What's a $1.99 nothing right? I think not. I was on America's
Choice. and wanted to make a change. I don't use my cell phone a lot
so I was on the 400 minutes and I paid extra for a lot of text
messaging. All I wanted was to add a new phone for $9.99 a month, I
knew that I would have to buy a phone. I had simple needs for the
phone. Pretty much only one requirement it had to be bluetooth and
that the directory be backed up regularly. I got a Samsung u410 with
a $50 rebate. (Truth be told I really did not even want a phone. All
I wanted was a phone number, specifically my home phone number to be
added to my cell phone as a second number, I was told by Verizon the
FCC did not allow that.) I discussed all this with a sales rep in the
store. He told me that I would have to switch from my personal plan
to a family plan on the new Nationwide plan and it was going to cost
so much. That I would have to get more minutes cause families use more
minutes. I was giving up, when this nice guy said we can work it
out. I knew it was going to cost something to do this switch and it
ended up sounding like it would be a couple more dollars than I
anticipated.

Hey I had 30 days to cancel no big deal. Well you don't get a bill
during that first 30 days. My old plan with 1 phone was $57 a month,
I know thats pretty low. The bill shows up and I notice these $1.99
charges for MB. What's this I am wondering.I know that I was told
that data would cost me. Turns out downloading the backup assistant
incurred a charge. But I got charged on the other phone as well the
same $1.99 I didn't think much about it as new plan and partial
billing. I called Verizon and they credited me for the $1.99. We
turned off mobile web on the new phone so I would not get charged for
it anymore.

Remember that 30 days has now transpired, so all bets are off, I got
the new plan now. I get the next bill low and behold there is that
pesky $1.99 on the old phones usage. Looking at the detail for the
phone on line I get to this little tidbit

"Sorry, you do not have Data Details information for this wireless
number on your current bill. Please refer to the following
Text/Video/Picture Messaging Details page which will provide this
information." So I look on the messaging detail page and there is
nothing there as well. I called Verizon to find out what MB's I
used.

Turns out I accessed Mobile Web. I said to myself well when did I do
that. I knew that if I did I would pay for MB's used. Well their
details are better than the online bill and they came up with when I
did it. It was like .2MB. How did I do that? My finger simply
pushed the "OK" button and slid up. That meant I was accessing mobile
web. I pushed end but that must have been too late. As it turns out
if I push the navigation key up or left I am accessing the web so I
get charged the minimum $1.99. So I can fat finger the navigation
keys 4 times a month and it will only cost me $1.99. The fifth time
will probably cost me another $1.99.

OK, no big deal program the phones button not to have that on the
keys. Sorry that's not an option on my phone. So my options are turn
off Mobile Web, like I did on the other phone. I want mobile web I
don't know why right this moment but I do. Now I can turn it on and
off at no charge. If I do that I will get a text message from Verizon
letting me know my service has changed and a couple days later a
letter in the mail telling me that my service has changed. I can pay
$15 a month for Unlimited web access, I can pay $219 for a new phone
that lets me program the nav keys. I can cancel my plan $270 early
termination. No where in this deal is there a protect consumer from
extraeneous charges. I was advise to contact Marketing. Along the
way I was informed about the phone that would do what I wanted. When
I asked about a phone that would do what I wanted I clearly stated
that I was not willing to pay for a phone. A model was provided that
would meet my requirements, when I asked for this phone I was then
informed the phone would cost $269 with a $50 rebate.

Along the way I was told that if I turned off data that I couldn't get
or send pix messages. Turns out that isn't true, ok maybe it is true
but the voice on the phone that called me said that on the phone but
did not back it up in her follow up email. So I can neither confirm
nor deny this fact. Today is March 7th. The email to Verizon was
sent on February 23rd. to find out about the $1.99. Along the way I
received emails from Brad, Joseph, Bill, Scott, Chris, and John. All
of them " Appreciate your business and thank you for using Verizon
Wireless. Should you have additional questions or feel your concerns
are not resolved, please reply to this e-mail." Now on the last email
to Verizon I asked for a phone call. Renee called me. My airtime
minutes were used to chat 35 minutes. Let's hope I don't go over my
450 minutes this month. Renee also "Appreciate your business and
thank you for using Verizon Wireless. Should you have additional
questions or feel your concerns are not resolved, please reply to this
e-mail."

What I was left with was I can get another phone somewhere else and
use it or live with what I have.

Now let us consider this all what does it mean. My phone is less than
2 years old and as I recall most 2 year old phones can't have nav keys
reprogrammed. Accidental pushing will cost a customer $1.99 how many
phones is this, I will venture to guess a lot of phones, how many are
going to notice $1.99 not many, really doesn't matter since Verizon is
not going to reverse the charge anyway and if they do it will only be
the first time. Let's say $20 a year. Out of the air I pick 5000
phones so thats $10,000 how about 50,000 let's see thats $100,000.just
suppose there are 500,000 that must be a cool million. Easy money.
Good thing the minimum charge is only a mere $1.99 Verizon was pretty
proud of that number telling me that Sprint is $32 and AT&T is $10.
So Sprint and AT&T need less errors to make that same cool million.

I'm not a regular usenet person so If you want to comment on this I am
posting to a blog http://blog.lordoflightaz.com as well

In the long run I still am going to save a couple bucks since I no
longer pay Cox $36 for a land line.
Old cell service $57 So monthly around $93 a month New 2 cell plan
$83 (including the $1.99) plus the second cell phones net cost $60
with activation I end up saving about $5 a month to not have a land
line and separt residence and cell numbers.

I did buy a bluetooth gateway which let's my cell phones (up to 3)
ring house phone for $120 which is really kind of cool check it at
http://www.xtremetechcorp.com/