Reader mail: More Verizon billing fraud
Dear Christine,
Thank you thank you thank you! I was about to sign up with Lexington Law firm, until I decided to check them out and see if I could find anything about them online. THANK YOU!
Now on to Verizon wireless. I read the 5 million lawsuit thing and just had to send you an email about them!These crooks stole money from me, and I think that they are stealing money every day from thousands and thousands of customers that have no idea that its going on. Here is the situation.
This happened about 4-5 years back. I was on a Nationwide plan that cost me roughly $200/month for 2000 minutes at the time. It was a no roaming no long distance plan with my plan starting on the 7th of each month going to the 7th of the next month.
One month I got a bill and seen that I went over my minutes causing me some charges for overages and long distance. I started to look a little closer and noticed the dates of the calls should have been on the previous month. Remember I said that my bill went from the 7th to the 7th right. Well I had on this bill some extra dates? Calls that were made on the 1st of the month to the 7th? These calls should have been billed on last months bill then and not on this months. I should not be getting billed for calls until the 7th for this month! So instead of being billed for 30 or 31 days, I was being billed for roughly 37 days of service on that bill. Sound confusing yet? So I checked the previous months bill for those calls made from the 1st to the 7th that should have been billed on that bill. To my discovery if those calls would have been put on that bill, I would not have been put into Overage status on my current bill!! I called Verizon on this immediately. I talked to them for a very long time to no avail.
I requested all the bills since the first date of service (because I pay them and throw them) and scanned through them. I Found that on several of the months bills this had happened. Even if there were calls that were from the 1st to the 7th on the current due bill some of the calls with those dates were on the other bill? Not the same calls but different ones with same call dates? I was very confused. I called Verizon and told them this. If all the calls for those dates for which my billing contract states would have been on the proper months billed, I would not have to pay overage charges. I would have had plenty of minutes to cover the calls.
HERE is there explanation:
“Verizon wireless is a very large company that has many agreements across the country with many different “mom and pop” cell phone tower owners to provide you with the NATIONWIDE excellent coverage that you get. Verizon wireless can only bill you for the minutes used on those towers as the owners of the towers send them to Verizon letting us know that you used their tower on this such a date at such a time. Verizon wireless is not responsible for those companies not getting the information to us in a timely matter that would correspond with your monthly statement dates. We bill for them to you as they are submitted to our office.” THIEVES! DIRTY DIRTY THIEVES!
So in other words the calls you made last month that you had enough minutes left on your plan to cover them came to Verizon late for their billing cycle, its just to bad for you the consumer if we tack them on to your current bill then charge you overages on them! WHY CAN’T they look at last month and see that you would have had enough minutes to cover them and tack them on the new bill with a zero amount owing? Would it have been that difficult to do?
I tried to explain to several persons on the phone I was talking to that what they were doing was stealing from me. They asked how? I told them imagine if you purchased a pre-paid gas card used it one month, and went back to the same company for gas and the clerk behind the counter said to you, sorry sir today we have to tack on $.05 more per gallon for you then what the pump says or what that guy over there will pay today, because last month when you put gas on here, my manager forgot to tell me that I needed to raise the price on the pump before you started pumping your gas. I know its our own fault in management but we have to get it out of you somehow.”
Does that make sense? So I told them that I had signed a 2 year agreement with them and that I wanted out. They told me that they would then have to charge me the early cancellation fee. I told them I don’t think that they would want to do that because I would have the states attorneys office look at my bills and possibly file a lawsuit on mine and others behalf. They politely let me out of my contract and I have been with Sprint ever since. I probably should have brought this to the attention of someone that might enjoy the story like Dateline NBC or something. The whole Fleecing of America bit might have liked this story.
But I got out. I also lost the money. I just wanted out. Verizon will not steal from me again!
Imagine how much money they are or were making off of others doing this very practice! Making their billing and paper management the consumers problem and making us pay for it! Oh the total of there mistakes on all my bills after going over them was roughly $350.00 that’s just me, 1 person. Now imagine that on a scale of 1000 ($350,000) people or 10,000 ($3,500,000) people nationwide. Not a bad return for the year, for the nations largest cell phone network provider stealing just a little hear or a little there a month from innocent consumers that probably didn’t bother to check their bill to close and just pay the overage charges.
Just thought you might like that little story. You can certainly place it on your websites if you like, maybe people will look over their cell bills closer. If you helped me not make a big mistake, I would like to help others as well with my story. Pay it forward, right!
Keep up all your GREAT work that you do for us,Sincerely,
Rob Thompson
Moorhead, MN
Thanks for writing that up, Rob. This sure reminds me of the horrible time I had with them.
The real simple solution is for Verizon to NOT bill calls that were invoiced late from other companies unless you would have gone OVER your 2000 monthly minutes the previous month. It’s a very simple issue, but Verizon gets away with their billing fraud because they’re a HUGE company and regulators decided that big corporations are always right.
Since you mention my lawsuit, here is my Verizon press release They were dismissed because the judge felt that they couldn’t be sued for FDCPA (collection) violations and I had only asked for $20K in my initial disclosures—no good deed goes unpunished. You have to demand at least $75,000 for federal courts to have jurisdiction.
And while Verizon and their lowlife employees and attorneys LIED in their court filings and stated that I owed them for the uncashed refund check they had sent, it sure is odd that they didn’t cash the $300 that I mailed to their scumbag attorney Rodrick Coffey several months ago. They’re all crooks, and the attorneys are licensed to lie by the American Bar associations.
How can it be that they tell a federal judge that I owe them and then they don’t cash my check for the alleged debt?
Posted by Christine on 10/27/2006 at 06:32 PM
2003 Suit (appealed, Experian filed credit reports on PACER) • Verizon Wireless - billing fraud • (7) Comments • Permalink
Dear Rob,
You my friend are an Idiot!!!! Take up your problem with the F.C.C. they are the ones responsible for your overage!!! You see according the the regulations on the so called mom and pop cell site owners, they have 90 days to report ANY AND ALL minutes you use on these towers. Its called “delayed billing”....Its there so these smaller companies do not get stuck paying your bill. Why dont you try reading the contract before you sign it next time. Because guess what delayed billing is in your contract, you havent a leg to stand on… Thats what I HATE about some of you customers, you go online and read a few post and think you know the wireless business! You also think because you pay your bill each month, we owe you something more than a phone that works when you need it. WE DONT!!!
This is one hell of an advertisement for Verizon—NOT!
The idiot is of course the anonymous Verizon employee. Why would ANYONE who doesn’t get paid by a wireless company want to KNOW the wireless business?
All we want is excellent service, truthful advertising, friendly customer reps and honest and prompt billing.
I know, it’ll never happen.
I was in Alabama a few years ago and had my identity stolen. The individual who stole my identity attempted to open a Nextel phone account in my name. Nextel realized that I lived out of state and called me to verify the account application. I told the Nextel reporesentative that I did not aplly for a Nextel account and someone had indeed stole my identity. The Nextel representative was very helpful with my situation and in protecting my credit. Unfortunately, the person who stole my identity was able to open a Verizon account in my name. Verizon never bothered to contact me about the application. My credit has now been damaged because the person ran up over $800.00 in charges and has not paid the bill. Could yopu give me a good phone number to call fro Verizon’s Fraud Department?
You need to dispute with the CRAs FACTUALLY (state that this account was opened fraudulently and if you really want it deleted fast, mail the fraud affidavit with your dispute) and if Verizon verifies, sue the CRAs and Verizon.
It’s A LOT easier than dealing with Verizon directly, I have years of personal experience and COUNTLESS reader testimonials.
Christine,
How do I obtain the fraud affidavit? I assume the dispute I’m mailing to Verizon is a letter from me describing the fraudulant activity.? What do you mean by “Verizon verifies”? Verifying that the fraudulant activity took place, or verifies that it’s a valid debt to me?
Please respond as soon as you can and thanks for the information.
Brian
http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/pdf/affidavit.pdf
As usually, the FTC gives some HORRIBLE advice.
Do NOT put a fraud alert on your credit unless YOU want to be blocked from getting your own credit reports and have YOUR credit applications declined.
Just send the affidavit to the CRAs, they have the LEGAL obligation to provide it to Verizon and if they don’t delete it you have LEGAL claims against the CRAs.
Dealing with Verizon directly results ONLY in aggravation and frustration and a waste of your time and you will NOT get FCRA claims you can sue for.
Keep it simple, just deal with the CRAs and of course only in writing.
If anyone can help, they want 4500.00 from me !!!
I switched to Verison 3 years ago by going to thier store and telling them that I have a girl friend in California and i will be traveling there a lot and I need 2 phones. They told me that oh yea we can fix you up with nation wide plan and this and that. A month later I recived a bill for 4500.00 off roaming charges. I tried to talk and reason with them at first and I couldnt get anyone one to comprehend that 4500.00 for a month is alittle too much for a cell phone. I went a head and paid them 600.00 to just make the problem go away but the collection agency’s be hounding me for the last 4 years.
what can I do ??
