A couple of weeks ago I told you that I took my internet provider business from Comcast to Verizon hoping for better prices and service. I had my first hiccup with Verizon this week: the second bill arrived and it included charges for items that I did not order and never used.
The items that they were charging me $14.99 for were Verizon Security and Backup Bundle 5GB and Verizon Games on Demand Unlimited. I don’t know how Verizon thought it could place these items on my account without me asking for them. The good news is that the customer service representative did take those items off my account and credited my account on the current bill.
I’ve always heard that it is important to review bills for extraneous charges and this was the first time that I’ve noticed such a trick on my own bill. Let me know in the comments if you’ve been over charged by your internet service provider.
Oh, they’re still doing it. I don’t know how long they’ve been cheating me. The CSR said he’d remove Starz, Games on Demand, and Security Backup (total $31) for all future bills, but you can believe I will be checking. This is obviously their business plan. The cynicism is breathtaking: jam customers with charges for stuff they never ordered and never use and hope they don’t notice, make it hard for the charges to be stopped, and laugh all the way to the bank. I can’t get angry with the CSRs; if Verizon abuses their customers so badly, I’m sure they treat their employees even worse.
Verizon Wireless used to regularly throw bogus $9.99/mo charges on our phone bill, too, but after numerous calls they’ve pretty much played it straight for the last several months. I’d suggest legal action, but some ambulance chaser would just get our signatures, go to Verizon, and make a deal in which he got $3M and we got coupons for one month of free Games on Demand, in return for letting them off the hook. That’s how it usually goes. I may write the FCC, but I see what that’s done so far.
Indeed Verizon is still adding features to accounts without asking. I recently caught up with my paperwork after being so swamped at work I couldn’t keep up with my personal life. I discovered that all the movie channels I had asked be removed were back on my bill again, and thanks to autopay, they were being paid for. I am going to discontinue autopay with every account that I have. Suzie Orman recommends that. The customer should be in control, not the vendor.
I’m not making this up!
Same problem – I had signed up for autopay and did not realize i’ve been paying for the security/backup ($10) and gaming/unlimited ($14.99) add-ons for over a year now. Since there was documentation on the online portal for my bills going back one year, on escalation to a customer service supervisor i was able to get a credit for 12*24.99 = 299.88 dollars which will be applied to future bills.