Verizon Says Customers Need Subpoenas For Itemized Bill

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Remember the story about Verizon telling a woman she needed a "lawyer and a subpoena" to get an itemized bill? Well, it looks like a judge disagreed.

The only way that Verizon would offer any information about a past charge in response to a consumer inquiry was to require that customer to hire a lawyer and subpoena their own usage information. By no reasonable standard could this be considered reasonable customer service.
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Despite it being a small victory I have to say W.T.F. are you thinking, Verizon? :confused:

There shouldn't be any charge to the customer to receive an itemized bill. It should be part of standard billing practices. It's the same as if I took my car in to have the fluids checked and changed if necessary. Each fluid changed should be listed on the bill.

Or, is that only wishfull thinking in today's messed-up world of business?
 
All I have is verizon in my state. I have no choice, im stuck with em other then Trac Phone.

And killing the unlimited data plan is also lame as hell. I'm grandfathered in with my Droid X, but I dunno what the hell im gonna do next year for upgrade.....
 
AceGoober said:
Despite it being a small victory I have to say W.T.F. are you thinking, Verizon? :confused:

There shouldn't be any charge to the customer to receive an itemized bill.
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My mom wanted an itemized bill for ONE month a few months back where she noticed the automated payment was far too high.

It was a disaster trying to get it, and they said they had no digital copy for her, and would have to mail her the bill. The fee is $50, but after much bitching they finally sent it.

Well, they sent a book of paper that weighed about 15 lbs that included itemized information for the last three years. Not only was this asinine, but it made it a monumental task just trying to get to the right month to find the information needed and correct the mistake.
 
AceGoober said:
Despite it being a small victory I have to say W.T.F. are you thinking, Verizon? :confused:

There shouldn't be any charge to the customer to receive an itemized bill. It should be part of standard billing practices. It's the same as if I took my car in to have the fluids checked and changed if necessary. Each fluid changed should be listed on the bill.

Or, is that only wishfull thinking in today's messed-up world of business?
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Pretty much just wishful thinking. :eek:


A lawyer and subpoena to get an itemized bill... for an account registered to you?

Sometimes, you just need to ask what the hell is going on with these companies.
 
Is it just me or is she taking the wrong approach? Rather than continuing to demand that Verizon cough up the proof of what the charge is, wouldn't it be better to simply go after Verizon for a fraudulent billing? It just seems backasswards that the consumer has to prove to the utility that the charge is valid, not the other way around...
 
Freezebyte said:
And killing the unlimited data plan is also lame as hell. I'm grandfathered in with my Droid X, but I dunno what the hell im gonna do next year for upgrade.....
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You should still be grandfathered in from what I understand. I called Verizon and I read it on XDA somewhere too.... in the event they take my unlimited plan f%*k'em. Ill go elsewhere.
 
Sooo....instead of hiring a lawyer and getting a subpoena this customer now has to pay Verizon a $40 fee and 2 cents per itemized call to find out where the $4.19 went to? How is that a win for the customer? The judge agreed she could have an itemized bill but did not agree that paying the extra fees for it was wrong. That's complete bullshit! Time was that an itemized bill was SOP for phone companies. Now I guess they stick whatever charges they want on your line as long as it's so small that spending $40 to find out about it would be more expensive than just paying the bill.
 
Loudspeaker said:
Is it just me or is she taking the wrong approach? Rather than continuing to demand that Verizon cough up the proof of what the charge is, wouldn't it be better to simply go after Verizon for a fraudulent billing? It just seems backasswards that the consumer has to prove to the utility that the charge is valid, not the other way around...
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Yeah, my thought was challenge the charge as well and then IMO it would be up to Verizon to prove that it's a legal and appropriate charge, as for the "accuracy" of Verizon's computers, haven't they admitted several times that in effect shit happens and that sometimes there computer screws up bills?
 
Typical Telco BS. The sad fact is these days companies have SO many customers, and so many new one's to replace lost one's, they rarely give a shit about one little person and their issue.

I'm glad this lady stood up for herself. It needs to be done more often and maybe this bullshit would subside.
 
Freezebyte said:
All I have is verizon in my state. I have no choice, im stuck with em other then Trac Phone.

And killing the unlimited data plan is also lame as hell. I'm grandfathered in with my Droid X, but I dunno what the hell im gonna do next year for upgrade.....
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You buy the phone off contract and for full price if you have to. BELIEVE ME, the higher cost up front MORE than makes up for the lower cost and unlimited data further down the line.
 
Blazemore said:
Who did you end up going with? I'm thinking about jumps ship myself.
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I just switched from Verizon about 2 months ago myself. I went to Sprint and got one of their Unlimited Data deals.

All Telcos are evil sonsabitches. But of the four of them - so far - Sprint seems to be the lease "evil" of them all.

Plus, I don't know about where you live, but in my area Sprint's coverage is as good if not better than Verizon's.
 
eth3ton said:
You should still be grandfathered in from what I understand. I called Verizon and I read it on XDA somewhere too.... in the event they take my unlimited plan f%*k'em. Ill go elsewhere.
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Nope, once your current contract that "grandfathers" in the unlimited data plan ends, you must start over with a new price/data plan no matter what.
 
Blazemore said:
Who did you end up going with? I'm thinking about jumps ship myself.
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T-Mobile. I went with them because AT&T sucks and Sprint's service is a joke. Of course with the prospect of AT&T and T-Mobile merging looming, the joke is on me. :mad:
 
About 3-4 years back I wanted to make the switch to an iPhone. I called Verizon and asked where I was at on my contract, as I knew that it was coming to it's end soon. The rep on the line let me know that my contract was up and I would incur no early termination charge by cancelling.

So I cancel. And I get an early termination charge, which I refuse to pay. Of course, I have no damn proof that a rep told me I could cancel; I don't record my phone calls. And I refuse to pay it; I was within a few weeks of my expiration time, and I think any reasonable person would accept that ball-parking your contract that closely and then confirming it with the company itself should be acceptable.

So now I refuse to pay those SOBs, and they sent me to collections for $175. F 'em. My credit report is absolutely spotless except for that stupid f'ing charge. And of course, their shady collection agency keeps resubmitting it, so now it shows that this happened in late 2010 on the report, rather than years ago. Disputing it several times with the credit agencies and Verizon cust service has gone nowhere. /rage
 
Is this the future? Is this what we need to expect from businesses? To be endlessly and purposely given the run around for our own customer data? She only asked for details on a payment right?
 
At our company there is a fee for a paper version of "detailed" billing that is charged every month the customer wants a "detail'd" billing statement but through the web portal to get call logs all u have to do is enable it when u log in, its free for the paperless version of detail'd billing.
 
Solidstate89 said:
You buy the phone off contract and for full price if you have to. BELIEVE ME, the higher cost up front MORE than makes up for the lower cost and unlimited data further down the line.
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That is a lot harder than it used to be. Unless you are grandfathered in, AT&T, and I believe Verizon as well, no longer care where you got the phone. You are still going to pay the same as someone that got $.01 to $50 smart phone with a 2 year contract. The only thing that differs these days, is that you no longer have a contract to worry about if they piss you off, and the carrier specific bloatware is absent with out a root and remove or loading a new rom.
 
GORANKAR said:
That is a lot harder than it used to be. Unless you are grandfathered in, AT&T, and I believe Verizon as well, no longer care where you got the phone. You are still going to pay the same as someone that got $.01 to $50 smart phone with a 2 year contract. The only thing that differs these days, is that you no longer have a contract to worry about if they piss you off, and the carrier specific bloatware is absent with out a root and remove or loading a new rom.
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Yes, the contract will still be the same, but you get to keep your grandfathered plan. I have a friend who does this with all of his iPhones on AT&T, and someone else either on this board, or some other message board I visit made a comment about how they only pay 55 dollars a month for Unlimited everything on Sprint, because that was their contract with Nextel when Sprint bought them out.

They haven't bought a subsidized phone since that day, and I don't blame them. If Sprint ever decides to get rid of unlimited data, I'll be doing the same thing. Paying up front, full price for the phone and continuing to use my unlimited data contract.
 
That's pretty lame that they would charge so much. Charging a reasonable price would be fine with me since it costs money to print out a bunch of pages. Like 25 cents a page is the max I think they should charge even then that's alot.
 
Ducman69 said:
My mom wanted an itemized bill for ONE month a few months back where she noticed the automated payment was far too high.

It was a disaster trying to get it, and they said they had no digital copy for her, and would have to mail her the bill. The fee is $50, but after much bitching they finally sent it.

Well, they sent a book of paper that weighed about 15 lbs that included itemized information for the last three years. Not only was this asinine, but it made it a monumental task just trying to get to the right month to find the information needed and correct the mistake.
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That's a common tactic to bury someone in paperwork so they can't find what they need. It's almost like Verizon is automatically over charging people and then making it very difficult to see why they got charged for such and such.

To say this stuff isn't available digitally is most likely an outright lie. Any cost analysis would change practice real quick. Printing, paper/toner, and storage far outweighs a few servers.
 
eth3ton said:
You should still be grandfathered in from what I understand. I called Verizon and I read it on XDA somewhere too.... in the event they take my unlimited plan f%*k'em. Ill go elsewhere.
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Sprint pulled the same crap with me...then told me if I wanted a new phone, I would have to have a current plan, even if I buy it myself and have them switch service to it.

So, I am experimenting with simple mobile. At least it uses GSM and is $60 even per month including unlimited 4G service (and it doesn't miss calls if I am on the internet or streaming like Sprint's CDMA does).
 
Despite the fact that the tower nearest my house went on the fritz and I couldn't get a decent signal for almost two days, I still don't regret switching to Virgin Mobile one bit. I pay less than a third now compared to what I was paying with Verizon, and I didn't even have a smartphone when I was with them.
I do remember Verizon wanting to bill me if I wanted itemized billing though. Never ticked that box, myself.
 
Verizon has had SEVERAL law suites against them for fraudulent billing in different states.

Even when I had their 'local' service here in Tampa, it was scam. I dropped them quick and went VOIP and never looked back.

Someone should really go after them for fraudulent billing in a Class Action suite.
 
Freezebyte said:
Nope, once your current contract that "grandfathers" in the unlimited data plan ends, you must start over with a new price/data plan no matter what.
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That's not true. Any existing customer with a $30 unlimited data plan now, will be grandfathered in for future upgrades, unless they change their policy.

The only reason why you wouldn't be able to get unlimited data right now, is if your starting a new line, or if your existing line is not on an unlimited data plan.
 
complexx said:
That's not true. Any existing customer with a $30 unlimited data plan now, will be grandfathered in for future upgrades, unless they change their policy.

The only reason why you wouldn't be able to get unlimited data right now, is if your starting a new line, or if your existing line is not on an unlimited data plan.
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What do you mean by "change their policy"?
 
J32P said:
What do you mean by "change their policy"?
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Verizon's current policy is to allow anyone with a smartphone and an unlimited data plan to keep the unlimited data plan if they upgrade to a new phone. That's a policy they have chosen (I assume to retain current customer base). They can choose to change that policy whenever they want.
 
complexx said:
Verizon's current policy is to allow anyone with a smartphone and an unlimited data plan to keep the unlimited data plan if they upgrade to a new phone. That's a policy they have chosen (I assume to retain current customer base). They can choose to change that policy whenever they want.
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I was told that AT&T also does the same thing when I was inquiring about upgrading to a newer phone with them. I've also got an unlimited data plan with them, and even if you renew your contract, you keep the unlimited data. Otherwise I would also be leaving.
 
castun said:
I was told that AT&T also does the same thing when I was inquiring about upgrading to a newer phone with them. I've also got an unlimited data plan with them, and even if you renew your contract, you keep the unlimited data. Otherwise I would also be leaving.
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Except when you move up to 4g apparently. The 4g phones require a different sim card and apparently that moves you off your old plan. Happened to a co-worker who knew this before he went in.
 
now you need a lawyer and a judge to get a Itemized Bill for verizon thats crazy,

i am really thinking of switching to virgin mobile or other service, i pay $102.78 for 450 minutes unlimited text messages/data, i dont mind paying it, but i keep calling and having problems with my service and customer service, dont seem to care.
 
I've also read the numerous blog posts that state that if you currently have a smartphone and are grandfathered into unlimited data, you can keep it at least for your next upgrade, beyond that, nothings guaranteed. I don't think VZW has confirmed this, and I bet even if we upgrade now, they'll put us on their "lovely" tiered data plans. They'd probably do it even if I buy my future phones off-contract, I wouldn't want to be stuck in a contract with them anyways. :mad:

Lucky I was an employee with them, I recently left, but got a phone at 2-year pricing with a 1-year contract. I wouldn't trust them with anything, they are extremely money-grubby and greedy. The instant they take off my unlimited data, I'd dump them in a heartbeat. I still may now, go back to Sprint, I feel better supporting the underdog and a less evil company to boot.
 
I remember when cell phone bills came itemized showing every call you made. I thought it was crazy to waste all that paper.
 
I just upgraded to a new phone and i used to be on an unlimited data plan, they allowed me to keep my existing unlimited data
 
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