I canceled service at the end of August 2013, and I used the prepaid shipping box option to return the set-top box, router/modem, remote controller, and CableCard. I followed the instructions that came in the box that asked me to seal the CableCard in the included mailing envelope and then to place that envelope in one of the partitions in the box since I was also returning other equipment. I wrapped the box in tape to ensure that it could not open in transit. The first bill after my cancellation shows that I should be receiving a credit since I had canceled in the middle of a month that I had paid for. Instead of getting a check from Verizon, I got another bill about 1 month later saying I owed money for unreturned equipment, more precisely just the CableCard. The UPS tracking number showed that the box was delivered and signed for. I spoke to a customer service rep who stated that everything would be taken care of since I could furnish the UPS tracking number and I took his word for it. Then I got another bill one month later saying I still owed money for the CableCard. Another call and another conversation with a CSR led me to believe that the first CSR had left out a step in submitting my dispute, but that it was taken care of as of that call. I thought everything was dandy until I got hit with a collections notice a month later, for that same reason. Any attempt at this point to speak to a Verizon CSR just gets me directed to the collections agency. Somehow, Verizon managed to get everything other piece of equipment in the box except for the CableCard. It makes no sense unless Verizon lost the CableCard in the process of mailing it to one of their other warehouses, which I assume is why the instructions ask for it to be placed in the mailing envelope even if you're sending it in with everything else. Given that it was also in the mailing envelope, it's not as if it's easily missed like a loose CableCard if someone was to carelessly dump out the contents of the box. Sending a dispute letter to the collections agency just yielded a boiler plate response that I needed proof of return. If that UPS tracking number and the fact that all my other equipment that was sent in the same box was returned is not enough, what is? Is my credit supposed to be ruined because some Verizon employee lost my CableCard? Judging from this board, I'm not alone in my experience. What is there left for me to do to not have to pay this fraudulent charge?
