Unreturned Equipment Charge - for returned wireless router

[myhilmi]

Verizon charged me 77.00 for a burned out router that I returned.  Old one stopped working (after a lightning/rain), and after several complains they sent me a new one.  I returned the old one in the same box with the lable. And now I noticed I was charged. This was few months ago and I just noticed the bill.

This happened to me before with a TV Box and it went to the collector and my credit scores got screwed up. Although verizon agreed that they may have made a mitake they would not put it in writing as the account was "closed", even though  I had continued with verizon in a new address. . What a scam.

I see several people have the same scam by Verizon.  

Any ideas? Suggestions?

[ElizabethS]

Sorry you are having difficulty, an agent with access to your account will reach out to you directly by email, private message in the Forums and/or the billing telephone number on your Verizon account for more information to help you resolve your issue.Please remember to check your spam/junk folder if you do not hear from an agent.

[myhilmi]

Still waiting - for the agent. Why cant they just email so avoid phone tag?

This is for teh community?  Has anyone resolved issues similar to this previously?  In the recent and previous problems with equipment, I probably spent more than 50 hours of my time, they screwed my credit therefore increasing my interest rates (costing thousands of dollars), stress, annoyance, and more and more,...

Thanks

[smith6612]

Did you note the tracking number on the prepaid label before shipping the old gateway out? Those are great ammunition to getting these sort of issues resolved faster. Often if you have that information off the label, you can give that to Verizon so they can double check on the back end.

[LarryA3]

Old one stopped working (after a lightning/rain), ... 

Don't know why the router or modem would not be protected by a surge protector..laptops have converters from ac to dc ..... I guess that resolves those issues.All my other appliances such as tv and receiver are connected to surge protectors..!!

[sawdust4]

Here's the deal...

I'm in the same boat.  I returned a modem a month or so ago.  This evening I opened the Verizon bill and saw a charge for unreturned equipment.  I'm **bleep**, but more at myself because I should have done everything to protect me.  This billion dollar company is not going to give the little guy a break.

In reading these forums, it's clear that Verizon uses a 3rd party company to collect their returned equipment.  So perhaps the equipment that you sent in was actually received but the 3rd party decided to keep it for themselves and not report it to Verizon.  So Verizon really thinks you never received it.  There are no checks or balances to the 3rd party and if they take the equipment, so be it.  Verizon gets to kick the little guy again and collect money.    If you have proof, Verizon simply says "sorry" and credits your account.  They hope no one catches the charge on the bill and didn't keep detailed records about sending the equipment.  Just imagine how many people this is happening to daily and how much cash Verizon and the 3rd party are making illegally.  It's insane money.

The issue is if Verizon was a stand up company they would provide clear instructions on what you need to do and they would have a better system on receiving returned equipment.  There is no incentive for them to do that.  I followed the directions exactly when I returned my modem.  The instructions never said that I needed to document the label number.  Who thinks of that unless you've been burned before? 

So Verizon has my modem (or the 3rd party collection company) and Verizon will get the money they decided to bill me for it.  A phone call to them only gets a "sorry but if you don't have a tracking number, we can't help you".  So unless you can get someone from Verizon to actually look into it for you, I'd say your out of luck.  Best of luck to you.

[ElizabethS]

Hello sawdust

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 look in the middle, right at the top where you will find an area titled "My Support Cases". You can reach your profile page by clicking on your name beside your post, or at the top left of this page underneath the title of the board.

Under “My Support Cases” you will find a link to the private board where you and the agent may exchange information. 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, at the top of your support case there is a drop down menu for support case options. Open that and choose "subscribe".

Please keep all correspondence regarding your issue in the private support portal.