Month: September 2005

I’ve been battling a fight recently with Verizon for trying to charge me a ridiculous fee for terminating my DSL service early. I was never told when I signed up I was entering into a contract, nor was I told when I asked to cancel that I would be charged a fee. Instead, to my surprise I received a bill about a month after I cancelled wanting to charge me $99 for an “Early Termination Fee.”

I called Verizon, talked to 2 reps, asking both to talk to a supervisor, and having both tell me one would contact me within 72 hours. Finally after about a week a supervisor calls telling me despite their deceptive practices I would still have to pay the $99.

So I decided to play hardball. I filed a report with the Better Business Bureau and sure enough, after about a month, I get the following letter (verbatim):

September 2, 2005

Better Business Bureau of Greater Maryland, Inc.
BBB Consumer Education Foundation
1414 Key Highway, Suite 100
Baltimore, MD 21230</p

RE: 23040497 Jesse Stay, Sr(Note I am not Sr – that would be my grandfather)

Verizon has investigated the Stay’s concerns. As a result, Verizon has issued a credit for the $99 termination fee on account ***-***-****. We apologize for any inconvenience the Stay’s may have incurred.

Sicnerely,
Phyllis McNeil
Verizon Customer Relations

Needless to say I was extatic to receive an apology! I was finally going to get the money they owed me and hopefully the collectors would cease their calls.

Well, it’s now been 2 weeks, and Verizon still does not show this on their records, nor have the credit collectors stopped calling. In fact, they are getting downright ruthless now, doing things that I’m pretty sure are illegal, calling after-hours, harrasing my wife, hanging up on her when she asks for a supervisor and other things. Someone really needs to sue the pants off these guys – any lawyers want to take a free case? I’ll give you 10% if I win. Despite the apology, Verizon still sucks, are frauds, and I will never do business with them again. Kudos to the BBB for their hardwork – donate to them! More to come…

I’ve added two more links to the left so you can see some of my favorite links and stories. I’d rather post them there than here since so I can share them better. “My Recent Favorites” is my recent del.icio.us links – anything I want to remember for later I post there. “What I Digg” is recent articles linked on Digg.com that I have dug. Also note the Katrina Relief link to the Red Cross in the upper-right. I am a huge supporter (and occasional volunteer) for the Red Cross.