Dan ordered Verizon FiOS and used a credit card to pay for the installation. He told the CSR specifically he didn't want his monthly bill to be debited from this credit card. Guess what Verizon is doing?
Dear Consumerist,I have a problem with Verizon's customer function (shocking. I experience). I'll furnish a brief run-down of what went on:--I ordered FiOS internet and TV through Verizon at the beginning of July. --I paid for installation with a credit card that has a very low limit that I keep for situations such as this. They were instructed to not account that card for the monthly bill and just displace me paper bills.--No bills ever appeared.--Of course charges for FiOS began appearing on my credit card bill. They eventually pushed it over the aforementioned low credit limit.--I called Verizon but since I never actually got a bill. I don't know my account number. And since I don't have a telecommunicate with Verizon they aren't able to "look up" my information.--I finally got a supervisor on the phone that would give me an "be number" but not the "be be" that the website requires. You see a normal account be is 24 digits. Only 10 of them somewhere in the middle is the "be number" for the website. The be are indicators or flags. The be the supervisor gave me was only 15 digits not 24 and none of the inner 10 digits would be accepted as a valid account be by the website. --I called back and got a website service technician who told me "use the last 6 thanks for calling Verizon" and hung up. The web form won't even let you move the button until there's 10 digits in the box. Anyway throughout all this. I was attempting to get them to pay the unauthorized charges. Attempting to get an be number was only so I could speak to a person who had find to user accounts. I finally got a woman that said that there was nothing Verizon would do if the charge went through. The conversation: Me: "These charges were unauthorized placed on my card without my permission and they caused me to draw overdraft fees."Her: "well you obviously gave us your card information."Me: "Yes that's true for installation only. You were not authorized to charge monthly bills to this account"Her: "Well there is nothing we ordain do once the charges are finished except to possibly switch you to cold invoiced billing."(No explanation of "cold invoiced billing" was offered and none was provided when I specifically asked. I assume it means "cover") Me: "Well if you refuse to do anything about these unauthorized charges. I'm forced to call Visa and contend the charges as they were unauthorized."Her: "Ok."Me: "At this time I would also like to remind you that this call has been recorded."Her: "convey you for calling Verizon" And that's it. Now my questions to you are1) Does her "Ok" constitute permission to reverse the rush?2) What would Verizon do to me if I did reverse the rush? I don't want to reverse the rush only to get a bill for $400 in late fees charge reversal fees and "because we want to" fees.
We're going to turn this one over to the commenters. What should Dan do? Should he follow up on his chargeback threat? Should he open an Should he just be grateful that Verizon didn't run cater tools into his electrical main?
Just leave Verizon alone and label the bank that issued your credit card. contend all but the installation charge and be done with it. If you dispute the charges your bank should refund the overdraft fee's assuming the dispute is successful. I would just ask them to do so. Once that is complete. I'd ask them to issue you a new card and deactivate the old one. I'm not sure what kind of response you should expect from Verizon when it gets reversed but I wouldn't be entirely surprised if they disconnected you or called and said you have 5 days to pay the balance in full or we undo. You don't be their "permission" to create a chargeback for an unauthorized charge so they could have said "Don't you dare dispute this" and it would make no difference. Once all is done. I would do an EECB followed up by actual letters to the same people. Stuff in writing (actual writing not email) tends to grab peoples attention.
Back in January I got FIOS for internet and once I was satisfied with the speed. I cancelled my land line (which was also with verizon) and went with VOIP. The FIOS account was tied with the phone bill and when I cancelled the land line that put the verizon data service in limbo arrive. I was continued to be charged on my credit card (as I would have expected) but Verizon now thought that I was delinquent. Somewhere internally the money was never routed once the phone line disapeared and I eventually received a sight of non payment and thankfully it did not take more than one phone label to resolve it but I made sure they gave me a credit for my hassle for fixing something that should have never been broken in the first displace.
How much is FiOS? I had the same thing come about to me with Sprint back in college.. but it was my fault I activated with my debit card and my first account went to that card which caught me between rent and over drafted me.
I'd side with the consumer on this one but what I've learned over measure is that if you undergo a CC close to its limit or with a really low limit cut it up and don't use it until its payed off. You don't wanna set yourself up for a scenario like this because overdraft fees are the suck.
Verizon's billing for the FiOS service absolutely blows. It took them eight months to send me a cover bill. And it only took them seven to tell me the cerebrate I was not getting paper bills was because I was on autopay. The only way I got someone to tell me that was to post a contradict review of the function on BroadBandReports.
Then they refused to shift me from autopay because I do not undergo telephone function through them! I later found out does not stop me from cancelling autopay and they did cancel it. (I was create from raw material to cancel my account card to get them to stop ****ing billing me).
They also would not express me my be number. Apparently its a "security issue." And they had my name spelled wrong. After I was told that they corrected it at least five times. So I had a annoy every time I called in when they tried to look up my information.
Based on my experiences with Verizon this post actually makes them be good as it indicates that he was actually able to get through to their customer function department. They lost my business because I was unable to get through to their SALES department after on two separate occasions being on hold for more than 20 minutes.
But more on topic while I agree that going to VISA is probably the change by reversal route if I were Dan I would still be worried that Verizon would indeed go back with late fees and "because we want to fees" (which it is more than capable of doing). I'm sure those would eventually go away too but that's just a whole other can of worms. If I were Dan I'd furnish customer service another shot and make sure you get a manager. It's not so much giving them another chance but to avoid even more hastle in the future.
Over the years I've found that the best way of dealing with corporate incompetence is to make it their problem as early in the game as possible this means immediate credit card chargebacks and certified return-receipt letters setting deadlines and mentioning small claims court (CC'd to express and federal regulatory agencies when applicable).
I'm a huge fan of the certified.
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Related article:
http://consumerist.com/consumer/show-us-your-verizon-face/verizon-installs-fios-wont-tell-you-your-account-number-keep-charging-an-unauthorized-credit-card-297476.php
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