(Sorry, Hotfessional!, but this situation calls for the use of that bit.)
My vacation to California is coming back to haunt me! Remember how I told you that I couldn’t get a signal in our motel room, and I had to go to the coffee shop to get online? I got my Verizon bill today and DANG! they are charging me $188.75 for roaming in Mexico. Even though I never once used my phone in Tijuana, and I certainly didn’t take my computer over there and get online. And I just used the wireless card in the room the first night to try to get online but it took just about an hour to get to my g-mail account. Just look at this:
Global Roam – Mexico kilobytes — 37,750 37,750 188.75
Total Roaming $188.75
Total Usage Charges $188.75
Their customer no service department actually told me that since they could not determine where the usage originated, they could only offer me a 50% credit. And of course I said “That is unacceptable.” The supervisor was not in today and will be calling me back on Monday. Then she jabbered on about how I could have set my account to have alerted me to there being roaming charges being accrued. Which I had no idea I could do, since I was not going to a foreign country, I was only going to California. Like she was trying to make it MY fault that I was being charged ridiculous charges for roaming in Calfornia.
Just as information, I walked into the Verizon store in National City, California while we were at Best Buy, which was right next door, and talked to one of their people. He told me not to worry, that if I got roaming charges on my bill they would take them off. But, he didn’t note my account that I asked the question. So, I guess Verizon thinks I am lying about not using my service in Mexico–at least that is what they implied. There WILL be follow-up.
This happens quite often apparently when you get to the southern US and usually there’s no problem. Tell them you’ll be happy to share your hotel bills with them for those dates and any other receipts needed to show that you were in California.
Sandra: That is exactly what I plan to do, as well as tell them that their commercials are false advertising because No, I could not hear me now where I wanted to be.
Yikes! That’s some kinda roaming you were doing!
Lupingirl: Seriously, I was only roaming the beach.
This time it’s Verizon not Qwest. Speaking of which, did you have your phone turned on at GRCA yet? I’m going to try to get it done ahead being I’ll be parked in the same space.
Looking forward to the rest of the story, mannana.
Gaelyn: Yes, I called Qwest last week, and they said it would be turned on on 4/24, but I ain’t holding my breath.
I just hate dealing with stuff like this. It makes me crabby.
Jason: me too! But they just don’t know who they are dealing with here.
Stuff like that just gives me a big headache. Wouldn’t you like to hit somebody?
We have the same problem living up by the Canadian border. Every month I have to call and have charges taken off because it says we roamed into Canada. It is very frustrating. When our contract is about done we are going to check on some other carriers.
Sorry to hear you are having to deal with this…stay persistent!
Christine: Yes. I need some tylenol now.
Alice: While I am sorry to hear you have the same problem, I am glad to know I am not the only one. Thanks for letting me know.
Yes, be persistent. “The squeeky wheel gets fixed!” or something like that…Don’t take “no” for an answer. That is OUTRAGEOUS!!!
Karen, nice blog. Regarding the cell bill, I save around $230 annually off my Verizon bill through http://www.fixmycellbill.com. You might want to check them out…any bit you can save every month really adds up over the long term.
Dylan
Oh, this is so typical of the kind of situation we find ourselves in with these large powerful companies. I do hope you get it completely sorted, very soon. (And I love your post title!!)
Janice.