Overbilled for a year and a half with no satisfaction, now charged new phones to charge account with the promise to switch it over immediately.

Question

We started out as having a single plan and later changed to shared family.  When we did this we ordered phones for each person; the single plan user and 3 more.  When I received the phones, I couldn't get the phones set up.  I called customer service and a nice guy spent over 2 hours getting everything worked out.  However, they gave us 4 new phone numbers when I had told them I only needed three, the other would remain the same.  So, this "nice guy" said he would change the extra phone number to a test device and I wouldn't be charged.  Unfortunately I don't do the bills and only recently realized that I have been charged since day 1. That would be 20 months at 9.95!  I have several times and was basically told two things, depending on the person.  One person said that I needed to talk to such and such a person at a certain phone number.  I got nowhere.  The last time I called I received a very snide, sarcastic guy who actually laughed at me on the phone because I couldn't get anything done about the situation.  He then just kept reading his script.   I will be contacting the appropriate people on this fraudulent situation.  I will not take this criminal bahavior anymore. On the bright side, the longer it takes them to refund my money, the better my compensation.
Now my latest ordeal with Verizon.  I just ordered 4 new phones,  crazy, I know!  It took my two entire days trying to get these phones ordered.  Finally, another nice guy helped me and after many attempts, he made the suggestion of trying a different card.  I told him that my other card didn't have enough credit available for all the phones.  So, he suggested we try ordering two and see if the problem was with my initial card. He told me that the card doesn't go through immediately and he could change it back to the first card right away. I asked him just before finishing the chat if I needed to take care of anything to change the charge and he said,  "I told you I would take care of that".  Guess what, the charge was never changed .  I've made one call so far and have not gotten anywhere.  Perhaps I'll just add it onto my first case and charge them for all of it at once.

Answer 1

<< Comment removed >> Yes, I educated myself on the cost of changing providers before I made the switch.  Verizon bills all my bills one month in advance, not only on the first bill, and I was expecting the pro-rating, and agree that is not being overbilled.  I know that applies to new lines as well, and am aware of the $35 data activation fee that is charged, again not overbilling.  Your assumptions about my situation are incorrect.  My overbilling was as follows:
1) VZ billed me for a suspension of service on a line when I exchanged a tablet I purchased from a VZ store.  They even agreed that this was overbilling and refunded the charges (~$17).
2) VZ then set up a new line without my agreement for the new tablet instead of connecting it to the existing line.  I was charged an additional activation fee ($35) for the second line.  The tablet should have been connected to the existing line, which was unused, and for which I had already paid the $35 activation fee, this is duplicate (over) billing.
3) I contacted VZ before traveling to CAN and asked the agent to place me on a plan (prior to my trip) that would cover my phone and data usage.  We agreed on the US/CAN coverage and the Global Data plan.  The switch was not made correctly and I ended up only on the Global Data plan.  I received a text message upon arriving in CAN, notifying me of additional charges that might apply to calls since I was out of my coverage area.  I called VZ immediately and was again told that my plan was active, that the message was a mistake and that I should ignore it.  The bill for that period had just under $250 of usage charges related exclusively to calls in CAN instead of the $19.95 increase to my monthly plan.  Again, this is incorrect (over) billing.
4) As soon as I saw the bill referenced in #3, I called VZ and began working with (very nice) individuals in customer service.  On three separate calls I was told that they could see the reference to changing my plan (in the notes) and would provide a refund within 48 hours.  This never happened.  On the third call I spoke with a supervisor who directed me to partially pay my bill based on a calculation of the refund he was submitting (again, to go through in 48 hours).  I had the supervisor send me an email so I had evidence of his direction.  After partially paying the bill, I was charged a late fee for not paying my bill in full ($5), received a message that my services might be terminated, and my next bill included ~$35 in usage fees for calls to CAN instead of $19.95 for the updated plan. 
I called customer service yesterday, was again told that the refund was imminent, placed on hold so the individual could further review my bill, and after about 15 minutes the phone was picked up by a different person who had no background on my situation, which has happened on several of my calls to customer service. It was at that point that I told them I was done, leaving VZ, and was transferred to the Customer Retention specialist.  After an hour and a half on the phone, I received a partial refund (just over $200), but am still owed about $70 before tax and other adjustments. 
I can't imagine that any one could defend this as (1) proper billing, (2) decent customer service.  I am totally happy paying my bills in full, paying the associated charges, etc., but I do not want to have to spend 4-6 hours per billing cycle on the phone with customer service trying to get my bills corrected.  I also know it will probably cost me $1,500-2,000 to switch back to AT&T, plus the inconvenience.  I am willing to make the switch if any further issues come up, as I simply can't spend time dealing with this every month.
Message was edited by: Verizon Moderator