An Unbelievable Verizon Story

 

They claimed it was a "nondestructable" Kong Bone but I knew better. Watson is very strong at 7 months old. Every muscle in his body is strong as well as his jaws just like any other bloodhound. For example Sadie and Stella when confined to a large black metal dog crate could bend those heavy steel rods on the crate. I could not even straighten back them with pliers. So I knew no matter what the reviews were on the internet, this great looking "nondestructable" bone wasn't going to look that nice very long.

Henry and Watson spent most of the day playing with that bone. They used the rope just as it was designed to do, tug-of-war. Later it was used as a fetching toy as both hounds sprinted to get the bone as I threw it across the backyard a thousand times or until my arm got sore.

By the next morning as I was drinking morning coffee, at the computer, Watson brings the bone in the computer room and with his front teeth gripping that fluorescent tennis ball type material, his paws holding each side of the bone, he is ripping it off the bone itself. I also noticed the nylon rope had been chewed almost in two, by the bone. It looked like he had made a meal of this bone so I hoped it went through his digestive system in small fiber strands and not one big ball like piece. I cannot afford too many surgeries to unblock intestines. By the afternoon I could see the material was passing through his system successfully.

With the lack of photos for this post, the hounds and the dog show you what I have been doing most of the time. Not sleeping but just hanging out around home and not doing much. The days pass fast and the nights are now time for an occasional basketball game to watch if IU is playing. Spreadsheets have been made for 2022. In 2022 I have .no moves planned, no car trading or buying planned, it should be a pretty calm year ... I hope.

Walter is an avid fan of College Football. He will sit next to me for hours watching the game I have on tv. He stayed in this pose for around 30 minutes straight before jumping off the couch. Then jumped back on and started watching again. After a couple of games he was wiped out, laid down next to me and spent the rest of the night snoring. 

I hear the same snoring throughout the night when I am trying to sleep.

The Unbelievable Verizon Story

This is going to be a long story if I tell an accurate story of everything that happened. I will try to condense some of the details so it doesn't turn into a book ... FOR THOSE THINKING OF CHANGING  YOUR PHONE SERVICE PROVIDER ... you need to read this.

My billing period runs from the 14th of November to December 13th. I changed my phone provider on November 19th, only FIVE DAYS into the billing cycle. My final bill should be around $10. I read the terms of service BEFORE I transferred service. 

It stated that as soon as my phone number was "ported" to a different provider, Verizon would consider my account canceled and closed. The terms of service was dated October 21, 2021 a little more than a month ago. Remember that as I get into the phone conversation with the Verizon rep, which was yesterday November 30th.

November 29 I spit up my coffee and coughed from choking as I get a text before 6am telling me that Verizon was taking their automatic payment of $74.33 and the transaction was pending. It was the scheduled date but I ended service 9 days prior and was expecting a much smaller final bill.

I call Verizon too early in the morning. Since I no longer have an account with them, their system does not recognize my phone number nor my account number. I am no longer a customer. I wanted to ask them about the full payment they were taking and how I get ~$64 back. Not a large amount but it's the principal.

I call a couple of more times but it's too early and their customer service and chat department will not be at work until 8am Pacific Time, that is 10am for me. I was headed to the store anyway so I stopped at the Verizon Store at 10:06am to see if they could take my account number and help me in some way.

"We don't do that type of work here. I suggest you call them again but as a new customer wanting service so you can connect to a real person and not a virtual assistant."

Well I have a lot of time on my hands most days where I can change my schedule at the drop of a dime, especially if I am trying to get MY money back from a corporation. You would think these large corporations would have ONE computer system so what I see on my screen that real person sees on their screen. Well from past PERSONAL EXPERIENCE, Chase Bank, REI, Verizon, AT&T (Directv), do not have that same system so we are seeing the same information on our computer screens. It is like playing a game talking to them with different information in front of us.

Monday I called FIVE (5) different times to Verizon acting like a new customer wanting new phone service. I would push options numbers to get through their maze of automated information with hopes of getting a real person. My hold times for each call were between 45 minutes and 1 hour and 10 minutes .... where I would hang up. I mean how long do you have to wait??? I know it's "the holidays" but come on.

Finally I get a voice on my last call of the night after waiting 53 minutes. The voice shocked me, was it real? It sounded real. He listened to my story and then said "let me transfer you to customer care" ..... 42 minutes later listening to the same music you hear when on hold ... I hung up.

I went mumbling to bed telling myself I will never call that &*$%@(& company again.

Monday was a really rough day because not only was I talking to Verizon but also Columbia Sportswear. As I zipped up my brand new down jacket to go outside at 7am, the zipper mechanism would not move. A simple mechanism with few moving parts but it wouldn't move. I won't say anymore about that story but insert those phone calls in-between the calls to Verizon. 

Tuesday morning I wake up refreshed. Sunshine is out, great weather forecasted and I DON'T CARE IF I LOSE THAT $64. I check my online banking and the full payment has posted to my account as a charge. Yet the more coffee I drank the more I wanted my money back PLUS I wanted to make sure my account was actually closed. Their phone system could did not recognize me but something didn't feel right. I didn't trust Verizon any longer after years of being their customer.

To prevent them from billing me next month my bank suggested I delete that debit card number and pick up a new card within the hour. I agreed to that. They also said once that charge posted to my account their fraud department could start working on the correction. 

"But Verizon takes so long to answer our questions it will take 60-90 days before there is any kind of resolution. We suggest you talk to them in making the correction."

Tuesday I had nothing but time on my hands. I knew I was going to blog about this story so I decided I would call, hit option #1 then #4 and wait .... hearing the same song as I did all day Monday. I did not care if it took 8 hours to get a voice, the longer it took would add more drama to this blog post. LOL

I do NOT expect a voice so I start making breakfast. At 23 minutes on hold, my low fat turkey bacon only cooked on one side ... I hear what I think is a person about 5 feet away on my phone sitting on the kitchen counter. I have a real person to talk to.

Don't stop reading, this gets even better.

He sees my number and my account number is the same as I told him so we are off to a good start. He tells me how long I have been a Verizon customer BUT WE ARE NOT MATCHING ON BILLING CYCLE DATES !!!!!

After 15 minute or so trying to help this poor guy, I find out he is looking at the bill from 2020 for my Apple Watch, which had a different phone number. WHY??? He finally finds the bill for the phone I have and we are now agreeing that my billing cycle is from November 14 to December 13. I tell him as of that morning I had paid up to December 13 because they took the auto-payment out.

He DOES NOT agree that I ended service on November 19 !!!!!

• I called the Verizon number to get their 6-digit "transfer number" to change provider
• I took out their SIM card and inserted the SIM card of the new provider
• I followed the Verizon instructions on their website for transferring service

All that was done on November 19.

He then tells me "a lot of people take out their SIM cards but that does not mean your account is closed. YOU HAVE TO CALL VERIZON TO CLOSE YOUR ACCOUNT."

I remind him of Verizon's terms of service that was updated October 21, only 30 some days ago. "I don't know about that but I do know you have to call to close your account." I told him how can I call you to close my account when no one ever picks up the phone and told him part of the story for my Monday attempts to do just that.

So .... in 10-14 days I will receive my paper FINAL BILL in the mail and with that FINAL BILL it will have a check attached for the refund of unused service. He said "$40" so I will find out I guess.

With the new debit card number they cannot charge me next month. So I am out of Verizon's life probably forever. Besides this experience, the day I changed service the Spectrum Rep and I called Verizon to get that transfer number. We waited over an hour that day to get a real person. When he asked what we needed, and the Spectrum Rep said "we need a transfer of service number" the Verizon rep hung up on us. Although my current provider uses Verizon towers for their signals and I am getting 3 bars instead of 1 bar for signal strength. 

Sorry for the long story but I thought it would be a good warning for those that are thinking about changing their phone provider for a much cheaper price.