How To Deal With Verizon Wireless And Other Cellular Companies When You Have An Issue
I’ve been hearing friends and family complain about dealing with their wireless providers for years, and I’m sure you have too (or maybe you were the complainer?). This is not uncommon, since many of the policies of cellular providers are unethical and designed to trick you. This post will investigate their incentive structure, and how to turn it around for your benefit.
Some of the more common unethical practices by cellular providers:
- Charging you for a complete minute even if you only used one second.
- Charging you just for reaching a cellphone that was off (since it sends you right to voicemail).
- Charging you for dropped calls. They do generally provide a number you can call to get those charges dropped, but how many people actually are willing to spend 10 to 15 minutes holding for customer service and then nitpicking about these 5 minutes or those 5 minutes.
- Not disclosing the total charges you will incur due to exorbitant taxes and all sorts of additional services you thought were included in your plan.
- Extorting extensions on your contract from you whenever you need them to help you.
- Taking away your unused minutes at the end of each month (Yes, some providers no longer do this and offer Rollover, purely as a marketing tactic, and even then it expires at a certain date thereafter).
Now, there are three basic models for cellular providers, and you likely know which category your provider falls into:
- The “tons of minutes that you can’t use because of a terrible network” plan.
- The “our network is the best so we’ll charge you a ton and also for everything under the sun”.
- The “we have a decent network, decent value from plans, and offer neat features which are fun (like Push-to-Talk)”.
The one thing all three models have in common is that they need you to stay beyond that first or second year, since they spend so much on marketing and offering the phones for deep discounts. Furthermore, retention workers at the companies get in trouble if you leave.
As other people have found, dealing with Verizon is like getting your teeth pulled. Several times I would call with an issue, only to be told that “we can’t do anything about your current bill, we can’t even see it. We’ll only be able to see it once the bill posts.” So, naturally, I’d ask to be called back whenever that occurs (they never could tell me when that would be). And, to my complete expectation, they never once called me back.
The usual way most people deal with situations is to waste a half hour on the phone, on hold, then with the customer service representative, and finally with a manager, who would offer some absurdly small incentive to make you happy. This was never time efficient, and you didn’t get much out of it (they design their customer service that way to cut down on calls).
My most recent spat with Verizon, with whom I’ve been for quite a few years now, was over a month where I had a business emergency, and instead of using up 900 minutes (my usual plan), ended up using almost 2,000. The 40 cent per minute overage (totaling $440) was absolutely intolerable, and I decided to call and see if they could change my plan for that month to the 2,000 minute plan (saving me over $400).
At first, Verizon claimed they couldn’t do that. I then informed them that Cingular, Sprint, and T-Mobile would certainly do that for a good customer. She then sensed an opportunity to sell me something, and agreed to upgrade my plan if I committed to one more year of contract terms.
I found this to be a real slap in the face, hitting someone like that when they had an emergency. At this point I got angry, and decided to try a different tactic. I asked for the most senior manager they had in that day, and was told to wait. When the manager came on the phone, and just repeated what the customer representative had told me.
I said “Listen, for years I have been your customer, I have gone over my minutes in the past and given you great profits. What you are trying to do now is absolutely unethical. When you have a bad month, and my reception isn’t great, I don’t get a refund, or a shorter contract. So why should you get a longer contract out of me? And why would I want a longer contract with a company that treats their long customers this way? I’ll tell you what. I’m not even going to waste my time with you. You either make my plan for this month the 2,000 minute plan and drop me back down the month after or I’m leaving Verizon…I don’t care if I’m still on contract, come find me. Good day!”
A week later, I called up Verizon to check up some details on my account…and what do you know? They did just as I asked – because I didn’t stay on the phone long enough for the manager to have a chance to do anything other than that.
Lesson learned: At the end of the day, just don’t take no for an answer, and don’t spend a second longer on the phone than you have to in order to explain the consequences of them not playing ethically.
If you have had any similar experiences with cellular companies or know of some other tricks, I’d love to hear about them in the comments!
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July 14th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Ive had verizon for a few years but as usual my verizon phone just didnt last so i decided to buy a brand new one. two months later it wouldnt cut on so they gave me another since it was under warranty. I instantly noticed that they gave me a used one and they finally owned up to it. Well within a few months the keypad messed up and they claimed it had water damage so i was out of luck and still within contract.
The thing that gets me is that i paid full retail for a new phone but just a few months later i get a used one. Kind of a ripoff if you ask me.
Verizon is just not worth the money.
November 7th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Yes, I have advice.
When it comes to dealing with Verizon, take no prisoners.
When you call Verizon, should you be fortunate enough to reach an actual associate you will be read the same patronizing and manipulative BS everyone gets.
This is my advice, if you have a legitimate gripe that has ANY extenuating circumstances do as follows.
“Hi thank you for calling Verizon, my name is Terrel how can I help you today?”
you
“I need to speak with a Verizon manager or supervisor”
them
“well maybe there is something I can do for you ______ what seems to be the problem?”
you
“You are right, you can do something for me, put me through to a manager or supervisor immediately, please and thank you very much”
They will usually muddle about and try to waste time while convincing you perhaps they can be of some assistance. Keep repeating yourself until you reach the top dogs. Then plead your case with them, tell them of your time with verizon and all the people who reccomend it to and friends you encourage to use it (Show them you are their cheerleader and losing you will lose them money) Then show them how they have cost you money and ask what they are willing to do. Be polite and be assertive and DO NOT let them off the phone until you are satisfied. Their job is customer service and even when you work for a satanic socialist dark empire like Verizon, at some point “The Customer is at least somewhat right”
In the worst case scenario you can argue with them until they offer to cancel your contract if you wish, at that point you know they have offered all they are willing to and you can take their last most generous option.
Go get em’
-Jack
May 11th, 2010 at 11:52 am
I have list of complaints about Verizon and am taking the opportunity to warn everyone I can about doing business with this company. Hopefully I can save some others some trouble.
I signed up with Verizon in 2008 with a year -long contract. In 2009 I told them I wanted to add a phone and internet service to my bill. I indicated that I wanted a 1 year contract on them as well. The rep didn’t listen to me or punched the wrong button because I am now wrapped into a two year contract. Now that alone would not be a big problem except, over the last month I have begun to be billed for incoming calls. After spending two hours on the phone with a rep, I was told that incoming calls have always been counted against my minutes. But this is just not true. My phone bill over the last two months has gone from the slightly unreasonable $200 range to the $400. This is after instructions to my wife to not use the phone after 7 pm. But with other individuals contacting us, it pushing us well over the minutes limit. This is unfair because it is only a recent change that Verizon has begun to charge for the incoming calls and failed to warn me a consumer that they were going to start.
Again after a long time on the phone with Verizon they agreed to change my plan (which means a higher base charge in future months) and alter my voice charges by 40%. (However my bill has yet to reflect the change).
I am stuck, at least for awhile, but I will be looking into finding forums like this and complaining as loudly as possible to as many people as possible. And for others, do yourself a favor and find another company as soon as possible. Avoid Verizon because they truly are an unscrupulous company.
July 19th, 2010 at 11:41 am
I recently just cancelled my verizon wireless account because I moved to a different country, where Verizon offers linited service. When I called, obviously, they wanted to charge me an ETF. I told the customer service attendant that because I was moving to a place where verizon offers limited service, and that according to the contract that I signed they should not charge me for the ETF. She put me on hold and when she came back she say “yes, according to your contract we should waive your ETF”. She also told me that the last bill I would have to pay was the bill from the month of June, and after that I would have no more charges. I said, great! Go aheand and cancel my account.But that is not exactly what happened. This month (august) I received another bill, charging me for the ETF. I again, called customer service and told them about my situation, that I was told that the ETF was waived and now they want to charge me for that. Customer service did not give an answer telling me why they are charging me this fee now, when they told me a few weeks ago that it was waived. All they told me is that I will have to pay for those charges. Do you have any suggestions of what can i do? The issue here is that they told me that the ETF was going to be waived, and because of that I cancelled my account, but now they want to charge me for that.
I am tired of dealing with Verizon’s unethical practices.
January 27th, 2011 at 12:26 pm
I have never had verizon, but they bought out my company (cellone) in like Dec. 09. They gave me options!!!! To cancel ALL services, with no charges, Finish my contract with cellone for a while, or switch to verizon. I chose to finish my month seeing how I had already paid it then cancel!!! A couple months later I received a phone call from verizon customer service stating that they sent me a phone and they needed the money for the phone seeing how I did not take the service. ( When I talked to them I told them I did not want a phone, nor their service!) A year of fighting over some stupid phone I never had, I get a call from a collection agency stating I owed over 200 dollars for a verizon phone that I don’t have, I was MAD!! Called verizon and they said as they did before they would take care of it… The next year I get a letter stating that I still owed 200 + dollars for verizon!!! Okay mad at this point I ignore it!!! It’s now Jan 2011 and I get a phone call from an agency stating that I owed money! Well I tell them I have never received a phone and am not going to pay for it. They now tell me it’s for an Unpaid bill!!! I NEVER HAD VERIZON… so I tell them this and what the charges were for the last couple of years, and they said I don’t know thats what the notes say! So I call verizon and ask them to get their shit straight and stop making up charges for this money! The guy was nice and told me there was no NOTES at all on a bill or phone, just that it had money owed sent to collections… Okay so he told me he noted that there was evidence on fraud to my notes and gave me a number to call the fraud department! It is of course not the number for fraud so I call back verizon and talk to someone else for a number got a completely different number for fraud and called it and had to leave a message when they called back they tell me ANOTHER story!! Okay so NOW There are notes on my account and STATES as they said There is no fraud on this account!!! And they tell me in July 09 I purchased a phone and reinstated my CELLONE account and bought a phone on the upgrade price! *sigh* I bought the phone 5 months before even knowing that cellone was going to be bought out! But since I canceled my phones, which was suppose to be at no charge apparently did not mean MY PHONE! So the HTC TOUCH i bought and used for only 5 months with cellone, is now being charged at full rate for canceling my service… ( remind you all this phone takes a sim! and verizon don’t! so even if I would have switched I wouldn’t have been able to use this phone!) I ask them for my contract and was told that the contracts did not switch over when the company was bought out… I said well… seeing as how you don’t have a contract go F yourself! and told them I wanted the contract, she said she would try to get it and it would take about two weeks! three weeks later i have not received a phone call e-mail or letter about my contract!
What am I suppose to do now?
May 8th, 2011 at 10:41 am
Okay, here’s my dilemma. I’ve had a 4-member family plan with Verizon for years. I had my LG phone for 2 1/2 years and it was fine. I recently upgraded to a Samsung Intensity II. I noticed it was harder to text with but I figured I’d get used to it. After 3 weeks I realized I had to switch phones because it was killing my thumbs (pain all the way up my arm). In the Verizon store I found an LG Octane with a larger keyboard that would be fine. On line they have that model, pre-owned, for FREE, but that’s for new joiners. So I called Verizon and asked if they could do something for me. I said I knew I was past the 14-day return limit, but since I’ve been a good customer for years, could they sell me a pre-owned Octane at the discount anyway. They couldn’t budge from their rules. I asked the nice lady to speak to her supervisor. She “did.” But came back and said there’s nothing she could do for me. Do you think I have a recourse? I really need a different phone and I’m not asking them to do something HUGE, it’s not like I’ve had the Intensity II for 6 months. It’s only a week past the 14-days. Any help?
September 20th, 2011 at 7:26 pm
I have a Verizon plan with unlimited data. I want an Iphone 4. I am willing to pay the full price of the phone if I need to, although I am eligible for an upgrade. Verizon insists that I cannot keep my current plan with an Iphone. They say that the Iphone requires a minimu of a $30 data plan. In other words I can’t use my unlimited data plan with it. Greedy….