That's Plenty

Back in May, Verizon billed us twice for the same charge - $159.04 in overdue invoices. Karen and I hadn't gotten any paper statements and we didn't think too much about it. When they suspended our service, we paid the total due and set up automatic billing to her Citibank card. That was April. Then, the next month, in May, we were charged for a month of service - plus *another* charge of $159.04. We reviewed our statements on Verizon's web page, and they had carried over the charge from April even though we had paid it.

So we called them to set the record straight.

They had no record of our payment in April, so we set about proving it. We e-mailed them pdf files of the two bank statements from April and May. We asked them to get in touch with Citibank. We spoke to supervisors who promised they would look into it and call us back later in the day. We spoke to at least three different supervisors on three different days and none of them ever got back to us. We called back later in the day or the next day each time, and each time we were told that they had no information but that we should sit tight and someone would get back to us.

So we let it go for a while. I was busy with the Paris Hilton documentary I was working on, and Karen is an office manager and doesn't want to deal with this crap at home. So, finally, when my hectic job was up we got in touch with Citibank before we left for Hawaii. We asked them to investigate the problem, thinking that Verizon would be on better behaviour with Citibank.

Then, this past Saturday, I woke up to discover that my internet service had been suspended, and that, according to their tech support operators, I had to resolve something with the billing department - but the billing department was closed until Tuesday because of Columbus day.

Karen and I looked up her Citibank activity online and - to our horror - we had just paid a Verizon bill. Which means they had suspended our service even though all our bills were paid.

So, finally, today, I got Verizon on the phone.

The first time I called, the operator was so squelched I couldn't
understand her.

The second time I called, I was transferred to a dead line.

The third time I called I got someone on the line. First she offered to
reinstate my service, but I pressed her. Why had my account been suspended
in the first place? I was in good standing and paid in full.

She dug a little deeper into the notes on my account and told me that in order to get my service
going again, I would have to fax them a statement authorizing them to
charge my credit card for service.

Okay, I said, I can understand why you might need something like that to
bill that card while there is an investigation pending on it, but why
did you suspend my service? I'm paid up through this month.

Well, she said, it's automatic. Apparently if a card gets blocked like that, Verizon will automatically suspend a customer's service *even if the customer is current with their bill*. I asked to be switched back to paper bills through the mail - or allowed to pay individual bills over the internet as I had done before.

Verizon, though, won't allow me to swtich back to paper bills or to pay individual bills online once a dispute has been opened with a credit card company. And there's no point in trying to change anyone's mind in the billing department. Why?

Because of the investigation, a woman named Gwen now has sole control over my account. But the company won't give out her phone number or connect me to her - her last name isn't even in the notes, so they can't look her up in a company directory. The only contact method they have for Gwen is a fax number, but I don't have a fax machine and I'm drawing the line at running errands for Verizon.

I asked the customer service representative if Gwen was the only person who could lift the suspension on my account. She is. And I can't be connected to her? I can't. And I can't have a phone number for her? No.

With no other option available to me, I asked to be put through to the cancellation department.

Finally, I tried the woman in the cancellation department. I wanted to see if she could get me a number, get me on the phone with Gwen. Verizon might finally help me just as I'm struggling to cancel. After all, they gave me a free month the last time I threatened to cancel. But after listening to my story, the cancellation department put me on hold for 15 minutes to try and solve my problem.

Not even the cancellation department could get me any closer to contact with the mysterious Gwen, overlord of my account. So I asked the operator to cancel my service.

She asked me if I was sure I wanted to cancel. I was sure.

The last call I made to Verizon lasted 55 minutes and 25 seconds.