I was hotlined for no reason, it's been over 3 months, over 10 phone calls, and my account still has a "hotlined" indicator on it

Question

This feedback includes more of my overall history, however I felt the need to share this recent experience of being hotlined, when it wasn't even my fault, the company admitted it, said they would take the "hotlined" indicator off of my account, and have failed to do so after several escalations:
I am sure my experience lately is nothing unlike anyone else’s experience. For the most part my experience with Verizon has been a bit of a roller coaster to say the least. When I first started my service almost five years ago, I ended up losing a phone number I’d had for about five years due to a technical mistake they made during the contract process and having to witch phones about four times. From there, I had billing trouble every month for the next 18 months. I had to call in for some kind of adjustment just about every month until I was due for an upgrade in December 2011. I upgraded to the Motorola Droid Razor, a choice I have regretted ever since.
So for the next 18 months I had well over 24 replacement phones for the Razor, until about August of 2013. I was offered by Verizon (via Motorola) to “upgrade” to the Razor M. It was a newer phone, only a bit smaller than the original Razor. I didn’t know it had 50% less internal memory than the original Razor, so I asked Verizon to send me the Razor in place of the Razor M, so that I could at least used the phone as I had intended. Not even a few days after I got the replacement Razor, it fell off my bed (less than 3 feet off the ground) and the screen shattered. Since I had not yet sent back the Razor M, I just re-activated it and called Verizon to let them know.
Okay, now let’s back track to October 2013. I had to replace another phone on my plan, a Motorola Droid Bionic, and we had ordered a new S.D. card for it. We got the replacement phone and S.D. card, I found out that the S.D. card was a kit that came with a card reader to plug into my computer, however it was also about $55. I sent the S.D. card back and the broken Bionic, and of course tracked both boxes. Verizon received both boxes within a few days, but only inventoried the phone. It took them almost 5 weeks to inventory the S.D. card. I had them charge the S.D. card to my bill, but since I had sent it back, I paid the bill less that amount, about $55.
So I had communicated with the financial services department about waiting for the $55 credit, in the event there was some kind of an issue. Even though I had talked to them right before the lines were all suspended, it was still suspended, and no one could explain why. I have called in since November 11, 2013 and I have talked to several people:
November 29, 2013 – Joanne
December 3rd 2013 – Ashley
December 4th 2013 – Melanie
December 6th 2013 – Maria
January 24th 2014 – Michael
February 7th 2014 – Elizabeth
February 8th 2014 – Amanda
Since then I have talked to another few more people, all of whom have submitted an escalation to a manager to approve the suspension to be removed from my account. We have all heard the term “hotlined”, which is like a big ugly mark on a customer’s credit and it takes 6 months of on time payments to get it removed. However in my case, it wasn’t even my fault, the company admitted that they messed up and interrupted my service and although they promised over 7 times to get the account fixed, they have still not done it. I still paid the November and December 2013 bill, and the January and February 2014 bill in good faith. Although I have had a number of bills roll over from one month to the next during my 5 year term with Verizon, I have never been in a position where the lines were interrupted due to an error of my own.My service does work, and was turned on right away when I called on November 11th to find out why it wasn't working, that is how I found out about the hotline, talked to a manager and they said that due to it being Verizon's mistake, the hotline indicator should be removed by December 1st, it was not and still is not.
I have never asked for the company to reverse the mark on my account until now. How is it that Verizon and other companies like them can hold the threat of an early termination fee over the customer’s head, so that if the customer makes a mistake they are in fear of doing it again for fear of being interrupted or disconnected? However the phone companies aren’t held to a similar standard? If the wireless phone companies (whether holding a contract with a customer or not) are not held to a level of responsibility when they make a mistake, then why should the customer?
So it has been over 3 months since my account was hotlined and the mistake was made. I have continued to make my payment and even kept my service with them, despite the fact that my contract is over. Because of the hotline I cannot use the edge program to get a new phone and I cannot bill anything to my account until the hotline is removed. As I understand all it takes is a manager to sign off on some document and the hotline indicator is removed. If that is the case, why has it taken over 3 months, and over 8 phone calls and nothing has happened? I just talked to a representative this last weekend in the loyalty department and I have given the company an ultimatum – either get the mark off by the next bill, coming out March 2nd 2014, or I am done with the service.
I would rather have to purchase a phone outright from another company, and get on a prepaid plan than to bend to accepting the responsibility of the hotline on my service when it wasn’t my fault. I also cannot stand having to switch companies, but in a case like this, I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t.

Answer 1

Well the term "hotlined" I have never heard before. In any case many states (like NY) just passed regulatory powers to the State Public Service Commission of which it may be called something different in your state. You could file a complaint with them. Or file a complaint with your state attorney generals office, they also take on wireless providers.
The problem here is the staff you speak to are poorly trained, in days gone by it took one call to them and they pulled up your account and see the error and had the authority to remove any errors. They did not remove legitimate account actions, but used their heads instead of putting a customer off or worse lying to the customer.
Its a shame you have to go through what you going through.
Good Luck