Goodbye Verizon

Friday, 2:53 pm

By Kate

Mar

23

2007

Verizon has decided to give me the encouragement I needed to switch to Comcast. If they really want to antagonize me, all they have to do is start messing around with my bill. And they have, for the third month in a row. For reasons they can’t figure out, I’m being charged twice for my DirecTV subscription. But that’s not all. Two months ago Verizon told me to only pay the regular amount and forget the second DirecTV charge. Fine. No problem. Last month, however, not only was I charged twice for DirecTV, Verizon also tacked on the second charge from the previous month that they told me not to pay. But they super-duper promised that they’d really fix it this time.

This month I am being charged for two DirecTV subscriptions, plus the two charges from the two previous bills that they told me not to pay plus a late fee and a polite notice that I need to clear my balance before service is interrupted.

Verizon suggested that I contact DirecTV to straighten out the problem. After wading through multiple layers of phone menus, I found a live human being at DirecTV. They sympathized with the situation, but, as far as their records are concerned, I’m current and I don’t have any outstanding charges. Alas, they don’t handle the billing for my kind of Verizon bundle of services. They aren’t the ones producing the bills. I need to take it up with Verizon.

Sooo. I called Verizon again and they told me, again, to only pay the regular amount. Does that mean that next month I’d end up with five DirecTV charges and more late fees and, possibly, a reconnection fee? How long can we pile up the charges before someone comes up with a solution—which does not include me paying for all of them? My heart skips beats when I see a $300 bill. Well, they just didn’t know. I should probably talk to DirecTV again. There’s a glitch somewhere, but darned if they can figure it out.

I can help. I’m canceling my account.

How easy was that?

I know that glitches happen. I can forgive that. But I can’t stand total disregard for an obvious problem, especially when there are mushrooming dollar signs attached. A verbal shrug of the shoulders tends to send me right into orbit.

Comcast installation: April 5th.