Verizon Promotes Fraud, Raises Rates

Does Verizon Have Federal Regulators In Their Hip Pocket?

As Verizon announces the second raise in their fees in less than six months, as Verizon pays out $100 Million to its victims, we learn about the abuse they heaped on yet another customer.

VERIZON HAS NO FRAUD DEPARTMENT

Verizon either does not have any security measures, or they themselves are committing fraud. When I watched the video of the woman from whom Verizon fraudulently sucked almost $1,000 out of her bank account and refused to refund it, I was reminded of what they did to us last May. They did not suck money from our bank account because they had no access; however, they did sic a collection agency on us. Indeed, I received another phone call from them on Monday.

It took Verizon over 24 hours to notify us that they had added five fraudulent lines & devises to our three-devise account. My husband called immediately, filed a fraud complaint and was told the five new lines would be deactivated. Of course, the fraudster still had the five cell phones she charged to our account.

By July, their collection agency was harassing us. After talking with Verizon’s “fraud” department for an hour, they finally admitted to me they had never opened a fraud investigation and would not remove the fraudulent charges the clerk in their Manhattan, Kansas store had added on April 30th. Indeed, the woman on the phone said “it is not unusual for a Verizon customer to travel 1,800 miles to buy new devices for his/her account.” Oh, yes, I am sure many customers drive for four days, past hundreds of Verizon stores, to buy phones at a store in Kansas. Mind boggling that she thought we were that stupid!!!!

I called the Verizon store in Manhattan, Kansas and was told that yes, on April 30th someone named Angie bought devices and they allowed her to put them on our account. They would not give me the store’s surveillance tapes. Angie? There is no one named Angie on our 28-year-old, now closed, Verizon account. I called the local police who then visited the store. According to the policeman, the clerk knew all about this fraud. Is fraud part of Verizon’s business plan?

VERIZON IS VINDICTIVE

We naively assumed we could change our cell phone carrier from Verizon to Patriot Mobile with little hassle. Nope!!!!! Verizon made it as difficult as they possibly could. No doubt they bought and paid the federal regulators who are supposed to protect consumers from such abuses.

When our Patriot Mobile (PM) sim cards arrived we called PM to guide us through installing them into our two phones and tablet. Ninety minutes later my husband’s phone didn’t work but the tablet did. My phone was still on Verizon. Verizon had locked our cell phones so they could not be used on another network. (Our phones were long since paid off, so they should have been unlocked.) Verizon claimed they unlocked our phones but PM told us they were still locked. We had no choice but to buy new phones.

Our new Samsung A14 cell phones arrived so I got online to activate them. Verizon allowed us to transfer my husband’s phone number, but not mine. Verizon had attached “port protection” to my phone number in order to punish us for cancelling our account. It took a whole week, Wednesday to Wednesday, of Patriot Mobile repeatedly calling Verizon, with us on the three-way call, to finally get Verizon to release my phone number, my only phone number, which I have owned for 28 years.

When we and the PM activation tech were on the phone (about 15 times over the course of a week) with Verizon they had a very elaborate and difficult means of identifying us to be sure we were who we said we were. I found this beyond hypocritical because they let a fraudster sashay into their Manhattan, Kansas store, without proof of identity, and add five lines & devices to our account without seeking our permission.

VERIZON BLOCKS CUSTOMERS FROM CHANGING TO ANOTHER CARRIER

Cell towers are owned by three companies: Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T, AKA: Big Three. The other cell services, such as Patriot Mobile, Consumer Cellular, Pure Talk and Cricket, pay the Big Three for use of their towers. When a new customer is signing up with a carrier other than the Big Three, he/she has the choice of using towers owned by the Big Three, that is: Verizon, T-Mobile or AT&T. Here is the problem: Verizon gets pissed when one of their customers changes to another service provider, AND wants to still use Verizon towers. They block that cell phone number from using their towers. So, Patriot Mobile had to first put us on T-Mobile towers for 24 hours, THEN transfer us to Verizon towers. My dad had a term for this kind of behavior: “chicken shit.”

When signing up with Patriot Mobile, we chose Verizon towers because they have strong coverage at our two homes which are 1,400 miles apart and are both “out in the country” miles & miles from a “big city.” Also, their towers provide good coverage traveling to & from. Were Verizon not so careless with security and allowed blatant fraud on our account, we would likely still be customers despite the fact that they are twice as expensive: flat $83 per month with Patriot Mobile compared to upwards of $200, depending upon how much roaming we used that month.