My Verizon on-line charges - help me reason

[Gary Allan]

There was a double charge on my on-line DSL service charge this month. It was exactly double the normal charge. The explanation was that this was to align it with other Verizon billing cycles and NOT a double billing.

Now since this was indeed a 2X charge of exactly double the monthly bill (tax included) ...with no prorating involved, just how am I to integrate that this is not a double charge? I've paid in advance for DSL service ..which is much like cable (I've actually gotten refunds of late charges in years past when I pointed out "How can I be late for a service that I pay in advance for?).

I haven't called them yet, but I was hoping that someone else had already filtered the spin that this is going to include.

This, IIRC, has happened once before...years back. The funky thing about it is that dismissing any outright "lie" ...the taxing authority gets more revenue over the same period than it would normally. You're resetting the counter. This assumes that Verizon actually pays the tax exactly as it is collected.

Where am I getting the utility out of that additional 100% monthly bill?

I'll post back with how they spin this up.

 

[Matt_S]

Here's the translation: we're hard up for cash, so we're making a nominal change to the billing cycle so we can justify billing customers twice in the same month. If we can double our income this month, the balance sheet for the quarter will look better and the stockholders will think we're doing them a favor.

I hate when companies do that cr-p. It smacks of desperation to me.

 

[Gary Allan]

Well, I got off the phone with a bunch of people. I, in advanced, begged their pardon ..since I would probably would be frustrated and aggressive/assertive in my lack of understanding.

Effectively what they said ..and this is a good one ..is that I was "grandfathered" from an older plan that where you paid in arears (I got it in the rear). They just advanced their timing.

The thing is, I'm sure that this has occurred before a few years back.

Another lame deal (not limited to Verizon) is that I signed up for the "all on one bill" (some fancy name plan) that is/was supposed to be the cheapest package. In the past they've automatically lowered the charges where the current offering was lower (for DSL service - cellular is not this way) ...but they're no offering DSL for $21.xx for 1 year.

So, the final super that I talked to lowered my DSL to the $21.xx rate ...retro'd it 60 days and gave me 60 days free.

 

[dwendt44]

Some times it pays to complain.
AT&T did a similar 'catch up' billing a year or so ago.
I'm sure they'll 'catch up' again in another year or two.
Gets old after a while.
No vasoline, no kiss.

 

[mikeg5]

Quote:

---

Some times it pays to complain.
AT&T did a similar 'catch up' billing a year or so ago.
I'm sure they'll 'catch up' again in another year or two.
Gets old after a while.
No vasoline, no kiss.

---

no dinner and a smile either..

sprint did me in on 1800$ about 8 years ago. saying that was my amount after talking on when out of the "area" i was 1 mile outside of town and my rate quadrupled. i complained and complained to no avail and no i havent paid them yet. i think i have one more year before its off my credit report.. ill wait F them!

 

[tom slick]

AT&T has done the same to me. they charge double then don't charge the next month. strange way to bill.

Utilities do it all the time. the will estimate your usage and not come out to read the meter. then when they do come read the meter a couple months later they adjust their charges on your next bill.

 

[Oldmoparguy1]

Duke Power was doing the estimated billing thing a few years ago. After about the third time, I called and requested that someone come out and read my meter and check for problems. State regs require a meter reading when someone requests it. After the second time I called for a meter reading, I no longer got estimated bills.

 

[Pablo]

ATT did this to me......no lube, no foreplay.....so I switched to Verizon. Sounds like I have time to run out and buy some KY!!

What I hate is ye olde "new contract" on the cell. Because you......so and so.....your contract was renewed......bugger that!!

With a teen daughter who kills phones like roaches in a restaurant.....the family plan really is like a....contract from the family....

On the positive side - I actually have new lower cell rate because our company uses Verizon, they let us peons slide our family plans under the same umbrella. Knocked off about $10 month.

 

[Gary Allan]

It's better than it was before. I had Verizon from the start of our digital cellular use. I held out since you couldn't really do digital for under $30/month. Anyway, I'm not one for reading much in a bill unless it's out of whack with what I expect (like this one). My plan "expired" and all of my usage went to premium charges. I freaked.

Now, and I imagine that this was because of losing too many customers to this policy, you're "grandfathered" into whatever plan you signed on for. Since most new plans don't really save you any money ..it doesn't really alter your costs. Most reductions aren't truly reductions ..although that trend may be changing. Most are increased service for the same money. You never really get cheaper service. One evolution that did save paying extra costs was unlimited in network usage. Since most of those that we talk to (me, virtually never) are also with Verizon ...no mobile to mobile charges. It was even great when it was just family to family (in plan).

It took me over a half hour to put transfer the contacts in my old phone to my new one. Not that I have that many contacts. I just never had a reason to learn the body language to do it fast. My daughters (and most anyone else that I know) can whip that puppy out and have a new contact listed in about 10 seconds flat.

 

[The_Jeff]

My cable internet offered I could buy a modem and save $5 a month off leasing a unit. Gave me an attractive rebate offer, so I figured after 8 months I'd pay it off. I bit. Two months later the modem lease, if I'd have still been paying, went down to $3.

Later they came up with two tiers of high speed internet, super duper fast and regular fast. Naturally everyone got dumped into super duper. When the (FCC required, no doubt) cable rate card arrived with the bill, I noted there was a cheaper option so I went to the office to downgrade. They looked at me with utter disgust. Incidentally, the rest of the internet is slower than the 3 mbit/sec vs 6 mbit/sec my modem is capped at.