$186 for One Blackberry . . . I just don't get the pricing and can't get a good explanation

Question

I've had two phones, a Blackberry (1400 mins, 250 mess., 2GB data) and a cheap Samsung (1400 mins, 250 messages). Last month I paid $130 for both of them, $115 for the Blackberry and $15 for the Samsung.
This month, I asked Verizon to drop the Samsung because it's just not used. My new bill amount is $185.82!!! Wow. I thought I was a reasonably capable person, but I don't get this math by Verizon. I paid $115 for the Blackberry last month and this month I'll pay $186. Was there a penalty for dropping the Samsung add-on phone?
This is way too pricey for me. As mentioned, maybe AT&T looks a ton more attractive now.

Answer 1

WinningPitch wrote:
I just got off the telephone with customer service. There doesn't seem to be much hope of getting a viable answer. All customer service does is read you the bill. I can do that. I can see it too. That's not "service". I'd like to have some analysis or reasoning applied. My 10 year-old son can read the bill to me.
The ETF isn't an issue in my case. BTW, there was a $35 activation fee charged on my initial $130 bill that isn't included on this $186 bill. This would indicate a new line, but you said that there was no ETF. Did you activate a phone you already had to put on the new line?
They did up the minutes. I don't know how they did that. I'd originally chosen 900 minutes. You had originally chosen 900 minutes for a Family Plan? The reason Verizon changed it is because 900 minutes is not available for a Family Plan. You have 700, 1400, 2000 and unlimited minutes available for Family Plans.
Verizon increased it to 1400. That is part of the difference. However, that's not a change I would have made. This is a change that HAD to be made when you switched to a Family Plan. When you dropped the Family Plan and changed to an Individual Plan, you would have had to choose  from 450, 900 and unlimited minutes.
I'm still one person who doesn't use the phone much. I'm not going to up my minutes - I'll use the phone the same amount this month as last. After 50+ years, my phone usage has become fairly stable.
Anyway, thanks for the help people, but it doesn't seem Verizon CS can do much more than read "accurate" charges to me
The guy got pretty snotty when I mentioned AT&T - lost his composure completely.
It seems that you are leaving out parts of the story, which makes it even harder to help you. What you need to do is sign into My Verizon, print out your itemized bill, and it will tell you EXACTLY what the additional charges are. It sounds as if you, CS and your 10 year-old son are NOT reading the itemized bill. Otherwise, you would know WHAT the additional charges were.