Verizon review: scam charges 92

Typically billing issues come up as a misunderstanding between the customer and the rep when the account was set up. i.e. the customer thinking they were getting one thing and they didn't get that. For example, a customer asks if the phone has wi-fi, the rep says yes. The customer assumes that means it's a wi-fi hot spot, the rep thinks it means "can the phone connect to wi-fi".

The best course of action when you have a billing issue is to take your current bills, and any past bills that you have, with you to a Alltel store. The agent or rep can look over the bills and identify what the over charges are for, and make changes to the plan then. Typically dealing with an in-store rep is easier then dealing over the phone.

If you study the contract you will see that it states "Unlimited on our network", or if that's not there, there is also a place that says something to effect of "We may cancel this contact at any time".

I agree this is a pain, but it is there. They are doing the same things with air cards in certain areas.

If the majority of your use is "roaming", and by that I mean hitting off of a non alltel tower, then they have the option to cancel your contract, at no penalty or charge to you.

There are two stickers inside a phone that let the customer service reps know if there was any water damage or moisture getting into the phone. one is on the battery, and the other is on the phone itself. If either of these stickers turn red, that is a sign that the phone has had some type of moisture get inside of it.

If there is any sign of moisture inside the phone or obvious abuseive damage then the phone's warranty is null and void.

If either of those stickers is red, that means damage, and the store reps can not return a phone.

Excuse me but I have never ordered anything on my phone, i too got the messages asking to buy things but I STILL GOT CHARGED. So maybe i don't need to watch what my kids do, maybe america needs to quit scamming people out of their damn money. Screw alltel.

Same thing happened on my son's phone. So glad I check my bill monthly, if I paid it right out of my checking account like some people I know, and did not watch my bills like a hawk, then I would just pay this monthly. I will be voicing a complaint with Alltel! Reverse Auction Bid, whatever, it is some game thing, and I have no doubt my son plunked his number in because he saw the word "free". And I have taught my kids about these scams... UGH!

I have had the same ongoing issue with my sons' phones, my phone and my husband's. My husband and I have NEVER approved these texts. My husband did not know about sending STOP back and we got charged for several months. As far as my sone; first of all, they are probably more saavy than most adults when it comes to their phones and the internet. I chewed on them pretty harsh and took texting away from them and the charges stopped for a few months then recently started up again randomly. I called Alltel and they gave me the numbers, but were not very sympathetic about the situation. I was told they cannot block these from coming in without taking the texting feature away alltogether. They also tried to tell me that they had to activate the charges...I don't think so, as I know it happened to me and my husband also.
I did call the services and after I reminded them that my son is under 18 and is not authorized to make these charges, they are sending me a refund in the mail.

Alltel became Verizon the beginning of the year, the very first bill I received from Verizon was 4x normal - $450. By the time I received my bill and called customer service they told me that I called too late to do anything, they can "no longer see the charges" on their computer, if I only had called a few days earlier, maybe they could have done something. When I explained that my bill was usually $110 / month more or less, and customer service confirmed that from past bills, (for some reason they could see all my past bills, just not the most current bill) I was again told I called a couple days too late, and there is nothing they can do. It seems to me that I was burned and billed for a Alltel to Verizon conversion, and I am assuming so were people all across the planet.

I just recieved our Verizon bill and had two charges of $9.99. I called Verizon to question the charges, and was told that I had accepted the charges from REVERSE AUCTION BID and that it had something to do with me accessing the internet from my phone. I have never heard of this company before, and have NEVER accessed the internet from my cell phone. Verizon credited ONE of the charges, but I am expected to pay the second $9.99 charge for something that I have never seen or heard of. And of course, I cannot find a way to contact the company in question, and Verizon says they don't have a contact number for them! How on earth can they do business with a company they can't contact? What a rip off. I had it blocked, but I shouldn't have had to. I don't understand how I can be financially liable for something I didn't order, request, or even see!

I just became aware of 9.99 charges to my phone from a third party company called "general texting". I was so upset last night talking to alltel about this. They told me I would have had to reply "yes" to this text messages in order to get billed. But I never replied yes, I simply ignored the text. But how do i prove that? And by the way, how does "General Texting" prove that I did reply "yes"? Apprently they don't have to. And why is alltel letting these third party slimeballs rip their customers off? The alltel guy told me that verizon and other phone services do the same thing. Why? What's in it for them other than having very pissed off customers because they are getting fraudulent charges. By the way, this is a prepaid phone that is only used for emergencies and I only ever have about 10 minutes on the phone. This charge showed up exactly when I put in $10 to replenish my minutes...coincidence? Who knows.

Got 3 different ones today, called Alltel, said they couldn't do anything. Well after surfing the net and seeing this they were now more than happy to credit the charges.

Don't say that it's the kids, they are spam texts and if you don't reply you can be charged! All you need to do at Alltel is call and ask to have these spam incoming texts blocked!

I just received one of these charges from 23687 - Reverse Auction Bid - I called Alltel and the gentleman on the phone removed the charge and put a block on our account for these types of charges - he also informed me that there is a current bill in the works to stop these people. This charge showed up on my husbands phone, I can tell you right now he never signed up for any stupid games, horoscopes, etc... I was informed that I can either text "STOP" to the 23687 number or call [protected] to have them cancel this bogus subscription.

I thank you all for your posts! I'm having the same problem!

Verizon has returned all of my charges because text messaging has been blocked on my son's line since I gave him the phone in April 09.

I've had to call 3 months in a row. Also, I did the stop text back in December, and it didn't work obviously. But, then again, texting is BLOCKED on his phone.

So, I tried the [protected] phone number and keyed it in! I hope this works!

Thank you again for your posts!

what do you mean you wrote cancel on the bill? you're suppose to call customer service to cancel service and if you're smart follow up on it to make sure it got cancelled so you dont run into that problem

well thats funny because i have always gotten mine...

alltel does not just put these charges on your account, you have to subscribe to it somehow from rather putting your phone number in online or txting to a five or six digit shortcode opting you into their monthly subscription, it's a third party company that sends you txt alerts, which i'm sure the customer service rep that you spoke to informed you. if you didn't do it then someone else got a hold of your phone and did it. i have had a cellphone going on six years and have never had this on MY bill

I am in the same type of boat i am deployed right now and i had gotten the blackberry 8830 world edition and everything was good until like the second month. I had looked on my online statement and there was over 20 pages of call to my contacts that were like 2 seconds long and they charged me for the full minute of 2.39. So all in all my account balance reached over 6000 dollars! i told them what the problem was and when i called them to find out what was going on they forwarded me to the fraud department then once i was connected there hey asked me what my complaint was and i said what was going on gave him my account number and then he just sent me back to the main people i was talking to previously. I now have a grand total of charges of over 9000 dollars. Now they keep sending paper statements home and they are now pressing the issue of getting bill collectors involved. If there is anyone who can help please contact me at pauldupuis5@yahoo.com. Thank you very much

Alltel is awful. My daughter's prepaid phone was stolen by a guy who rides her bus. We didn't know it at the time. She did question him about his red razor that showed up just when hers went missing. Then he used the phone to have a code sent to it so he could access the account we had set up online. He then replenished the phone with 500 from my credit card. I luckily had contacted alltel and the card company in enough time to get the money back. I instructed alltel to close the phone down and to let me know if anyone tried to reactivate it. Six months went by then one day I tried to call the phone and someone answered. Alltel told me that they had reassigned the number. I then by chance just tried to log in to my online account. Lo and behold I got in and an address listed was for someone just around my block. Then I did a reverse lookup on the number to find that a boy my daughter suspected was the one who had the number. I preceded to text him not letting him know who I was. I gave him the option to get the phone back to its rightful owner. The next day on the bus he sat down beside my daughter and asked how she had found out he had taken it. Now alltel won't let me get the phone set up back in my name or with the options I had chosen to begin with. I have sent all id they have asked for. I kept the original box, the receipt, etc. I still get told that I have to get the boys permission. My question all along has been how did he get it all switched over to his name. I am guessing either he has a friend working for alltel or forged my signature somewhere. Thanks alltel for calling me and letting me know that the phone was reactivated like you said you would. They screwed this one up big time...first by letting someone access my phone online account just because they got a code from the phone, then by not letting me know the phone was activated, and now because I can't get the phone back in my name with all its features without the theifs approval. This all after they told me all the id I needed to show them so they could get it all fixed. I have emailed all the proof they asked for. Don't deal with this company...run run far away. I have...I have switched to Boost...no problems and clear signal so far.

STOP SUBSCRIBING TO THINGS PEOPLE AND START WATCHING YOUR KIDS A LITTLE BETTER AND YOU WILL NOT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THESE CHARGES ANYMORE! IT'S TRUE THESE THINGS ARE OUT THERE BUT IF YOU'RE NOT DOING ANYTHING THERE IS NO WAY FOR YOUR NUMBER TO BE IN THEIR SYSTEM

These clowns were billing me $9.99 per month too. It took me 3 months to notice and call. By that time the conversion from Alltel to Verizon conversion was complete. The lady at VZW cust svc took the charges off my bill ($29.97). She had me text "STOP" to 23687. I got a confirmation text that said:

SoLow: Sad 2 see u go! We canceled ur membership. U will receive no further messages or charges. [protected] for help. Txt GAMES to 23687 to come back anytime"

I've never played a game on this phone or heard of Reverse Auction Bid or used the username SoLow, or anything like it. These guys are thieves but at least they were easy to ditch and VZW refunded the fees.

By the way, the VZW CSR offered to put a block on my phone for any type of 3rd party subscription so this cannot happen again.

Alltel is contracted with these third party companies and the charges are showing up on alltel bills so inturn alltel is paying these companies for the charges that they are billing you for. You are right they are theives! Let everyone you know what has happened here. I have been in a fight with Alltel over the same stuff. I have used their networ (text) to tell everyone I know and I have sent out emails. This is illegal and Alltel knows it. This starts with one charge of $9.99 and eventually gets bigger. I ended up paying $169.00 on these bogus charges and Alltel is unwilling to do a thing about it. It is illegal! Alltel and these third party people are stealing money from Alltel's customers! By simply ignoring a text we get charged $9.99 for a subscription. This has to stop and the only way it will is if we the customers bombard Alltel with our complaints and they loose customers over it. The only thing we can do is let EVERYONE we know know what is happening. Because sooner or latter it will happen to you.

I received 4 rebate debit cards (did not tell us about that part) from Alltel... Used most of the first one, but could not use the last little bit... it kept getting rejected. Started using the 2nd one, and it did not have the amout advertised in the rebate. The 3rd and 4th cards (over $100 worth) did not work at all, but by now, Verizon owns Alltel, and will not accept the cards for payment.. they say contact the rebate center. The rebate center will not answer the phone. Discoverd that they have been assessing a $3 per month per card fee on the cards for 'inactivity'. You call this a rebate?

Same thing happened to us! Alltell sold to Verizon, when I got bill with charge Verizon said to send text message STOP to unsubscribe. They said they could provide no other info except compnay name "Reverse Auction Bid"

Does anyone know how to locate these thieves?! How can we find a company address, etc?

I was told we had to pay the charge and could only complain to our State Attorney General.

I been with Alltel since 2004, I think..it use yo be a good company so I thought..but for about 2years now I've had nothing but problems with your5 company...Seems everytime i pay my bill, my money disappear before I get my minutes add to my phone...just last nbite July 21st, 2009..I added money on my phone..call the payment number this morning it told me my minutes had been added, when I tried to use my phone, it tells me I don't have any time..what the ### ever, now i can't get in touch with anyone to solve the problem..I go to the website and there are no contact numbers...my plan is 29.99..I put 35.00 on my acct. more than enoughtmoney and now all I get is I don't have anytime...Someone needs to straighten this out..im seriously not just thinking about changing company I am changing companies..this is totally ridiculious...I truly hate ALLTEL

I wish everyone was as easy to rip off as you are! You jerk!

I “had” been an Alltel customer since 1996. Just last month I paid the early termination just to wash my hands of these crooks. Starting with non-existent rebates, lies and deception; the final straw was the “smart phone” they sold me did not work. Alltel’s solution was to periodically remove and replace the battery and would NOT exchange the phone as “there was no problem and was considered normal.” After 60 days the phone died completely. Alltel informed me that I would have to purchase another phone at full price. I had insurance from day one on my account and when I wanted to use it to replace the phone I was informed “under Verizon’s new policy” I could not use my insurance as it was a known manufacturer defect. Basically I was SOL and customer service was down-right rude about the entire situation. Weighing the cost of over $250 to replace the phone vs $200 to terminate, I went to AT&T and washed my hands of these criminals. I suggest you contact the “Stock Holders” of Verizon via the boards (VZ). There is no customer service and those who are investing money need to know the dirty tactics of this company.

My husband and I upgraded our phones. We were told that we could stretch out the payments for 3 months of equal payments. We then got a bill for over 500.00 and they say that they never tell a customer they can pay it off in payments. We have asked for supervisors etc...and nothing. We did get 2 phones and got 2 rebate cards for the phones and thought we would only pay 49 per phone. plus we did not know that we would have to pay a month service in advance! They are not helping at all and we would not have upgraded our service if they had been honest in the beginning. Now it is going to Verizon in July and I hate to see what will happen. Am looking for a new phone service.

My son's motorola Hint died after less than 60 days. We returned it and received a replacement Hint from Alltel. We are still waiting to hear if the first phone is covered by warranty. Yesterday, after less than a week of use, the replacement Hint died! ARrggh! We've had great motorola phones in the past, but this Motorola Hint obviously has some problems.

Yeah same thing with me. I was told I could get out for nothing, then when I did...They charged me for $400 in cancelation fees, and explained that, they would only wave the fees if I chose verizon wireless. Who ended up helping you, any phone numbers that would be helpful?

same here i'm waiting for rebate for 2 blackberrys an nothing yet dam bill came out so high

dude this isnt alltels website...can we say slow...holla

look some times we need to be just not let our personal feeling get in the way...so just do this STOP and think about why are you upset ASK yourself maybe this is a new phone and software is on the way and FOCUS cause I'm sure you aren't the best employee in the world and you have had your moments where someone was upset with you I'm sure your not perfect but any way here is your info go to this website and find your phone software.alltel.com...holla

you go boy you should just start up you own Wireless Carrier, because they all have similar policies...so just do this STOP cause you only mad because you didn't get a call back ASK yourself did you really do as much as you could and FOCUS on the facts that you just want it your way but honey this ain't the Burger King days you don't get it your way you get it there way or you just don't get it and maybe you should...holla

Alltel does not make the Phones, but if you would have understood your product name AKA "MOTOROLA" hint, you would know that, understand this Alltel like all Cell Carriers are the middle man when it comes to warrients just like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and Sears these are all companies that sales products from Manufactures to people who as a service, now Alltel should replace because they agreed to but this is a policy that phone Manufacturers make up...so do this STOP if you don't want a refurbished phone ASK yourself do you want to call Motorola and express your feeling to them and FOCUS on the real reason you are upset other wise just take the refurbished phone and leave it alone...

Maybe you should have visited your bank first and see if they could have given you money from you account, oh but wait they ask for ID to but I am sure you have made a comment oh how you think that your personal info should not be taken under consideration when getting money out. I don't think that you was petty but even if you are the victim you have to understand that they was trying to protect you, because if some one else out there just wanted to access your account according to your beliefs you would have them just charge anything they want to your account without info...and on a Positive note Alltel took your advice and now no one can get insurance claim in the stores, they are mailed out next day and you have to pay with Credit Card over the phone or Money order when it arrives...so next time before you complain get the facts before Companies go out and change policies and make things harder for everyone else because you believe the world should stop because you was victimised and just because you had a bad experience (that was not even that bad) just say this STOP and think ASK yourself does this benifit you and FOCUS on the real reason you are upset and you will see that maybe you just should have went to the bank first...

ok I have a big problem with alltel prepaid service, i activated my phone over the internet and i never got my 10 dollars for extra credit and i called them to see what was going on and they hung up in my face every time i called and i activated my phone over the phone and they still would not give me no minutes. I did not like gettin hung up on. So i either want my minutes i never got or i am going to cancelle my services with yall and tell everyone to go to another prepaid sevice. My cell number [protected].

Oct 2008-Jan 09 I too had almost the same issue, I kept getting disconnected from my motorola. I finally got my phone back and they said it was my fault- I cracked the brain in it. My phone is scratch free and the service dept said I would have to buy a new one and to return my phone within 10 days. Nobody cared about my problem. I tried for 2.5 months and to no avail. I called and asked if I cancelled my service what would they charge and they told me $200.00. I got billed $439.00 $400 for the 2 phones which they did not tell me I would be charged for and TAX on a early termination fee! That has to be illegal. I'm working on a plan and getting my ducks in a row. What is fair is fair! Anyone have these problems should comment. Lets get as much ammo as possible.

I have altell prepaid and i make the check your balance call everyday,
well one night i had $15.00 and the next morning i had $2.00 so im
wondering where 13.00 went while i was sleeping and by the way i
pay for free nights and weekends and unlimited texting, my phone
just magically connected to the internet while i was asleep and keep
in mind after 9 pm its free, but they charged me all night for internet.
They had every kind of excuse for me and they are rude and they were
so generous they give me 30 bonus minutes. (wow 3 bucks worth)
Me and my circle of 10 friends have the same plan same phone
and we are all going to crush these phones with hammers and go
AT & T!

You should also report them to the FTC

It sounds like you downloaded a premium service. These happen when you text to an outside service to get ringtones, wallpapers, or games. It takes a double oppt in to get the service and the charges. You would have gotten a text saying something like "If you want to receive this ____ please text yes to #" So you requested the service once then you responded to the text. That's the 2 requests to get the stuff. ***Always read the fine print***

I know what you are talking about! I have my son on my account. My bill is basic and pretty simple and usually everything is ok. ON HIS! EVERY month for over a year, there is something wrong with his bill! He has unlimited texting (cheaper in the long run). He has been charged for texting, week-end min. which are free, been charged for roaming, and he isnt...IT is something constantly! AND this runs into hundred's of $s sometimes! I am sick and tired of having to go into the store or call the company to get this stuff cleared up. THEN its "that person shouldnt of done it that way" it "should of been done this way"...I mean its like talking to a totally different company each time you call them. I have been reading the c/o on this site, and I can ID with almost all of them...and that is sad! I am wondering if when Verizon steps in it will get any better? I use to have them too, but when they started messing with my payments (not made...according to them, and I lost money) I dropped them. I think they need to start doing some back ground checks on the ppl they hire! I think some ppl have sticky fingers myself. I am honest, up front, and dont believe in lieing, cheating, stealing...and it makes me highly up set when I am basicly called a liar to my face! I am beginning to think "wireless" is just one large problem, and landlines might just be simpler!