MCI Long Distance Complete Buffoonery! Trying to charge for Calls NOT made from my phone! Santa Barbara California

My sister and I used to be housemates. She moved out on Dec 1 and moved in w/ her boyfriend. The phone was in her name, Verizon is our local, and she had MCI long distance. I wanted to keep the same number, but she needed to keep her account, so she had it completely shut off, and gave Verizon permission to give me the phone number. I had it reinstated in my name, with the plan I wanted and I choose Verizon as my long distance carrier as well. No problem so far.

We have a family member in a correctional facility, and he needs to be able to call us collect. Suddenly, I hadn't heard from him in over a month, and asked my sister if she had. Yes, and he told her he supposed I didn't want to hear from him anymore as there was now a block placed on my phone.

I called Verizon, I'd never asked for a block. They said it was comming from MCI. Well what authority did they have to be placing blocks on my phone? First I found out that they have my phone number still listed under my sister. Better yet, they claim to have long distance charges well into Feb. This is not right I explained that the phone number in question was now mine, and was on a completely different account. I have called them 5 times at 5 different numbers, each time I've been placed on hold for 25+ minutes. Every department, when I finally get through says its not them, its another department that has generated the block.

Finally last night, after being on the phone for (and I am not making this up) 2 hours, I got through to a department that said yes they had placed the block (still don't know WHY!) and that I could not remove it as I was not listed on the account - I would have to call customer service to straighten this out (they were the ones who transfered me to this woman!). So I get transfered back to customer service, explain the whole thing AGAIN - she wanted to know if I knew my sis's SSN - no, why would I - could I get in touch with her? - she will be in Spain for the next 3 weeks, and this is MCI's fault, not mine, so I don't want to wait another 3 weeks and can't you just call Verizon and verify that this number in fact belongs to me? - yes, but Verizon is closed, can we call you tomorrow? - yes - can you be reached at 844-xxxx? - NO, because that is my SISTER'S number! The same sister that you claim owns MY number! - what is the number you are calling about? - for the 400th time its 692-xxxx!!! - oh, yes she is listed on both accounts, and this does seem to be our error. - YOU THINK?!

As I write this, I still have to wait for MCI to call me today, so that we can call Verizon, and verify that fact that I have my phone number. In the meantime, I still have a block on my phone, and charges which are not mine, and in fact have been billed both to my house and my sisters house. I have never been, and will never be a customer of MCI.

Angela
Santa Barbara, California
U.S.A.