verizon wireless

Verizon Wireless Lied about Contract Extension, 500 bonus minutes, and phone upgrade Elgin, Illinois

5th of Dec, 2010 by User932206

I was called by a Verizon Wireless representative on May 22nd, 2010 telling me that I can get a new phone at the two year upgrade price, sign on for one year starting the date I purchased the new phone, and I would get 500 bonus minutes for doing so. I asked multiple times if I would be signed on for an additional year if I did not purchase the phone, and they said that I would not be signed on for an additional year if I did not purchase a phone. After talking to them and making sure nothing would happen unless I purchased a new phone, I agreed to their offer. The representative then said they were placing the 500 bonus minutes on my account, and this was strange so I asked her if this would add a year to my contract, and she said that it would not. Then, the conversation ended.
Because I was having trouble paying my bill for the entire duration of my service in 2010, I ended up canceling my contract in early September, 2010, which is when a VW representative told me my contract should be over.
I tried canceling my contract in August, but I ran into trouble because they said I would have to pay an early cancellation fee of $175, and I called up VW and found out that when they called me in May, they did extend my contract by one year. So, they consistently lied to me when they called me up and had me unknowingly sign a contract.
I tried to get it cleared up, because obviously it was a mistake made by VW, but when I called them up, I was denied and I was forced to complain through the Better Business Bureau.
When I filed a complaint through the BBB, I practically hit a brick wall, because VW would only answer questions they wanted to and absolutely refused to admit that there was any possibility that a mistake on their part could have happened. I asked multiple times about the phone upgrade at the two year price and they never said a single thing about it until I spoke to their representative, "Melissa Steele" over the phone, which is when she stated that I was always eligible for such an upgrade, even though the VW website said I was not eligible for an upgrade until January, 2011. She said they never commented on that because it had nothing to do with my complaint or the contract that I supposedly agreed to.
When I asked her if she ever asked the representative who spoke with me if, at the time around my call, she remembers making any mistakes like what I was complaining about, and Melissa said VW didn't need to because the rep would not remember my specific call. I then told her I was not asking about the specific call, because I also have been in sales and I know if someone gets something wrong, it is usually not just once, but at least a couple times over a short period of time, and when they find out they are wrong they fix their sales tactics and remember that they said the incorrect information. Melissa then told me that it would not help out anyone because the rep would not remember my specific call. I then reiterated that I was not speaking about my specific call, and that I was asking about a region in time, and she said it would be useless because the rep would not remember my specific call.
There were multiple things that we spoke of that played out like this.
Looking back, it is clear to me that this is a tactic that they are using to make people complaining give up and give them whatever money they ask for. What they are doing is only answering specific questions and refusing to answer others that may show where they were at fault. The only responses Melissa ever wrote down dealt with how I never cancelled the contract. I find this strange how a company can lie to you and if you never tell them you don't agree to the contract that you never knew existed, then you are bound to the contract.
Anyways, Melissa told me part way through the phone conversation that they were willing to drop the termination fee by 50%, then after another fifteen minutes, they were willing to drop it by 70%, and she said that was their final offer. I said I would never accept this offer, because I never agreed to their contract, which was basically that they would give me 500 bonus minutes and I would agree to pay them $80 a month for another 12 months. This is strange, because I never once went over my allotted minute usage per month, except when I was only paying $40 or so a month for unlimited internet on my BlackBerry and all phone calls were 50 cents a minute.
Some strange things that I remembered when I looked them up in November are as follows:
I was consistently one to two months behind on payments from January, 2010 until August, 2010, when they finally suspended my service. I am wondering why they would want to extend service to someone who was so bad at paying their phone bill.
I received a bunch of e-mails with the same subject, which is as follows:
"Important Information Regarding Your Verizon Wireless Account"
Seven of these dealt with me owing over $150 and the other two stated that a change happened in the status of my account. The dates of the seven were: (all in 2010) Jan. 28, Feb. 27, March 29, May 1, May 29, June 27, and July 29. A week after the July 29th e-mail, my VW phone service was suspended. The dates of the other two e-mails are as follows: Feb. 3 and May 27. I didn't extend my service on Feb. 3rd, so I didn't know what that was for, so I was under the assumption that on May 27th and Feb. 3rd that VW was trying to tell me that they were going to suspend my service. Both of these two types of e-mails had a very similar layout, and the difference between them was just that one asked for money and the other said a change had been made to the service.
I had also received three other e-mails dated April 5, May 6, and July 5 with the subject, "Urgent: Your Past Due Verizon Wireless Account," stating that the past due amount had to be paid immediately or my service was to be interrupted.
This evidence that any normal company would not want to keep a bad customer past the contract end date. As a landlord, I would not want to keep a person who was consistently two months behind on rent, and I would not dare sign a new contract with them. That is just asking for trouble.
On Nov. 15th, I supposedly was sent a letter from VW dealing with a "NEW OFFER," but I have not received this. I was waiting to receive this until I responded through the BBB again, but 14 days passed and now the case is assumed closed. As soon as I could, I contacted VW and BBB telling them I did not want the complaint closed as it has not been resolved. The BBB has yet to re-open the case.
So, to sum everything up, I was contacted by VW and was misled and told lies in order to unknowingly sign a contract. VW denies that there could have been any mistake made. Before and after this I was have a lot of trouble making payments, showing that I am not the type of customer they would want signed on for an additional year. VW only answered questions they acknowledged to this specific incident and absolutely refused to acknowledge the existence of the other questions. I never knew that I had entered into a contract that extended my contract until I tried to cancel my service. Now VW is hounding me for the early termination fee for a contract I never signed and has sent it to collections and their automated phone service is calling me telling me I need to call them.
VW still refuses to admit that any mistake could have been made on their part and because I didn't record my phone conversation, I have no evidence that VW made a mistake. And, as we all know, employees of big companies and companies themselves, can never, ever make a mistake.

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