Is this any way to treat a GOOD customer???

Question

I have been a Verizon Wireless customer since 1998. I have paid every bill on time, without question, every month, all these years. On August 2, 2013 I received a phone call advising that my payment for your invoice was “reversed” because it was “illegible for image clearance” and that the “routing number was invalid”. The party who called me had no information as to what check number was involved, what routing number was on the check nor did she have any information whatsoever to give me other than payment was “past due” and that my cellular service would be cut off if I did not make immediate payment arrangements. I told her that I was on vacation and that I would attend to the matter upon my return. At approximately 8AM this morning, I phoned the Verizon Wireless call center to clarify exactly what the problem was. The party I spoke with was unable to give me any details other than in order to avoid service disruption, payment was due immediately. I asked if the bank had refused to clear the check; once again I was told that she did not have that information. I subsequently went to my bank and was told that my check was never presented to the bank for payment! The invoice was paid on time, certainly before the due date of July 2, 2013, and yet it took over 30 days for me to be notified that the payment was unacceptable!! And then, to be threatened that my service would be interrupted…… this is no way to do business in the interest of fairness.
  I demand to know EXACTLY why the payment was not accepted: 1. So that if there was a mistake made, it will not happen again and 2. I strongly believe that, as a Verizon Wireless customer, I am entitled to know, in detail, why my payment was refused. Please be so kind as to respond to this inquiry in the interest of fair play!
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Message was edited by: Admin Moderator

Answer 1

Darryl61 wrote:
I have been a Verizon Wireless customer since 1998. I have paid every bill on time, without question, every month, all these years. On August 2, 2013 I received a phone call advising that my payment for your invoice was “reversed” because it was “illegible for image clearance” and that the “routing number was invalid”.
I assume you had mailed the check to Verizon. If this is the case, it would "appear", to me at least, by the statements included as explanation why your payment was "reversed" that the check was most likely damaged in the mail. As a result the routing number on the check was unreadable and therefore Verizon was unable to even present it to your bank because without the routing number there is no way of knowing which bank it should be presented.
This would explain why your bank has no record of having the check presented for payment.
As it took almost a month for Verizon to acknowledge that the payment was reversed, having the check "damaged" in the mail seems all the more likely as then the check would be singled out for hand sorting rather than automatic sorting which would delay the check in being delivered to Verizon.
That is how I would translate this message.