OT - be careful of verizon!

Ok so I'm gonna rant and rave for just a moment and use this as a reminder for all of you....

We had verizon phone/internet in jersey.  We kept verizon phone in pa but changed to rcn internet.

Our old phone number was supposedly disconnected the same day our new phone number was connected which was 11/3/08.  My checking account revealed the automatic payments being deducted each month, so I figured all was fine.  Granted, I did NOT go online each month to check my verizon statement.

So I get home from vacation to find a disconnect order from verizon to be done this week on my phone for lack of payment.  WTF?  So i go online...and sure as hell....there are no payments credited to my account since we moved in.

After further research cause now I want to know where the money was going every single month...I realize they have never DISCONNECTED my OLD phone number OR internet service and have been taking the money out from that.  So I have an account in good standing which hasn't been used since November and an account in bad standing which has been used every day SINCE november.

I spoke to a rep...and they assured me that they will correct the problem...that I will receive a check for the amount of the past 3 months...however...they couldn't transfer that "check" to my new account...so I just paid them the past three months all in one lump sum to keep this phone number  in service. 

So...if you need to disconnect or change services or anything...take down names and phone numbers and don't only rely on automatic charges to tell you the whole story.  Things I should have known....but didn't pay attention to....

grrr...jeez, I got pissed off and tired just reading about the situation. That stuff drives me nuts.

Yea,I hear ya.  We have a $1000+ bill for Verizon due to combining bills and neither department talks to each other.  I miss ATT.  Can't get it in the boonies.

Pam,

  Although I do pay my bill online, I never do automatic payments.  That gives them free reign to deduct what they want when they want.  Yowzah I would be really po'd!!!

Gail

That sucks!  I can't believe they can't just move it from one account to the other!!  The least they can do is leave the phone on until you get your refund then reissue them the money!!  Its not your fault!!  I'd me spitting nails!!

Glad you straightened it out though!!

I'm sorry you're going through this, Pam, but knowing Verizon it doesn't surprise me.  We've been fighting with them for about 4 months.  Be wary of any free services, like free movie channels---they change your contract based on that.  That's what they did to us, and our bill has been screwed up ever since.  My bf has spent hours on the phone with them, and each rep says they'll fix the problem.  Then the bill is even higher the next month.  I hope you get your issue straightened out faster and easier than our's!

Hi Pam, hope you had a great vacation sorry you came back to verizon. A friend of mine switched over her cable to them and phone service and I told her how our next door neighbor tried them and were very unhappy and after their contract expired they went back to comcast and come to find out that verizon ripped out all of comcast's equipment and my neighbor had to pay bug bucks for comcast to re-install their equipment and when they notified verizon that they didn't appreciate that being done to them verizon's general reply was "tough cookies" if you would have stayed with us (verizon) that wouldn't have happened.  Needless to say our neighbors warned everyone they could.  I switched our cells over to hubby's name and got hit with a whopping bill. Know not to ever trust them again. I would have spoken with a supervisor and if they were gonna do that crap to me I would have let them shut the phone and switched over to comcast and then reported them to the BBB since you have a record of payment and why should you be put out?

Make sure you keep after them. It is like pulling teeth to get money back from them. We have used the cell phone service with them forever (still do) They used to do auto withdraw from our checking account until they messed up. I was charged with talking to my daughter ( who , at the time was sitting next to me in the car while we were on our way to Ohio ) for over half an hour ! We were told they were going to straighten it out . They would not issue a check they would "credit our account" for the money they over charged ! Granted , we didn't have to pay the cell phone bill for over 6 months but what if we needed that money !  After that we pay the bill monthly, online AFTER we get the bill !