My Verizon Account (Residential)

[#1]

My husband recently ordered a copy of our credit report online because we are in the process of buying our first home.  We were shocked to see a "ding" on our report from Verizon, whom we canceled service with late last year and had never missed or even been late with a payment to.  This "ding" caused my husband's credit score to drop 100 points!  When my husband called, he found out that there had been another bill generated after our "final bill" for around $70 which we never received.  When he asked why we never received a 30 day, 60 day, 90 day statement or collections warning he was told that Verizon only sends out one bill...we certainly would have paid any bill that was valid and that we received...why would we want to dodge such a small bill and risk collections?  He paid the bill right away and all Verizon says they can do now is notify the credit agencies that the bill was paid but they can't clear it.  Great, now, while our young family is in the process of purchasing our first home, we have this ridiculousness to contend with.

There must be some sort of ethics in business law that requires any company to give their customers proper warning that a collections process will begin.  If we hadn't pulled our credit report, we still wouldn't have known about this! 

On Monday, we will:
 
1. make a formal request for supporting documentation which as per FTC regulations they must provide within 5 days. 
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre18.shtm
 
2. file a formal complaint with the FTC against Verizon and the proxy collection agency and suggest others due the same. The FTC has the most authority to deal with these types of practices. 
https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/

3. be retaining legal representation to rectify this situation on our behalf.

From what I read in this forum, this happens consistently and it is sad.  Verizon should be ashamed of their lack of ethical behavior.  We will never again be Verizon customers and will warn all family and friends about them.
 

[#2]

I'm sorry you are having difficulty. An agent with access to your account will reach out to you directly (by email, private message in the Forums and/or the billing telephone number on your Verizon account) for more information or to help you resolve your issue.

[#3]

Please have this agent reach out to me via email. I will provide him/her with an appropriate telephone number.

[#4]

Just wanted to update anyone who is reading my post on the hilarity of Verizon. Yes, a manager did reach out to me via this forum but could not find our account number so he just started to ignore my replies. Very professional, Verizon, very professional. I'll be filing a complaint with the FTC and will be retaining legal counsel. Thanks for absolutely nothing.

[#5]

We are dealing with a similar situation except, in our case, Verizon shows a credit on our account offsetting the balance they say we "owe."  I was stunned when we got the notice in the mail from the collections agency since I was assured less than 2 weeks ago that they were taking care of the issue.  This company needs to be run out of business.  I have also filed a complaint with the FTC as well as the Better Business Bureau of Dallas, TX.  There is no excuse for their unethical, incompetent practices and I also intend to tell everyone I know to avoid this company like the plague.

[#6]

    I've had Verizon land line as well as Verizon DSL service.  I cancelled my Verizon land line service in January 2012 and kept my Verizon DLS service. Upon speaking to the Verizon customer support I was told that everything was all set and that everything including my previous balance would now reflect on my next statement. BUT Instead of forwarding my balance to my current bill ,Verizon sent my previous balance to collections?!!  From January until now, NONE of my Verizon statements have reflected a previous outstanding balance. I was aware that I did in fact owe a previous balance , but was waiting for it to reflect on my updated statements or to be sent in some form of a final bill. All my current online and mailed Verizon statements from January 2012 never indicated a previous balance. I just can't believe that as a customer of Verizon that they would be so quick to send my previous balance to collections instead notifying me, the customer

Also upon further investigating. The Better Business Bureau has over 700 Verizon complaints, in which 326 of the Verizon complaints are about Verizon wrongfully sending customers account balances to collections. What it looks like it me is that Verizon could CARE LESS about what a careless oversight like this would to to someone credit report.

[#7]

Same thing happened to me. i had Verizon for 3 months and was having a problem with my service not working. The rude Verizon representative instead of sending someone out to fix the problem was nice enough to immediately shut off  service from her computer instantly. After calling back and escalating to a supervisor, they said the best they could do was get it turned back on within 2 days!! This is my landline for my home business. Two days of my customers calling and getting a disconnected message! When they finally turned it back on, they were nice enough to change my account number and not tell me about it. They never sent me a final bill and my bill for my new account was paid in full on time.

On April 1st, I received a letter from a 3rd party collection agency informing me of the balance. I check my credit report through my credit monitoring service and sure enough my score dropped from a 745 to a 627!! 108 points. I called verizon for the 12th time this year due to some billing error or service issue and no one could even find the account. Finally they sent me to the "financial services" department who basically told me to stop being a deadbeat and pay the bill. I told them paying the bill was not the problem,  having a utilites account as a paid collections on my report was!! I would have paid it if they would have sent it to me, the girl even read to me the wrong address they had on file for me. Explain how I can have service at a place yet Verizon has the wrong address on file? Unbelievable! Verizon has without a doubt the worst customer service i have ever deal with. Unfortunately they are the only internet provider in my complex and i have to have internet. It has gotten so bad that I am considering moving, just to be free of the horrible service Verizon Fios provides. The best thing i have read on one of these forums is a woman saying her husband had to cancel Verizon, "because he could not find 10 hours a week talking to their customer service department" 

I have had a verizon wireless phone for almost 10 years with no problems.

Being a investment advisor, I can tell Verizon one thing. Terrible customer service will destroy your company. Look at the price of Sprint's stock since 2000 (S). From 70 dollars a share to a little over 2 dollars a share. all due to horrible customer service. To the ordinary worker, that means layoffs, reduced benefits, and no job security. Get your act right or get the papers to file for unemployment soon!

[#8]

Just wanted to keep you all posted on our situation. We also called Verizon many, many times and finally got to a rep who admitted that they had for some unknown reason, changed our billing address (the service address was fine) when we canceled our account. THAT was why we hadn't received the bill! They shuffled us through many departments before financial services sent us back to the original guy...BUT, the good news is, financial services had him promise to work to delete the "ding" and we also requested a letter from Verizon stating that it was their mistake and that they would rectify it with all 3 credit bureaus within 30 days. It hasn't been long enough for us to confirm that they actually contacted the bureaus but we did receive the letter in a timely fashion. Honestly, my best advice is to just keep calling until you get an honest, caring rep. Our's was named Calvin. I'll let you know when we find out more. Sorry you all are dealing with the same issues

[#9]

Since 12/26/12 I have received 16 collection phone calls from Verizon's collection agency. When I talked to them today, I was told my bill is due Jan 17. (14 days from now). They wanted to collect my credit card info and charge me an additional fee...my bill due is $34.79 and at the time of the phone call, I had not receive a bill from Verizon.

I called on 12/15/12 to cancel my service as I met the terms of contract. They told me to wait until the billing cycle ends, so they set my cancel date as 12/17/12. Now they have placed my account into collections.

I filed a complaint with the FTC.

I am concerned about my excellent credit, as my bill is not behind and not even due yet!!!

I've been a Verizon customer since they first opened...and this is extremely frustrating. I was even considering moving three of my other phones over to Verizon in the next week, now Verizon has burned their bridges and I will not do business with them.

Today I received my final bill from Verizon, and another envelope from the Verizon collections agency. My bill is not due for 14 more days, so how can it be in collections?

{edited for privacy}

California

[#10]

homesmith,

Since we haven't heard back from you or have received a form submission as requested in your private support case, it appears assistance is no longer required. If you need any future help with your Verizon service, please make a post here on the forums so we can assist.