Several months ago, I received a bill that had over $100 in excess charges for texts.  As I thought that my plan included unlimited texts, I contacted Verizon Wireless customer service, and was told that while I DID have unlimited texting within the Verizon network, I was limited to 500 texts out of network.  As it turned out, my daughter (on my plan) had a new friend who was not a Verizon customer, which was the cause of the overage. 

The customer service rep whom I spoke with indicated that for $15 I could have added unlimited out of network texts to my plan, 3and told me that after reviewing the current month's usage I was already likely to go over the limit for that month as well. She suggested that I add the option for that month, and then remove it for the following month.  She appeared to be quite helpful, and even offered to give me a "courtesy call" prior to removing the option from my plan.  Unfortunately, I never heard from her.

The next month, I noticed that my plan had been changed, but unfortunately, instead of removing just that $15 option, I found that I no longer had a text plan. I placed a call to Verizon Wireless, and the person I spoke with indicated that she could not simply reinstate my plan, as the specific options in my plan are no longer offered.  She stated that she would need to submit a special request to enable her to reinstate the plan, which typically took a couple of days.  She also promised to send me a "courtesy text" to confirm the change.  Of course, I never heard from her.

A week or so later, I checked my plan again, and it had still not been corrected.  Yet another call to Verizon, only to be told that there was a "computer error", and as a result, the correction to my plan had not been applied.  The person with whom I spoke promised to make the correction real time, and at first glance, it appeared that my issue was finally corrected.

When my next bill arrived, I noticed that my monthly rate was about $20 higher than my original plan.  Yet another call to customer service (and by now, I use that term with a grain of salt, as it appears that there is no service to be had). I go thru another round of explaining the history of what has happened with my account, and I am informed again that my plan is no longer offered, and therefore, special dispensation is required in order to revert to my original plan. Again, these things don't happen overnight, so will require a wait of several days before my bill can be corrected.  At this point, I ask to speak to a supervisor.  After a wait, I am told that there is no supervisor available, however the customer service rep informs me that he has been authorized to offer me a $20 courtesy credit against my bill.  I inform the rep that I would still like to speak to the supervisor, and that I'll wait for availability.  When the supervisor finally comes on, I go thru the situation, and tell him that I have no faith in their ability to either correct my bill or follow up on any actions that they may commit to.  I want a direct number of either the rep that I have been speaking with, or the supervisor, so that if there is still an issue, I can contact them directly.  They inform me that they do not have direct phone numbers.  When I ask them how a family member would contacted in the event of an emergency, they tell me that such a cal would go to their HR department, who would then contact them.  I find this answer to be totally unbelievable, but ask for an email address.  They inform me that they cannot provide that.  I then ask to speak to a second line supervisor, and am told that they do not take customer calls directly, but operate in a call back mode.  And btw, it can take 24 - 72 hours for a call back.  I ask the supervisor if he can understand why I have no confidence that they will either fix my bill or that I will receive a call.  He states that he understands, but assures me that my bill will be fixed, and that I will receive a call back.  At this point, I've already wasted another hour of my time, so I hang up.

It is now a week later, and I have not received the promised call.  And it looking at my account, it appears that it still has not been corrected.  In looking at other postings/complaints regarding customer service issues relating to billing, it appears that other than continuing to waste my time calling incompetent customer service reps, my options are to complain to the FCC, or file a claim in my local small claims court for the difference between what I am being billed and what my plan/contract calls for.  Actually - I guess I have a third option - after all, there are other wireless phone carriers.  But then I guess I'd be subject to early termination fees per the terms of my contract - the contract which apparently Verizon Wireless feels no obligation to honor.