I just figured that I'd give folks a heads up on this, and also
because Verizon Wireless deserves to hvae this sort of anti-consumer
behavior publicized....
The other day I went in to Verizon to upgrade our phones (family plan)
and change our plan to include texting. The monthly difference in the
plan cost compared to our previous one is $30.
When I was asking the service rep about the charges I mentioned that
my billing period was to end in a couple of days and he confirmed
this. We completed out transaction and I went home.
A few days later I received my new bill. It included a full
additional retroactive $30 charge for the month that had just been
completed.
I called Verizon and asked them about this. They said that if I
changed my plan in the "middle" of a billing period then I incurred
the full new charge for that full billing period.
I very incredulously went over this with them several times asking how
could this be and how could it not be that they would not only charge
me for the new rate for the two days that I was using their service
under the new plan. repeatedly the service rep told me that this was
what they did and that I should have been aware of this.
I repeatedly pointed out that it was an insane way to do business
under anyone's model of this sort of thing. And I closed the
conversation with a promise that I would politicize this practise of
Verizon. I pointed out that Verizon will lose more money from the
loss of good will based on my sharing this experience with other than
whey will make from the "theft" of this $30.
I am sure that Verizon makes many millions of dollars annually from
this practise.
I did return to the Verizon store and discussed my complaint directly
with them as well after the phone conversation with the Verizon phone
rep. They ultimately agreed to credit my account for $30 as an act
of "good will" but they argued that this billing practise was
reasonable. I decided to not do other than register my complaint with
the person who failed to inform me of this effectively hidden charge,
rather than continue to try to point out that the logic of the charge
is deaply flawed.
So, forewarned is forearmed: when you go int to change your plan
terms, make sure that you do it the day after your billing period
ends.
By contrast, I went into the Apple store the other day because the
plastic covering on my MacBook's charger's cord was pulling away from
its end. I showed it to the service person there and he told me that
it wasn't a safety concern. But he said he'd prefer to give me a new
one anyway (independent of whether the machine was under warrantee).
He opened a fresh charger box and handed it to me...
Two very different approaches to doing bussiness....
David Reiss wrote:
> I just figured that I'd give folks a heads up on this, and also
> because Verizon Wireless deserves to hvae this sort of anti-consumer
> behavior publicized....
>
> The other day I went in to Verizon to upgrade our phones (family plan)
> and change our plan to include texting. The monthly difference in the
> plan cost compared to our previous one is $30.
>
> When I was asking the service rep about the charges I mentioned that
> my billing period was to end in a couple of days and he confirmed
> this. We completed out transaction and I went home.
>
> A few days later I received my new bill. It included a full
> additional retroactive $30 charge for the month that had just been
> completed.
>
> I called Verizon and asked them about this. They said that if I
> changed my plan in the "middle" of a billing period then I incurred
> the full new charge for that full billing period.
No particular fan of megacorps but I have done many
changes/upgrades/renewals etc on multiple lines and each time the deduct
or ad was properly prorated.
Also they not only do that but they don't start charging until you
actually start using the features of the new plan. I added another
smartphone and it sat in the box for a week before I activated it and
the bill was prorated for so many days using the old phone and for the
correct number of days in the billing period when the smartphone was
activated.
The last time I experienced what you described was probably two
companies previous to VZW.
>
> I very incredulously went over this with them several times asking how
> could this be and how could it not be that they would not only charge
> me for the new rate for the two days that I was using their service
> under the new plan. repeatedly the service rep told me that this was
> what they did and that I should have been aware of this.
>
> I repeatedly pointed out that it was an insane way to do business
> under anyone's model of this sort of thing. And I closed the
> conversation with a promise that I would politicize this practise of
> Verizon. I pointed out that Verizon will lose more money from the
> loss of good will based on my sharing this experience with other than
> whey will make from the "theft" of this $30.
>
> I am sure that Verizon makes many millions of dollars annually from
> this practise.
>
> I did return to the Verizon store and discussed my complaint directly
> with them as well after the phone conversation with the Verizon phone
> rep. They ultimately agreed to credit my account for $30 as an act
> of "good will" but they argued that this billing practise was
> reasonable. I decided to not do other than register my complaint with
> the person who failed to inform me of this effectively hidden charge,
> rather than continue to try to point out that the logic of the charge
> is deaply flawed.
>
> So, forewarned is forearmed: when you go int to change your plan
> terms, make sure that you do it the day after your billing period
> ends.
>
> By contrast, I went into the Apple store the other day because the
> plastic covering on my MacBook's charger's cord was pulling away from
> its end. I showed it to the service person there and he told me that
> it wasn't a safety concern. But he said he'd prefer to give me a new
> one anyway (independent of whether the machine was under warrantee).
> He opened a fresh charger box and handed it to me...
>
> Two very different approaches to doing bussiness....
>
> --David
At 07 Oct 2009 13:49:00 -0700 David Reiss wrote:
> I just figured that I'd give folks a heads up on this, and also
> because Verizon Wireless deserves to hvae this sort of anti-consumer
> behavior publicized....
>
> The other day I went in to Verizon to upgrade our phones (family plan)
> and change our plan to include texting. The monthly difference in the
> plan cost compared to our previous one is $30.
>
> When I was asking the service rep about the charges I mentioned that
> my billing period was to end in a couple of days and he confirmed
> this. We completed out transaction and I went home.
>
> A few days later I received my new bill. It included a full
> additional retroactive $30 charge for the month that had just been
> completed.
>
> I called Verizon and asked them about this. They said that if I
> changed my plan in the "middle" of a billing period then I incurred
> the full new charge for that full billing period.
>
> I very incredulously went over this with them several times asking how
> could this be and how could it not be that they would not only charge
> me for the new rate for the two days that I was using their service
> under the new plan. repeatedly the service rep told me that this was
> what they did and that I should have been aware of this.
>
> I repeatedly pointed out that it was an insane way to do business
> under anyone's model of this sort of thing. And I closed the
> conversation with a promise that I would politicize this practise of
> Verizon. I pointed out that Verizon will lose more money from the
> loss of good will based on my sharing this experience with other than
> whey will make from the "theft" of this $30.
>
> I am sure that Verizon makes many millions of dollars annually from
> this practise.
>
> I did return to the Verizon store and discussed my complaint directly
> with them as well after the phone conversation with the Verizon phone
> rep. They ultimately agreed to credit my account for $30 as an act
> of "good will" but they argued that this billing practise was
> reasonable. I decided to not do other than register my complaint with
> the person who failed to inform me of this effectively hidden charge,
> rather than continue to try to point out that the logic of the charge
> is deaply flawed.
Actually it isn't. The only "flaw" was the rep not telling you first.
Imagine, for a moment, your son shepishly told you on day 28 of your
billing cycle, that he has a new girlfriend and has secretly texted her 700
times this month, at $0.20. With Verizon's policy, you could've added the
family texting plan and watched $140 in a la carte text charges magically
melt into a $30 plan charge.
> So, forewarned is forearmed: when you go int to change your plan
> terms, make sure that you do it the day after your billing period
> ends.
Unless of course, a situation like my hypothetical comes up- then run to
the nearest phone and add it on before it's too late.
I won't argue that Verizon's rep handled it badly by not warning you, but
there's nothing inherently wrong with the policy if fuly disclosed.
My carier, T-Mobile, handles it even better- they ask you when changing
plans or adding features if you'd rather backdate it to the beginning of
the cycle, prorate from today, or start it on the first day of the next
cycle.
On Wed, 7 Oct 2009 13:49:00 -0700 (PDT), David Reiss
<dbreiss@gmail.com> wrote:
>I just figured that I'd give folks a heads up on this, and also
>because Verizon Wireless deserves to hvae this sort of anti-consumer
>behavior publicized....
>
>The other day I went in to Verizon to upgrade our phones (family plan)
>and change our plan to include texting. The monthly difference in the
>plan cost compared to our previous one is $30.
>
>When I was asking the service rep about the charges I mentioned that
>my billing period was to end in a couple of days and he confirmed
>this. We completed out transaction and I went home.
>
>A few days later I received my new bill. It included a full
>additional retroactive $30 charge for the month that had just been
>completed.
>
>I called Verizon and asked them about this. They said that if I
>changed my plan in the "middle" of a billing period then I incurred
>the full new charge for that full billing period.
>
>I very incredulously went over this with them several times asking how
>could this be and how could it not be that they would not only charge
>me for the new rate for the two days that I was using their service
>under the new plan. repeatedly the service rep told me that this was
>what they did and that I should have been aware of this.
>
>I repeatedly pointed out that it was an insane way to do business
>under anyone's model of this sort of thing. And I closed the
>conversation with a promise that I would politicize this practise of
>Verizon. I pointed out that Verizon will lose more money from the
>loss of good will based on my sharing this experience with other than
>whey will make from the "theft" of this $30.
>
>I am sure that Verizon makes many millions of dollars annually from
>this practise.
>
>I did return to the Verizon store and discussed my complaint directly
>with them as well after the phone conversation with the Verizon phone
>rep. They ultimately agreed to credit my account for $30 as an act
>of "good will" but they argued that this billing practise was
>reasonable. I decided to not do other than register my complaint with
>the person who failed to inform me of this effectively hidden charge,
>rather than continue to try to point out that the logic of the charge
>is deaply flawed.
>
>So, forewarned is forearmed: when you go int to change your plan
>terms, make sure that you do it the day after your billing period
>ends.
>
>By contrast, I went into the Apple store the other day because the
>plastic covering on my MacBook's charger's cord was pulling away from
>its end. I showed it to the service person there and he told me that
>it wasn't a safety concern. But he said he'd prefer to give me a new
>one anyway (independent of whether the machine was under warrantee).
>He opened a fresh charger box and handed it to me...
>
>Two very different approaches to doing bussiness....
>
>--David
I did the same thing several months ago ,but on the phone.
The rep looked at the dates and gave me the option on
billing back to the begin of the current month or making it
effective on the next billing cycle.
I chose the next billing cycle which made me wait until
the next cycle to do the phone upgrade.
If I had picked the bill back option I could have
upgraded on the same day
"David Reiss" <dbreiss@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:8421019b-a370-49ad-8bb3-da77fd8fe3a3@s6g2000vbp.googlegroups.com...
>I just figured that I'd give folks a heads up on this, and also
> because Verizon Wireless deserves to hvae this sort of anti-consumer
> behavior publicized....
>
> The other day I went in to Verizon to upgrade our phones (family plan)
> and change our plan to include texting. The monthly difference in the
> plan cost compared to our previous one is $30.
>
> When I was asking the service rep about the charges I mentioned that
> my billing period was to end in a couple of days and he confirmed
> this. We completed out transaction and I went home.
>
> A few days later I received my new bill. It included a full
> additional retroactive $30 charge for the month that had just been
> completed.
>
> I called Verizon and asked them about this. They said that if I
> changed my plan in the "middle" of a billing period then I incurred
> the full new charge for that full billing period.
>
> I very incredulously went over this with them several times asking how
> could this be and how could it not be that they would not only charge
> me for the new rate for the two days that I was using their service
> under the new plan. repeatedly the service rep told me that this was
> what they did and that I should have been aware of this.
>
> I repeatedly pointed out that it was an insane way to do business
> under anyone's model of this sort of thing. And I closed the
> conversation with a promise that I would politicize this practise of
> Verizon. I pointed out that Verizon will lose more money from the
> loss of good will based on my sharing this experience with other than
> whey will make from the "theft" of this $30.
>
> I am sure that Verizon makes many millions of dollars annually from
> this practise.
>
> I did return to the Verizon store and discussed my complaint directly
> with them as well after the phone conversation with the Verizon phone
> rep. They ultimately agreed to credit my account for $30 as an act
> of "good will" but they argued that this billing practise was
> reasonable. I decided to not do other than register my complaint with
> the person who failed to inform me of this effectively hidden charge,
> rather than continue to try to point out that the logic of the charge
> is deaply flawed.
>
> So, forewarned is forearmed: when you go int to change your plan
> terms, make sure that you do it the day after your billing period
> ends.
>
> By contrast, I went into the Apple store the other day because the
> plastic covering on my MacBook's charger's cord was pulling away from
> its end. I showed it to the service person there and he told me that
> it wasn't a safety concern. But he said he'd prefer to give me a new
> one anyway (independent of whether the machine was under warrantee).
> He opened a fresh charger box and handed it to me...
>
> Two very different approaches to doing bussiness....
>
> --David
that is strangely different from my experience with VZW. Last Spring we
updated our phones and account and I got Palm Centros for myself and my son.
As the Centro was older, web service was not required. I discovered a day
or so later, that my son had run up a significant charge for web service,
not knowing how expensive it was. I called customer service, they added the
data plan to his account, postdated to the date the phone was activated.
The charge was prorated for the amount of time the account was actually used
and my employee discount was applied to it. At the end of the billing
period, the data plan was removed and a data block was put on both Centros.
Verizon wireless anti-consumer experience.... 
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