Verizon - Sneakily clubbing you over the head every chance they get
jbflory
Enthusiast - Level 1

I have been a Verizon customer for 17 years.  I am very close to ending this affiliation over the do-nothing customer service that is nothing more than a brick wall of no.

I have two issues:

1.  My wife ordered a new phone for my son in December.  The sales person in the store (Costa Mesa, Harbor Boulevard), offered up a Jet Pack as a 'sweetener' to the deal.  The sales person did not disclose that the Jet Pack would come with a monthly charge.  I don't receive paper bills and I audit my bills every quarter.  When I noticed that there was a charge for the Jet Pack, I called Customer Service.  They guy I spoke with told me (a) that there was nothing he could do about it and (b), more importantly, that he hears this kind of story of unsavory sales practices ALL THE TIME from the stores.

2.  We recently traveled to Cabo San Lucas and my strict instructions to my children were to ONLY use the available resort WIFI to send texts.  Apparently, the Verizon network will supersede a wifi connection and as a result, my son was clubbed with $240.00 in text charges.  When I called Customer Service this time, the lady I spoke with, as soon as I mentioned that I didn't pre-set up a plan, started to speak as if it was my fault and because very firm about how nothing could be done, speaking to a supervisor wouldn't help, etc.  When I told her that she was putting a 17 year relationship at risk over $240.00, she essentially responded that she heard me but she still wasn't going to do anything about it.

The challenge I have is that in the first example, the customer service rep was acknowledging that the sales branches of Verizon engage in underhanded tactics in order to make sales.  Somehow this either appears to be institutionalized OR there is no control process in place to manage the behavior of the branches.

In the second example, the customer service representative seemed to enjoy the process of telling me no.  This doesn't represent the kind of customer service experience that I expect.

So my ask is this:  I would like to be refunded for the Jet Pack charges and I would like to be refunded for the Mexico charges.  Either Verizon will find value in a 17 year client or they will not.  I await their response.

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Re: Verizon - Sneakily clubbing you over the head every chance they get
Snn5
Legend

Why didn't you get a global plan before you left?  Text is sent over the cellular network unless you are using Verizon Messages+ or something like Hangouts or a data messenger.

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Re: Verizon - Sneakily clubbing you over the head every chance they get
sprmankalel
Champion - Level 3

Here is why your asks will not be granted.

1.) By your admission you did not check your bill but on a quarterly basis. Your wife, acting as your representative, signed the contract and accepted the Jetpack and it's activation and fees. Whether or not the sales rep specifically said that there was a monthly charge this happened. A contract is a contract. My guess is that she was told that the bill could be lowered with the addition of the jetpack. In this case if you were saving money on the bill even with the jetpack you have made out. Have you used the jetpack? I don't any business who gives away a free service. That doesn't make good business sense.

2.) Your instructions to connect to Wi-Fi while on holiday may have been specifically followed by your children but this does not negate the fact that a.) Wi-Fi is only data and does not turn off the wireless network that allows calls and texts and b.) your son was sending and receiving texts. If the phone connects to the local network while roaming and is used those charges are valid. They should not and will not be refunded on the basis that you did not understand how device connectivity works. Be thankful that he wasn't using the local network for mobile data without a subscription as those charges are $20.48 per 1 megabyte. There are 1,024 megabytes in 1 gigabyte. That is a $20,000 bill.

I don't think that either of your problems are Verizon's to fix or refund to you. They are your problems to deal with.

Re: Verizon - Sneakily clubbing you over the head every chance they get
jbflory
Enthusiast - Level 1

You may be right in that Verizon won't do anything.  It is their prerogative to do so or not.  I also have a choice as to where my money is spent.  And if the philosophy of the company is to use every opportunity to find ways to charge me money, that is not a company I want to deal with.  Particularly if they hire surly customer service reps and less than forthright sales people. 

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Re: Verizon - Sneakily clubbing you over the head every chance they get
sprmankalel
Champion - Level 3

So, you missed my point. I was trying to put it nicely but the fact remains you didn't look at your bill every month and then 5 months after your wife, who was acting on your behalf, accepted the agreement by putting her signature to it without reading it you want something to be done? Then you accepted the terms of international travel when you took your devices off the network and allowed them to connect to a roaming network and be used? That's ludicrous! First off, Verizon isn't charging you for the roaming charges, the network that you do not subscribe to is charging you. You (your son) was provided a service that you used and you don't think that you should have to pay for it? What makes you special? If you were truly concerned about the roaming charges you should not have taken your devices with you or, at the very least, monitored what your son was doing. And frankly, you, as the account owner and the one paying the bill, should have been with your wife and son at the time of the upgrade or again, at the very least, looked in the bag and read the paperwork that she signed. Then you would have had 14 days to reverse it for a small fee instead of being tied into a contract. Take responsibility somewhere and stop trying to pass the blame.

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Re: Verizon - Sneakily clubbing you over the head every chance they get
avidmar1978
Enthusiast - Level 3

Something similar happened to me as well.  When I did an Early Edge on my line, upon reviewing the receipt, the store had signed me up for the $2.99 per month Verizon Cloud service.  They did not mention this or verbally ask my approval.  I didn't see it in any of the contract screens I clicked "Agree" on, though I admit that I didn't read every word on every screen.  Because I have an inherent distrust in everybody, I reviewed my receipts, found the monthly charge they tried to sneak in, and cancelled it online later that day.

When having face-to-face interactions with customers, store employees should go through every single aspect of the bill with people, to make sure they know what they are agreeing to.  Why have store employees if this is not going to happen?

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Re: Verizon - Sneakily clubbing you over the head every chance they get
sprmankalel
Champion - Level 3

This $2.99 charge is actually credited on each bill. Why? Because with a More Everything shared data plan you get 25GB of Verizon Cloud Storage for free. I have this on at least 2 of my lines. Each month on my bill I am charged then credited $2.99. They weren't sneaking something in on you, they were actually providing you a service.

Re: Verizon - Sneakily clubbing you over the head every chance they get
avidmar1978
Enthusiast - Level 3

When I removed the Verizon Cloud service, my projected monthly bill went down $2.99 per month.  I saw no $2.99 credit on my receipt, or on my account summary online.  Let's pretend for a second what you are saying is true.  Wouldn't it have been better to explain this to me in the store, rather than to have me find it on my receipt?

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Re: Verizon - Sneakily clubbing you over the head every chance they get
Snn5
Legend

Wait, I thought 25GB of cloud space was part of More Everything.

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Re: Verizon - Sneakily clubbing you over the head every chance they get
sprmankalel
Champion - Level 3

Snn5 It is part of More Everything but you still have to have the $2.99 feature on your account and it gets credited.

avidmar1978, Sure it would have been better to have explained it but the rep (who probably gets paid for adding it) knew it would get credited on your bill so I think they might have thought there wasn't a need to. I don't agree with that but I can guess that it why it was added. No, you wouldn't see it on your receipt as a credit but I promise you that you would get it on your bill as a charge then a credit. If you sign into the Cloud app on your phone you will automatically get 5GB but you can select upgrade and it tells you on the app that you will be charged and credited the $2.99. This is all providing that you are on More Everything.