move before they have to replace the phone again and then I can move to a different type of phone) I offered to "step-down" to a 4S and no go as a 4G has to be replaced with another 4G phone. I can't even begin to describe the humiliation, blood pressure, time (each call is usually over an hour) and the piece de resistance...MY Birthday and vacation time spent on the phone, to eventual tears, to find out my last dispute had been resolved 4 days earlier with no call as promised or contact to tell me their decision so I owed over $1,000 and had to reconnect our phones and iPad (additional $15 per line). I feel an attorney the only next step for me, as Verizon has no interest in Customer Service, or Servicing the Products They Sell! I have a record of all my calls since November 2012 as well and there are extensive notes on my account. I do feel the iPhone 5 is defective, as from 7/3/13-7/15/13, after the reset and being at home on Wifi, the phone used .0635 GB, with all the added apps, Instagram, Snapchat, FB, Twitter, iHeart Radio, etc. I turned Data ON for an experiment on 7/16/13 from 8:30 am - 5:30 pm (text to daughter to turn off the data) while she was at home and also out and about, and it used .5830 GB. So, still only at .6503 GB used over 7 days. I then did another experiment, with Data OFF, I added her Gmail account, with NO PUSH....and on 7/17/13 while at home on wifi the entire day from 8:00 am - 10:00 pm, the phone used 1.6078 GB. I then deleted the account and guess what?...no more data usage. Funny how that seems to work...so it is a defect in the phone or operating system and they know Outlook and Yahoo emails had issues, yet it still may be USER ERROR. I am beyond disgusted with this company and their sneaky, unfair practices and
refusal to address the issues obviously lots of ppl have with the iPhone 5 and Data usage.  Again, guess it time for an attorney and new phone company. Wonder if my Fortune 500 company would like to move accounts as well?  Guess that call to IT can happen too!