Identity theft-Verizon corporate store employee opened an account in my name without my permission. It seems Verizon isn’t willing to do anything to resolve it. Help!
negideltoro
Newbie

It’s a long story but I’ll try to keep it short and simple as much as possible.

I went to the Verizon Wireless corporate store back in beginning of February 2014. After a credit check, I decided not to go with Verizon and left the store. About a week later, I received a letter from Verizon saying “Welcome to Verizon. Your new account… “. I called the customer service right away and was able to get the phone number,account number and other information. I was able to make a my verizon account and get a receipt for the service and device. Turns out, the new account was opened about 20 minutes after I left the store by “M” who helped me. The receipt had the time, employee’s name and register/terminal number that he used to open an account. He opened an account,added data service and got an Ellipsis tablet for free.(They were having a promotion at that time)

Customer service rep told me that she can’t do anything other than closing the account and left me with a $83 bill which she couldn’t waive. She closed the account then I went to the corporate store right away.

I spoke to the store manager “C”. I told him what happened and showed him the receipt. He went to the back of the store to talk to “M”,came back,talked to other employee(I overheard their conversation-he was saying what “M” told him made no sense to him) and told me that “M” will come talk to me to explain what happened shortly. I waited for 20 minutes or so for “M” to have a conversation but he never showed up. The store manager said that the account was opened by “accident”. He’ll look into it and give me a call in a day or two. It was hard to believe that a new account can be opened by “accident” but I took the store manager’s business card and left the store.

2 days later,I didn’t hear from the store manager so I called him at the store. He said “Oh,I totally forgot. It’s been a busy week. I’ll call you back. Don’t worry, as soon as I get an update,you’ll be the first one to know.” That was the last time I got to speak to him. I’ve called him at the store many times,even called his cell phone which was on his business card. I’ve called many times and left many voice mail but he never got back to me. I called customer service many times but it took 20 minutes just to speak to the rep,then transferred to another rep,wait for another 20 minutes then get disconnected. After 6 or 7 tries, I finally gave up. It went absolutely nowhere.

A week later, I decided to call the Verizon fraud department to file a complaint. The rep pulled the file and said that whoever at the store filed the report left out a lot of details and names. He also said that it looks like either they didn’t take it too seriously or someone was trying to cover up. According to him, the report is a joke. He said that he can’t do anything on his end I need to go to the store to resolve it.

For the next two weeks, I called the store ,cell phone and left messages every 2-3 days but no luck.

Two week later I found the number for the Verizon Security Department. I called them to file a complaint. The rep took my information and said he’ll call back within 48 hours. No case number given.

3 days later, I still hadn’t heard from anyone,not even from the security department. I called the security department again. I explained that I filed a complaint but the rep couldn’t find the case. I filed a complaint again and was told that someone will be contacting me in a week.

It’s been over 2 weeks but I still haven’t heard from anyone. A few days ago(3/31/14) I received the bill from Verizon in the mail.

At this point, I can’t seem to get Verizon’s attention. I’ve already got the police report and spoke to the identity theft lawyer. I’m about to report to FTC,BBB and the attorney general. I’m also initiating paperwork in my local small claims court.

It is very frustrating having to spend so much time just to trying to talk to someone from Verizon but I’m not taken seriously. I had to spend so much time contacting credit bureaus,researching how to handle the situation like this and other things I have to do to handle the situation. This is such a nightmare and very overwhelming. Not to mention my credit score dropped by 100 points right after this incident which got me denied for an apartment application and had to pay more security deposit.

Please help. If anyone can give me an advice on the best way to handle this or to get Verizon’s attention, I’d really appreciate it.

Labels (1)
0 Likes