Verizon Wireless Latest Scam Unauthorized Cell Phone Data Charges Basking Ridge New Jersey

I have had my Motorola Q, which is a smartphone I'm told, for 3 years this week.  I have a voice plan with pay as you use text plan & internet plan.   I barely use 200 voice minutes each month and have been considering switching to a pay as you go voice phone since it would be even cheaper for my use.  (I lost my job and I'm looking for ways to cut back - I rarely use my cell phone since I am home 95% of the time)

I am being billed fraudulent charges this week - billing me for "data usage" of around 2200 minutes which is about 36 hours of this usage over a weeks period.  That's almost being on it for a 40 hour work week!  I think I've played that 'jewel' game that came with my phone for 15 minutes straight once.

Two days ago I was told by customer service this was not internet or texting, but data downloading.  Today they're telling me I surfed the internet with my Moto Q... 36 hours of surfing? (the bill shows this surfing occurred a few times while I was talking on the phone & verified by my bill and many hours of surfing occurred while I was sound asleep in my bed!!)

My husband has a company blackberry that is free to use if I wanted to surf the internet for hours at a time with such a small device, and I have high speed internet for home use!  I have dated & timed emails that confirm I was using my home computer during the time I'm being billed for 'surfing' on my Moto Q for 4 hours. 

My next step is the Attorney General for WA State and the local TV personality that handles consumer complaints about injustice ... I am not a flake and my bills are paid on time, I am not sitting around waiting for collections to ruin my credit since I'm not paying - especially for a feature that can't be verified and benefits only Verizon.  I am emailing customer service every day while documenting the various reasons they are giving me for these erroneous charges.

I too work in the wireless industry and am a huge advocate of customer service. I agree with those above me who have stated that sometimes you have to tell a customer what they don't want to hear and this doesn't necessarily constitue poor customer service......

That being said, I also have to make a comment about the flat out disrespectful customer service reps who work at Verizon. Like I said, I am in the wireless sales industry. Matter of fact, I happen to be a store manager for a wireless company. I carry a BlackBerry Curve as my personal phone. I recently purchased one for my wife for use on our Verizon account. I called Verizon customer care and was told that even though I didn't purchase this phone directly from them I still had to carry the BlackBerry internet package. When I disputed this point (I have a number of customers who carry a BlackBerry Curve on our service without the BB internet package) I was told by the Verizon Wireless customer service rep that "maybe the BlackBerry was just too advanced for me!"

First of all, I don't care what you say, you NEVER talk down to a customer! NEVER...... When I asked tto speak with this persons supervisor I was told "no, you can talk to me." Once again I was shocked..... So again I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told I would not get any firther than her!

I hung up and called back. This time I ended up in the section of thier automated system that allows me to choose the department I would like to speak with via the voice recognition system. I said I would like to speak with "the cancellation department." This time the lady I spoke with was very polite but backed up the "data package policy" of Verizon Wireless. Her excuse was that I HAD to have this package in order to avoid exessive data charges. When I told her that was a bogus response as I work in the wireless industry and know for a fact this is not true as I know multiple people who use a BB without the data package on the network I sell. She responded that she could not compare services.

My point is that I understand the value of customer service and I understand that policies are put in place and need to be enforced. However, vallid reasons can be given for these polices without being disrespectful. In addition, the only point that seems to be consitent amoung these reports is that Verizon Wireless Customer service reps work unsupervised as you can never speak with a supervisor.

As a supervisor, I take pride in talking with my customers and asssiting in situations. Sometimes a customer just doesn't belive a customer service rep but if the supervisor comes in and says the same thing backing up the CSR the customer feels comforted and can appreciate what they are being told.

I believe the person who said that the larger you become, the colder you get is right on the money!

I second that......

Nick, I'm sorry to hear about your problems with Verizon. I wanted to respond to the whole situation by mentioning that I work for the consumer advocacy division of the company Validas, where we electronically audit and subsequently reduce the average cell bill by 22 percent through our website, http://www.fixmycellbill.com. Put simply, Validas guards against frivolous and unnecessary charges that inflate your wireless bill more than it should be for your usage. You can find out for free if fixmycellbill.com can modify your plan to better suit your needs by going to the website.

For more info, check out Validas in the media, most recently on Fox News at http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/consumer/conlaw/lower_cell_phone_bills_072409.

Good luck on keeping your Verizon costs down in the future.

Dylan
Consumer Advocacy, FixMyCellBill.com

Okay without going into the CS issues there do seem to be some holes in the original post, and hopefully the OP will update this.

1. Why did you get a Smartphone without knowing all of the services available. A couple of years ago the average "Smartphone" was in the $200+ rage(at a minimum depending on the phone) even with the discounts for contracts. You could have gotten a more basic phone that had text capability for less than 1/2 of that price.

2. Is it a set $70 a month? If so it could be a data plan. But in looking at their plans I could not find any near $70, they were either about $20-$30 less or about $20-$30 more. If it is not a set amount you are now somehow now accessing the data side of the smartphone and being charged a fee for each MB you are downloading. This could include setting up actual internet e-mail, accessing web features such as a browswer or other apps.

3. Have you tried going into an actual Verizon Store(not an authorized reseller)? They may be able to explain and help you a bit more instead of someone on a phone. If you do have something on the phone "turned on", they may be able to show you how to turn it off.

If I worked for them, I wouldn't admit it either.

I had the same thing happen to me when talking to verizon custome service. No person above the one you talk to. Guess they just work unsuprevised.....

who is the verizon person responding to the complaints? Give us a real person or number to call with some power to correct our problems!

1. Customer service is not giving the customer everything they want. Good customer service consists of treating all customers using the same set of rules for consistency, and taking repsonsibility to fix errors made by the company. It also includes educating the customer, something the VZW excels at.

2. VZW has the BEST CS in the cellular industry. The numbers don't lie in this.

3. I NEVER stated I was in their employee. Stop saying I work for them. You have no idea if I do or not. However, I do know policy and procedures for more than one cell company. So What? That doesn't mean I'm employed but ANY of them.

4. The truth hurts, but sometimes customers need to be told the truth. Today I had a $1300 claim for medical expenses denied. I felt it was justified, the insurance company said it wasn't. Do I consider this to be bad Customer Service? NO. They treated me fairly and explained why no money was due. It sucks but it's fair and consistent, the hallmark of Good CS.

I would not use the BBB but, you asked for it.

I don't care how many customers are complaining, the fact that your unprofessional behavior toward any customer (calling the names) is an example of the way Verizon wireless does business then, I would never become a customer.

In any business a customer is king, and sometimes it becomes nothing short of painful to deal with their problems, this is called 'customer service' ever heard of it?

When a business gets too big and cold and begins to lose pride in itself, that's when they start treating people badly and calling them names. You are an employee and your actions reflect on your business.

589 reports
80,000,000 customers
That is 0.00073625 % of their customer base, statistically insignifcant.

Of course if you throw out all they bellyachers issuing false complaints (a large number here) that statistic shrinks even more.

589 reports
80,000,000 customers
That is 0.00073625 % of their customer base, statistically insignifcant.

Of course if you throw out all they bellyachers issuing false complaints (a large number here) that statistic shrinks even more.

589 reports
80,000,000 customers
That is 0.00073625 % of their customer base, statistically insignifcant.

Of course if you throw out all they bellyachers issuing false complaints (a large number here) that statistic shrinks even more.

"598 ROR against Verizon wireless and counting!"

Considering that Verizon has millions of customers and I'm sure some of the 598 complaints are bogus, this is an amazingly trivial number.

Statisitics need to put in perspective before they mean anything.

598 ROR against Verizon wireless and counting!

How do I know you are telling lies?

1) VZW employees do not have "badge" numbers. They do have employee IDs but would NEVER give them out. They may give you their AspectID, but that is not the number of digits you are quoting.

2) They would never tell you a supervisor is unavailable and hang up. If a supv is not available, then they would offer to set up a callback within a certain time frame. By the way, what do you think a supervisor is going to do? They have to follow the same rules as the floor reps so you still would not get any money back.

3) There is no way you would be allowed to stay on hold for 30 minutes and no rep would ever consider it. It's not like those phones have multiple inbound lines so they can't continue to take calls while you are holding. They also have to watch their average call handle time and you being on hold for 30 minutes would be akin to suicide for that rep - NOBODY would do that.

4) Nobody would tell you what the charges were for. This is total BS. That is the first thing they WOULD attempt to tell you. Now maybe you didn't understand them, but don't put that on the rep.

You know what? This sounds to me like you were on an American Choice II plan and recently upgraded to a NWBasic or Select plan. America's Choice plan billed data as minutes, but Nationwide plasn below the Connect level bill it as Megabytes aggregated for the month then billed at $1.99/Mb. If you truly have a smart phone then you are using lots of data. Before it was probably pulling minutes off your plan so you didn't pay attention to how much data you were using, but now it is billing MB and not as minutes so you now seeing the data equate to more $$. Tough. This was told to you when you changed the plan (it is required to provide Clear Disclosure and flashes on the screen with a checklist that must be accomlished before they can begin the plan change).

So suck it up, pay it up, and find a way to cover your data usage. That's pretty easy, actually. You can move up to a Connect or Premium level plan that includes unlimited data usage, place a $15 VPAK on your line or add a smartphone feature for $29.99 that covers your data. Any of those is cheaper than your price quote and will stop you bitching about a problem that you created.