Verizon Wireless, Verizon's goodbye gift when porting to (((redacted))) is a ripoff charge of $378! New York New York

Verizon's executive office started calling after my last message included their CEO and VPs of Corporate Communications. Their message was that the balance owed was reduced to zero. Great. Then three weeks later I got a check for $31. I did not ask how that was calculated but cashed it nonetheless. So story over. right triumphs over might.

As a sidenote, there are some major efforts underway in the Senate (Amy Klobachar, D - MN) to establish a cell phone consumer bill of rights. I am tempted to lend my story to their cause but haven't the energy right now. If my tale of woe has peaked your interest, please check out her website at "http://klobuchar.senate.gov/inthenews_detail.cfm?id=282829&"

Though I am paying a lot less with sprint than I would have with Verizon, I have been experiencing dropped calls for the first time in my life. Is it worth it?...we'll see.

Verizon's executive office started calling after my last message included their CEO and VPs of Corporate Communications. Their message was that the balance owed was reduced to zero. Great. Then three weeks later I got a check for $31. I did not ask how that was calculated but cashed it nonetheless. So story over. right triumphs over might.

As a sidenote, there are some major efforts underway in the Senate (Amy Klobachar, D - MN) to establish a cell phone consumer bill of rights. I am tempted to lend my story to their cause but haven't the energy right now. If my tale of woe has peaked your interest, please check out her website at "http://klobuchar.senate.gov/inthenews_detail.cfm?id=282829&"

Though I am paying a lot less with sprint than I would have with Verizon, I have been experiencing dropped calls for the first time in my life. Is it worth it?...we'll see.

Verizon's executive office started calling after my last message included their CEO and VPs of Corporate Communications. Their message was that the balance owed was reduced to zero. Great. Then three weeks later I got a check for $31. I did not ask how that was calculated but cashed it nonetheless. So story over. right triumphs over might.

As a sidenote, there are some major efforts underway in the Senate (Amy Klobachar, D - MN) to establish a cell phone consumer bill of rights. I am tempted to lend my story to their cause but haven't the energy right now. If my tale of woe has peaked your interest, please check out her website at "http://klobuchar.senate.gov/inthenews_detail.cfm?id=282829&"

Though I am paying a lot less with sprint than I would have with Verizon, I have been experiencing dropped calls for the first time in my life. Is it worth it?...we'll see.

Verizon's executive office started calling after my last message included their CEO and VPs of Corporate Communications. Their message was that the balance owed was reduced to zero. Great. Then three weeks later I got a check for $31. I did not ask how that was calculated but cashed it nonetheless. So story over. right triumphs over might.

As a sidenote, there are some major efforts underway in the Senate (Amy Klobachar, D - MN) to establish a cell phone consumer bill of rights. I am tempted to lend my story to their cause but haven't the energy right now. If my tale of woe has peaked your interest, please check out her website at "http://klobuchar.senate.gov/inthenews_detail.cfm?id=282829&"

Though I am paying a lot less with sprint than I would have with Verizon, I have been experiencing dropped calls for the first time in my life. Is it worth it?...we'll see.

Verizon has finally agreed with my accounting and lowered the bill to the correct amount of $24.75. It only took one month, 5 emails, a posting on this site, and the threat of involving the Minnesota Attorney General's office. I am still out the $29 spent on the bank stop payment. Here was their response.
=======================

Dear **** *****,

Good afternoon Mr. ****, my name is Thomas, and I am happy to assist you regarding the partial month charges on your recent account statement. I apologize for any concern or inconvenience this issue may have caused you.

In review of your account I have issued the final credit you requested to reduce your account balance to $24.75. This amount is due immediately to avoid any late fees.

Thank you for giving us an opportunity to assist you today. We appreciate your business and thank you for using Verizon Wireless. Should you have additional questions or concerns, please reply to this e-mail.

Sincerely,

Thomas
Verizon Wireless
Customer Service
====================

Now THAT's customer service!

Thoughtful response from a Verizon employee, thanks. Unfortunately it features the same contractural dead end logic I've been getting from the others. It is interesting to hear that my service contract provisions don't apply when I am no longer under the 2year initial contract period. Once I am 'month-to-month', I have no rights?

Since all my interactions have been via email, I'm going to include the thread here so everyone can judge whether I've been "nice" enough. A couple of things brought up by the employee I should comment on. 1) Minnesota Attorney General's office did not pass on my complaint due to lack of merit. They live in snail mail land and will respond in due time. 2) The unilateral interpretation of the the Verizon customer agreement appears to apply to everybody...nice people or mean people. Therefore, everyone is getting ripped off. The fact that you have to be extra nice to assert your rights and not be ripped off is indicative of the mindset at Verizon. Now here is the email thread (with names and email addresses redacted):

AUGUST 7, 2007 EMAIL FROM VERIZON

Dear ***********,

Good afternoon. I apologize for any confusion regarding the final balance on the account. My name is Rebecca and I am delighted to assist you today.

First, I would like to advise that the charges on your bill are the result of partial-month billing, which occurs when a calling plan, promotional change, or disconnection is made during the billing cycle.

Partial-month billing is the process of calculating a daily amount for the calling plan access fee and allowance minutes.

In your case, since the service was disconnected during the bill cycle, the service fee and allowance minutes available for the specific days the service was active by multiplying the daily amount by the number of days in the billing cycle that you were on.

Upon the review of your account, I was able to determine all credits have already been applied to the account and the $55.83 is for the 55 billable minutes over the 800-minute allowance.

I would like to apologize, that at this time, no further credits are due.

It was such a great pleasure assisting you today and hope you have wonderful week. We value your business and appreciate the opportunity to continue as your wireless service provider. Thank you for using Verizon Wireless products and services. Should you have additional questions or concerns, please reply to this e-mail.

Sincerely,

Rebecca
Verizon Wireless
Customer Service


Original Message Follows:
------------------------
Dear Kelly,
Thank you for the additional credits to my bill. Also, thank you for recognizing that the original bill was totally in error. Though I appreciate the additional bill reduction of $56.00, the bill itself is not justified by any contractural language in my possession.

In your note, you do agree that the contract language I quote is correct "under normal circumstances". Then you go on to claim that my bill was handled differently because I ported my number out to a different wireless carrier. Not only is porting normal, but the language in my contract EXPRESSLY states the following about porting:

"You may be able to take your current wireless phone number to another service provider. This is called "porting"
and will also terminate our service to you for that number. If you request your new service provider to port a number from us, and we receive your request from that new service provider, we'll treat the request as notice from you to terminate our service for that number upon successful completion of porting. After the porting is completed, you won't be able to use our service for that number You'll remain responsible for any early termination fee, and for all fees and charges through the end of that billing cycle, just like any other termination."

Notice how it expressly states that fees and charges are owed through the end of that billing cycle, just like any other termination. So you see, I did cancel my service "under normal circumstances". Therefore, a discount from an invalid bill that still results in my paying double is not that great of a deal. I have been willing to pay for whatever I rightfully owe, but your company has now come up with three different amounts all based on a completely incorrect interpretation of the contract. I thought by quoting the contract this would be resolved quickly. I was wrong.

By my calculations, I exceeded my 800 minute contract by 55 minutes. At .45 per minute, this works out to a total bill of $24.75. I have expended $29.00 already in blocking your access to my checking account. By my accounting, that means you owe me $4.25.

Misunderstandings happen and I know that front line customer service representatives are limited in what they can offer. I expect better of you, Thomas and Joel. It has taken three letters for Verizon to acknowlege that the original bill was in error. Even now, the idea of a pro-rated month remains the basis for your calculations. I am tired of pointing out the verbiage of my contract that makess this claim baseless.

So here's the deal, I don't really care about the $4.25 anymore. I just want my relationship with your company to be over. If I have to make one more argument for a correct bill based on my contract, I'm going to spend my late night letter writing time communicating to an external audience. I need to see a final bill with a -0- Zero balance. You can keep the $4.25.

*********
Former Verizon Customer



AUGUST 6, 2007 EMAIL FROM VERIZON

-----Original Message-----
From: Verizon Wireless Customer Service MW
Sent: Monday, August 06, 2007 2:21 PM
To: *********
Subject: RE: Bill Charges

Dear **********,

Good afternoon, Mr. *****. I apologize for the delay in responding to your inquiry. My name is Kelly, and I am eager to address your concerns regarding the charges on your billing statement dated July 28, 2007. I am sorry that our previous response did not accurately address the issues you brought up.

First, I want to apologize for the lengthy email. I ask that you bear with me, and please read it in its entirety, as I do explain additional credits to your account near the end.

Under normal circumstances, you are correct when you say your service contract language states that terminations become effective on the LAST day of the billing cycle. Normally, when a customer requests to cancel their service, service is disconnected effective as of the date of their current billing cycle. In effect, they pay the full monthly access fee and are allotted the their full airtime allowance. Mr. *****, your account was handled a bit differently because you ported your numbers out to a different wireless carrier.

When you request a new service provider port any number from Verizon Wireless, we, in turn, receive your request from that new service provider and treat that as notice from you to terminate your service for that wireless number upon successful completion of the porting process.

Termination is effective on the date that the porting process is successfully completed, not at the end of your billing cycle. When changes such as this take place in the middle of your billing cycle, partial-month billing will occur.

I would like to take this opportunity now to review the history of your account since your June 3rd billing statement was generated.

June 3rd: Your billing statement generated, including your monthly access fees for service from June 4th through July 3rd.

June 27th: Wireless numbers 612 309-9395 and 612 810-9534 were ported to a different wireless carrier and your Verizon Wireless account was disconnected.

June 28th: A final billing statement was generated, including credit for service from June 28th (the day after your service was disconnected) through July 3rd (the last day of your billing cycle). Mr. ****, since your service was not active during this time and you had already been billed for it, we credited these charges back to you. So, you were only billed for service from June 4th through June 27th. Since your service was only active and charged for 24 days of service, you were allotted 640 minutes to use during that time. Our June 28th statement did not reflect any usage, as that would be reflected later on your July 28th statement.

July 28th: A revised final billing statement was generated, reflecting 855 Peak minutes used between your two lines from June 4th through June 27th.
You were billed $361.90 for all 855 Peak minutes. This was an error, Mr.
*****, as you should not have been billed for the 640 Peak minutes you were allotted (as I explained above). You should have only been billed $96.75 for the additional 215 minutes used (855-640= 215) (215 x $ .45 per minute= $96.75).

Thomas applied a credit in the amount of $265.15 to your wireless account.
He calculated the credit by subtracting $96.75 (for the additional 215
minutes) from the $361.90 that you were billed ($361.90-96.75= $265.15).

I have gone a step further for you, Mr. ***** and re-rated your June 28th and July 28th statements as if you paid for the full billing cycle (June 4th through July 3rd) and received the entire 800 Peak minutes. I applied an additional credit in the amount of $56.00 to your wireless account. Your revised balance is $55.83, which includes charges for the 55 minutes used in excess of your 800 minutes. Please note, the credits that Thomas and I applied will be adjusted to include the appropriate taxes on another revised billing statement.

I do see that you had been enrolled in Paperless Billing while your service was active with us; therefore, I have sent copies of your June 28th and July 28th statements to the address listed on your account.

I make it my personal goal to resolve all of your wireless concerns. I hope I have done that for you today. We appreciate your business and thank you for using Verizon Wireless. Should you have additional questions or feel your concerns are not resolved, please reply to this e-mail.

Sincerely,

Kelly
Verizon Wireless
Customer Service


Previous Reply Follows:
-----------------------
Dear Thomas,
Thank you for your apology, however you have done nothing to resolve my issue. It doesn't even look like you read my letter. You are merely repeating the previous rep's assertions. You are not addressing my point about Verizon's partial month revisionist practices. I have quoted my service contract language that states that terminations become effective on the LAST day of the billing cycle, yet you continue to prorate my contract, an interpretation that will cost me over $100.

By the way, if you had bothered to really check my account, you'd see that I do not receive a paper bill and you canceled my access to any billing information when the account was canceled. Therefore I can't really review the detail of my July 2007 account statement, can I?

I have requested a paper bill and will forward that bill and your recent correspondence to the State of Minnesota Attorney General's Consumer Division. I will also be sending the following message to Barbara Trinko, Jack Plating, and Verizon Customer Service. I attached the Word doc when responding last time, but it appears you block attachments. I'll include it here for your reading. I would still prefer to have this resolved before starting the process.



================MESSAGE======================
August 1, 2007
Barbara Trinko
VP of Customer Service
Verizon Wireless


Dear Ms. Trinko,

I have been a Verizon customer for years and out of contract since December 1, 2004. After finding no reasonable Verizon data plan available, I switched to Sprint on June 28, 2007. On July 1 I was notified by email of a credit on my Verizon Bill. Today, I received an email notice that I would be billed $376.98 (no explanation included).

Your Customer Service person, Lakisha, informed me that when I ported out to another company in the middle of my month, Verizon cancelled my contract and changed my billing for minutes already used to the full no-contract price.
She claimed the ability to do this is spelled out in my contract.

Besides the stain this leaves on my Verizon experience, I believe it is an incorrect (perhaps actionable) and unilateral interpretation of our contract. I have looked up and read the portion of my Customer Agreement titled, "Your Rights to Change or End Your Service; Termination Fees; Phone Number Portability" wherein it states,

"If you terminate your service as of the end of your minimum term, you won't be responsible for any remaining part of your monthly billing cycle.
Otherwise, all terminations by you during a monthly billing cycle become effective on the last day of that billing cycle. You'll remain responsible for all fees and charges incurred until then and won't be entitled to any partial month credits or refunds. You may be able to take your current wireless phone number to another service provider. This is called "porting"
and will also terminate our service to you for that number. If you request your new service provider to port a number from us, and we receive your request from that new service provider, we'll treat the request as notice from you to terminate our service for that number upon successful completion of porting. After the porting is completed, you won't be able to use our service for that number You'll remain responsible for any early termination fee, and for all fees and charges through the end of that billing cycle, just like any other termination."

There is NOTHING in that verbiage that mentions you have the ability to cancel the fee plan and retroactively charge me a higher fee for minutes used under that plan. YOUR verbiage clearly states that "terminations by you (me) during a monthly billing cycle become effective on the last day of that billing cycle". The Customer Agreement I have in my hands does not allow you to cancel my billing plan retroactively.

I have requested a paper bill be sent to me. When I receive that bill, I will be contacting the Minnesota Attorney General's Consumer Division with my contract, my bill, and my anger. I have already placed a stop payment on my auto pay checking agreement with Verizon (cost, $29.00) and I intend to make sure everyone I come into contact with finds out how Verizon throws a going away party for its long term customers. If your plan is to never, ever have a former customer return, this policy should accomplish that quite nicely.

If I hear from you or your assistant that this has all been a big mistake, of course I will not need to spend any additional time on this

***********
Former Verizon Customer
Cell: 612 ***-****
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Addressee List:
Barbara Trinko (Barbara.trinko@verizonwireless.com)
Cindy Granroos (cindy.granroos@verizonwireless.com)
Jack Plating (jack.plating@verizonwireless.com)
Customer Service (cs@verizonwireless.com) ===========END OF MESSAGE====================


AUGUST 3, 2007 EMAIL FROM VERIZON

-----Original Message-----
From: Verizon Wireless Customer Service MW [mailto:vzwkanaCustServiceMW@GL.Verizonwireless.com]
Sent: Friday, August 03, 2007 9:51 PM
To: ********
Subject: RE: Bill Charges

Dear ****** *****,

Good evening Mr. *****, my name is Thomas, and I am happy to assist you regarding the additional account and bank fee credits you have requested. I apologize for an concern this billing issue may have caused you.

Please review the detail of your July 2007 account statement; you will notice that the charges list the call usage from June 4th, the first day of your billing cycle through June 27th the date the service was canceled. The total number of peak minutes used is 855. As your service was discontinued prior to the end of the billing cycle, you were allotted a partial number of minutes for this period The adjustment you received is a credit for the 674 minutes that were available to you for this period minus the legitimate usage charges for the remaining 200+ minutes that were used. In addition, the representative who has assisted you previously cancelled your automatic payment per your request before your next payment was due to be pulled from your account.

I have thoroughly reviewed your account and all financial adjustments have previously been applied. The details of your previous adjustments are noted
and no further adjustments will be applied.

Thank you for giving us an opportunity to assist you today. We appreciate your business and thank you for using Verizon Wireless. Should you have additional questions or concerns, please reply to this e-mail.

Sincerely,

Thomas
Verizon Wireless
Customer Service

If you have received this e-mail in error or are not the intended recipient, please notify us immediately by replying to this e-mail and deleting it and all copies and backups thereof. If you are the intended recipient and are a Verizon Wireless customer, this response is subject to the terms of your Customer Agreement.


Original Message Follows:
------------------------
Dear Joel,
Thanks so much for responding to my problem. I do appreciate your attempt to fix this issue. I had a letter ready to send to Barbara Trinko and Jack Plating, but it would appear we can work this out via email.

Let me recap what I learned from your email. You have confirmed that I canceled my service while there was still time on my month's service. It is also clear that my phone service was discontinued and no calls were made past the normal end of the June billing cycle.

Though I appreciate the reduction in my charges, I am still convinced I am being overcharged. At issue is Verizon's interpretation that there can be "partial month billing". When I was told of the charges, the Verizon Customer Agreement was cited. I happen to have a copy of the agreement in force at the time I switched to Verizon, and there is quite a disconnect between the contract and what I am hearing from you. I have looked up and read the portion of my Customer Agreement titled, "Your Rights to Change or End Your Service; Termination Fees; Phone Number Portability" wherein it states,

"If you terminate your service as of the end of your minimum term, you won't be responsible for any remaining part of your monthly billing cycle.
Otherwise, all terminations by you during a monthly billing cycle become effective on the last day of that billing cycle. You'll remain responsible for all fees and charges incurred until then and won't be entitled to any partial month credits or refunds. You may be able to take your current wireless phone number to another service provider.

This is called "porting" and will also terminate our service to you for that number. If you request your new service provider to port a number from us, and we receive your request from that new service provider, we'll treat the request as notice from you to terminate our service for that number upon successful completion of porting. After the porting is completed, you won't be able to use our service for that number You'll remain responsible for any early termination fee, and for all fees and charges through the end of that billing cycle, just like any other termination."

There is no concept of "partial month billing" or pro-rated billing mentioned in the contract. In fact, our contract expressly states that termination of the contract only become effective on the last day of that billing cycle.

Therefore, the contract and pricing plan is in force through the full month.
Reducing my available minutes is clearly not an option. I paid for 800 minutes and I am billed in accordance with that plan. That means that if I used 855 peak minutes, I am only 55 minutes over my plan. By my accounting, I should pay peak billing for those additional 55 minutes and only owe
$24.75 in overage charges, not $96.75. If I include the $29.00 I just spent on issuing a stop payment on the account, you actually owe me $4.25.
Because I am not sure of the real billing perion I paid for on June 18th, I'll let you figure that out.

Please don't send a bill for $111.83 because your explanation of "partial month billing" will not work.

Though I need to thank you for making a very strong dent in my bill, I don't believe the new numbers are any more justified than the old ones. I am including the letter I was about to send to Trinko, Plating, and the Minnesota Attorney General's office. You seem like a resonable person who is honestly trying to resolve this issue. I look forward to getting a correct bill soon and not having to involve the aforementioned parties. I would also like to be reimbursed for the $29.00 expense of placing a stop payment on my checking account. Given the response I got from Lakisha, I needed to take action immediately to prevent the wrongful withdrawal from my account.

Thanks,

************


AUGUST 1, 2007 EMAIL FROM VERIZON

-----Original Message-----
From: Verizon Wireless Customer Service MW [mailto:vzwkanaCustServiceMW@GL.Verizonwireless.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2007 9:46 PM
To: **********
Subject: Re: Bill Charges

Dear **********,

Good evening. I apologize for the concern caused by the charges listed on your July 28th statement. My name is Joel, and I am eager to assist you regarding your request to adjust the billing for your account.

Per your request, I have cancelled your enrollment in the Automatic Payment Option.

I am unable to forward a credit balance refund for the $18.75 amount listed on your statement dated June 28th, as this amount was deducted from the balance due on your July 28th statement.

I have submitted a credit request to your account for the $265.15. This credit will appear on your next billing statement and will include an additional adjustment for taxes if applicable. This credit adjustment is equal to the entire usage charge billed on your July statement of $361.90 minus the actual usage of $96.75. Your revised balance of $111.83 is due on or before August 23rd.

The following is an explanation of the charges to your account.

The July 28th statement reflects the usage on your account from the previous billing cycle, June 4th through the date of disconnect June 27th. This usage was not included on the statement dated June 28th. Regrettably, this usage was not attached to your previous calling plan causing your account to be billed for all peak minutes.

Your total Peak minute usage during this period was 855 minutes. Since your service was disconnected on the 27th you would experience partial month billing for this period. Partial-month billing is the process of calculating a daily amount for your calling plan access fee and allowance minutes.

We determine the service fee and allowance minutes available for the specific days you were on the previous calling plan by multiplying the daily amount by the number of days in the billing cycle that you were on.

Your bill cycle was from the fourth of each month through the third of the following month, however your service was disconnected on the 27th. Sine your service was active for 24 days of your billing cycle, you received a credit for the remaining six days of service and allotted 640 Peak minutes.
As you exceed the partial-month allowance of minutes for the previous plan during the specific days you were charged a service fee for that plan by 215 minutes, you should have been charged the per-minute rate of your previous plan. The per-minute rate for your previous calling plan was $0.45. 215 minutes at $0.45 is $96.75.

We appreciate your business and thank you for using Verizon Wireless products and services. Should you have additional questions or concerns, please reply to this e-mail.

Sincerely,

Joel
Verizon Wireless
Customer Service

'If you terminate your service as of the end of your minimum term (This mean at the end of your contract, since you didn't have a contract, then you fall under the month to month basis, It means you have a contract until the end of the month like a rent), you won't be responsible for any remaining part of your monthly billing cycle.(Because you will be disconnected right?) Otherwise, all terminations by you during a monthly billing cycle become effective on the last day of that billing cycle. (If you billing cicle ends on the 8th of the month, and you call on the first to cancel, then the disconnection will be effective on the 8th, get it?) You'll remain responsible for all fees and charges incurred until then and won't be entitled to any partial month credits or refunds. (This is where it gets a little hard.. keep up with me, if you have a plan of 900 minutes, it means that you divided the 900 / 30 days = 30 mins per day, so if you have 20 days already in your cycle and you cancel, you have the right only to use 600 mins. But if by that day you have 650 mins, it means you went over by 50 mins and Verizon will charge for the difference. So, if there is a partial month credit, since Verizon charge ahead one month, you will loose that money because most likely it will be used to cover the overages. In the other hand, if you only had 500 mins used, it means you brake even, since Verizon will not care if you didn't use your mins, but you will get any partial month credit.) You may be able to take your current wireless phone number to another service provider. This is called 'porting' and will also terminate our service to you for that number. (So, read above and keep in mind, if you request a portout, it means that another company ask Verizon to cancel your service and terminate any contract in your behalf and if they didn't in the middle of the cycle.. then you know what will happen with the partial month I explain early)If you request your new service provider to port a number from us, and we receive your request from that new service provider, we'll treat the request as notice from you to terminate our service for that number upon successful completion of porting. After the porting is completed, you won't be able to use our service for that number You'll remain responsible for any early termination fee, and for all fees and charges through the end of that billing cycle, just like any other termination.'

The rest is clear. But of course you are talking about data plans, internet services and I agree with you, it's very expensive but nice to have it.

Data is even harder to explain, so, mins is easy, once you port out Verizon measure your used and see that you were way over the limit you should be as of the day you port out.
As you said, when you call, you will get a customer service rep and you will bully them and they will give you some credit. As you said it, you did it 3 times. Next time, try taking to a supervisor and explain the whole things with calm and negotiate with them, I'm sure they will let you go half and half on the rest of the bill. After all, you did use the service and they are not charging you for anything that you didn't used. That will be against the law. And since they have not break any laws, this must be the reason why you are not getting any respond from Minnesota Attorney General's office or any other posting. The only thing I really don't like about you is that as you said it, you went 3 ROUNDS, it sound to me that you are not a very nice person when you call in. and I know that a NICE customer will get further than a Angry customer.