Contract Breach: Twice!
Minerva2
Newbie

Verizon Fios Contract Follies

11/2014 to 2/28/2017

Verizon not honoring quoted, billed, paid fios contracts 2014-2016 and 2015-2017. Little success with phoned complaints. Much time wasted. No resolution so far. Verizon now owes us $900+

We are posting on this board as a last resort after experiencing 2 Verizon Fios contract breaches in a row. Here are the details.

On 11/19/2014 we responded to a Fios triple-play offer of $159.99/mo. (plus taxes, etc.) with a 2-year price guarantee. We were current subscribers; this offer came by mail and by email. Our agent was Tiffany, and we spoke by phone. We have copies of the offer, and copies of the email confirming the transaction. The total we were to be charged after negotiations including tax and fees was $166.36, to be automatically charged to our credit card every month.

In December 2014, we were charged $195.92. We called and talked to Stephanie. She said she would work on refunding us.

In January 2015, we were charged $166.36. Correct. But we were still owed $30 from December.

In February 2015, we were charged $197.86. Now we were owed $60.

In March 2015, we were charged $196.06. Now we were owed $90.

In March 2015, we succeeded in reaching a supervisor, Mr. Torres. He immediately took the following action: He charged us $136.39 for April instead of the contracted $166.36, correcting the March 2015 overcharge. He then refunded separately February 2015 and December 2014. We were even.

He then told us he was "escalating our ticket," and that this is how our 2 years' contract would be handled from now on: that we would overpay each month, and that Verizon would refund us each month. The reason for this was that he could issue refunds but he could not "change" a contract. We reminded him we were not asking for a contract change, but for Verizon to simply honor the contract they had negotiated with us in November 2014 and charge us the correct amount every month. He stated that he could not handle the issue that way. (All of these overcharges, along with Mr. Torres's refunds up to April 2015, are part of our Verizon customer profile.)

After this call, and after seeing the refunds in our profile, we believed the immediate problem of overpayment, at least, was solved. We were working in Europe during this period, but once we got back discovered that from May 2015 through October 2015, contrary to what Mr. Torres said he had arranged, we were again overcharged by the $30 or so each month, for a grand total of $180.

We called again, but alas, could not find a Mr. Torres. Or Stephanie, or Tiffany. No one knew who these people were.  So down by $180, and with no time or appetite for further phone calls begging for our contract to be honored, we decided we would solve the issue once and for all by signing up for a new contract. What could go wrong? So on 10/22/2015 we signed up for a new Verizon triple play 2-year deal at $159.99 total--this time online. Our agent was Mike. We have a transcript of our web chat with Mike and an order number.

Imagine our surprise to see our November 2015 bill for $228.18. Incredible. We called to get it corrected and were told by an agent that he would look into it. Long story short, between repeated calls and another work assignment overseas, the previous year repeated itself, but to the tune of about $68 every month for the entire year. That's right: $68 x 12 = $816 in overpayments.

When November 2016 rolled around, we took no action on a new "contract." After all, we should still be covered by the $159.99 2-year "contract" we accepted from Mike in October 2015, right? We have since continued as subscribers, having no other good choice in our location, and are now paying just over $235/mo. Our credit card records show we are now owed around $900 based on our two quoted Verizon contracts, the second of which does not expire until November 2017. Our online Verizon profile continues to tell us that our contract expired in 2014.

In hindsight it is painfully clear we should have been working with our credit card company from the beginning to help us dispute these overcharges, but the idea that Verizon would actually not honor our contracts was beyond us. We believed every agent who said they were "working on it." Call us naive. The last time we called Verizon about this, February 16, 2017, we asked to speak directly to a supervisor about overcharges on our last two contracts. The agent, Keon, responded that we were in luck--he himself was a billing specialist! Excellent! We explained the problem again and he responded that there is nothing to be done about "past overcharges," but that he could chop $30 off our current rate. (Hmmm, how about $30 a month off AND you refund us $900?) After asking again for a supervisor, we were put on hold for 20 minutes and then told that supervisors were in a meeting and would call right back. So far, no call.

For two years, then, and through 2 different "contracts," a network of cheerful but uninformed and powerless agents has very effectively blocked our access to any actual remedy for these contract overpayments. This setup must be good for Verizon's bottom line, especially when they can get away with this level of overcharging for already negotiated services, and for so long. We are out $900+ and growing. Isn't there someone inside Verizon who can solve this clear-cut, well documented problem?

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Re: Contract Breach: Twice!
LawrenceC
Moderator Emeritus

Hi Minerva,

Your issue has been escalated to a Verizon agent. Before the agent can begin assisting you, they will need to collect further information from you. Please go to your profile page for the forum and scroll down the page to an area titled "My Support Cases". You can reach your profile page by clicking on your name located above your post, or at the top right of this page.

Under "My Support Cases" you will find a link to the private board where you and the agent may exchange information. The title of your post is the link. This should be checked on a frequent basis, as the agent may be waiting for information from you before they can proceed with any actions. To ensure you know when they have responded to you, you may subscribe to the case. At the top right of your support case there is a gear icon which provides a drop down menu with support case options. Click that and choose "subscribe". Please keep all correspondence regarding your issue in the private support portal.

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