I hate Verizon, part 2

Yesterday I pulled up my Verizon DSL bill off the internet. Guess what bonus charge was on there? $199 for an on-site installation fee. That's right. They charged us for installing the phone jack (see previous Verizon post) that they refused to ACTUALLY install because of stupid billing procedures.

You might imagine how this customer service phone call went.

Phone call #1. Let's start with the horrible navigation in the automated menu. Finally reached a live person. She had such a heavy accent, I could barely understand what she was saying. AND she couldn't find my record of existance. AND she transferred me back to some menu of no-return.

Phone call #2. Horrible navigation. Live person. Slightly lighter accent. After explaining that I had been billed for a service I never received, he put me on hold to check with the tech services people to confirm that we never received the service. Fortunately, that one all checked out okay.

Here's where I ended up crying on the phone. He said that my account had been credited the $199 on Oct. 25. The bill I had in front of me was dated Oct. 25, so where was the credit? I have automated credit-card billing, and in looking on the internet, saw that I was charged the full amount of my Oct. bill (~$250). There was no credit of ($199) listed on my card. And the guy kept saying that I had a balance of zero, yet I had been credited the $199. Last time I checked, zero doesn't equal -199.

Apparently, the credit of $199 is just showing up internally until my next bill. I still have to pay $250 this month; my money won't be refunded until next month. I'm glad our budget isn't so tight that we can't float this amount of money for an entire month. Instead, Verizon earns a tiny bit of interest off it while it sits in their bank and not mine.

For my 'trouble', we are getting 2 weeks of free service. A whopping $18 (or so).

I hate Verizon.