Bogus Account Changes And Charges + Lack of Support

Question

This is a formal dispute of my charges per your agreement, although you have done away with any means to email you as stated in said agreement.  Your customer service is not willing to assist me with this.  You have made unauthorized changes to my account, you have for months charged erroneously to my account per these unauthorized changes, you recommended an incorrigible phone, your web site is notoriously difficult for users, and your customer support is aggravatingly difficult to get in touch with.   At one point some companies grow too big and begin to ignore their customers.  Has Verizon reached that nexus?
1.  Since my bill dated 5/24 - 6/23, 2013 you have erroneously charged for texting on the phone ending in 1675.  You turned on text messaging on this phone without my authorization.  I made it very clear in my discussion with your rep. on 6/10/13 that this phone was NOT to have text messaging.  That rep. blocked "Premium Messaging" which I am now told does not allow to block other text messaging.  To the user a text is a text is a text.  It doesn't matter what you want to call it.  I said at that time NO text messaging on that phone period!  The user of that phone was not aware that I did not authorize it and thought it was a normal course as most users now have and use texting.  NOT on that phone.  I made that clear to Verizon.
Bill 5/24/13 - 6/23/13     $00.40
Bill 6/24/13 - 7/23/13     $36.45
Bill 7/24/13 - 8/23/13     $45.80
Bill 8/24/13 - 9/23/13     $35.15
Bill 9/24/13 - 10/23/13   $Unknown as bill not submitted at the time of this posting.
Plus additional fees, surcharges, taxes and other charges.
                      Total at least $117.80 plus most recent bill charges plus surcharges, fees, taxes, and other charges related.
2.  Since my bill dated 2/24 - 3/23, 2013 you have erroneously downloaded applications for mobile email and college pix to the phone ending in 4010.  On Jun 10, 2013 I talked to that same rep. about this and was told that it was taken care of in that it was turned off and the charges would be refunded.  It was not!  The apps are still there.  This user absolutely DOES NOT go to the internet on this phone.  There should be NO data charges, and NO app downloads, and no relationship to the internet whatsoever.  For that matter neither does the phone ending in 0016 and I explained that at the time also.  THESE ARE PHONES ONLY.  We have computers for the internet.  Your service support supervisor on 10/10/13 suggested that the user of this phone has downloaded them and I will tell you that is false.  More about this phone in number three below.
Bill 2/24/13 - 3/23/13     Data: $1.99     College Pix App: $4.99
Bill 3/24/13 - 4/23/13     Data: $1.99     College Pix App: $4.99
Bill 4/24/13 - 5/23/13     Data: $1.99     College Pix App: $4.99
Bill 5/24/13 - 6/23/13     Data: $11.94   College Pix App: $4.99   
Bill 6/24/13 - 7/23/13     Data: $1.99     College Pix App: $4.99     Mobile Email App: $5.00
Bill 7/24/13 - 8/23/13                               College Pix App: $4.99     Mobile Email App: $5.00
Bill 8/24/13 - 9/24/13     Data: $1.99     College Pix App: $4.99     Mobile Email App: $5.00
Bill 9/24/13 - 10/23/13   $Unknown as bill not submitted at the time of this posting.
Plus additional fees, surcharges, taxes and other charges.
                    Total at least $$71.82 plus most recent bill charges plus surcharges, fees, taxes, and other charges related.
Additional charges: Billable hours are $48.68 per hour at 2.83 hours is $138.27 for one hour on the phone with customer rep. and supervisor 10/10/13 and one hour and 50 minutes searching agreement record and submitting this message.
Total estimate to date:  $327.89
3. This "Pantech Jest" is a piece of junk phone.  Your rep. suggested it for this user.  She has had nothing but difficulty in attempting to answer this phone nearly from the start.  We call her and and she either cannot hear or cannot answer (the button just does not work).  I doubted her until I tried it.  The store blew her off.   I have witnessed this phone arbitrarily dialing from in her purse.  Could this phone also then be activating the internet?  I would bet on that.  I was not told on 6/10/13 by your rep. that we would have to remove the apps from her phone.  The very same apps that she didn't download in the first place. Neither did the rep. whom I spoke with on 10/10/13 say so.  It was the supervisor I spoke with on 10/10/13 who finally told me that I would have to remove them to fix your error.
4.  Your website is extremely difficult to navigate.  I am returning to paper billing and will conduct business outside of your website.  For example, the supervisor I spoke to on 10/10/13 told me that I could find the documents that she swore were sent to me by "snail" mail.  I went to where she told me and got a nonsensical "archive" site called "Page Freezer" that seemed more like a communication news web site than a storage place for documents.  It took me a good while to locate the agreements to which she referred.  By the way, just as I told that supervisor, I have not received ANY snail mail from Verizon whatsoever since I went paperless online.
Your agreement text:
"If you are a Postpay customer, you can dispute your bill within 180 days of receiving it, but unless otherwise provided by law or unless you're disputing charges because your wireless device is lost or stolen, you still have to pay all charges until the dispute is resolved.  If you're a Prepaid customer, you can dispute a charge within 180 days of the date the disputed charge was incurred.  YOU MAY CALL US TO DISPUTE CHARGES ON YOUR BILL OR ANY SERVICE(S) FOR WHICH YOU WERE BILLED, BUT IF YOU WISH TO PRESERVE YOUR RIGHT TO BRING AN ARBITRATION OR SMALL CLAIMS CASE REGARDING SUCH DISPUTE,  YOU MUST WRITE TO US AT THE CUSTOMER SERVICE ADDRESS ON YOUR BILL, SEND AN EMAIL THROUGH THE "CONTACT US" LINK ON VERISONWIRELESS.COM, OR SEND US A COMPLETED NOTICE OF DISPUTE FORM (AVAILABLE AT VERIZONWIRELESS.COM), WITHIN THE 180-DAY PERIOD MENTIONED ABOVE.  IF YOU DO NOT NOTIFY US IN WRITING OF SUCH DISPUTE WITHIN THE 180-DAY PERIOD, YOU WILL HAVE WAIVED YOUR RIGHT TO DISPUTE THE BILL OR SUCH SERVICE(S) AND TO BRING AN ARBITRATION OR SMALL CLAIMS CASE REGARDING ANY SUCH DISPUTE."
Are you going to make my account whole or do we need to go down the this other road?  Why wouldn't you want to work with a long time customer?
Private info removed as required by the Terms of Service.
Message was edited by: Admin Moderator

Answer 1

    Having unknown charges can be frustrating ONETIMEONLY. I'm sorry you were charged for functions and features that you requested to be turned off or blocked. We can definitely take a look at the bill,  notations, and individual phone features. I would love to help a long time customer figure this out and make things right again. To discuss features, billing, notifications, and charges we will need to speak with you. Please send a private message with your name and mobile number. We do our best to provide customers with multiple ways to contact us.  You can chat with us, use Twitter @vzwsupport, Facebook, call at 1-800-922-0204 or *611, and visit us at a store location. I'm also sorry you find it difficult to talk with us and to navigate our website. We are constantly updating the site to make it easier for our customers and would love to walk you through any steps to locate information you need on my-verizon http://bit.ly/xB4iTc . Additionally, I love the Pantech Jest and I'm sad to hear you are having issues with it. We do our best to suggest the best phone for our customers but it is ultimately up to you as the consumer to purchase what you think is best. If the phone is having calling and functionality issues, we can trouble-shoot to help get them resolved. If the phone is dialing randomly, I recommend locking it. If the button is not working, we may need to discuss replacing the phone. Is the device damaged? We also can not download apps to a  phone. The user of the device can only download apps to a phone and if there are unauthorized apps its because they put them on the phone. Yes, you will need to remove apps from a phone so they are not used. I know this is difficult and  you have spoken to other reps who were trying to help you but I want to let you know that you are a priority to us and if cost is important to you, its important to us. Any amount of money that is charged erroneously is not ok with us and should be reviewed. I look forward to hearing from you so that we can get you back to the happy side of Verizon.
KinquanaH_VZW
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