Re: Financial Hardship and Reconnect Fees
Tootz1982
Newbie

Im going through the same exact thing with Verizon right now.  I just received our new bill for the month,  and it's almost 7 hundred dollars. Im so disgusted with Verizon at this point, pre-paid service is looking pretty good right about now. They charged me 3 reconnect fees in one month on every one of my lines and I have 5 phones and 2 watches. I made a payment arrangement and I paid the second payment early and since I paid the second payment early and not on the day I set it up for, they disconnected all of my devices. When I called in to see why I was cut off again, they said I have to pay on the days I set it up for or the system will disconnect me, they have no control over it. You have got to be kidding me with that garbage they even charged me a 40 dollar unlimited charge on both my watches and it should only be 10 bucks.  It's ridiculous!!!!!

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Re: Financial Hardship and Reconnect Fees
boringusername
Master - Level 1

@Tootz1982 wrote:

Im going through the same exact thing with Verizon right now.  I just received our new bill for the month,  and it's almost 7 hundred dollars. Im so disgusted with Verizon at this point, pre-paid service is looking pretty good right about now. They charged me 3 reconnect fees in one month on every one of my lines and I have 5 phones and 2 watches. I made a payment arrangement and I paid the second payment early and since I paid the second payment early and not on the day I set it up for, they disconnected all of my devices. When I called in to see why I was cut off again, they said I have to pay on the days I set it up for or the system will disconnect me, they have no control over it. You have got to be kidding me with that garbage they even charged me a 40 dollar unlimited charge on both my watches and it should only be 10 bucks.  It's ridiculous!!!!!


if you lines were disconnect then yes you will have reconnect fees. You're lines got disconnected because you did not pay. Yet VERIZON is the bad guy? If you think any other carrier will not charge reconnect fees then you're very naive. Also you got 5 lines and 2 watches. And I assume you are making payments of the top of the lines phones adnd you wonder why you have a $700 bill? Snartwatches are usless. Not worth the money,

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Re: Financial Hardship and Reconnect Fees
shanoniphone
Newbie

I have a very similar situation with being over charged massive amounts for similar reasons to you, I’m so sorry about you son! I hope he gets well ASAP! And I’m sorry you are dealing with added garbage stress and worries while your family is overwhelmed and dealing with a major life trauma and financial devastation! like I am also stressed over Verizon bills constantly too). In my case our financial devastation is a result of serious injuries (multiple broken bones etc) sustained in a head on car accident, both my husband and I fractured our hips/pelvis and we were both out of work for a year, we both couldnt walk and couldn’t work, we both also had multiple other injuries, fractured ribs, several herniated discs fractured dislocated thumb, injured tail bone, etc, we were a mess and we still are a mess physically mentally and of course financially devastated beyond imagination! And I explained this to countless people at Verizon and I literally spend a few hours on the phone calling the every month for nearly 6 months now! Well at this point by the time our mid November bill is paid we will have accumulated nearly $3,000 in extra fees for reconnections, late fees, and of course there’s the new added $7 fees every time 𝚈𝚘𝚞𝚛 forced to call and pay on the phone or make payment promises and arrangements etc, those 7 buck fees add up very fast too! Long story but it all started 5-6 months ago when they applied our $464 payment to another customers bill! That’s right they literally messed up up and paid someone else’s bill! And they made me pay that same bill twice which I have since never seen that money yet while I’m continuing to disputed it with the credit card co since Verizon flat out refuses to give us back our money and they admitted this mistake happened multiple times and yet continue to refuse to acknowledge that they owe me this money as well as the huge collection of fees including reconnnection fees that they dunoedvon my account! I have called countless times! Literally lost count months ago & I can barely find the time or energy to deal with that mess because we also had to move our family of 4 while this was unfolding and it’s been very overwhelming which I bet is why your family didn’t realize you were also accumulating such a huge bulk because 𝚈𝚘𝚞𝚛 too overwhelmed and devastated financially and emotionally while trying to care for your child and his illness! They don’t care tho, don’t care about nothing but getting that extra money and continuing to add more fees, it’s very hard to explain but this unfolded for me with repeated disconnections because I kept attempting to get a supervisor in the phone before giving them hundreds more each month and with us going through so much distress and being so overwhelmed we keep forgetting to make these calls till last min then boom we’re shut off again and again and when I explain that I resisted paying because I want my $464 back as well as all the extra fees, they simply don’t care, then they decided to punish me for their mistake and they cut off my account from making online payments or phone payments, so now the last 3 or 4 months I’m required too go into a Verizon store to make cash payments and every time I’m supposed to pay I completely forget because I’m overwhelmed and so busy I don’t remember this new punishment style of paying and it’s extreneky inconvenient to drive to their stire to pay between specific store hours when we normally do bill payments online after 10-11pm so that’s when I remember to pay on the final due date and then I go online to pay and the system won’t allowbut and instructs me to pay in a store and by the time I can get to the store the next day it’s too late we get shut down again, and I get down as much as twice each month (4 phones) because I forget every single time that I’m punished fir their mistake so I can’t oay online. Then I finally pushed a lot harder when it hit over 1500 in extra fees and they had me on the phone 1-2 hours and all they offered was 200-250 off my bill and then the call conveniently dropped just before they diminished the deal with refunding the money and I called back again and they woman claimed it did go through and was showing in my account before the call ebddd but then of course just befire the second woman finished the call conveniently drops a second time, a bit fishy if you ask me! Now I call a third time and I’m upset and the man I git also said it’s there in my account that I’m getting 200-250 refunded, can’t renember how much but the end result was no refund at all, not a dime is showing as a refund on my account the bill only goes up up up it never goes down, it’s akways near $1,000! They are literally charging us over 4 times more than our total bill should even be! I don’t know what to do either I’m very upset we are financially devastated right now and Verizon contributed to settingvus back even more financially! I finally tried to calculate exactly what they robbed us for and it’s very difficult to even see it all on the bills but I calculated about $2,000 more than it should have been for normal bills over a 5 month period and we still owe almost $1,000 so by the middlebif this month we will have paid about $3,000 extra to Verizon, that’s two weeks from now and a grand total of only 6 months of bills has cost an extra 3,000 and the total is about 4,000 or slightly more than 4,000 fir the whole 6 months which should only be about $1,000! The only reason we were stupid enough to keep paying is yinimg with when they shut us off which is always at times when we just don’t have the time to go shopping for new phones at a new company and it akways seems to be moments when we need the phone badly for one reason or another! And the biggest reason we keep paying them like fools is because my husbands business number will be gone and he could lose a lot of business and a lot of customers... I wish you luck, I’m calling to fight a lot harder now & if they don’t give me back most of this money I’m going to small claims court, I can’t keep allowingbour overwhelming life cost us more especially while we are dealing with financial devastation and so many other expensive problems! Good luck I hope you get your money back I feel powerless but I’m gonna find the time and energy to take my power back and go to court if they don’t work it out with me! 

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Re: Financial Hardship and Reconnect Fees
Looneyman
Enthusiast - Level 3

"Yet VERIZON is the bad guy?" - When extra fees, such as per-line reconnect fees, make Verizon the "bad guy" is when the fees in question become excessive or unconscionable, which is exactly what a $20/line reconnection fee is. For the Verizon computer system to process a payment, and then reactive service, costs most likely pennies per line, (if that). A single per-account fee would not be so bad, (and is to be expected), but per-line is nothing more than a money grab on customers that are already sturggeling. 

Re: Financial Hardship and Reconnect Fees
NewOldcustomer
Contributor - Level 2

@Looneyman wrote:

"Yet VERIZON is the bad guy?" - When extra fees, such as per-line reconnect fees, make Verizon the "bad guy" is when the fees in question become excessive or unconscionable, which is exactly what a $20/line reconnection fee is. For the Verizon computer system to process a payment, and then reactive service, costs most likely pennies per line, (if that). A single per-account fee would not be so bad, (and is to be expected), but per-line is nothing more than a money grab on customers that are already sturggeling. 


Now hold the phone there @Looneyman    Each time you request a promise to pay, and can't pay, then get suspended and reconnected, WHOSE fault is that?  
  Do you know each time you make that promise that you won't make it?   Or just shooting the moon?   
   Irresponsible.

 

Re: Financial Hardship and Reconnect Fees
Piscestg
Specialist - Level 1

"Now hold the phone there @Looneyman    Each time you request a promise to pay, and can't pay, then get suspended and reconnected, WHOSE fault is that?  
  Do you know each time you make that promise that you won't make it?   Or just shooting the moon?   
   Irresponsible."

 

Exactly. I'm amazed at the people who expect someone else to pay their way due to their poor life decisions and bad luck. It's always somebody else's fault and it's the responsible people who should bale them out.

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Re: Financial Hardship and Reconnect Fees
NewOldcustomer
Contributor - Level 2

@Piscestg wrote:

"Now hold the phone there @Looneyman    Each time you request a promise to pay, and can't pay, then get suspended and reconnected, WHOSE fault is that?  
  Do you know each time you make that promise that you won't make it?   Or just shooting the moon?   
   Irresponsible."

 

Exactly. I'm amazed at the people who expect someone else to pay their way due to their poor life decisions and bad luck. It's always somebody else's fault and it's the responsible people who should bale them out.


When I got divorced, I had no skills, and little money, and 2 kids.  I have always been very careful.  We don't use installments, we buy phones we can afford.  I have planned ahead with the idea that if it ever hits the fan, I owe only for my monthly service.  Because I planned ahead, instead of running up debt, I'll land on my feet instead of begging some big carrier to bail out my mistakes

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Re: Financial Hardship and Reconnect Fees
Goodman4prez
Enthusiast - Level 1

@Piscestg wrote:

"Now hold the phone there @Looneyman    Each time you request a promise to pay, and can't pay, then get suspended and reconnected, WHOSE fault is that?  
  Do you know each time you make that promise that you won't make it?   Or just shooting the moon?   
   Irresponsible."

 

Exactly. I'm amazed at the people who expect someone else to pay their way due to their poor life decisions and bad luck. It's always somebody else's fault and it's the responsible people who should bale them out.

How exactly does being gouged with multiple inflated fees for reconnections that are only necessary because of Verizon's predatory disconnection activities, register in your mind as some kind of billable service that in any way benefitted the thread creator?

How does recognizing unethical, anti-consumer business practices that do the most harm to the people in society who are the least capable of dealing with it, and politely requesting if the corporation taking advantage of all the poor people could possibly NOT exploit and extort someone in her situation just this once... get twisted around into her begging Verizon to bail her out for her "mistakes"??

And lastly, how can you possibly call a corporation that does this to people "responsible"???

You are a hateful person. Wrongfully putting people down the way you have in this thread is a pathetic way to feel good about yourself, which I'm guessing is otherwise pretty difficult for someone like you to do.

Re: Financial Hardship and Reconnect Fees
NewOldcustomer
Contributor - Level 2

@Goodman4prez    Customers don't have to get reconnected multiple times.  They make a conscious choice to reconnect when they know they can't meet the bill.  That's not Verizon's problem, that's the customer's problem.   
People on At&t forum are whining because they don't allow reconnections until the bill is zero.  
   It's irresponsible not to live within ones means.  And if living paycheck to paycheck, prepaid or dozens of MVNOs offer a great alternative.   
    As for the fees.  They are meant to be punitive, with the idea that customers won't repeatedly have their service suspended and will pay their bill. If the experience is unpleasant, that is because it's meant to be. Just like the late fee if I don't pay my credit card bill off on time or the one and a half percent that is charged if I don't pay my property taxes on time
    

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Re: Financial Hardship and Reconnect Fees
Rby_cntrrs
Enthusiast - Level 1

I’m on the same boat, I have been in the hospital and my boss terminated meaning I couldn’t pay my arrange payment and the card I had schedule was being used for fraudulent transactions. So they disconnect me and they did it 3 times in a month now my next bill is 700 dls. That is 240 dls in reconnecting fees. I’m not paying them and I’m reporting Verizon to the BBA and the news and I’m going to reach out to all political parties in congress and make sure they are aware of the insensitivity at this times with COVID-19 and millions of people unemployed and having to worry about there cellular bills being ridiculous high. It’s not right last month I paid 600 dls the month prior I paid 509 the previous to that 494. I have 3 lines and a tablet for my granddaughter that lives out of state. My unemployment check is not enough to pay high bills. There is other bills that also need to be paid. If enough people complain and make this an awareness that we are being taken advantage of since we depend on our cells for everyday duties.