Who I have the same questioned this topic

I tried sending a copy of the complaint I filed today at the FCC, but the Verizon Wireless Customer Service bot told me I couldn't send emails to Customer Service. So, I decided to post it here.

Dear FCC Consumer Complaint Center,

I have been a Verizon Wireless customer for years. Late last week, I received a voicemail telling me that Verizon’s Fraud Protection wanted to speak with me, and left me the callback number, 888-483-7200.

Aware of some of the many scams requesting a callback, I did a Google search for the number. The first result was a website, 800notes.com, which allows people to post comments about toll-free calls they’ve received. The first commenters said:

• Says they are the fraud department of Verizon and the ONLY way they can help you is if you give them your full social security number!  
• Keeps calling every hour claiming his name is Michael (no last name) and from Verizon Fraud a Department.  Claims he needs my full social security number to find out if someone stole my information.  I do not have A Verizon Wireless account!

I was satisfied that I should not call back. Even if it were actually Verizon, they would call again. I was wrong. Instead, sometime on Memorial Day, May 27, 2019, Verizon Wireless disabled both my phone and my wife’s.

This was awful timing: as it happened, our town was under a tornado warning last night, during which time our power went out. We had no internet, no TV or radio, and no phone service. With all our technology, we couldn’t monitor the status of the tornado warning. It was an unfortunate coincidence, but it was a real public safety issue. My phone account being blocked put my wife and me at risk. She ran to a neighbor’s home in the pouring rain to ask if they could call the power company on our behalf.

I can’t fault Verizon for blocking accounts when necessary, but I believe their notification system, in a word, stinks. Here are several reasons that I believe Verizon’s system is lacking and needs to be revised:

• I receive monthly text messages from Verizon telling me my account has been paid. Why not a text telling me to contact customer service, or to go online to my account and see an important message?
• The number in the voicemail message (888-483-7200) is not even on Verizon’s webpage. When I visit Verizon’s customer service page (https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/contact-us/) there are five different numbers on the page, none of which match the number I was told to call. As an informed consumer, I feel I was right to be skeptical.
• My wife attempted to rectify the situation by visiting the local Verizon brick-and-mortar store this morning. She could provide them with any authentication information they wanted and know that these were, in fact, Verizon representatives, which is not possible when speaking to someone who has left you a number to call. Yet they were unable to resolve the problem: it could only be solved by some disembodied voice from a remote location.

All told, my wife spent nearly two hours in the local Verizon store, and I was on the telephone with three different Verizon departments: CORe (their term, not mine), customer care, and the fraud department, for a total of 44 minutes. I emailed my social security number to the CORe address given to me by one of the people and the account was finally unlocked. I didn’t like the idea, but they gave me little choice.

I applaud Verizon’s desire to prevent fraud, but I don’t think they’re being very customer centric. If they think about it from our perspective, why should we provide any information to anyone who calls us? Even if a number matches one on a company’s website, I understand spoofing and realize that the number displayed on my phone might not to be one originating the call. Yet when they call, they ask us to verify our identity, while it should be us telling them to verify. Wouldn’t it make more sense for someone to call us and tell us to call a number published on Verizon’s website or log into our account? Encouraging customers to provide any personal information to anyone when the customer did not initiate the call will only increase the amount of confusion in this era of identity theft.

I suggest a reexamination of policy is needed. Thanks for listening.