Verizon Wireless, Petaluma, CA - overbilling home airtime minutes - ongoing billing problems

Complaints.com received the following consumer message on August 22, 2002:

From:

RE: Verizon Wireless, Petaluma, CA - overbilling home airtime minutes - ongoing billing problems

I signed up with Verizon in July of 2001 on a calling plan with 450 minutes and two phones. The first months billing was for $115. I figured this was for the activation fee and all the other startup fees. The next month I recieved a bill for $152.00.

I could not understand 14 pages of billing so I called the customer service department. They told me the extra cost was for "Home airtime" costs. This was for all the minutes I went over my agreed upon 450 minutes.

The problem was that I didn't go over my agreed 450 minutes . They said they would credit my account for $74.00. The next month i was overbilled again. This time my bill was for over $190.00 dollars. Same thing again. I called them and they said it was "Home airtime" charges.

Again they said they would credit my account. The next month I was overbilled again and this time they were charging me for another phone under a different name and number.

I asked them to explain the plan to me as it seemed to be wrong. Then the customer service rep told me I was being billed at a straight $.25 per minute. I was pretty pissed off at this point. They said they would change my plan to the original agreement. I decided to add another 300 minutes to my plan. They said this would be easy and they changed it. What they didn't tell me was that they signed me up to another 1 year contract

The company overbills, crams bills with incorrect information, and conciously confuses customers with unreadable, excessive bills. 14 PAGES TO A PHONE BILL! One customer service rep told me he didn't really understand the phone bill.

Now I want to remove one of my phones from the account and they tell me I will have to pay $175.00 early termination fee even though I have not cancelled my account. I want to know if the Public Utilities Commission is doing anything about all the fraudulent activities of Verizon. When a company overbills customers on the order of a million customers it looks like the company is worth alot more than it actually is. I believe this is ILLEGAL.

Derrik Moffitt

Petaluma, California.