Cancelled Verizon internet service, getting billed for another month

April 15, 2019 3:40 PM

I cancelled Verizon internet on the 28th of February and Verizon actually got around to disconnecting service on the 04th of March (with email confirmation on the 28th of both these things). They're now trying to charge my for the entire month of March as a "closing statement", which I'm a bit mad about. Mainly as it looks like I'm paying up for their inability to act on canceled service in a timely fashion?

My guess is that my billing cycle for March began on the 1st as there's a "Balance doesn't include payments received after MMM 01, YYYY" on each previous bill.

I punted the bill I received on the 14th back to them via my credit card company and it appears that Verizon isn't bothering to contest that with the CC as I've just gotten a nasty gram threatening to send things to collections.

Am I really on the hook for their slow response pushing things over into a new billing period?

posted by Slackermagee to Work & Money (10 answers total)

Response by poster: Additional info: Billing cycle is the 2nd of one month to the 1st of the next.
posted by Slackermagee at 4:20 PM on April 15, 2019

Best answer: It's a pain, but call them. If I recall from my experience, they charged for the full month and then refunded the prorated balance.
posted by Vhanudux at 4:43 PM on April 15, 2019

So, you charged back without calling them first? Dispute it with them by calling. If they have a reason to think you are in the hook, they will explain it. At this point, I doubt anyone has looked at your account directly to even know you were charged.

threatening to send things to collections
This is likely an internal department and not an outside agency. They may call you and ask for money, but if you explain you feel you don't owe it, they will ask you to call the department that billed you and ask for a bill credit. Do that before they call you.
posted by soelo at 6:15 PM on April 15, 2019 [1 favorite]

Best answer: My last ISP, not Verizon, did this. They told me that they have a specific day that they shut off accounts and that if my account period ended before that date I was SOL and I had to pay for another entire month. I pushed on them a bit (called several times) and was told this was impossible to circumvent because of the way the system was designed. Ok. I give my standard "that is a design choice" lecture/rant a few times, give up after awhile, try other tacks. Eventually I decide to just pay the "fuck you" money to get them to buzz off, but I'm still mad about it.

I'd call them up and see what's what.
posted by sockermom at 8:18 PM on April 15, 2019

I moved a few blocks recently and transferred service with my ISP. They billed me for the entire month of April on the old service even though I’d ended it on the sixth. I called customer service and they said I could expect a credit of $40-whatever for the balance of the month on my next bill.

Call.
posted by notyou at 9:51 PM on April 15, 2019

Verizon has done this to me! This is not an isolated incident. this is a policy sort of thing, where they assume unsuspecting customers will just pay the bill and not notice. NOT NICE. maybe we can all call our local news channels? other mefites have this problem? I'd be glad to make a list of us and see if I can get anyone to cover this. Grrrrr.. Do NOT Like this one little bit. not right.
posted by elgee at 10:21 PM on April 15, 2019

If you can't get this worked out by calling them, tweet them. We recently had an issue with Verizon (they owed us a credit but they wouldn't issue it), and when we'd call we'd get transferred around to various people who had no clue how to help us. They'd promise a refund; it would never arrive. After months of this, I politely but firmly tweeted the issue to their customer service Twitter handle. Got their attention there, DM'd them the details, someone who understood the issue called us to confirm a few things, and that was that. Got a check a few days later.

This was for cell phone service, but I'd hope their internet service Twitter team is similarly on the ball.
posted by QuickedWeen at 6:48 AM on April 16, 2019

I suggest getting your state's attorney general's office involved. they did wonders for me with AT&T
posted by evilmonk at 10:23 AM on April 16, 2019

Best answer: I suggest actually talking to the company on the phone at least twice before going to any outside routes. Most consumer hotlines and the like will ask what you have done to inform the business of your issue.
posted by soelo at 2:45 PM on April 16, 2019

Response by poster: Resolution: called Verizon and got a run around for a short time. Boxed the rep in eventually by walking them through who calls to cancel (me) and who disconnects service (them) and how the opposite is not what happens or what happened.

Full credit of bill, since they ran the disconnect after the billing cycle began and the cancellation was ordered 2 days before the billing cycle began.

Also lovely getting to say "no" to "you final bill is...".
posted by Slackermagee at 3:11 PM on April 18, 2019