Verizon Wireless Lied about Contract Extension, 500 bonus minutes, and phone upgrade Elgin, Illinois

@jaycarney85

The date on my VW account page said that I was not eligible for a "New Every Two"upgrade until January, 2011. I was not eligible until then because I had placed the contract on hold a couple times because I was having trouble paying the phone bill. Apparently I was eligible for an upgrade as of May, 2010, (two years after I originally signed the contract) but I was under the impression that it was a special advertisement from VW, as the website still listed my upgrade date as of January, 2011.

The deal that I agreed to, as described by the representative was this:

I was agreeing to let VW hold an offer open where I would go into a VW store, buy a new phone at the two year contract price, which would extend my contract by one year effective when I purchased the new phone, and I would get 500 bonus minutes for doing so. Nothing more, nothing less. From how she stated it, the reason for the call was the phone upgrade at a great price and a great contract duration, not for the 500 bonus minutes alone.

What was described to me was an option contract, in that they would hold the offer open to me and I could accept or reject within a reasonable time frame. (Although I never agreed to pay VW any amount of money to hold the new phone contract open.)

I did not agree to purchasing a new phone or signing a new contract. What I agreed to was for them to hold this deal open to me. Thus, the only contract I verbally signed was an option contract.

And I do see that keeping a customer who consistently is late on paying their bills helps their bottom line with late fees, but I see signing people like me on for longer contracts for the purpose of obtaining more late fees (and early termination fees) as a predatory practice, as the likelyhood of someone who cannot pay their phone bill terminating their contract early is somewhat higher than what people who pay their bills on time would be.

@spc3rd

According to the VW rep I have contacted, she did not talk to the person who talked to me or listened to any recording of our conversation. I asked her why she didn't do either, and she responded by saying that she is sorry that her reporting isn't up to my standards, but that's just VW's policy on this sort of thing. So, either there was not a recording made, they are purposely not listening to it, or it was deleted as it wasn't until months later that I found out about them falsely signing me into a contract. They apparently do know who it was who signed me onto the one-year contract, but even though I wrote about it in my original complaint to them, the rep seemed surprised when I told her it was the agent who called me, so apparently either she skimmed over my original complaint or she legitimately forgot who signed me onto the contract. (But that's kind of beside the point.)

I can now talk to them through Google Phone and record the conversation using this handy voice recorder I just bought a month ago, but I much preferred to talk to them through the BBB, but that has failed, so if complaining to Corporate does nothing, I guess I'll have to record it.

And I'm in Minnesota, so only one party has to agree to the recording, which would be me.

And the phone conversation just to find out what exactly happened with the 500 minute contract upgrade, the contract end date before the 500 minute contract, and the date I could terminate my contract with no fee (September, 2010) took up at least an hour. The countless reps I spoke to (and the final very, very nice and considerate one) finally helped me find out much of what went wrong, but no one seemed to know what was going on at all.

Thanks for the tips!

@some guy

Thanks for clarifying the reasoning behind the bonus minutes.

The main problem I have with what they did is that I never once went over the allotted minutes on my phone except for when I was on their special "Please Stay!" plan where I paid $40, got unlimited internet, and 50 minutes (after that it was 50 cents a minute). Thus, having the phone active for almost two years and never once going over the 300 anytime and unlimited In and Night & Weekend minutes, I had no reason to sign onto bonus minutes that forced me to stay paying a bill I couldn't afford in the first place.

@morgan

I'm sorry I was apparently misunderstood when it came to the contract duration.

What I was trying to get at was I would get a new phone at the two-year contract price while only signing on for an additional year from the purchase date of the phone and getting 500 bonus minutes out of it. Thus, my new contract would end one year after I purchase the new phone.

And, as previously mentioned, this was presented to me as an option contract, in which VW agreed to hold an offer open to me for a reasonable period and I could either accept or deny it at any time. I even asked the representative, "If I don't purchase a new phone, will I still be signed onto an additional year?" Her response was clearly, "No." At the end of the conversation, after I double and triple checked that I had all the information correct, she then said she was putting the 500 bonus minutes on my phone. I then asked her if that would extend my contract at all, and she said it would not. (The call lasted about ten minutes because I always make sure I know what I'm signing - seriously, I'm the guy who reads the entire product replacement/service plan contract before even considering buying one.) Thus, I was lied to, either through ignorance, on accident, or on purpose.

And I did not use a single bonus minute. On my final bill from VW, it still said I had 500 bonus minutes available on my phone from the one and only bonus minute plan placed on my phone.

And I constantly checked my usage to make sure I didn't go over, because I don't want to pay 50 cents a minute, especially since I could just use a Virgin Mobile phone and pay 10 cents a minute if I did get up to the 300 any-time minute mark.

And if I am whining about being lied to a company, then I guess every single person on this website is a whiner as well, so I would much rather be a whiner than a person getting screwed by a company and paying as many fees as they would like me to pay.

So, everyone, by signing me into a contract without my knowledge (I was told that the 500 bonus minutes would not extend my contract at all, thus implying it was not a contract, and it was separate from the option contract as described to me.) and lying to me about the terms of the contract, makes the contract null and void, as I never accepted the contract that was described to me at a later date.

I hope this clears a couple things up.

The 500 bonus min is for idiots that constantly go over their allowance of minutes and refuse to change their calling plan and then complain about the overage charges. You also receivea confirmation package explaining what you agreed to. You also make it sound like a 3 year contract when in fact there is nothing and has never been anything over a 2 year contract. So keep paying and complaining, you probably used your 500 minutes in a one month period of time of overages, and of course will still complain. There are several ways to check your usage but I doubt you use any of them. You are a whiner.

Only the two people on that call know what was said that day for sure. I have personally made hundreds of these calls myself as a former Verizon sales rep. The purpose of the call is to get a customer to renew there agreement. One year, in exchange the customer will receive 500 bonus min for use in the event they go over there minutes.

The part that makes this a good deal is the customer still retains the original upgrade eligibility date. If they than go into a store to upgrade for a two year contract, it's two years from that date, not two years plus the one year that got you the bonus minutes.
     
It's just bonus minutes for the customer who was not planning on switching or canceling service. The only victim in this policy (if understood by everyone involved) is the sales rep in the store that ends up selling the phone to the bonus min recipient, because commission is only paid for a contract that is within 4 months of its end date. (that's how it worked when I was there 1 year ago) 

As most people are probably aware...with most of the big wig companies like Verizon, when you get on the automated system, they will usually at some point, tell you that your call may be recorded for "training or customer service supervision reasons."

Since your biggest problem seems to be in convincing Verizon of the misleading info their reps have been giving you...why not set up your phone (or purchase one) so you have the capability of recording every conversation you have with their reps?

Just make sure you advise them before the conversation begins that you are recording the conversation for your records.  I would even go so far as to get a small mini-tape recorder you can carry on your person to record all in-person conversations you have with Verizon reps at the stores you visit.  Again, making certain that the name of the rep you're speaking with is also recorded along with the date and time.

Just a suggestion...and maybe...it may ultimately help your case with them.  One other thing you might consider is sending a certified letter (return receipt request) to Verizon's Corporate offices detailing all the hassle and problems you've been having & that your problems have not been resolved.  Contest the early termination fee on that basis.

A few years ago I did this exact thing after having really horrendous experiences with Verizon over its phone and Internet services (mainly lack of adequate tech support).  I made it clear that I did not consider it appropriate that I have to pay the $175.00 early termination fee after all the time expended on the phone trying to obtain satisfactory service & resolution of the problems I was having with them.  (Which were never resolved, by the way).  The ETF was waived and I acquired service with a better provider.

 Either your dates are seriously off or you have a misunderstanding of what was explained to you. You say that you agreed to a deal that included buying a new phone that you say you knew would extend your contract a year out. Then you are surprised when 3 months later, you try and cancel your service. I do not understand this at all. Could you maybe clarify?

And also, your logic regarding keeping a poor paying customer just make you look bad and do nothing to help your point. VW is happy. You continued making your payments, although a month or two late, and they happily tacked on multiple late fees I'm sure. I don't see why they wouldn't want to keep you as a customer.