Crastinate

thanks this is good to know.

How about the home contract? Do you have any idea how to get out of the freedom fios package? Life has been nothing but a nightmare for us with verizon and their billing dept. Countless calls and hours on the phone almost every single month but we have a contract.
Let me know if you have any ideas it is not worth the stress of having this company any more. Thanks again Ely, I loved the video and you are so wonderful to help others with it. I will spread the word.
Virginia

I was on the phone with Verizon for approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes. When I first called I was immediatley shuffled off to a Supervisor as expected. After pointing out the key arguments of why I thought I shouldn’t have to pay the ETF, she gave me the same exact response every single time without missing a beat. Her response was, “I’m sorry sir, i totally understand where you are coming from but unfortunatley I can’t waive the ETF because you agreed that our prices may change.” My follow up to that was, “Mam, you are 100 percent accurate. I did in fact fully agree with Verizon that their prices may change, however, in the agreement it states that if any of those changes have a material adverse affect on me, the customer…blah blah blah.” She could not come up with the smallest of explanations for that part of my argument. She continued repeating her original response about the price change routine. It was actually kind of sad. She really frustrated me when she went on to say, “Sir, but you agreed that these changes would have an material adverse affect on you.” I replied to her, “No. I never agreed to that nor does it say i agreed that your price changes WOULD have a material adverse affect on me. I agreed that if they changed and as a result of those changes, had a material adverse affect on me…yada yada yada” It was very frustrating only because she wasn’t smart enough to understand the wording of the agreement. She was hell bent on her pre-set, cookie cutter answer she seemed to be reading from a guide. I told her that I had presented a complete credible argument and challenged her to prove to me in the agreement where I was wrong and told her I would gladly pay the ETF and never bother Verizon again as long as I live. She couldn’t do it for her life. There was an uncomfortable silence every single time she tried. At one point I had to tell her I was still on the line because she paused for so long. Then I told her if she “understood where I was coming from like she continued to keep saying, then she should have no problem waiving the ETF.” She told me I would receive a call from a manager within 24 hours. I won’t hold my breath. So, basically you’re wasting your time if you get a young inexperience customer service rep that doesn’t know how to interpret a simple “IF, THEN” statement, and once it turned into a pissing match I knew at that point she didn’t want to put a dent in her pride by giving in to me, the ignorant customer. WOW, it’s true what they say…you can’t fix stupid.

I have been with Verizon Wireless for got knows how long and for the time that I’ve been with them, I have paid them god knows how much. I recentley signed up with their paperless service meaning that I won’t get the physical bills anymore and they would just email it to me. Since I was used to paying from paper bill, I short paid Verizon by $11.36 because I didn’t log onto Verizon Wireless to see my balance. As you can guess, they disconnected my service… yes, over $11.36. And off-course we were on vacation and to make matters worse, we were in the middle of no-where with little battery life left. I knew if I call Verizon to reconnect, my battery would die. At the same time, Verizon charged me $15 fee to reconnect every line under my account which totaled $75.
I was really frustrated over this so I did a little research and found out that Verizon is the most expensive wireless service out there. As you can guess, I’m ready to change but I’m stuck in a contract. So, I did a little more research and found out that I can get out of the contract without paying any fees if Verizon changes any rate on my contract.
To make a long story short, I would like to know whom, how, and where I can go to see if Verizon has changed any rates recently such as text messaging or federal universal charges ??

What is applicable for today? We got a home phone for a good deal and hardly use our cell phones. Verizon has a minimum of 700 minutes – still very expensive. suggestions??

Hey I just called veriozen and I’ve gone through several different people. They all have kept to their same argument even thought I proved them wrong every time. The last woman I spoke to said the reason the Federal Universal Service Charge went up was because I went over my minutes and my bill went up. She kept saying “we didn’t change the percentage, the percentage is the same. Since your bill went up the cost is going to go up.” She is supposed to call me back when she can find a copy of the customer agreement. I am going to try and explain to her that it says “charge” not percent. As in the Federal Universal Service Charge. Can anyone give me any help? Thanks.

I called and spoke with several floor reps, a supervisor, and Finally a manager. I heard a ton of different stories… that it was a tax, that the Customer Agreement only refers to Plan changes, not prices or costs, that I agreed to it when I signed the contract. Finally when I talked to the manager, he said that their legal department “defined material adverse effect” as an increase in charges, and nothing else, and that because my charges hadn’t gone up this particular month, it didn’t qualify for a waive of the ETF. I was adamant that the contract doesn’t state increase in cost, only “change in price” but he said that to discuss it further I would need to speak to a lawyer. I asked why I didn’t need a lawyer present when I became a verizon customer, and he refused to answer. I sent a very long and strongly worded letter to every verizon email I could find on Consumerist.org, and finally got a call back today from a very nice lady who essentially told me I was screwed.

On thing that was interesting was that several reps told me that the agreement ONLY refers to plan changes (minutes, data, text) and not cost or price. If this is true, then it’s impossible for “material adverse effect” to refer to money, or that voids their whole argument. The lady I spoke with today told me that was just a mistake, and that even if that fee just goes up next month I still can’t cancel because they’ll just issue me a credit for the difference. I argued that by issuing a credit they’re admitting to a change in price, thus voiding the contract and she said “no, we’re not admitting anything, we’re just offering a one time credit on a case by case basis”

@Stephanie
The customer agreement is listed at the bottom of the verizonwireless website, so if you want to you could copy it into a document so you already have it. If your rep claimed she was going to “find a copy” she is lying, and was just trying to get you off the phone. They have immediate access to that agreement at any time, just like you.