Verizon
reviews and complaints

first things first i have been a loyal custumer i have 4 kids wich i use your service to stay in contact with i bought one of your phones here recently and the number 4 is constantly sticking very inconvienent also ya'lls service is getting worse and worse dropped calls all the time no reception not only do i use my phone to stay in contact with my kids but it is for work purposes so it is realy a set back not sure what can be done went where i purchased phone they said to fill out complaint online so here i am was wondering how to resolve this problem it is such an inconvienience i spend alot of money on airtime with ya'll and just dont seem like i get the service that i should not sure if i should switch cellular providers or what was wondering also if ya'll could give me an address of a corporate office so i can provide the info i am giving you in writting my adress is 5324 sunset dr harrison arkansas 72601 cell number [protected] home [protected] please get back to me deven burch

I signed up for verizon freedom bundle, with verizon wireless service and direct tv and internet, they told me for 134.99 a month plus taxes, and my first months bill 200.72 my 2nd months bill was315.67 my third months bill 202.08 they are charging me verizon games I don't have, I called and told them, they took a start up fee out my mastercard, for my wireless phone, the told me29.95 they took 59.95 plus 19.95 for directv, twenty dollars more than they was suppose to, I can send you copy's off my bill.

Idearc Media pay per click advertising is a scam. I have been in business for 17 years and have had an active website for several years. I was contacted by Neil Shipman of Idearc regarding pay per click marketing. Basically they supposedly drive relevent customers to my website through Superpages.com . I agreed to try it from Jan.2008 until April to see how it goes. After being billed for several hundred hits to my site to the tune of almost $2000 and no increase in calls (except for solicitors trying to sell me products and services) I decided that out of the many hits most of them were Idearc employees or friends of employees hitting my site to drive up fees. I tried to cancel. First through a phone call. My rep. said I cannot cancel (after he agreed to my terms of trying it for a few months) I then emailed Idearc and got a message back saying I had to cancel through my rep. Called him again and got the same response so I asked for a supervisor. After almost 20 calls to her voice mail she called me back and said I cannot cancel and billing will continue... I reported the credit card stolen to stop the charges and spoke to my lawyer who said do nothing and let them sue you...the collection calls have started and boy are they rude and aggressive..I probably will not get my $2000+ back but I am taking great pleasure in verbally assaulting any debt collector calling me on behalf of IDEARC MEDIA or VERIZON

I experienced suspected card/id theft, got a new card and registered it w/ Verizon, got the confirmation of change and telephoned to verify. I was assured that all was well w/ the account, but behind the scenes the payment didn’t take. I have no problems with the card with other retailers. My acct was suspended in the middle of the work day (I work out of the house). I spent 2 plus hours on the phone w/ various Verizon Depts. and lost 1/2 day of work. Fios got turned back on again but now I’m receiving threats about suspension for non payment. I spent another hour on the phone today and have no assurance that it’s fixed. Their customer svc, billing and financial area folks can be very RUDE too!

Investigation reveals that Verizon billing issues are plentiful/widespread. AVOID VERIZON!

Verizon online sent me a letter Feb 08 stating my service had been terminated. Fine. I requested this be done. It's now June 08 and I am being charged $31.99/month totaling $186.63 for Internet access that was terminated. I've called their 800 number but the Verizon operators don't document my calls to cancel the service. I've sent two letters to Verizon. No response except to call the 800 number again. They will never get a dime from me for service they have not provided. I will wind up with credit problems but I am keeping copies of the letters I sent to Verizon corporate and Verizon Billing.

The moral to the story: Don't use Verizon Online services!

I am posting the complaint letter I just sent to Verizon Wireless:

Dear Customer Service or "Higher" supervisor, 06/04/2008.

I had a terrible experience with your company and customer service yesterday. I have been in the customer service field before and by just being who I am, (fair, honest, good to people, logical...) it has made me more aware when others really drop the ball. The call started by me explaining how my cell phone was defective, and how I had already made several calls to them and during transferring me to other departments, I had my call dropped completely already two times. In total I have spoken to probably 7 people. I remained calm and polite while explaining my deep frustrations with them so far, and added that I was an extremely understanding and patient person. I had received a defective phone and another identical replacement which turned out to have even worse problems, and now I was requesting to go with a completely different phone combined with having read reviews on the internet about the problems people were having with this model. (also I noticed that this model was no linger even offered on their website for sale). The representative apologized to me about my trouble but the promise was empty. He began by saying he could only send me the same model again. I explained that after speaking to a few people already there that they had already told me that I could get a different phone (I asked him to look and my account had not been noted.. and he acted like he didn’t believe me stating that “policy”... I advised that I had already been told that this was an option and perhaps if he didn’t believe that my calls and transfers maybe he could pull up my calling history and see proof of my calls and which dept they went to.. I had also been transferred to trouble shooting that advised, “yes, it did appear that my cell did appear to have a software problem. I told him that I felt that he didn’t believe me and (almost jokingly) if he wanted, I could send letters stating my moral character, and that my life and my profession were very reputable and I am only looking for a “fair” resolution and a phone of my choice –even willing to pay more-. He advised that by “their policy” he could offer me a phone (of his choosing) of “equal or lesser value”. I paid $270.00 for my phone only a few months previously. (not discounted, but $270!) He offered me only two options of very basic phones that retailed for $79.00, or the phones that come free with a contract. (One phone was a model which my son had once and he had had problems with.) Representative said I was not eligible for “an upgrade” (I added I was not asking for ‘free’ upgrade, was willing to pay for it). “The policy” was that if I wanted a phone other than the two basic ones they chose I had to pay full retail price. Again.. the phone they sold me, and the replacement Both were defective! When I asked to speak to a supervisor he advised that he was the supervisor, when I asked to speak to “who ever was over him, he told me that it would not do any good that again..”this was their policy”, and then started trying to tell me something off the subject like how Verizon doesn’t make their money on the phones, they make it on air time... ? I told him I even offered to pay “the difference” if he could allow me to choose a different phone.. then I got the same replies.. “that it was ‘policy’.. that me choosing a different phone was viewed as an upgrade and I wasn’t eligible for that until December. Clearly he was not giving me any other option or allowing me to speak to anyone else that it would not do me any good to speak to anyone else and even stating that "I wasn't the first person with a complaint like this today and would not be the last"..! I had spent over an hour on the line with people, and being a busy person, I did not have anymore time to talk with anyone else at this point and wouldn't know how to even express all that had happened again. (My son was also in surgery). I wish you could've heard the call and how unbelievable it was.

Ultimately, I felt that I did not matter to the company, that nothing I said was heard or made a difference and that I and my business did not matter. I spend only about $200 a month with them plus equipment... so more than $3, 000 a year just isn’t enough to be important to them. (single mother, 3 phone lines) Of course I am looking into going with a different company. With the economy the way it is, I cannot imagine that people like me don't matter to your company. I will be posting this on many websites as well as passing it along to everyone I know as a warning to them. I hope that if nothing else, this will help your customer service department in the future.

Sincerely, Tina (deleted for this posting).

I quit Verizon. I loved the Fios (once I got it). The reason is I spent several hours getting tossed around like a ball in a 3 ring circus in what they call customer service. It was simply the worst so called customer service experience I have ever had in my 44 years on earth. I switched back to Time Warner Cable. They have Road Runner Turbo which is faster than DSL & their customer service Reps can handle any service they offer with great efficiency and Knowledge. I now have my home phone, Cable & Internet with them and could not be happier. Verizon just simply was not worth the time and aggravation. I say this in all honesty because I spent several hours a week on the phone with them for problems that could have been handled in less than 20 minutes. I would give their products a B average and their customer a D- average.

For the second time in two months, our phone has went out of order and it has taken them entirely to long to come and even fix it! The most recent time our phone went out the Friday before Memorial Day weekend and as of June 3rd, 2008 it still hasnt been repaired. When I called the women said that they would have a technician come out June 13th, and after a somewhat heated exchange she was kind enough to move it up to June 10th which is completley unexceptable! What kind of birdbrains is runing this operation? As soon as I can get AT&T or any other phone service provider to hook up a phone line, you know what you can do with your service? Or more appropriatly you lack of service! Thank you for nothing ... You can write me a letter since you are unable to call me because clearly our phone is unworking again! Surprise Surprise. My case number with public service agaisnt Verizon is 4528. Thank you and have a wonderful day!

After a five week ordeal w/techs to try and fix my USB broadband card, I contacted customer service to adjust my bill! Keep in mind that in one day I had 238 min. on one set of calls that dropped 3 times. Now remember you only get credit for ONE min. on dropped calls. This is a direct line to verizon techs [protected]) and [protected]). I was instructed by verizon techs to use these numbers to for calls to continue with the same tech. so I didn't have to start all over again with another (that only happened 7 different times...on *611 ya... you know 20min to connect 20min to explain the problem and then 40min~80min for the new tec. to read out of his/her book of trouble shooting. Not solving the problem.)

Anyway to make long story short, I finely got a tech that was able to fix the problem!(Thanks again BELTON, #4601)----replacing the USB720 GO FIGURE. At this time I had in 3wks (40hrs) of my time involved.

Well, now get this, the first replacement (like 80% of verizon employee's) didn't WORK!

Because verizon was out of USB720’s (rebuilt) I was giving an UM150.It works fine. (Again the short version) this took 2wks. For the UM150 to find me and my computer.

Most people would have giving up by now and I think that’s what verizon banks on.(I mean BANKS the "noun" as in deposits)

That’s the ground, now comes the insanity. BILLING!

First the cell ph., because I went over my minutes using the 866&800 numbers talking w/verizon techs(238min in one day)Per verizon employee’s. This resulted in $20+ on my bill. It took over an hour to *** of my bill. The reason I was given by a verizon supervisor for not being able to *** the charge was "it was my choice to call those numbers (866, 800) instead of *666 woopsssss! I mean *611 number. The credit, after some rather intense langue was given.

Now the USB broadband. I was given a 77.6% credit for not being able use the USB720 for over 2 months. The key word "USE». That means when I want to for more than 7min at a time. And not just at curtain times during the day.

Keep in mind I had over 40hrs w/techs and the new UM150 works just fine.

Again I was told by the verizon supervisor “I can’t give you credit for time you used the USB720"

I told her again that 90% of the usage was with a verizon TECH tiring to fix a verizon problem.

What Part of USAGE could she NOT GET!

Thank You corporate America for taking our money and providing such great service!

And remember were not happy until your unhappy.

I received a letter from afni collections saying I owe on a cell phone I never had... they say it happened in jan of 2000, at the time I had a girlfriend nicole curry... she stole my social security # and my daughters birthdate to get one... I never starting using alltel until 2003 when i met my husband and even then I was not the primary, the phone was in his name. When i talked with alltel they said in feb of 2001 a woman called them and said i was in the hospital. (It was not me) I plan on going to the police about this as well...

Alltel customer service is so frustrating. I moved due to work and am not living in Front Royal. Alltel has no towers up here and I never get more than two bars. Most of the time I have no bars or one bar. My calls get dropped all the time. They will not let me out of the contract. They say all I have to do is pay for the next 9 months. I tell them that they are not providing a reliable service and they tell me that there is no requirement for that.

I cannot believe how poor their customer service is. My calls are dropped every day. I see their adds saying that I should get credit. I never get credit for dropped calls. A rep said there are no dropped calls on my record. I have no idea what they are looking at. This company just is so bad. They have no idea how to treat customers fairly.

on my credit report (equifax, and others..you have listed a collection account in the name of roberta braussard for a verizon res. home phone o/stand bill for $291+.. this is not me.  i am georgina r. broussard, 8 davids isl. rd. wey. mass 02191 please remove, NOW!

I visited Aloha Cellular in Kihei and I was new to the Island. My wife and I had no means to connect to the internet and we needed to for employment purposes. When we went to Aloha cellular we were introduced to a product by Verizon wireless. It was an internet card which boasts high speed internet access for a monthly fee of $59.99. The product was presented by an employee, and that there was a 2year commitment which we had no problem as long as the product worked. The employee was very friendly and we made the mistake of putting our trust in the employee when signing the contract. This is definitely a lesson to be learned to not sign until you read everything. We asked if there was anything to the contract other than the service being 59.99 per month and if there were any other charges to which the sales person told us that there were no other charges. So we just signed the agreement and were on our way.
We should have done our homework because the internet card accesses dial up only which is very slow not high speed as advertised. Also the connection is very poor where we live. Out of the four bars you should receive on the signal we had two bars. Only once in a blue moon we had three bars.
My wife had experienced disconnects on the internet as well as very very very slow connection to websites.
Since we were waiting for our cable to get connected, we also tried watching episodes of tv on the internet. What a disaster. to watch a half hour episode of a tv program we would have to view the program for at least an hour and a half. The video constantly froze every five to ten seconds for an average of one to two minutes.
The only thing we feel we could use the service for was checking our e-mail. We also tried to work with Aloha cellular and told them of the problem we were having and the associate agreed with us. She had said that her internet was slow as well and that she would look into it and get back to us although she never did get back to us. When I called back I told her that we were just tired of the frustration and we just wanted to return it because we did not feel that the product was performing to the potential as advertised.
She said that we were within the thirty days and feel free to return the product.
I returned the product and had to call verizon to cancel the service and spoke with technical support who wanted to assist me to fix the problem but I told him that I had already returned the product and there was too much frustration and I just wanted to cancel the service. He told me that this was fine and that there would be a statement in the mail showing a zero balance just to show the end of this service.
In a few days I did receive a statement in the mail. There was no zero balance. The statement shows a balance of 87 dollars and change. Verizon Wireless is charging me an activation fee of $126.00 minus the credit of 59.99 for my initial payment.
What the sales associate conveniently did not disclose to me that was in the contract was that: if for any reason after three days of taking on this service and terminating the service early you will be charged the activation fee.
Now, if I were just ending the service early without a reason I understand and would accept the activation fee. But more importantly if this were disclosed to me at the beginning I would have never signed up for this service to begin with.
We did try to use the service for one month but were so frustrated that we gave up.
Again if the service worked we would have kept it even though it is priced pretty high.
I just think it is poor business practice to not disclose something that can be explained in a few seconds but, I guess you try to avoid something that will cost you a sale even if it's doing the right thing.
And if you have an inferior product how dare you try and charge a customer for activation fee for something that doesn't work as you advertise it.
Again I have no problem with paying for the activation fee if I canceled the service with no reason for cancellation. But when the product is not working properly I think that there should be no charge for activation when the service is poor.
Frank Sears

I am the pbx vendor for the econolodge hotel on 7300 W. Broad St. in Richmond, VA where they have verizon DSL. I have called several verizon numbers in an attempt to get a simple question answered, but all I get is automated attendants. Verizon wireless is also pathetic. As a vendor I support around 250 hotels in the tri-state area and you can rest assure that as soon as someone new and more reliable than cavalier comes around I will direct all of my customers to them for voice and data services.

After agreeing to pay for damaging my irrigation system due to their inept FIOS installers, Verizon reneged when they got the bill from Mclean Irritation for repair costs. Verizon is claiming that they were lying about the work performed. Having already pain Mclean, I’m stuck. And furious!

ESBI showed up on our monthly Verizon Bill. Charging us more money for Miscellaneous Charges and Credits $14.95. New York Gross receipts tax surcharge $.42 Total $15.37
Voicemail Services Mnthly Fee $.14.95.
We did not ask for the above ESBI Enhanced Service Billing nor disussed them with Verizon representatives before they showed up with our Verizon Bill each month for seven months. Until I called to see why are telephoned bill was $49.99 a month orginally and went to to $78.00 a month.
When I called Verizon, I was told that they do not work with
ESBI nor do they answer any questions regarding bills.
You must call [protected] ESBI. So I did, and canceled my account, received only a 49.00 credit. But I am not happy
because they billed us for 10 months. So, now I have to
send letters to Corporate office to apply for a credit?
To be continued, ...I think this is a scam and should be investigated for not giving information to public, before
putting this company and letting them bill customers?
bb10

I would like to convey how disappointed in Verizon Wireless. A few months ago I purchased the blackberry pearl. Since DAY ONE I have had nothing but trouble with the piece of JUNK. I have a list of calls to your tech support and customer service a MILE long, I have done all the software upgrades and changes they have suggested... I am know moving onto my THIRD Pearl...

The piece of junk deletes my call logs and text messages on it's own. I have to take the battery out every night, they said this would help... it DOESN'T! I called last night and spent an hour on the phone with 4 different people... the only thing they will do to resolve the issue is send me ANOTHER PEARL! I don't want another PIECE of CRAP... I want a different style that WORKS and does not DELETE my data! I even said I was willing to DOWNGRADE... they still won't help me. What does it take for Verizon to make customers happy? I have never been so disappointed in Verizon, I have been a long time customer and currently have 4 lines with you. I will email and post this on every website I can find. I will let everyone know what a piece of CRAP you are selling and how you won't stand behind your customer when you sell them a SUB PAR PRODUCT!

You think buying from Alltel is bad? Well let me tell ya... try working for them. I'm sure it can't be like this everywhere or they'd have absolutely NO employees left. I once worked for Alltel. Reason I'm submitting this is to just give you an insiders look at what conditions these sales reps work under.

As an alltel employee... you are required to be damn near perfect in everything you do... mistakes are not allowed. You must be expected to work very long hours and have very little time with your family (mind you, we are told that Alltel is a family oriented company). You work short staffed for most of the time you are employed which means... even less time to spend with family. You are threatened with termination each and every day. You are 'held responsible and accountable' each and every day and reminded of this several times throughout the day.

You are lucky if you get to eat a lunch, grab a drink or even use the restroom. You are expected to hold every customer for at least ten minutes and try to sell them everything under the sun... even a 'regular' just paying a bill gets the third degree each and every month.

You have so much internal stress that you go home to your family after an 9-12 hour day at work and can't relax... you're worried about what you might have forgotten to do that day and will be wrote up the next day about. You are not allowed to voice your opinion... if you do... expect a write up because eventually it will come.

I loved my job... did very well at it in fact. Was the top sales rep in my store each and every month. Had customers who loved me and a few that hated me. That's sales and I dealt with it. Unethical practices made me start to hate my job. Upon every activation, you are 'encouraged' to apply both text messaging as well as mobile web services to gain the data quota required. You are to 'explain and demonstrate' to every customer what you have just slammed their account with.

Then, you are to remind them that next month... they need to call and remove the feature themselves or they will be billed for it. We are not however, expected to explain to them that even though the promotion is first month free... they will still be billed a pro-rated amount for those 'free' features.

So, in comes my customer that I spent a good deal of time with gaining confidence and trust... madder than a hornet because the bill is no where near what they anticipated. FRUSTRATING for both the customer and the sales rep. With the emphasis on data... we are expected to push the data enhanced phones such as the Treo, etc. even though in my area where I sold, those phones do not perform well and had low reception. For telling my customers the truth... I was, of course, given a 'record of converstation' to be put in my permanent file.

Lastly... our managers. They walk around the store greeting customers and detaining them but not really helping them or the sales reps do much of anything. I'm sure not all managers are like this... but mine sure was.

By the time I'd get a customer who had been waiting for some time... there was no way in h*ll I was gonna offer him/her a $90.00 bluetooth device or ask him/her to add on text messaging. Generally, it was all I could do to even obtain a HI or smile from that customer who stood there for 40 minutes wanting to know how to set up voicemail and the manager just blew off.

I could go on and on for hours... but the moral of the story is... we're human too. We're treated like crap and are expected to do things that go above and beyond. As you go into your local Alltel store mad and upset... please remember that these sales reps are under alot of stress. They are pretty good people... God, you'd have to be damn near a saint to work there... and they are trying to make a living. Be a bit sympathetic... and given the right relationship, I'd wager to say 99% of them will bend over backwards to help you in anyway possible...