Rip-off artists: Verizon Wireless
We’re not exactly penny pinchers, but I do at least keep track of where our money is going. Case in point, our most recent Verizon Wireless bill had an extra $5.98 in “Megabyte Usage.” Time to Google!
Turns out, Verizon is now charging people to browse its “Get it Now” store. So get this: if you buy a song, game, etc., you not only pay money for whatever you download, but you also have to pay cash to FIND it. What crap.
So how did we rack up $6 in usage fees? Sarah got online for a couple minutes to browse ringtones. She never actually BOUGHT one. That cost $3.99. I read the descriptions to a game I was considering downloading. That cost $1.99.
The reason why this has me ticked off is because Verizon USED to charge minutes to browse their store. Considering, Sarah and I have a 1,400-minute plan, and most of our friends are on the Verizon network, we have plenty to spare each month. Obviously, this is just Verizon’s attempt to make A LOT more money. Apparently, it’s working because a lot of people aren’t happy.
If you log in to your Verizon account, you can disable a lot of the data services, but I’ve read that even if you do that, selecting the “Get it Now” store on your phone will still incur a charge (I’m still baffled how bringing up a lame WAP web site is equivelant to 1MB of data usage). Sounds like the makings of a class-action lawsuit!
Thanks for the warning Rob. We’ll be watching our verizon bill.
I am having similar problems with verizon. I made a change in calling plan minutes a couple of months ago. I was not told that changing my minutes would also change my calling plan. I have all downloads and purchases blocked on my account because I wanted to insure that I don’t incur any extra charges. I also pay for unlimited text and picture messaging (once again to make sure I don’t have any overages with my kids). For the last two months (since I changed my plans minutes) I have had $1.99 data charges on my 2 teenagers phones. I called verizon last month and basically was told that since I was a good customer that they would remove the charges but that my kids must have connected to the web by mistake. I told them that internet access was blocked on all my lines and they told me that everything but web access was blocked because if they blocked that, we could not use picture messaging. Since I pay for unlimited messaging, I didn’t want to block that so I told the kids to be careful about connecting to the web by mistake.
Today, I got my second bill since chaning my calling plan minutes. Guess what, $1.99 data charges again. I called verizon and was told that when I changed my minutes a couple of months ago that my calling plan was changed. The old plan I had was “grandfathered” in and it didn’t charge the $1.99 data charge but only used plan minutes. The lady also told me that verizon phones have software that sets all their phones to connect to the web by a one touch shortcut button. This means that it is very easy to “accidentally” connect to. She also said that if you “accidentally” connect that you must disconnect in 10 seconds or less to avoid the $1.99 data charge.
THIS SOUNDS LIKE A PURE GIMMICK TO ME. Imagine how much extra money they can generate by charging $1.99 per line on every customer they have. The only way that I can make sure this doesn’t happen every month is to have web access blocked but then I would have to give up the use of picture messaging which is included in my plan. I would say class action all the way! What a ripoff.
Thanks for sharing your story, Sherri.
My wife and I recently added Verizon’s “cheapest” text and picture message package to both of our phones (an extra $10 a month), because we got socked with a $9 charge for sending only a few text and picture messages last month. It seems that Verizon raised their messaging rates again.
And now I learn that this service I’m paying for can be crippled if I choose to take action to prevent these STUPID data plan charges? What a joke!
Here is what it boils down to: Verizon wants you to pony up for a messaging package AND a monthly data package. In your case, that would be an extra $30 or so per month PER PHONE.
Verizon may have great coverage, but man, their policies sound awfully corrupt.
Found this on a Google search. I’m having the exact same problem with Verizon: we are being billed for data usage and not using data. I have disabled the key that enables the internet on my phone but I still got charged. My son’s phone shows charges for times when he was sleeping (and obviously not using his phone). BUT they can’t tell you what the charges are actually for.
So I had to disable our ability to send pix which is the thing I like to do most on the phone. How fast can someone say “Good-bye Verizon”? I bet it’s as fast as they can say “class-action suit.”
I’m sure that a lawsuit is inevitable. It amazes me how a company can so blatantly rip off people without caring about the possibility of it being sued. It just goes to show you the amount of cash Verizon rakes in.
Same problem here. We asked to have the data service disabled and now we are seeing our data charges double as they credit the previous months charges. One would expect this type of theft from fly by night companies, but from a well established company like Verizon, it surprises me. When will Verizon wake up?
It’s funny how many people are chiming in about this. I can’t help but believe (and hope?) that a class action lawsuit will come around sooner rather than later!
Same problem with Verizon. My unlimited plan is 119.00 per month, my bill is 254.00. Try to get someone on the phone that will speak with you like a normal, polite, kind human being….not happening.
I am 11 mths into a 2 year plan, want to upgrade my phone for work and travel. Sure I can do that for over 500.00 for a Blackberry.
They are HORRIBLE, I hate them and as soon as I can make up my mind I am going to pay them the 175.00 fee and cancel the contract. I was told by a store worker that would be fine.
They make me ILL
They are such thieves. I went to the website to find the replacement policies, oh guess what it isnt available online. You have to call customer service.
They are scamming each and ever one of us. All I can say is I usually get a dinner before I get $%*@$#ed.
Wow! $254 on a $119 plan? Maybe we should post some of these outrageous bills on here to open a few eyes. Ugh.
I am so glad I found this site! When I signed up to renew my 2-yr contract, I started accumulating data usage – I just assumed that the phone I selected was somehow accessing the internet w/o my knowledge. I was willing to accept that perhaps I’d mistakenly pressed something that connected me. When I called to question it, they told me that they couldn’t provide detail on the usage & listed some of the possible culprits. This was unacceptable. I told them to block internet – I only want to be charged for what I want to use, and I have that right. They said since I had a smart phone, if I blocked the internet, I’d have no way of sending/receiving pix msgs even though I had a text/pix bundle. At that point I decided I was better off canning this new “smart” phone b/c it was turning out to be rather dumb (despite being intended as a reward for contract renewal) and it risked unauthorized charges. After all, I still had no concrete evidence as to what was racking up the MB, and I was not about to play a guessing game each month. I reactivated my old phone & put the shiny new one away, silently cursing verizon, but feeling that I’d still won the battle since I had not caved & bought a data plan. Next month, data charges again. This time I was able to determine the source. Not with the help of customer service however. I searched online & figured it out. The charges were in fact valid – but had nothing to do with the type of phone I was using. I used Get It Now to search for a ringtone that month. It did not result in a purchase. But the browse cost $50. Previously they charged airtime as opposed to MB. At worst, a customer would be charged if they exceeded their minutes package. Nowadays voice plans have become more reasonable & less people are exceeding minutes. Verizon has figured out that there is much more profit potential in charging per MB. If a customer has no data plan, and they access Get It Now, Verizon gets at least $2. Poof…just like that! I’m not sure when this changed. I’ll take the blame for my ignorance. But they remain guilty of deceiving their customer. If there is a charge on a bill, there needs to be an explanation. This is a no brainer. I also believe they’ve deceived the customer by equipping them with a phone that has a pre-installed program that looks NOTHING like a web browser, yet charges as such. Furthermore, the customer cannot block this feature without losing out on a separate paid feature. And how clever is their terminology.. referring to it as “MB” usage…classifying it as “data” on the bill. How bizarre that a text msg should fall under the same category as internet browsing? The terminology needs to be clearly defined, classified, and billed – as INTERNET usage! The kicker for me is that they got away with this policy change w/o getting my attention b/c they waited for a contract renewal. Once again, I’m guilty of ignorance, but they’re guilty of deceit. New contract + new phone = how will customers know which variable to blame for the new charges? By the way, the best info on Verizon’s policies is not located on Verizon’s website. Consider this: The vz navigation app costs $10/ month. Who in their right mind would assume that if they’ve agree to pay $10/month, a nice chunk of change, that there could possibly be additional charges? If the app is NEVER used again, you still pay $10/month, but if and when it is used by a customer with no data plan, they will pay not only the $10, but also for each MB accumulated as if they were on the internet for the duration of each trip for which it was used! The disgruntled customer can walk away, but Verizon gained so much $ in overage charges that they’ve still won. I don’t mind if they capitalize on people who don’t read the contract, but I’d venture to say that even those who do read the fine print are likely to be fooled. It is worth mentioning that I was getting callbacks as opposed to return emails regarding the matter when I contacted them. I suspect that they do this b/c there is no “paper trail.” Very slick if indeed true. When did Verizon’s profit plan become rooted in trickery? Or has it always been this way? I think it’s only a matter of time before they get a dose of reality.
YES! YES! YES! Best comment EVER. Seriously, you perfectly summed up every feeling I have about Verizon’s very sneaky switch from charging MINUTES for data usage to MY HARD EARNED DOLLARS.
I logged in to our Verizon account and disabled every feature that I possibly could (after logging in, go to: https://wbillpay.verizonwireless.com/vzw/accountholder/services/viewFeatures.action). Now, we have an unwritten rule about never touching the “Get It Now” button on the phone. But WHY should it be an “unwritten rule”? I get angry just thinking about how many people are paying these fees just because they’re having fun playing with the features of their cool new cell phone.
KEEP YOUR BILLS. If someone ever does try to throw together a class action lawsuit, I bet they’ll come in very handy!
Yes this just happened to me when I upgraded my phone after 3 1/2 years and decided to take advantage of the friends and family plan. My old plan just used my minutes when browsing and I did not even know it as I do not use many minutes w/ all my family having Verizon. My daugher upgraded her phone today and I just inquired about ringtones and megabyte usage to buy, and got the whole story from the Verizon associate about $1.99 a megbyte just for browsing. Which I did not even know that I browsed and asked her to check my line as I had a new phone I was having trouble getting use to. Turns out I browsed unaware to the tune of $7.40 in one week! Verizon is duping us all. I am enraged as I have been a customer since Jan 15, 2004. Is there anything we can do. Oh and it will only cost me $10.00 a line, (I have 5 lines as I have 4 kids and a husband) to avoid the browsing charge. Wow they are champs it will only cost this family of 6 $50.00 a month more to avoid being charged for browsing oh I guess I am getting charged in the long run as I pay for text and pic message and had to block internet to avoid this all together and now will be unable to access pic message that I pay for. What a crock! Is this even legal for God’s sakes. Is that how they get around it by having a fee so you don’t rack up $7.40 a week? If anyone knows how we can bring this to light in the media somehow I am in. I may even contact the news media myself. How about the athorities can we contact someone in congress to see if this is legal? Yes I am pissed!
I’m actually surprised that this hasn’t appeared in the news yet. Let’s figure out who we can contact!
Oh I certainly intend to starting tomorrow. I will let you know who I contact and maybe we could get the word out. That’s how it’s done. Put pressure on Verizon. Glad this website is here.
Did you have something to do with this?
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Verizon-Wireless-Phantom-199-Data-Usage-Fee-104172?nocomment=1
http://www.cleveland.com/moneymatters/index.ssf/2009/08/verizons_199_data_usage_charge.html
Seriously, this is great! The national media is starting to pick up on the story. I couldn’t be happier.
Same story here. We all got new phones, they came loaded with icons that made it look like a game or application was already on the phone. But, if you clik the icon, it connects to Get it Now. If you disconnet as soon as you see that’s what it is doing, it doesn’t matter..you are still charged a minimum of $1.99 for “browsing”.
Two places to register your complaint. Your state’s attorney General, and the FCC. If we all complain, maybe Verizon will get the message.
Verizon ripped me off too!
- After 3 years of loyal and expensive patronage I tried the Storm and didn’t like it. so I returned the phones a few days later and reinstituted my service. Or so I thought.
- 6 months later under no contract, I switched to AT&T and the Iphone (great BTW).
- Verizon charged me over 300$ saying I had instituted new service by trying out the Storm.
- After over 15 hours on the phone with customer service over the ensuing months and a lost 290$ payment, and with my bank on the phone with them they agreed to at least return the 290$ duplicate payment. Or so I thought.
- 3 months later I get a check in the mail for 93$.
- Needless to say, I won’t be recommending Verizon to anyone. Integrity means a lot to me.
- I hope not too many people lost too much money to these losers.
This is going to end. They are going to pay for their greed. My Cell Phone bill has gone from $100 a month to over $300….I’m using it less….
Hey want to add your son?…sure…$9.99….He has never used the phone and I get a bill for $31. I said no data no text no video. EVERY F***ing time I change phones I say I want my existing plan….bill comes in the mail…not my plan. THEY are playing an ENRON game with us.
Fed up.
Brad
I just discovered EXACTLY the same problem on my Verizon Wireless bill. $11.95 worth of “data” charges on my husbands phone. Most of it for MB usage for “browsing” & $3.99 for downloading a “Sony Music Box” application. The problem…all usage charges were accrued in the middle of the night when we were asleep!!! I’ve been a customer for over 5 years & have downloaded maybe a handful of ringtones on my phone line in that time. My husband has never even downloaded a single ringtone on his phone (which is the one in question) ever! Because it’s never been important enough to him to pay extra for, he’s always just used the ringtones that were on the phone when we got it. I’ve never disputed a charge for anything EVER in the 5 years I’ve had Verizon. Always paid for what I used with no problem. We never use our cell phones in the middle of the night (midnight & 4:05am is when these charges were accrued) for regular services like calling & texting, because we are sleeping! Why would we suddenly get up at 4am to use the “browsing” feature that we never use during the day? They told me that the charge at 4:05am was for downloading the mobile IM feature. We’ve never used the mobile IM feature on any of our phones in the last 5 years & it hasn’t been used since “we” downloaded it at 4:05am that day. The other charge for “Sony Music Box” was downloaded around midnight. Verizon says this application was to allow us to purchase & download 3 ringtones to this phone. Still, to this day, that phone has not downloaded a single ringtone. It has nothing on it that wasn’t already there when we got it. So, “we”, again, woke up & got out of bed to all of a sudden go download an application on this phone. An application that has never been put to use since then. Also, never used this feature on this phone line in the past with the previous phones. Verizon acknowledges that these features have not been used since we downloaded them. So, we never use our phones for anything at these hours…we suddenly download applications that have never been used since…and have been customers for 5+ years. Does this make since? It’s not like I call in every month to try to get out of paying something. This is it. One time, for $11.95. We pay approx. $120 each month for our service & now I’m going to all this trouble to get out of paying less than $12 & nobody will do a damn thing to help me! I’ve been told by 5 different people that these charges cannot be reversed because “somebody was obviously using this phone.” The last woman said “your husband must have gotten up in the middle of the night to do something on his phone that he didn’t want you to know about!” Really? He didn’t even know what the mobile IM feature was until I told him tonight, but he downloaded it & has never used it. And, he purchased 3 ringtones, but has never downloaded those either. And he got up at a rediculous time of night, on a work day, to do it. They offered to block this browsing feature for us, but warned me that it could interfere with our messaging capabilities. We, too have the text/picture message package for $10/month. I said “well, that doesn’t make much since, does it? since we already pay a monthly fee for the messaging package.” Then, I was invited to sign up for a data usage plan, for an additional monthly fee, to insure that if this ever happens again we wouldn’t accru extra charges because it would be covered by the monthly usage plan. I reminded her that in 5 years i may have used this feature to download a ringtone to my phone, no more than 6 times at the most, & she could verify this by looking at every bill I’ve ever had. Also, that the phone in question (my husband’s phone) has NEVER used the browsing feature & never downloaded a ringtone or anything else, which she could also verify from my bills. So, it didn’t make much since to pay $30 a month for a data usage plan on 2 phones that never use any f*#%ing data!!! I have requested to speak to a manager. She initially told me that the managers are there to make sure the operators are doing there jobs, not to speak to customers & they would only tell me the same thing that she has told me. So, I asked again if I could speak to someone anyway. She agreed to put in a request for “a buddy of hers that is in management” to call me back. Gee…I wonder what her “buddy” is going to tell me? I am furious! What am I supposed to do? I doubt I’m going to get anywhere with them. I’m afraid it will keep happening. As soon as I “Googled” this topic, I was flooded with thousand of stories that were identical to mine. I couldn’t believe it! I told the woman from Verizon about this & she said “everyone’s situation is different. I have no way of knowing what happened with those people. Most of the time when customers call about something like this, we explain how the charges were accrued & the customer is able to look into it & figure out that someone in the home legitimately made the charges. But, nobody posts those messages.” I can’t believe all of this crap! What are we supposed to do about this????
Verizon or Verobbin?
We are having problems with Altell/Verizon regarding a phone my wife returned to the Mall kiosk almost 12 months ago. They now owe us approximately $420.00 in fees regarding this phone, phone insurance and line charges. My phones were shut off today because I refuse to pay a $450.00 bill. We have contacted them several times over the course of the year, after I realised I was still being charged for this line. Verizon states they have no record of her returning the phone. Which was a cheapo phone to begin with. We have insurance on all phones….if something HAD happened to this phone, which it did not………We simply would have said so…… They admit this line shows no usage for a year, yet refuse to take these charges off our bill. I am ready to take the remaining three phones back, and tell them to shove their bill. I rarely,if ever, check my bill online. Only when the charges seem high do I check.It was approximately 4-6 months later when I asked my wife, why are bills were the same even after returning the phone. So we have been trying to get this resolved for over 6 months, no help from Verizon…………….
Well, this sucks. I figured I would do a quick internet research and find out if I’m just crazy or something. I recently renewed my Verizon contract for another two years, and got a free basic phone as part of the process. My mother passed away this summer, so I got another phone of the same model as mine for my elderly father, who now lives alone. So between myself, my wife, and my father we have three phones, on Verizon’s most basic plan. None of us use text messaging, ever. None of us download ringtones, or browse the web, or anything remotely like that. We don’t send picture messages. To all three of us, these are just phones, nothing else. There might occasionally be “wrong numbers” from text messages, or other unwanted incoming texts, but we don’t ever use texting intentionally.
Yet, like clockwork, since I signed this new contract with Verizon a few months ago, I’ve had roughly $10 -$12 extra on my bill each month, for “data”. I still have no idea what this “data” is. As I said, we all use these only as phones, and intend to continue doing so, without any extra frills. Now that I see that this is Verizon’s M.O, I’m a little scared to try and change my account in any way or stop these charges. After all, who’s to say that they won’t suddenly start adding another $20 or $50 or more per month to my bill for yet more additional features and services that I don’t want, if I attempt to right this seemingly “small” error in my monthly billing. I’m thinking I would probably have been smarter to buy some cheapo prepaid disposables from Walmart for $19 or something.
01-04-10 Verizon charged me for calls I did not make or receive! I contacted customer support to see what was going on they informed me that the charges were correct but would not give me the numbers they were made from!
I recently found out that I have been charged for a second phone on my bill for the past 18 months. $20.00 per month. Verizon admits that the phone number has not been activated, but will only offer $120.00 refund. I have overpaid them $380.00. They claim it’s my fault for not checking my bill closer. I guess it would be my fault if someone stole from my house if I left the door unlocked. CHECK YOUR BILL, DON’T LET THEM STEAL. Hey, that should be their new slogan.
I was an Alltel customer for many years. About 14 months ago I paid a huge sum for their HTC so-called smart phone, which was a total disaster when I tried to use the Windows synch program with it….losing contacts, etc.(I’m told that even the software geeks who work at Microsoft’s mobile programming use iPhones). After over a year I decided to bite the bullet, cancel my service with them and switch to AT&T with an iPhone. Yesterday I got the bill for canceling…..$435.oo….why so much. Because I had added my 89 year old mother as a second line on my plan, so that she could reach me easily (and quickly), they treated my cancellation as a double cancellation, even though her service would not have been possible without my plan in place, since it was just an add-on to my primary account.
Of course I was told that this was all expressed to me when I bought my new phone 15 months earlier…and of course it might have been in some of the fine print that is completely unreadable in the space of less than one hour.
So, just another example of how Verizon likes to treat the public….which assures them of never, ever getting a good referral from this ex customer. But then, what do they care, the options are so limited for carriers, that we all suffer from the existing system.
Thanks for reading my pressure cooker release…just had to blow off some steam.