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Verizon Wireless - billing fraud

Monday, April 06, 2009

Do I want my Verizon litigation included in a book?

I recently got a LETTER which I just opened and actually almost threw away unopened because it was hand addressed and I thought another note buyer was trying to get me to sell the note I no longer have.

So it turned out to be someone with a Verizon dispute who wants to write a book about it.  Somehow he knows about my 2003 lawsuit against Verizon, but didn’t see that they were dismissed because my breach of contract claim was a state claim, not federal.

Strangely, his letter contains no phone #, fax or email.

I have no idea why people think that I have TIME to write LETTERS.

And I don’t even want to THINK about Verizon and the fact that my friend and relative Dorothea might well be alive today if Verizon and the FCC hadn’t ignored my disputes of this entirely totally fraudulent collection—Verizon was collecting an UNCASHED refund check it had issued in error.

I’m looking for new prepaid cellphone service since Tracfone sucks so bad and the airtime is so expensive.  There are so many carriers and prepaid options, but as I went through the list, I realized:

Sued.

Should have sued.

Settled.

Should have sued.

Sued.

...

They ALL suck.

We’re facing an army of corporations willing to kill a human being over a disputed and entirely fraudulent bill.

There’s no difference between Verizon and AT&T and Sprint and T-Mobile and DirecTV and Dish and Frontier and Netzero and any other phone company or internet service provider. 

FACT:  You can’t stay in business if you don’t do business like THEY do business.

Do the math.

They HAVE to overbill and defraud and ignore disputes to remain competitive.  Since the REGULATORS ignore their deplorable practices, anything not only goes, but MUST be done to stay in business. 

The REGULATORS’ open encouragement of fraud and illegal practices is the main reason for the horrible business practices we are subjected to.

And I’d rather focus on more current and much less painful issues than Verizon.  There are so many CURRENT systemic problems and even more important, I’m busy with litigation and leaving the system.

My adobe addition far exceeds my expectations and it’s great to have something work out well.  The grapes are growing and the cuttings are looking promising, got corn seedlings going and I should be eating the first tomatoes in a few weeks.

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Consumer wins lawsuit over Verizon billing fraud and incorrect credit reporting of charge-off

A reader sent me this link, thanks!

Man Sues Verizon And Wins

A customer successfully sued Verizon after they double-billed him, ruined his credit, lied about not receiving his letters, and refused to fix their mistake.

Fat Wallet member PoodleMan says, “the lawsuit was surprisingly easy compared to the misery that I went through with Verizon prior to that point.”

...

If you have a decent judge, it’s certainly MUCH easier to sue than to try to file complaint after complaint after complaint with regulators, the BBB, etc.

Of course there’s that qualifier, getting a judge who doesn’t believe that it is a “consumer’s job” to consume and pay bills regardless of the legitimacy of those bills.  Many judges feel that the purpose of consumers is to make the corporations and their shareholders wealthy at the expense of consumers.  Many judges are openly corrupt and more and more consumers get railroaded in Kangaroo courts. 

Across the country, pro se litigants often have to appeal local court rulings, sometimes all the way to the state’s supreme court, to finally get justice.  After I sued First Magnus last year, they got a $6,400 award for legal fees.  I had sued in small claims, but then moved the case to the civil division when they refused to settle.  I already knew I’d get railroaded in Kingman justice court (where justice is rarely found) and you can’t appeal a small claims decision.  Justice of the Peace John Taylor not only dismissed my case, but even asked whether First Magnus would like their legal fees, they didn’t even have to request the fees. 

First Magnus never filed a single motion prior to getting the judgment!

I had to deposit the $6,400 with the court for a supersedeas bond when I filed my appeal, because otherwise they could have ENFORCED this judgment while on appeal.  That means cleaning out my bank accounts, putting a lien against my home, etc.

Just before Thanksgiving, I got the superior court decision to remand to justice court.  I did NOT get my $6,400 back.  It’s up to the justice court judge.  He did NOT order that my money be returned to me.  I’m going to file a motion for the return of my funds.  And I give it 90% that judge Taylor will again dismiss my case and that I will again have to appeal an even more outrageous amount for legal fees.  And maybe I’ll actually prevail in a few years, but there’s a good chance that the lying scumbags at First Magnus will be out of business by then. 

There are no statistics about the number of consumers who get railroaded in American courts, I can only go by the e-mails from other consumer litigants and information posted in litigation lists.  Obviously, very few consumers have the cash and knowledge to appeal.  And the more I learn about the American legal system, the scarier it gets.

I don’t mean to take away from Poodleman’s victory over Verizon, I just want you all to know that just because you’re right doesn’t mean that you’ll prevail in an American court.

I sued Verizon and won!

After a year of calls, certified letters, emails, and other attempts on my part to contact Verizon Wireless and after numerous calls from at least three different debt collection firms (on their end) and after having had my otherwise perfect credit reports reflect a charge-off for an account that had been paid on-time, I decided to sue Verizon. I did so and won about $700 and had them ordered to remove the derogatory information from my credit reports. I just got a call today asking where I would like my check mailed and am very happy to have stuck it to such an uncaring company. If anyone is interested, I can post more specific information. Prior to wasting my time, I thought that I would first probe for interest with this post.

....

The skinny of it is that when I signed up for wireless internet (EVDO) service, I asked that the device be billed with my cell phone. There was apparently some issue whereby they asked to issue it with a different area code. I asked if it would affect billing. I was told that it would not. They ended up generating a brand new account for the device, which not only forces me to deal with two payments per month, but also increases the cost by 20 dollars each cycle, as there is a discount if the device is associated with an existing cell. I called and asked that it be switched back. I was told that the billing would be pro-rated and transferred over. I said if that was the case to cancel my automatic billpay for the EVDO device, as it should be zeroed out. I was told that it was zeroed out and that the auto billpay would be canceled. Lo and behold, I was billed twice for the same service: one with a (407) Orlando area code and one with a (617/781) Boston area code.

I called and tried to explain that it was already paid and offered receipts. No dice. Disconnected and transferred continuously. I responded to billing @ verizon.com with the details. No response. Sent certified letter via NetPost Post-e-Digital to ensure not only that something was sent, but also the contents of the letter. They claimed this was never received right up to the point that I brought a scan of the text with a signed letter from a company supervisor at Post-e-Digital.

Basically, the company’s claim was that I “overpaid my Florida account and underpaid my Massachusetts account”.

Not once did I receive an apology from them. Only the business day before court did they offer to do anything. Prior to that, they would not, on good faith, fix my credit reports. All this after having complained to the BBB, my state attorney general, etc.

I came to court with receipts from my bank showing payment had been made for over 1200 dollars for over a year, even into the current month! I also called Verizon beforehand, and did not mention this issue and simply asked them to send me a printout of payments received. They even had it listed as received! Still, they were unwilling to listen to me.

I spent a tremendous amount of time compiling paperwork, including the disputes filed with the credit bureaus and proof of debt collectors’ contact AFTER the lawsuit was filed.

If anyone wants more detail, let me know. For now, I must sleep.

~ Poodleman

...

The bottom line is that getting the $700 probably cost Poodleman many thousands of dollars in time wasted to try to get Verizon to straighten out their billing and then to sue, not to mention the aggravation and stress.

How is this a victory?

Poodleman DOCUMENTED the Verizon billing fraud and he PUBLICIZED his lawsuit, and that’s what it takes to prevail against the corporate scum.  If we had 200 of those suits next year (documented by consumer litigants who are not afraid to post their name and case #), maybe a competent lawyer could justify a “real” suit with a $7 million punitive damges award against Verizon, to be used for a consumer defense fund and to assist other pro se litigants.

THEN we’d see some changes to Verizon’s and the other corporate thugs’ billing and credit reporting practices.

Friday, October 27, 2006

Reader mail:  More Verizon billing fraud

Dear Christine,

Thank you thank you thank you! I was about to sign up with Lexington Law firm, until I decided to check them out and see if I could find anything about them online. THANK YOU!

Now on to Verizon wireless. I read the 5 million lawsuit thing and just had to send you an email about them!These crooks stole money from me, and I think that they are stealing money every day from thousands and thousands of customers that have no idea that its going on. Here is the situation.

This happened about 4-5 years back. I was on a Nationwide plan that cost me roughly $200/month for 2000 minutes at the time. It was a no roaming no long distance plan with my plan starting on the 7th of each month going to the 7th of the next month.

One month I got a bill and seen that I went over my minutes causing me some charges for overages and long distance. I started to look a little closer and noticed the dates of the calls should have been on the previous month. Remember I said that my bill went from the 7th to the 7th right. Well I had on this bill some extra dates? Calls that were made on the 1st of the month to the 7th? These calls should have been billed on last months bill then and not on this months. I should not be getting billed for calls until the 7th for this month! So instead of being billed for 30 or 31 days, I was being billed for roughly 37 days of service on that bill. Sound confusing yet? So I checked the previous months bill for those calls made from the 1st to the 7th that should have been billed on that bill. To my discovery if those calls would have been put on that bill, I would not have been put into Overage status on my current bill!! I called Verizon on this immediately. I talked to them for a very long time to no avail.

I requested all the bills since the first date of service (because I pay them and throw them) and scanned through them. I Found that on several of the months bills this had happened. Even if there were calls that were from the 1st to the 7th on the current due bill some of the calls with those dates were on the other bill? Not the same calls but different ones with same call dates? I was very confused. I called Verizon and told them this. If all the calls for those dates for which my billing contract states would have been on the proper months billed, I would not have to pay overage charges. I would have had plenty of minutes to cover the calls.

HERE is there explanation:

“Verizon wireless is a very large company that has many agreements across the country with many different “mom and pop” cell phone tower owners to provide you with the NATIONWIDE excellent coverage that you get. Verizon wireless can only bill you for the minutes used on those towers as the owners of the towers send them to Verizon letting us know that you used their tower on this such a date at such a time. Verizon wireless is not responsible for those companies not getting the information to us in a timely matter that would correspond with your monthly statement dates. We bill for them to you as they are submitted to our office.” THIEVES! DIRTY DIRTY THIEVES!

So in other words the calls you made last month that you had enough minutes left on your plan to cover them came to Verizon late for their billing cycle, its just to bad for you the consumer if we tack them on to your current bill then charge you overages on them! WHY CAN’T they look at last month and see that you would have had enough minutes to cover them and tack them on the new bill with a zero amount owing? Would it have been that difficult to do?

I tried to explain to several persons on the phone I was talking to that what they were doing was stealing from me. They asked how? I told them imagine if you purchased a pre-paid gas card used it one month, and went back to the same company for gas and the clerk behind the counter said to you, sorry sir today we have to tack on $.05 more per gallon for you then what the pump says or what that guy over there will pay today, because last month when you put gas on here, my manager forgot to tell me that I needed to raise the price on the pump before you started pumping your gas. I know its our own fault in management but we have to get it out of you somehow.”

Does that make sense? So I told them that I had signed a 2 year agreement with them and that I wanted out. They told me that they would then have to charge me the early cancellation fee. I told them I don’t think that they would want to do that because I would have the states attorneys office look at my bills and possibly file a lawsuit on mine and others behalf. They politely let me out of my contract and I have been with Sprint ever since. I probably should have brought this to the attention of someone that might enjoy the story like Dateline NBC or something. The whole Fleecing of America bit might have liked this story.

But I got out. I also lost the money. I just wanted out. Verizon will not steal from me again!

Imagine how much money they are or were making off of others doing this very practice! Making their billing and paper management the consumers problem and making us pay for it! Oh the total of there mistakes on all my bills after going over them was roughly $350.00 that’s just me, 1 person. Now imagine that on a scale of 1000 ($350,000) people or 10,000 ($3,500,000) people nationwide. Not a bad return for the year, for the nations largest cell phone network provider stealing just a little hear or a little there a month from innocent consumers that probably didn’t bother to check their bill to close and just pay the overage charges.

Just thought you might like that little story. You can certainly place it on your websites if you like, maybe people will look over their cell bills closer. If you helped me not make a big mistake, I would like to help others as well with my story. Pay it forward, right!

Keep up all your GREAT work that you do for us,

Sincerely,

Rob Thompson
Moorhead, MN

Thanks for writing that up, Rob.  This sure reminds me of the horrible time I had with them.

The real simple solution is for Verizon to NOT bill calls that were invoiced late from other companies unless you would have gone OVER your 2000 monthly minutes the previous month.  It’s a very simple issue, but Verizon gets away with their billing fraud because they’re a HUGE company and regulators decided that big corporations are always right.

Since you mention my lawsuit, here is my Verizon press release They were dismissed because the judge felt that they couldn’t be sued for FDCPA (collection) violations and I had only asked for $20K in my initial disclosures—no good deed goes unpunished.  You have to demand at least $75,000 for federal courts to have jurisdiction.

And while Verizon and their lowlife employees and attorneys LIED in their court filings and stated that I owed them for the uncashed refund check they had sent, it sure is odd that they didn’t cash the $300 that I mailed to their scumbag attorney Rodrick Coffey several months ago.  They’re all crooks, and the attorneys are licensed to lie by the American Bar associations.

How can it be that they tell a federal judge that I owe them and then they don’t cash my check for the alleged debt?

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Who is Rynae Benson—Verizon? Stinson Morrison Hecker?

Since Verizon won’t disclose ANY of their employees’ names, I’m wondering who Rynae Benson is.  A Verizon attorney? Paralegal?  Or someone at Stinson Morrison Hecker?

The name was listed as a BCC on one of Coffey’s letters.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

I give up - I paid the Verizon bill again and mailed my $300 check

Judge Broomfield granted the Verizon motion for discovery stay, he didn’t think that I deserve to find out WHY Verizon continued to claim that I owe $105 + interest.  It looks like I’ll never be able to show the world what God damned liars attorney Coffey and Verizon Director of Financial Services Greg Fong are.

I am defeated. 

I sent my $300 check to Coffey right after the hearing and I hope they won’t kill me like they killed Dorothea.

I posted the filings at CreditCourt and the e-mails at Fight Back.  I don’t feel much like fighting anymore.  Maybe I’m just tired, was up all night summarizing their lies for Judge Broomfield.  Why did I bother?

Pay your bills TWICE, or three times, pay whatever these criminals demand.

If you’re dealing with a collector, you have a good chance of prevailing.  But when you deal with scummy original creditors like Verizon, Sprint, Directv, etc., there is apparently NO law prohibiting the collection of disputed debts.  I haven’t found a law yet that applies - maybe there’s state law that applies to creditors who are not collectors. California may have something useful.

Of course the FCRA prohibits the reporting of incorrect data, but I don’t have a private right of action until after I disputed with a CRA and they continue to report without a notice of dispute.  Often, the notice of dispute is ignored by FICO scores and I really can’t take the stress, worrying about a new collection being reported while in escrow—been trying to buy real estate.  They would NOT be liable for damages until AFTER they verified in response to my disputes.  I can’t afford to take that risk. 

A collection would not only kill the deal, but also destroy my reputation for closing as promised.  This isn’t the big city here and every agent would know that I couldn’t get my financing because of a collection.

And I sure don’t need to have credit lines lowered or closed or interest rates increased due to the information on my credit report.  That’s what happened to Dorothea and many others.  I posted not long ago about a client who lost his home in the floods after Katrina and recently Citi closed his credit card because of “too many inquriries.” He had to move, get utilities, buy a new car ...

So, if your credit is important, don’t move and pay your bills again and again and again as long as they do NOT report derogatory data.

Once a collection is reported, paying it without having the written guarantee that they’ll delete after payment is the worst move.  But if they don’t report yet, it’s best to give these extortionists what they want before they seriously hurt you.

I really didn’t believe this could happen.  It seemed so easy, some very basic algebra, producing the cancelled check and the uncashed refund check, what can go wrong?