Don’t Let Verizon Wireless Take Your Money When Canceling Service

Posted by The Happy Rock on April 11, 2008

I have never had any love for Verizon Wireless, and I was quite relieved when my two year contract was up. They hadn’t done anything really bad, but they certainly didn’t ever do anything earn my respect. Nothing had really been post worthy until the last stunt they tried to pull as I closed my account.

I had already activated my $60 a year Virgin Mobile service, when I called to cancel my Verizon account. Everything was fine, until the last thing the agent mentioned as I was about to hang up.

Verizon Agent: You’re account is set to close on the 25th of April.
The Happy Rock: But, it is the 8th.
Verizon Agent: Our policy is that accounts close on the last day of the billing cycle.

I was a little caught off guard, so I just ended the conversation. It bothered me, so I mentioned it to my cube mate Ray @ TMABB. He helped verify my feelings and I decided to take action.

First, I checked my customer agreement and I didn’t see any mention of such a right for Verizon, so I quickly emailed them and asked them to produce documentation showing that they had to right to charge me for service I had wanted canceled or they should cancel immediately and refund the money that was owed.

The stalled for a few days and then finally an agent called to reiterate that closing on the last day of the billing cycle was their policy. I demanded that they produce some kind of proof. They then relented and canceled the account immediately, although they used todays date rather then that of my original call even after I asked. They also kindly informed me that the $17 check would take 6-8 weeks to process. I knew there was a reason I couldn’t wait to get away from Verizon Wireless.

Finally today, they left a message saying that they had worked out a special deal for me. The Rockette deleted it long before I got home…teamwork. I gave Verizon plenty of opportunities to provide me with more reasonable service and price options, but they refused. Now I shouldn’t ever have to deal with them again.

» Filed Under Cell Phones, Money Savers

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12 Responses to “Don’t Let Verizon Wireless Take Your Money When Canceling Service”

Double Eagle (25 comments.) on April 11th, 2008 8:33 am

It’s sad that big companies like that have obviously found that treating people like that is more lucrative than good customer service, otherwise they’d be stressing service.

It reminds me of a couple of book clubs I was in. They were OK, but I finally got so fed up with having to regularly “decline” the regular selections so that they wouldn’t auto-ship, and having to go to the trouble to return the books that I forgot to respond to, that I wrote letters canceling my membership. The first annoying thing I found was that I had to write a letter to get them canceled. A phone call or e-mail was insifficient (*supposedly*). The second thing was, after a few weeks, I got letters stating that they wanted me to stay and were offering me a “no hassle” membership with no automatic shipments. What?! That was available all this time? There was no way I was staying after that.

Customer relations are just not worth it for these companies, I guess. Chiseling money out of people with deceptive tactics and underhanded policies seems to be the way of the world anymore.
Billy on April 11th, 2008 10:30 am

Not that it matters now, but all wireless companies do the same thing. Also, the people in the call center were right, it is a policy of Verizon. The ammendment was sent out with your bill about six months ago, and by paying your bill you agreed to it. Before you go Verizon bashing again, sprint did this when increasing their text messaging rates and AT&T has been known to do it as well. For future reference too, they will cut it off if the day you ask if you just ask for a supervisor. The normal call center employees are unable to disconnect the line that day, but a supervisor can do it no problem
The Happy Rock (329 comments.) on April 11th, 2008 11:39 am

@Double Eagle - You are right that a lot of companies don’t have to care about customer service, because they have other strong competencies or lack of competition. The hard part about customer service is unless you have leaders with vision companies aren’t able to see past immediate returns on investment, and customer service is more of a big long term strategy and benefit.

Your book club story sounds like the old Columbia House

@Billy - Billy you sound like a defensive Verizon employee, but that is neither here nor there. The point is that it is an unfair practice to try and keep people’s money when they aren’t using your service. Since all of the cell operators work the same way, it only helps to strengthen their ability to take advantage of people. And just because everyone does something doesn’t make it right. The fact that they updated their policy to include those changes reflects very much how much they value their customers. They could have easily canceled my service when I asked, which is reasonable, and there would need be a need to criticize. Verizon gets singled out because I was their customer, not Sprint or AT&T or T-Mobile. Thanks for the information though, it definitely adds to the discussion.
Jerry (11 comments.) on April 11th, 2008 4:53 pm

I’m sorry that happened to you. I have a couple of comments. First, Verizon is Satan. I’ve been dealing with them for, yes, count them, 8 years. I cancelled an account. They continued to bill me. I called “customer service” (a misnomer) many times. Got an email saying my account was cancelled. I’m still dealing with collection agencies calling me. Is there idiot insurance available? I only hope their deceptive practices leads to greater consumer awareness.

Jerry
http://www.leads4insurance.com
robert parker (1 comments.) on April 21st, 2008 3:44 pm

I’m so impressed with the friendliness of Verizon- It’s like talking to 0’s and 1’s or + or -’s..You know they told me that If I wanted to cancel my contract 37 days before it was up that I could go out and get some new person to take my place and they would for go my penalty! Now that is generosity. I”m going to tell my friends and people that I know of their warmth and understanding!
The Happy Rock (329 comments.) on April 21st, 2008 4:27 pm

@Robert Parker - Yeah, they gave me the same line. “You sure there isn’t anyone you want to transfer too. They could get your free upgrades”. Right, I am so happy with service and price that I am canceling that I would want to bring someone I know into the same situation. I wonder if selling the rights to my service on EBay would have been possible?
Mitch on June 11th, 2008 4:16 pm

I was a customer for about 10 years. Then about a year ago they must have taken down the antenna that worked for my apartment. They blamed the phone and had me trade it in 3 times, but wouldn’t give me a different brand. And they offered me $25 for my trouble. Now I’m at T-Mobile, better plan for $10 less per month. But Verizon is still afterme with dishonest and I think fraudulent charges. Their advertising is the perfect “big lie” scheme.
The Happy Rock (329 comments.) on June 17th, 2008 9:48 am

@Mitch - I am not sure what advertising you are referring to, but I do agree that they really don’t seem interested in providing the customer with a good experience and making them happy. Sorry you are having some much trouble!
John (1 comments.) on September 24th, 2008 7:54 pm

I just called them again today. Asked to speak to a supervisor. Even after 5 minutes of demanding, they would not cancel my account. They told me it’s part of the contract. She told me any overpayment will go towards my final bill. But I haven’t paid this second to last bill yet, so this second to last bill is about $20 over, and my last bill will be basically $4 in fees and thats about it. So I paid this second to last bill, but I paid $20 less than the bill’s full value. Then we’ll see what happens when I get the next bill. I’m sure a big fight is ahead of me. This is why are economy is in the crapper. People make money by ripping as many people off as they can, rather than be making great products/services.
sabrina Asch on September 29th, 2008 6:26 pm

I just want to thank you for your post. It helped motivate me to pursue the refund that I was due AND to have charges after I discontinued service removed. I found your post while i was on hold (for a long time) and it acted as a dangling carrot.. especially for the remainder of time that I waited on hold until they FINALLY AGREED TO REMOVE CHARGES FOR DATES AFTER CANCELED SERVICE.
So… Thanks.
The Happy Rock (329 comments.) on October 1st, 2008 11:29 pm

@sabrina - Your welcome. That is why the internet is awesome, glad to help.
Jenny from Cricket Wireless (1 comments.) on May 27th, 2009 3:22 pm

I can’t help but take a moment to recommend Cricket Wireless for no-surprises monthly cell phone plans or even a pay-as-you-go plan depending on your phone needs.

It was smart to ask for documentation (and you are better than I am, I have problems remembering to save documentation in the first place. Well, I save it but then my 3 & 4yo somehow find it and decide to turn it into confetti…) and I’m glad it worked out well for you in the end!