verizon and there deceptive billing practices??

[tino]

I recently signed up Me and my wife with verizon, my problem is every month my bill is way over! one month its for text messages which i have a plan but get billed as though i do not, this month i am 90$ over again, rep tried telling me i changed my plan on the fourth and my plan was prorated and i went over 176 min....First off i called and changed my plan on the 2nd ( 1st day of my billing cycle ) and neither me or my wife went over...me 903 daytime my wife like 30 min....Has anyone else had billing issues like this with Verizon? this keeps up and i leave pay the cancel

[MOTOhooligan]

Without being specifically acquainted with your rate plan, usage, features and bills I would say that you should probably go to the Verizon store or dealer where you purchased service and become intimately familiar with your billing plan. I would say that probably you have exceeded your peak minutes or have used roaming or long distance not included in your rate plan. With the text messages a lot of times, with introductory rate plans you get a feature which allows you to send text messages but you are charged for them. This is done, I think to let people try them and only pay a small fee if they use only a few. Then the people who want to have more included in their rate plan can purchase a package deal for a set monthly amount. I think you'll find that once you know what you have and what the limits of your rate plan are you can either use it more efficiently or change to a rate plan which better suits your needs. I'm not sure what Verizon's downgrade policy is but I'm sure if you need to upgrade your rate plan to give your wife and yourself more minutes each month Verizon probably isn't going to care.

[tino]

Im on a 59.99$ Shared Digital choice plan add second line for 20$...My line has a promtion web 4.99 with 100 free alerts/text......I was charged 173 minutes over when i know i didnt go over, i use the #min send feature to check minutes,i know its not exact but theres no way i used that much..the night before my new billing cycle ended i had used 785 min and my wife used 183 = 968 so i dont see how im being over? only thing i can think of is my 200 bonus minute promotion to my 59.99 plan giving me 1000 anytime instead of 800 isnt showing....I dont know, i just got off the phone with them trying to figure out now why im being charged 8$ for text when its part of my promotion 4.99 plan its reguarly 6.99 for web and text/alerts.....Rep is trying to tell me that my 4.99 web doesnt come with free alerts when ive been credited the last two months by reps who are telling me i do have alerts/text with my web promo......I cancelled 7 years ago for this sort of thing and now i maybe firing them again......

[NYCDru]

Originally posted by: tino
Im on a 59.99$ Shared Digital choice plan add second line for 20$...My line has a promtion web 4.99 with 100 free alerts/text......I was charged 173 minutes over when i know i didnt go over, i use the #min send feature to check minutes,i know its not exact but theres no way i used that much..the night before my new billing cycle ended i had used 785 min and my wife used 183 = 968 so i dont see how im being over? only thing i can think of is my 200 bonus minute promotion to my 59.99 plan giving me 1000 anytime instead of 800 isnt showing....I dont know, i just got off the phone with them trying to figure out now why im being charged 8$ for text when its part of my promotion 4.99 plan its reguarly 6.99 for web and text/alerts.....Rep is trying to tell me that my 4.99 web doesnt come with free alerts when ive been credited the last two months by reps who are telling me i do have alerts/text with my web promo......I cancelled 7 years ago for this sort of thing and now i maybe firing them again......

Ok, first of all, the $59.99 plan from verizon is 800 minutes INCLUDING the 100 bonus minutes. Copy paste the link, you will see.

http://www.verizonwireless.com/ics/p...p_section=SHOP

In order to check your minutes used on the plan you need to #646 on BOTH phones, get the peak ussage, and then ADD the numbers. It looks like you did that already though.

night before my new billing cycle ended i had used 785 min and my wife used 183 = 968 so i dont see how im being over?

You used 968 minutes on an 800 minute plan. Thats why you are over. My recomendation is to either watch your minute ussage better or get a higher level plan.

Remeber, family plans, NO MATTER WHAT COMPANY YOU ARE WITH, tend to be confusing and require extra attention to detail.

[tino]

I have a Promotional DIGITAL choice shared plan...59.99 plan 800min plus 200 bonus so 1000 anytime minutes/ 1000 mobile to mobile with unlimited Nights/weekends .....Your referring to the AMERICAS choice shared with 800 and 100 bonus.....

[NYCDru]

Originally posted by: tino
I have a Promotional DIGITAL choice shared plan...59.99 plan 800min plus 200 bonus so 1000 anytime minutes/ 1000 mobile to mobile with unlimited Nights/weekends .....Your referring to the AMERICAS choice shared with 800 and 100 bonus.....

If you mean this plan:

http://www.verizonwireless.com/ics/p...=PLANS_PRICING

Thenyou need to call customer service and tell them look, i am on this promotional plan but i am not getting the promotion, whats the deal?

[Gamer03]

tino, here is some information direct from Verizon Wireless:

Only one user can be on a primary plan and the other(s) must be on a secondary line. All lines must be activated on the same billing account. All lines on the account will share Monthly Allowance Minutes of primary plan. In some markets, Monthly Home Airtime Allowance Minutes apply to the primary line first at the end of the billing cycle. If there are allowance minutes left over, they will be applied to the secondary line(s) based on the next highest user. In other markets, Monthly Home Airtime Allowance Minutes will be applied depending on first usage. Monthly Home Airtime Minutes may not be carried over to the next billing cycle.

You originally posted this:

I have a Promotional DIGITAL choice shared plan...59.99 plan 800min plus 200 bonus so 1000 anytime minutes/ 1000 mobile to mobile with unlimited Nights/weekends .....Your referring to the AMERICAS choice shared with 800 and 100 bonus.....

From what I understand according to Verizon, you and your wife will each have 500 minutes/month plus the mobile-to-mobile and the n&w's.

So technically you went over 285 minutes on your plan, so it looks like you might have to pay the charges.

I would still talk to cs and see what happens.

I might not be correct, so anyone with more information can back me up.

Hope this helps.


Gamer

[tino]

To my understanding we do not both have 500 we have a 1000 min bucket to share but it shouldnt be equal shares 500 for me 500 for her..it should be first one to use the minutes up because i use the bulk of that 1000! and if thats the case goodbye verizon!

[tino]

I just called CS and found out that we have 1000 minutes to share daytime between us not 500 apiece....so if i used 850 of the 1000 that would still leave 150 to me or my wifes line....I will find out more in detail of my so called overage later this week when my bills available for viewing...my balance already is available i just cannt break it down til then, but i know this is way wrong!

[NYCDru]

Originally posted by: tino
I just called CS and found out that we have 1000 minutes to share daytime between us not 500 apiece....so if i used 850 of the 1000 that would still leave 150 to me or my wifes line....I will find out more in detail of my so called overage later this week when my bills available for viewing...my balance already is available i just cannt break it down til then, but i know this is way wrong!

Keep us posted as to how things go ok.

[Airb330]

Good luck! I have been very pleased with Verizon's CS, plans, and billing, but not their network lately! Opposite of everyone else it seems.

[MOTOhooligan]

Definitly make sure that they're giving you everything they told you they would and good luck. Let us know how it turns out.

[tino]

O.k. Im back i finally got my bill generated online so i could view it....wow Verizon's billing system is really screwed up! they basically charged me for some Night/weekend minutes...Rep stated it looked like my promotions were coded wrong...theres a shocker i went through this already with my text messaging promo 2 months in a row...She came back with a 30$ credit off my 191.00 balance , i had gone over 100 min?? i added my line and my wifes line minute use according to her and i was still under 1000 minutes...She said oh you have 1000 not 800 whoops , again not recognizing my 200 bonus minute promo added giving me 1000 shared daytime...she eventually issued me a 97.05 credit bringing my actual monthly to a respectable amount...She gave me her direct line if i needed her for anything in the future(That was nice)...Im still nervous going forward i havent had a bill yet from Verizon (3 Months) that wasnt screwd up in some way shape or form, but there willingness to take care of it has been very good, if i didnt check my bills add and subtract amounts with them on the phone going thru it with me i would have been raked over the coals...anyway a happy ending for now....

[NYCDru]

Well it has resolved itself nicely for you. Thanx for keeping us posted. Keep reading the forums too.

[Airb330]

I would ask for a courtesy credit of 15$ or so next time, if it happens. You are wasting time on something you shouldn't have to. Worst thing they can do is say no.

[MOTOhooligan]

That's a problem I have. I don't have a direct line that customers can reach me at because I just get call after call and we're usually pretty busy. There are a lot of people with complicated problems or with things that have just been screwed up and screwed up and screwed up over and over again until it takes someone meticulous like me to scrutinize their bill & account and actually take the 30-40 minutes to correct the problem. Most reps just look at the obvious and ignore the small details. But since I don't have a direct line if that customer ever has the same or a similar problem I'd like to have them contact me directly so I can help them and prevent them from cancelling... but I don't. My problem is that I ignore the obvious and get lost in the details sometimes. That and when I get graded on my calls they say I don't connect with the customer. I think that's funny. I try to be professional on every call but sometimes I just can't connect with idiots. (not you Tino, you had a very legitimate complaint.) I mean people who don't listen to anything I'm telling them and refuse to accept my explaination of what is going on with their account and what they have on their account. They always say, "Well that's not what the dealer told me when I signed up," and I want to tell them, "That's because dealers lie because they want a comission. I don't work on comission so I will tell you the truth," but I can't because I would be fired and that would suck because I like my job, dispite the amount of time I spend complaining about annoying customers. (Most of them are okay) But I digress... Congratulations on getting your problem fixed, Tino.

[tino]

Thanks, im pretty happy about it=) tell next time...hopfully not....

[NYCDru]

Rancid...we like your kind round here, we realy do. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[Rebguy2]

Rancid, I have to agree with you! If we can take the time to figure out what is wrong and fix it or explain to the customer what is going on the first time it will just keep customers from having to call back, getting more p.o.'ed each time, until they finally get it taken care of. True, call control time may suffer somewhat, but we'll have happier customers in the end who want to stay with us. Of course, we also have the more "challenging customers" (trying to be polite here) who won't be happy unless they have unlimited anytime minutes, a free phone every 12 months (or sooner if a new "cool" phone comes out), all for under $50 a month! I'm sure all carriers have those customers. It amazes me how many people call in at least once a month who already have retention plans that are almost giveaways of service and credits for new phones within the last six months, wanting to know why we can't "do" more for them since they are such "loyal" customers. Of course, most customers are not like that, and I really do enjoy my job too, especially when I really get to help someone out. I've never seen a Verizon bill and I don't know how confusing they are, but I believe Sprint really needs to streamline their bills; if Verizon's are anything like it I can understand why the average consumer would be confused.

[MOTOhooligan]

Preaching to the choir, my man, preaching to the choir. I work in the Resolution Desk here at CellularONE which is the dept. that tries to stem churn. They pretty much give us free reign as far as call control time because if we save a customer it doesn't matter how long we take. Even when I was in billing it didn't seem as though that many calls were long and involved so my average call control time was always within the guidelines. I think that the really long calls when you fix everything that is wrong with a customer's account or get them on a rate plan that better suits their needs and send them brochures and make sure that they understand everything about their account, those are the most rewarding. The calls I find amusing are the ones where I spend five minutes looking through the bill and the minute details on the account to try and find why the customer is being billed for overage I know to be incorrect and then finding that it's something stupid like the night and weekend minutes weren't added to the account. Something that I could have corrected in 5 seconds. You're right, there are always customers who think that they are "loyal" customers who deserve more than they've already gotten when they've only been on service for 8 months and were suspended for non-payment for 2 of those months and they lost their phone because they don't think it could possibly be expensive because we gave it to them for free so when I tell them that it will be $125 or more to replace their phone they freak out. Good times. It seems that most of the people that I talk to during the day are either really, really young or really, really old. Old Texans, I seem to talk to old Texans all the time. They all sound like Boomhauer on King of the Hill. "Dang 'ol man dang 'ol Hank Hill, man... gotta dang 'ol cell phone, man... roaming charges."

[Rebguy2]

That's coincidental, I was getting a lot of calls tonight from Texas! Had a couple of older men, it took me about 10 minutes to explain to one why his bill was right, he had been prorated for part of the month and then billed for the month in advance on an add-a-sub. I also had a lot of kids making crank calls tonight for some reason, I guess they were calling in from their parent's phones or something, but they hung up pretty quick when I asked them to verify if the ESN that was showing up on my screen was correct! I'm a regular customer service specialist for Sprint, and I haven't been there long so I do have to watch my call control; it usually isn't a problem, but there are some nights that I just can't seem to get people off the phone. We have retention teams at our call center too, but I'll have to put in a little more time before I get to go to one of those teams. I have to say, that's a tough job though, you don't get to talk to very many happy customers.

[MOTOhooligan]

We had a 12 year old kid call in several times on a Saturday, once. He was using a phone from an account where the ESN had been changed to a new phone but the telephone number was still the same in the disconnected phone. The kid's neighbors had thrown the phone out and the kid found it and was playing with it. He called me a Bill Killer, which I found amusing. Because the account kept popping up the owner of the old phone was able to look for the phone and eventually discovered his neighbor's child had it. That was also the day that a drunk AT&T customer from Texas was on one of our towers and using 611 to call and and ask, "where the party was at," and "do you know where I can get some weed?" I think we eventually called AT&T and had his phone temporarily shut off.

[LowTech]

Originally posted by: tino
Thanks, im pretty happy about it=) tell next time...hopfully not....

well good luck...In my experience...when a provider screws up the first couple of months...it means they will be screwing up a lot. I have yet to have a problem with verizon..and I've had them over a year. However...I've been with many companies and its like when they screw up...it causes a chain reaction for them to keep scewing up regardless of who the company is. Usually when the finally get everything straight the problems have stopped for me.