Verizon Wireless keeps dropping the ball.

Question

Back in March 2012 I was tired of the billing issues T-Mobile had with Suncom UnPlan users and decided to start shopping for another account.
My employer had a discount at all of the major Wireless Providers.
I called Sprint then AT&T saving Verizon for last.  Both Sprint and AT&T had decent rates but when I called Verizon the sales agent made a compelling quote.
He offered me the 2000 Minute Family plan with Unlimited Talk and Text for $120 for 5 lines.  He then offered me a smartphone for free with 4GB data for $30 more per month plus I would get a 20% discount.  This rate was within my budget and about the same as the rate I had with T-Mobile.  He gave me an estimate of the monthly cost and it was around the $150 rate.  I agreed to the deal and we conferenced with the 3rd party for the contract.
I received my phones fairly quickly.  I also quickly noticed the Verizon Coverage was not as good as T-Mobile especially in my house.  Verizon shipped a free network extender to cover that gap.  After about 1.5 months of service I received my first bill and it was huge. They had charged me activation charges for the lines that was not discussed by the salesman plus they had added $50 of monthly line charges and partial pro rated line charges that I was not quoted.
I called Verizon ready to disconnect. I ended up talking to Executive Support who corrected the billing but to my concern they did it by adding a "promotion" that would expire and I would have to call to have re-added once it expired. At least the bill was correct and I paid the same rate for a year as a loyal paying customer. Once the year had passed the "promotion" dropped and I had to go through a huge hassle to have it re-added again but they did, I was also encouraged to drop to the 1400 minute plan since I wasn't using very many minutes.
In October 2013, I contacted Verizon exec support to see if I could take advantage of some phones Best Buy was selling and to make sure my rate would not increase.  The agent helped me do early upgrades and said everything should be fine. But, after the year was up they added the $50 monthly charges again.  I called back to have the bill corrected and they said they would contact a department to see if they can put the "promotion" back on my account.  I did not receive a call back. 1.5 months passed and I was getting the dirty Verizon calls where they didn't leave a message and answered one of them.  It was billing wanting me to make a payment.  I had been paying monthly, and the same rate monthly but they were wanting more but they had not contacted me back.  I was hung up on 2 times in the IVR system then finally spoke to an agent.  She promised to have a supervisor on the line and after about 45 minutes of trying she promised they would call me back which they did not.  I then contacted VerizonWireless on Twitter having a very public expression of my ordeal and also getting quotes from Sprint and AT&T responding to those very Tweets. AT&T wants my service for $155/mo for 5 lines, 2 smartphones, 10GB shared Data, unlimited talk and text which is very comparable to what I have been paying Verizon without the $50 line charges.   I finally was able to get an Executive support person on the phone and she was rude, un-understanding, and ended up rudely hanging up on me.  I called back to support and wanted to complain against her and her refusal to escalate along with the hangup.  I was promised again a callback.  At one point I had told the Executive support exactly what I want out of this situation.... either:
1) Correct the billing, Remove the $50 monthly charges as my verbal agreement in the initial sales call was defined.
or
2) Remove all charges, no disconnect charges, we can wash our hands of each other and I will begin anew with AT&T.
Before hanging up on me she offered a $200 one time credit but no permanent billing fix. She welcomed the disconnection of my service and offered no termination charges for one of my 2 lines still in contract.  I informed her I did not consider being within any contract once they breeched it by adding charges that were not agreed to in the original sales call/contract.
After contacting Customer Service again the agent I spoke with was appalled by the way I was treated and assured me they would escalate to the level beyond the agent who hung up on me and promised a callback.  She also noted that the account shows they had offered a $200 credit every 4 months which exactly offsets those monthly charges and I told her that was EXACTLY the kind of thing that could resolve this for us and I was good with that.  She said she would apply the credit and it should show up within 3 business days.  I continued to check and almost 2 weeks passed. No credit has been added. 
I called back again tonight 6/27 and asked the agent when the credit would be applied... She told me the credit was pending a supervisor approval and couldn't guarantee me that it will ever be applied.  I explained how many hours I worked on this and the time I have invested along with the mental anguish.  She wanted to consult with someone after she had me tell her the whole story again and was away from the phone for some times.  Once she came back she pushed the point everyone at Verizon wants to make telling me the promotion expired.  I had to keep explaining the promotion was only placed on my account to correct the billing issue caused by the rate the sales agent had sold the service to me.  I told her I didn't care what they wanted to call the price correction as long as my bill was back down to the affordable rate. She wasted 1 hour of my time tonight. Again I have the promise of a callback.  I thought 2 weeks again this issue was totally resolved but it appears it is happening again.
Now I must mention the other issues I have had with Verizon.  And the other hours of calls related to the LG phones sent to me originally and how I had to send d back 8 piece of junk phones with issues such as charging issues, non responding keys, screen not responding, microphone failure, etc. And the torture it took to get Verizon to send replacement Samsung phones for these units. Verizon wrongly made me purchase all of the back plates and batteries instead of providing those. 
Another issue was he hassle I had with BestBuy where they couldn't sell me the phones due to Verizon having my Droid Charge showing up as an Unknown Device in the system. This disrupted the BestBuy system and cost me hours of support on the phone/ at the store/ backing up lines. Etc. Best Buy was at the point where they were just going to give us the phones because of all of the trouble.  All of the trouble stemmed from how Verizon changed the phone to an Unknown device in punishment for having an unlocked device.
Another issue was with coverage at my Son's college.  They had almost zero coverage and Verizon support put in a ticket to investigate.  They found it was due to coverage.  The agent that put in the ticket said they would provide him a range extender at no cost if they found it to be an issue with coverage.  When I called back to have the range extender shipped they balked. The person on the phone pretty much called me a liar and I had to go through executive support again to have the range extender sent to resolve his problems.
All said, Verizon has an investment in me, they have provided 2 range extenders. The have corrected errors that resulted in activation fees. They corrected pricing errors by adding a counter acting "promotion".  They still are more expensive than AT&T even without those line charges.  Why can't I just have the original deal honored. Why does my time and investment selecting a service, listening to a sales pitch, accepting a deal, not count for anything?  Why must I spend hours on the phone to get things corrected?  Why was I sold a non-standard plan?  Why do I have to shop again for service?  Why not just honor the original deal?  Why is Verizon more expensive than AT&T?  Why does Sprint/AT&T/ and T-mobile have better coverage locally than Verizon?
Please send this information to the CEO. 

Answer 1

TonyD_VZ wrote:
I'm not sure you fully read/understood my wordy post. A sales agent made an offer (verbal contract) which I used to select Verizon's service. There was no "pro ration" talk. I know most people probably physically travel to a dealer and make their wireless purchase, this was not the case for me. I did not sign a contract. I listened to the telephone salesman's sales pitch, entering into the contract on his word. I did not use any other method to "validate" his offer as I trusted him as an agent of Verizon Wireless and took his word much like you would accept the word of a car dealer if he told you the price of a car also included free oil changes and a free tank of gas monthly.  If you went to the dealer and they started charging for oil changes and gas after the sale was made based on the salesman's offer, it would be a breech of the verbal contract and it is very likely that a lawsuit would award the plaintiff a victory (If there was any way to prove the wording of the verbal contract). Lucky for me, Verizon  Wireless records their sales calls and a third party is engaged to verbally witness the contract "signing".  Though my wordy story is confusing due to the convolution Verizon has spun into this web, the issue here is entirely based on the initial offer I accepted from the sales agent. I would not have selected Verizon's service if the offer had been $50 more per month like they are now trying to charge me.
I understood your post just fine.  What I am pointing out is the fact that the customer agreement specifically states no other "contract," verbal or written, overrides the customer agreement. 
"This agreement and the documents it incorporates form the entire agreement between us.  You can't rely on any other documents, or on what's said by any Sales or Customer Service Representatives, and you have no other rights regarding Service or this agreement. This agreement isn't for the benefit of any third party except our parent companies, affiliates, subsidiaries, agents, and predecessors and successors in interest.  Except where we've agreed otherwise elsewhere in this agreement, this agreement and any disputes covered by it are governed by federal law and the laws of the state encompassing the area code of your wireless phone number when you accepted this agreement, without regard to the conflicts of laws and rules of that state."
So, no, there was no other binding contract you or Verizon entered into.  Their customer agreement is quite clear about that.  No analogy or comparison to any other type of service or contract applies here.  You consented to the customer agreement which includes the above statement.   I am not saying I agree with it or like it, but that is the contract you agreed to. 
The recorded call and third party witness won't help you.  It doesn't matter what the agent said, or what anyone witnessed other than the Verizon Wireless Customer Agreement.  Having said that, the contract for service doesn't include pricing, only that you will maintain service for the duration of the agreement.  The plan, pricing, and features are not part of it.  Neither is a guarantee of an employee discount.  If you have a discount that applies when you sign up for service and then change employers during that time, you will lose the original discount as it is not part of the contract.  Additionally, the customer agreement states that no class action lawsuits are allowed.