Soon after Kate moved from Marine Combat Training in North Carolina to her 8 week stint at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas for her advanced schooling, she purchase a Verizon Wireless internet card for her laptop. "Only" $79 a month would allow her to connect to the internet and all the virtuality that it entails. It would also allow us to keep in touch via email, chat and skype. A win win situation.
Kate eventually finished school and was shipped to Okinawa. All was well and good until the September Verizon bill arrived. It said that Kate owed $7841!! Yes, there was the normal $79 monthly charge. She even stayed within her 5120 Megabyte usage allowance. The rest was for "international roaming. Holy cow!
The first thing I did was thank God that the account was not in my name! : ) It was all on Kate! WHEW!! The second thing I did was call Verizon to try to, #1, get the account suspended ASAP, and #2, talk to someone about the bill. It had to be a mistake.
My call to Verizon did not go well. Since it was Kate's account they could not provide any information or do anything to assist unless Kate was on the line. She could add me to the account so I could speak on her behalf, but she would have to call in to do this.
Trying to get ahold of Kate wasn't the easiest thing to begin with. She was new to Japan, still settling in and moving from one camp to another, trying to establish cell phone service. I was able to tell her to quit using the internet card asap and to phone home.
We Finally were able to hookup about 10 days later and do a 3-way call with Verizon. "hello Verizon, we are calling about my daughter;s $7800 internet bill". The rep on the phone verified Kate and pulled up her account info. He also put me "on the account" so that I could speak on her behalf. He also mentioned that the new balance was now $11366,11.
$11,366.11
$11,366.11 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, the first thing we did was suspend the account so no more charges would incur. The guy we spoke to was helpful but what could he do. The "level" one guy at the call center does not have much power, so all he could do was take our information and say he will escalate it to his manager. Ok, we will wait to hear from you. My next call was to my sister (the lawyer) to ask her advise. "Don't pay anything and keep asking to speak to the next level manager if you are not satisfied"
Four days later I get a call back from the first guy. He said that they would be willing to issue a 20% credit to Kate's account. 20% in some cases may sound like a good deal, but this time it bring the balance back down to the $8000 range. NO WAY. So I did what my sister said. "Just let me know who I have to talk to to get the ENTIRE amount credited"
I should note that during all my conversations, I made it clear that the person who they are trying to charge $11,366.11 is a United States Marine who is presently serving her (our) country. I also complained that there should be some safeguard in place to ensure that people know they are racking up charges far beyond the $79 monthly fee. In all the calls the Verizon agents did state that any time Kate used the internet service, a window would pop up and let you her know that she was roaming. What it didn't tell her was that the meter was running and running and running. You would think that when a normal account shows a $11,000 spike, someone should notify someone that something is up.
So the wheels did start turing. I spoke to a great lady who was very understanding and helpful. We did go back and forth several times. She did understand that a 21 year old girl (no matter who she is) does not have $11,000 laying around to pay. Her problem was getting VP approval for such a large credit.
In the end, she called and made a "final" offer. As a sign of good faith, since Kate did use the internet service for more than a month, would she be willing to pay , say, $650? If so, Verizon would be willing to issue a credit for the remaining balance. "Would that work for you and Kate"??
DEAL!!!!! YES YES YES!!!!!
It felt like the weight of the world was off my shoulders. Kate's too! This whole things started in September and wasn't fully resolved until this month. An emotional roller coaster finally pulled into the station.
WHEW!!
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