Stolen Phone Issues

Question

I am a new customer with Verizon and have encountered a sticky situation. Started my service August 11th and take ownership for going over with my data but on August 18th went to the emergency room and was admitted to the hospital August 19th. During this time my phones were stolen from my home by someone we knew while the phones were in there possession they ran the data up even more. My family tried to resolve the issue by reporting the phones stolen but for whatever reason weren't successful in getting the phones disconnected. But my mother did get the police involved and reported all items stolen by this particular individual.  I was not informed till the night of August 31st on what happen and made a phone call to Verizon first thing Sept 1st. The police were able to retrieve some of my items including the phones in questions. When I called Verizon I was connected to a Tech Service Representative who listen to my explanation and informed me he would write a note including dates phones were stolen, police report number, Officers name, and local law enforcement number. Of course that was not a problem. But the problem in question involved the the enormous amount of data used according to the representative. Chris the representative informed me he would pass all this information to his supervisor to issue all necessary credits but while this problem is being resolved he was going to update my plan to a 100GB plan to protect me from overage while his supervisor makes the necessary adjustment. He assured me do not worry I would not have to pay for the particular price plan, that once the adjustments were made to my account I would be credit back and I will not be responsible for the cost of the plan, My thing I feel like I am being robbed again because the thief stole my phone increased my data even more and I got stuck paying for the there treacherous act. I did receive a credit of $375.00 bringing the remaining balance of $865.80, but to be honest I feel I am still being held accountable partial for the thief activity on my phone line. I am out of the hospital recovering from major surgery and do not have sick pay from my job to fall back on. I am stretching my savings  to cover bills while in recovery. I really want to stick with verizon the reception in my area is awesome and would love to keep my service going but I do not know what else to do how can I get my balance down to a fair amount? Please help me with this matter Thank You

Answer 1

I am currently involved in a similar situation.  I am writing this on behalf of my mother who is not technology savvy and still uses a flip phone.  Our problem started in January 2013.  An iPhone had been lost on her account which it was suspended online through myverizon.com.  She realized that the phone was once again active when they started getting outrageous over charges on data in August 2013.  Immediately went back on myverizon.com and re-suspended the line and called customer service later that day to explain that the phone was not in her possession, had not been using it and wanted the line cancelled effective immediately.  They explained to her that a phone would re-activate after 3 months automatically.  Since she felt that the error was on her part for not knowing Verizon's operational practices, she paid all the overage charges and forgot about it.  Fast forward 1 YEAR AND 1 MONTH!  She notices a large jump in her bill ($247), she asks me to log into her account to see if I can figure out where the extra charges have come from.  I look at her bill and figured out that the extra charge for $247 was in fact a legitimate charge as my sister ordered a new Galaxy S5 and charged it to the account, had told my dad, but forgot to tell my mom.  BUT, I also discovered that the iPhone that was cancelled 13 MONTHS earlier was STILL BEING BILLED TO HER ACCOUNT FOR $54.80 A MONTH!!!!  I immediately have her call customer service and have her hand the phone to me.  I tell the customer service rep that I have a few questions about her bill.  I explained to her that she never really checks her bill that closely, because she has 4 lines and since they live in the country, Verizon Wireless is their only form of internet service so she doesn't get too alarmed by a variation in her bill if it doesn't exceed $400/month because that is just about average for her services and they occasionally go over their data usage.  I explain to the customer service rep that she has been getting charged $54.80 ($40.00 line access $9.99 insurance $2.00 Verizon surcharges $2.81 tax) a month for a phone line that she doesn't use, doesn't even have possession of the phone and that she CANCELLED the line over a year ago.  She tells me she sympathizes with me, that she also has a hard time understanding Verizon's bill set up and asks me to hold for a few minutes while she investigates the account.  She comes back and tells me that she's very sorry for the inconvenience, but that there is nothing that she can do for me.  I then request to be connected with a supervisor to discuss the issue with.  The customer service rep tells me she will transfer me, but that a supervisor will not be able to do anything about this either. I wait patiently thinking there is NO WAY that a supervisor can not do ANYTHING to satisfy a customer who spends on average $350 a month for the last 20 YEARS.  The supervisor comes on line and once again I explain the situation to her.  She also tell me that she sympathizes with my problem, but that in fact there really is nothing that they can do for my mother who has paid $712 over the last 13 months for a phone line that should have been cancelled.  I tell her that that is completely unacceptable.  She then proceeds to tell me that she "finds it very hard to believe that my mother would not notice an extra charge for 54.80 a month".  YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE SUPERVISOR IS CALLING MY MOM A LIAR and she's not even trying to be professional about it.  I at this point become very angry as you can imagine and tell the supervisor that I am done speaking with her, that I want to talk to her supervisor.  I was once again placed on hold and transferred to another "supervisor" who tells me there is absolutely nothing that can be done about my mom essentially giving Verizon an extra $712 over the last 13 months for a line that was SUSPENDED (not even active) that should have been cancelled a year prior.  I asked the 2nd supervisor "I have been on the phone with you guys for over an hour now, can you tell me, has the phone yet been cancelled?"  He assured me that it has been cancelled and will not be billed any further.  I finally terminate the phone call because I obviously am not going to get any satisfaction whatsoever.  Now today, I take my dads phone into the Verizon's authorized dealers' store to have his iPhone re-activated after being sent in to Apple for a battery replacement.  I ask the store clerk to please verify that this line has been actually cancelled because I now trust absolutely NOTHING a verizon rep tells me... and guess what?!?  The phone is STILL ONLY SUSPENDED AND NOT CANCELLED!!!!!!!!!! NOT CANCELLED!!!!!! STILL BEING BILLED!!!!!!! AFTER ALL THIS!!!!!! I CAN NOT BELIEVE THIS.  The shear lack of responsibility that Verizon has taken for this enormous error ON THEIR PART has got me completely mind blown.  The fact that she paid $712 over the last year for something that should have been cancelled alone is amazing, but then after spending over an hour on the phone 5 days ago complaining about this and then I find out today that it still hasn't been cancelled after I dispute this with 2 of your "supervisors" has left me completely speechless.  I do not expect to hear anything from verizon on what they could do to make things right for a 20+ year customer, but I just so happen to be on lay-off starting tomorrow, so I have decided to dedicate 2 hours every night posting this story to EVERY public forum and social media site I can find and I know how to use the copy and paste feature!  I am then going to research who I need to contact, be it The Better Business Bureau, FCC and whoever else I can send this complaint to, because not only is this unacceptable, I would think that there would be some legality issue here as well...