My first bill is not what I was told

Question

My first bill was not $75 (as I had been led to believe) for monthly service but $77 plus $40 dollars for a variety of other extra charges. The $40 dollar charges were not explained and I could not get a real detail list of them on my first bill.   This is false advertising! I was told that I could get a discount for signing up for automatic billing, but I did not get a discount and I did not see the discount written anywhere on the web site either.  I was also told that I could get a discount for being elderly and disabled.  Neither of those claims were true either.  I am on a fixed income and can not afford extra expenses.  You sales staff, web site and process mislead and confuse customers purposefully.  I was not told that it would cost me $380 to get out of my two year commitment, but I found it in the fine print after I committed contractually.  So far my experience with Verizon wireless service has shown to be corrupt in the lack of informing customers of their real costs.  This is no way to run a business that needs to rely on reputation and word of mouth business. Your business is just another big corporation that is profiting from extreme greed without a care for their customers.  Whatever happened to truth in advertising? Then the worst of it is that I cannot get a contact person to talk to that is not a sales person.  It was one of their (several actually) sales staff that misled me to begin with. This note is the only forum I could find to complain.

Answer 1

Mschma wrote:
My first bill was not $75 (as I had been led to believe) for monthly service but $77 plus $40 dollars for a variety of other extra charges. The $40 dollar charges were not explained and I could not get a real detail list of them on my first bill.  This is false advertising! I was told that I could get a discount for signing up for automatic billing, but I did not get a discount and I did not see the discount written anywhere on the web site either.  I was also told that I could get a discount for being elderly and disabled.  Neither of those claims were true either.  I am on a fixed income and can not afford extra expenses.  You sales staff, web site and process mislead and confuse customers purposefully.  I was not told that it would cost me $380 to get out of my two year commitment, but I found it in the fine print after I committed contractually.  So far my experience with Verizon wireless service has shown to be corrupt in the lack of informing customers of their real costs.  This is no way to run a business that needs to rely on reputation and word of mouth business. Your business is just another big corporation that is profiting from extreme greed without a care for their customers.  Whatever happened to truth in advertising? Then the worst of it is that I cannot get a contact person to talk to that is not a sales person.  It was one of their (several actually) sales staff that misled me to begin with. This note is the only forum I could find to complain.
The first bill is almost always higher because of prorated charges.  So if your bill prints on the 15th and you started service on the 30th of the prior month, your first bill will have half a month's charge for the 30th-15th, then the usual month in advance charges for the 15th-14th of the next month.  Discounts for autopay, I believe, take a month or two to show up.  There is a plan for people 65+, and you should be able to change to that plan if you want to, just make sure the change is set to take place the first day of the next bill period. 
The other $40 in charges probably include activation and possibly insurance on the phone, and you should be able to pull up a detailed bill in MyVerizon with each line charge described. 
How did you start your service?  Did you go to a store, call, or order online?  The ETF for a smartphone is $350, not $380, and if you were not informed of that you should have been, although if I were setting up service with a contract, I ask the terms of the contract, like fees, time frame, service and all that. Did you enter the agreement under the impression that there was no penalty for early cancellation?
Finally, this is primarily a customer to customer forum with occasional input from reps.  They are identified with a Verizon logo.  If you need immediate action, you will need to call.  I hope you are able to get everything straightened out and explained!