Verizon

i have random dropped calls. I will have full service and being in the same spot my service will get dropped and i will be stuck without any service for something over an hour. This happens monthly and so far this month i has happened to me 2 nights in a row. It gets bad too, cause i will be studying over the phone with a friend and then the service goes out. and you cant say its just my phone, my moms and brothers hone does it at the same exact time. im getting very tired of the random service dropped and would love for it to stop.

I have had a terrible experience dealing with Verizon and I think people should know about this. They misdirected me about getting a free phone--told me it would not involve adding another line to line I already had. I received bills, had to send the phone back, was told it would be taken care of and more than three months later I was still receiving bills and getting threatening phone calls from their collections department. I had to spend many hours on the phone and in their store (you always wait in a line, no matter how simple the matter, as in buying an ear bud)getting the run around and having supervisors tell me there is nothing they can do or no way to reach their supervisor. I finally told them I wanted out of the contract with no early termination fee b/c I was sick of dealing with them. It took a lot of anger and yelling to make that happen. It should never have been that way at all.

I am a Business customer of Verizon Wireless. I usually go through my Verizon Business Representative or call business customer service, who have both been excellent in their customer service. However, today, I had to take care of an exchange immediately. I was told by my rep that I would be able to go to a Verizon Direct Retail store in order to take care of the exchange today. Little did I know that upon walking in the retail store you're supposed to SIGN IN...no matter what you are there for. I had not signed in and waited for 25 minutes to finally get someone to speak to me. The "customer service" person asked me if I was "so and so" and I said no. I immediately told her that all I needed was an exchange (I showed her the two items already in my hand). She said that she would have to me on "the list". I told her I had already waited 25 minutes and all I needed was an exchange..."Well, I don't know when you walked in" was her response!

Verizon needs to re-vamp their idiotic "policy" of having people sign in for everything! They should have ONE PERSON who can easily take care of simple purchases / exchanges without having to waiting behind people who don't know what plan their on or what phone they want. I know, for a fact, that I am not the only BUSINESS customer that is irritated by this nonsensical policy.

I was sooo upset that I took my item and left the store...in retrospect I should have asked for a manager, but let's face it, I probably would have had to "SIGN IN" for that too.

Like many others, I have been waiting for fios to be available in my neighborhood for years. Finally the day comes and the sales person comes door to door to sign us up. I place my order and schedule the delivery. Having to take the day off because they give you a window from 8am-5pm for installation. I proceed to get emails and phone calls the week before, week of, day of, and hours before to confirm I would be there. Technician never shows up. I call at 5:30pm and ask what happened and after getting bounced around and waiting on hold, I am told that he is still on his way! 7:15 rolls around I call back and they say hes not coming now and there was a third-party verification that never took place for something on the account. I don't know what they are talking about. The guy then proceeds to review my first bill and tells me it will be $170. This is like $50 more than what the door-to-door guy told me and I have the receipt as proof. Horrible experience, each time I would call any of their 800 numbers, they direct me to PA because of my cell number, I have to explain that I live in VA and they transfer me, the next person wants my Verizon land line number that I don't even have yet! I give each person my name number and account number, only to get transferred and do the same thing over again like Groundhog's Day. This goes on and on, I hung up on at least two people out of frustration. I canceled my order, total waste of time.

Incident = On March 8th, I contacted Verizon to request installation of their new FIO bundle system. I was assured by the agent that what I would get would be FIOs and I accepted and ordered Internet, TV and Telephone. To my surprise, and after installation, the service was not FIOs and the TV was fro Direct TV. I was told that I had until the 8th of May to cancel if I was not satisfied.

I was not satisfied with both the Internet service, which was considerably slow and not wireless, or the Direct TV which includes 512 channels of which 500 are commercials and sport - After I had realized that I had been deceived by Verizon and that there was no FIOs in our area, I decided on the 13th of March to cancel Direct TV, cancel my phone service and request wireless Internet access only.

Although it has become evident that customer service in the United States has declined dramatically recently, I have never experienced such ineffective, rude, and careless customer service as that of both Verizon and Direct TV.

Although I had not dealt with Direct TV at all, when I asked to cancel, Verizon customer service asked that I contact Direct TV directly. When I did, I was absolutely surprised that they would charge me $450 for cancellation. They said their policy was cancellation should be within the first 24 hours.

Phoning back and forth between Verizon and Direct TV, I was unable to get anywhere except waiting on the phone for hours and basically told that (1`) it is not Verizon;s problem (though I had contracted with verizon only) and (2) that I had to pay the $450 no matter what.

It became evident that the whole operation is a scam and is a conspiracy between varizon and Direct TV to defraud the public.

Never trust verizon... I hope many people read this.. Being a new yorker I have seen great scams in my day but this referral friend and share the network programs are the best by far... When you have fios like I do it is nice to have your friends and family have it also so you all can catch the programming and watch together... But the way it is set up it is nearly impossible to get one penny of the referral reward or the share reward... So far I have tried 7 times,,, yes I am an idiot... I never saw a penny and wont ever and neither will the people who I got into verizon who are angry with me now...
First you have to use your computer to give all your referrals information to verizon and I mean everything about them... Then you wait and in a few days get a referral number... You have to send this to them using email... Then they have to use their computer with this referral number to order what they want from verizon... Then they get a number in a few days and they have to email that number to you and you have to email verizon that number and then they have to email verizon that number also within one day of each other... 3 months later you get a check and they get a check to thank both of you for joining... Here is the catch, you can never call verizon to ask a question on the process or about their services etc because then you didnt complete this totally online... The process is made to be differcult but if you dont know exactly which channels you want, which speed of internet, how many minutes on your phone, what services on your phone you want, which phone you want to order, which package of movies and extras you want, if you want coax or ethernet, which day you want installation etc you cant finish it online but have to call to ask a question.
Well my aunt age 67 asked one question on the broadband speed and we lost her referral, my grandparents age 78 76 asked about changing the installation date and they got screwed also, my friend cancelled hbo for showtime and made him void also...
Even if you get everything right verizon will say they dont see you both in the system together... Another great lie... Now for the best part when you are dissatisfied or felt lied to and want out of verizon because you didnt get what was promised they charge you 350 dollars each... So your friend didnt get their referral fee, you didnt either but you were each charged 350.00 so verizon makes 700 and does nothing... Now your angry and your friend is angry... This is a no win situation and the best scam ever..
I warn everyone on the train and bus ride to never trust verizon about anything...
Warn everyone you know and perhaps someday verizon may lean to tell the truth or at least care about their new members instead of screwing them knowingly and hurtfully... You get a form letter sorry we didnt earn your business feel free to contact us anytime to return... Yes for a second screwing... I heard they might be a 150.00 reconnection charge.. What a great scam... Offer everything, give nothing, take money get paid more money to leave.

I tried using my primary cell to make a phone call, it kept giving me the error message that my phone could not be authenticated. I placed a call to verizon wireless and spoke to a christina on today [protected] at 9:45am.
I relayed the details of my problem to christina. Christina then advised me to dial a # to activate the phone which by the way has been activated since 08. After the phone was reactivated she proceeds to tell me that there is not a problem with this phone since it was activated on today. I then told christina that I only changed my phone number online and that there was no prompt or instructions stating that I had to reactivate my phone and the problem preceeded my changing the number. Christina then tells me that phone calls were made on the phone. I asked christina to tell me when the last phone call was made. She stuttered and paused then told me March the 7th. I then informed Christina that I would like a credit for the time the phone was disabled. Christina preceeds to tell me that I still have to pay for the plan regardless. I then told her why should I pay for something I am unable to use? Christina then tells me that I should have called them to tell them that my phone is not working. How would I know if it is on your end(verizon). If it was for nonpayment and my phone was disconnected then I could see that. I also have 2 other phones and they were working fine all on the same plan and they are all secondary lines. I have a problem with a company who tell lies and robs their customers. I can not wait until my contract is up in june.

The amount XXX.XX is past due. Please pay now to avoid interruption.. Next to it, they had an option Pay Now.

I was in a rush to just get the bill paid, so I figured I wouldn't have too much of a problem. I scroll down to the bottom of the screen, click the checkbox saying I read an Agreement that is somehow necessary to perform a simple payment, and then hit Submit.Apparently, I was the victim of a bait-and-switch billing system. One that when you select one option, selects the other option on the next page.

I got TWO confirmation emails saying that 171.10 would be deducted from my bank account. I IMMEDIATELY contacted verizon, could not get a person by phone and got onto the "live chat" option. The person that I spoke with (after four tries to explain) ASSURED ME that only ONE payment was scheduled.

One payment was deducted from my bank account on April 3rd. GUESS WHAT? The SECOND payment, for exactly the same amount was deducted AGAIN today, April 6th.

I contacted Verizon and after talking to two people, waiting for almost an hour, I got the message that I would receive a refund in 7 to 10 business days. It's ok to auto deduct from MY account, by when Verizon makes a mistake, they take 7 to 10 days! That's nice. The 171.10 deducted the second time cause a check to bounce.

Fee: 35$. That caused a second check to bounce. Fee: 35$. I had enough to cover the two checks WITHOUT the extra 171.10 being debited. So now am short 171.10 + 70.00, thanks to Verizon's error. I asked the billing office about paying the 35$ fee due to their error and they transferred me to finance. Finance told me to call the 800 number tomorrow and speak with billing, then disconnected me.

When I looked into this practice, I see that Verizon has known about this problem for a long long time, - that the bill pay page is deceptive and takes you to another page, which then doubles the payment. I want this overdraft fee refunded to me and I want this deceptive practice stopped!

Verizon promised a port date of 09 Sept 2009 for a port to NumberGarage. The port never occurred. We were finally contacted by NG in November saying Verizon needed a password to port. I contacted Verizon and told them there was no password. If they couldn't port it, terminate it. Verizon continued to accumulated monthly charges through January 2010 and still has not terminated the account. It only died from failure to pay. No phone has been active on the account since August 2009. Now Verizon is attempting collection. A complaint has been filed with the FCC, but they do nothing. I also emailed my complaint to all of Verizon's executives without resolution.

In February I contacted Verizon to sign up for a less expensive phone service. The representative told me if I upgraded my internet service to FiOS and combined it with my phone service I would pay less. I would have the lower rate for a year with the option of renewing it for a year. I was obligated for one year. After 3 months my bill increased by $20/month, and I was told that was the length of the promotional offer. There is no way I would have knowingly agreed to a 3-month deal. I was mislead, and probably lied to. Beware of over-the-phone deals. Get it in writing!

I purchased Verizon service in August 2003 for a night time/weekend unlimited contract. In October 2003, I received their bill of $2000, including all the night time minutes charges. I then got in touch with their customer service department and complained about the bill, they replied that they would check and let me know.

Half a year later, I heard nothing back from them. So in Jan 2004, I called up again. This time, I got the same answer. I contacted them in May 2004, Dec 2004, May 2005 and Dec 2005 continuously. I sent them a registered letter May 2005 too.

In 2009, they sent my case to Pinnacle Credit Services. I called up Pinnacle and asked them to check the bill. I never heard back from them either. Then I called Verizon again, but Verizon refused to deal with my case this time, saying it was not in their hand any more.

So they report me to creditors bureau and have severely effected my credit.

It's very terrible of Verizon to have changed a wrong bill, never intended to correct it and then refused to deal with it.

wow...verizon wireless has hit an all time low. had a customer who was filing an insurance claim. he just purchased a "new" blackberry curve 2. customer tells me an hour and a half later he's back at the store because the phone stops working. the verizon rep looks at the phone and tells the customer to file an insurance claim because he has water damage. r u serious? i asked the customer has he had the phone near any water since he left the store. customer says no, i just purchased the phone why would i ruin it just to spend more money for a deductible? makes sense to me...as i go through the claim i verify information and turns out...verizon didn't even put the insurance on the customer's account. i tell the customer and of course he's pissed. it's a blackberry why wouldn't i have insurance? verifiies with verizon...who tells him sorry. no insurance, nothing we can do. water damage voids the warranty. now he's stuck with a phone he just purchased that doesn't work. i really think verizon sold him a phone that they knew had a little damage to it already.

so...doing a claim for another customer who says he just purchased his phone from verizon a month ago with a new contract. phone stops working. ask the customer has phone been droopped? any type of physical or liquid damage? customer says no. he took it to verizon and he told me verizon rep accused him of dropping the phone. technically if there is no visible damage to the phone you really have no way of knowing if it's been dropped. it is in warranty and it malfunctioned. so why won't they help the customers? verizon hates to honor a customer's warranty. they suck. so glad they are not my carrier. tragic. althought sprint has their problems too...so my carrier is far from perfect. but still better than verizon to me.

So far I purchased verizon 3 package at 115 per month... I then got my sister to leave direct tv... I never saw the 50 dollar referral because she called verizon to ask a question on her order and didnt ask the question online... So I got my parents to switch from cable... They inputed one number wrong on the website but everything else got ordered and they pay 149 a month but I loose my referral and so do they... It cant be corrected... They say try again and I stupidly give them my grandparents both 84 years old... They had trouble inputting all the info on the internet and so the referral didnt go all the way through so I lost that one also... Unless a person knows exactly what they want from the internet phone cell tv they cannot ever get one penny as they are not allowed to contact verizon by phone only by internet
We all wanted to cancel and each was charged 300 to 375 each just to get out of being lied to
I think this is the best scam ever tried and it works every day
Avoid verizon go to direct they pay you 50 dollars as soon as you give the referral name and they sign up
This cost me the 200 dollars in referral fees plus I had to pay [protected] to cancel I would say this was a living hell and I will warn everyone I can

I called verizon wireless customer care to get some information about there netbooks and this was on a wed. And I talked to a nice rep and gave him some information to see if there would be a deposit on opening a new account and gave my debit card information and the rep informed me there would be no deposit. Then we got to discussing what I wanted to with then net book and the rep informed me that I would be using too much data for a netbook and I said thanks for your time. Then three days later on saturday I get a text message stating that my order had been fullfilled. So I called verizon wireless to see what was going on and the rep informed me that I ordered a notebook and I said no I did not! I got information on a notebook and that was it and then she said no you just ordered a notebook and I said ma'am I have not talked to a rep since wed. And I did not order a note book and you better reverse the order and replace the order on the account. The rep put me on hold for 35 minutes and then came back on and said well I could submit a case and it will take 3 days. I said great and while you submit the case you can work on cancelling my account and I will be on the other line talking to at&t. Started the porting process while on hold and then the rep from verizon wireless dont worry I will be happy to cancel out your account. Then it took 15 days not 3 days 15 days to get my money back from verizon wireless,. And thats how they treat their customers.

Verizon Wireless is the most expensive cell phone company out there. They are also the biggest crooks too. They will change their plans and services without notifying customers. Check your bill every month and you will see that it is never the same amount even if you don't go over minutes, use any data, or purchase any games or ringtones. To check your voicemail it counts against your minutes, but wait isn't your number in the so called IN network? The 250 text plan which runs an extra $5 per month doesn't give you unlimited text to any other Verizon Wireless number it counts against the 250 text. If you want to text to another Verizon customers without it counting against your text you havt to go with the 500 text plan which an extra $10 per month. Be careful if you terminate your contract early, the will try to stick you with an extra month of service, even if you cancel on are before the montly billing cycle date. Ask the rep about this before hanging up. Verizon Wireless will nickel and dime you, because they cater to businesses instead of consumers.

I am experiencing the this problem with my verizon email account since March 10th. I moved to a new address and asked Verizon to move my Phone+DSL service to the new address. I was waiting for the completion of my DSL activation at my new address. Meanwhile I had a travel plan overseas and did not mind the delay in DSL activation since I had my webmail access. 4 days ago I was surprised to see that my email account (aysel.[protected]@verizon.net) was suspended/disabled. I tried to escalate it to their management after being a ping-pong ball between the Tech Support and Billing departments. I spent hours in front of the computer for live chats and on the phone with the Verizon Technical Support and billing department while being transferred from one person to another (each time repeating the same information). All my emails sent to my Verizon account are bouncing back (unable to deliver). I wasn't even able to forward my emails to an alternate email account since my email account was disabled without any prior notice. At the end of the 4th day, I started looking for the ways of escalation. I found this web site and saw that other people had almost the same experience like me. I will appreciate if you can guide me on what to the next to solve this problem. I am tired of contacting Verizon to report this issue. It is very difficult especially when you are abroad. Since my email account at Verizon is disabled, I am using now "[protected]@hotmail.com" as a temporary solution.
Thank you.
Best regards,
Aysel Toprakli
Cell Phone: [protected]
PS: I am currently outside of the US and will be back on March 21st.

I have been reading many common complaints on here regarding Verizon Wireless as well as other cellular companies and would like to respond to a few:

1. Complaints regarding loss of ringtones purchased through VZW when switching devices.
When you purchase a ringtone, you do not "own" it. You are purchasing a licensed tone that is licensed to the serial number associated with your device. This is a federal regulation that is in place to prevent fraud. Lets be honest, folks. If you could buy a ringtone for $1.99 and then send it to other devices, you would. This is illegal. If you get upset about it, complain to the FCC. It's not VZW's fault. In other words, yeah it sucks that you cant transfer tones, but its a license issue, not a greed one. Another option that is available to you is called "My Media Retrival" through your My Verizon account. This is a free service that allows you to retrieve licensed material on warranty replacement devices. This is only available for tones purchased in the last 90 days, again, due to licensing restrictions. Which brings me to my second point...

2. "VZW didnt tell me/ call me/text me/send me a message in a bottle to let me know I was over my minutes"
There is a website. Its called My Verizon. Its located at www.verizonwireless.com. When you sign your contract/upgrade a phone, you are given detailed literature on how to sign up for this website. It is likely that you rep mentioned it to you as well. Here, you can view your usage, your detailed bill, suspend/reconnect service, upgrade your phone, view/change your plan and basically manage every angle of your service. You are given many tools in order to make sure that you are always up to date on your account. In addition to My Verizon, your phone is pre loaded with the contact #MIN, which, when dialed, will send you a free text message notifying you of how many minutes you have used.

3. "This phone is junk. You should give me a new one"
This is probably the biggest complaint of all, and partly the fault of the cellular industry. In the 90's, VZW along with other companies handed consumers free phones in order to get consumers to sign up for service. In the decade since, not only has the industry changed, so have devices. Due to consumer demand, cell phones now are slicker, more advanced, and capable of amazing features such as touch screens, MP3 players, full qwerty keyboards, etc., all of which allow the consumer to do all of the "cool" things they want to do. These phones are expensive! The profit margin on phones, quite frankly, doesnt exist for the carriers. Carriers make their money on the monthly access charges. When you look at the price tag on a phone in a retail store, you will see the two year promo sales price, and the full retail price. Allow me to break this down for you: An advanced touch screen device retails for $449.99. Your two year promo price may be $49.99 after $50 mail-in rebate. This is a savings of $400. That phone likely cost the carrier $400 to purchase through the manufacturer. The reason that they are subsidizing the cost of the phone is that they will recoup the loss though the $60+ you are spending per month on your monthly access. Therefore, you are given this subsidy every 2 years when you fulfill your agreement and are agreeing to another 2 year contract. (New Every Two). So, as you can see, this is why you arent given a free phone whenever you want one. In addition, the company (probably due to tiring of so many near sighted customers), is now giving you this subsidy every 20 months...FOUR months prior to the end of your contract!
Now, on to the whole "this phone is junk" theory. As someone who deals with this issue in the store constantly, I can tell you with certainty that there is a pattern involved with people who constantly have problems with their phones. Many, many times, it is user error. NO one wants to hear this, but it is simply true. Two thirds of phones that go back to the manufacturer for "technical problems" are found to be functioning properly. What I see much of the time is that consumers have had their phone replaced under warranty multiple times and yet still think it is the phone and not something they are doing. Running their internal memory until it is completely full (which causes intermittent power cycling and sluggish delays in performance), failing to ever turn their phone off (which reduces capacity of running memory), and dropping and tossing their phone around all cause problems which can be passed off as warranty issues, especially for overworked tchnicians and store employees who are stretched to their limits and too busy and stressed to try and explain to yet another bitter and angry consumer that they have ANYTHING TO DO with their phone issues. Honestly, its easier to replace it then argue. This is not to say that there arent phones out there with technical issues. They are, after all, electronics. What consumers need to remember though is that they are eletronics that are being used 8-12 hours per day, 365 days per year. They are tossed around in purses, pockets, and holsters, sat on and dropped, and touch with dirty, wet, and greasy hands. Add some of those features that consumers like such as touch screens and youre asking for something to go awry. I honestly wish that Samsung, LG and other manufacturers sold their own phones to consumers at cost and then consumers brought them to the carrier for activation. Then consumers would not only realize how much these phones cost but also appreciate the extensive warranty replacement programs that we have in place for them.

These are only a few key complaints, but I felt it might help to address them just to help all of these complaining consumers understand better.

Verizon billed us for services from "USA Voicemail" that we did not authorize. Verizon agreed to perpetuate this scam - it appears anyone can authorize charges to anybody's phone number just by saying so -

I searched online and cannot find a website for USA Voicemail - I found www.voicemaildirectusa.com but that redirected me to http://www.intelicommessaging.com
I found this statement online when you sign up:
"By clicking the "Submit" button I am confirming that I have reviewed and fully agree with the Intelicom Messaging™ Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy. In addition, I confirm the information submitted, and my authority to incur charges on the telephone number listed above, and that I am 18 years of age or older."

That's all that's necessary for someone to bill me for services I know nothing about!

In searching online I have come up with complaints going back to 2005 but no company website called "USA Voicemail" so how is it that anybody could conceivably sign up legitimately for services from this company? How can Verizon agree to this?!