Verizon Question

I don't know about Verizon... but Sprint and T-Mobile charge you based on the starting time of the call... so if you dial at 2050 and your nights start at 2100, your entire call will be on-peak. OTOH, if you dial at 0650 and you talk until 0750, the entire call would be rated as off-peak.

 

In my market it would only bill you for the 1 minute peak and the rest would be off peak which would be indicated with an X on your bill.

 

I think until the Verizon billing system conversion is completed it varies by market. Either that or the rep I spoke to was just wrong. I was told that calls are billed according to when they originate, so in your example, the entire call would be billed as a peak call.

jayc knows his Verizon stuff though, so like I say...it either depends upon the billing system/market or jayc is correct for all of Verizon and the rep I posed that question to was wrong.

 

I believe it depends on your billing system, but for Houston, if I start a call at 8:59p.m CST, then if I'm on until 9:59p.m, that call would be billed peak.

H.T.H

-J.T

 

for nyc/pa/nj market the call would not be charged as peak but as one minute peak and the rest off peak...

 

For me, calls that were made at 8:59 pm and lasted 1 hour I was only billed for the first 2 minutes (Off-peak actually begins at 9:01 pm.) Check your statement and it will appear as 2 seperate calls resembling the peak time charged and the off peak time charged.

 

Again, I think it all depends on your billing system.


--J.T

 

Conversely, in the former Pacific Northwest Airtouch market, you would be billed PEAK minutes for the entire call. This, incidentally, is exactly the same thing Sprint does in all their markets nationwide.

 

yes, prophet, I beleive Sprint has always done that? I believe here, it is the same way (Houston, TX).

 

you have to end your call right near 9 and start your call again @ 9:01 to be consider off peak, I worked @ the wireless industry for over 3+ year, seen many customer get billed as peak, MAKE SURE you end your call before 9 and started after 9:01 to be OFF PEAK!!

 

Yes, exactly. I've seen it time and time again also Bebe, they will call in and raise he11, but, it's their own fault, really for not looking at the fine print. I'm not saying it's bad or calling anyone stupid or anything like that, just making the point to READ THE FINE PRINT before you call and complain to someone


--J.T

 

YOU ARE WRONG

in the pacific northwest area if your call starts at 2059 u are billed for the first 2 mins at peak and the rest at off peak.

I used to work for Verizon Wireless in Bellevue Washington.

 

CT, yes, THAT IS IN YOUR MARKET. IT IS DIFFERENT IN ALMOST EVERY MARKET! I don't think that's fare, simply stating "YOU ARE WRONG." Everyone makes mistakes, and they are not to be shunned upon for it.

--J.T

 

Same with Cingular west (CA,NV,WA). BUT, this was only a new billing rule for my market for maybe the past 2 years (?). Before this you would have only been billed for the 1st minute. Cingular mailed notices about the change so that no one was caught off guard.

Luckily I read that notice.

Fleaman

 

You are billed for the rate period in which you are using the phone. You will be charged peak for the first two minutes, then offpeak for the rest. I see you are getting different answers, so I suggest you do a test call, wait until you get your bill, and see how they charge you. You can call 611 and ask, but you may get as many different answers.

 

Yes, if you call 611, you will get many different answers because it's usually different for different markets.

--J.T

 

Hee hee, if you call 611 you will get different answers for the same market. Calls to 611 are routed to your home area, so you always deal with people in your market...some of those people are just clueless. This goes not only for Verizon, but for any company...you will often get different answers to the same question.

 

HAHAAHAH. Yes Matt, that's very true. HAHAHA. Still laughing about that one. I swear, you'd think companies would find a better way to direct calls, and train their CSR's, and this and that blah blah blah. hhahha. How's your daughter Matt?

--J.T

 

ctgrande worked out of the former US West Cellular/Airtouch call center down the street from my office, and that actually is the call center that serves my market. So if he says that I'm wrong, I'm inclined to believe him. I personally haven't tempted fate, because multiple Verizon reps in the very same call center told me that it works exactly the same way Sprint does. Now I'm curious, so I'm going to test it this month and see what happens.

 

TProphet: That's understandable. Yes, I think they only way to get the correct answer, no matter who tells you, is to try it yourself. Just don't make a lot of BIG calls while trying it, just in case you end up wrong or, something to that extent.

--J.T

 

Well, I just got my bill from last month, and reviewed it. It looks like ctgrande is right. See below:

05/21 P 7:59P BELLEVU WA VMAIL * 425/890-xxxx SP 0:24 0.00 0.00 0.00
05/21 O 7:59P BELLEVU WA VMAIL * 425/890-xxxx SP 1:36 0.64 0.00 0.00

As you can see, I was billed for 24 peak seconds (rounded up to a full minute), and then 1 minute, 36 seconds off-peak (rounded up to 2 minutes, although it's not as if it matters). The call is tagged as a "spanned" call, which also shows up if you answer an incoming call on "call waiting," or if you cross the off-peak to weekend boundary (e.g. make a call that starts on Friday night and ends after midnight Saturday morning).

So, in the Seattle market at least, it appears that Verizon switches to off-peak billing when the off-peak period rolls around.

 

COOL

--J.T