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They were "slammed" into Verizon through the consolidation of several phone companies, and like your parents, that cellphone was supposed to be our lifeline in their aging years. Sometimes it was, sometimes it wasn't. I won't go into all the service problems we had (this was 4 years ago), but I was constantly trying to find out why one of our phones wasn't working. At least at that time, most of the customer service people were in the U.S.
When they passed away, I wanted to take their old account and remove their names off of it. Even though my name was also on the account, and I had paid every bill, on time, for the previous 3 years, when I called to make that change (a simple one I thought), I ran into lots of hassles. First, since my mother set up the account, they wanted proof she was no longer alive (death certificate) as well as documentation that I was their executor. Then bills started showing up at my parents house instead of mine. They also started to show up toward the end of the billing cycle rather than earlier, so by the time we were able to get the bill and send payment, we were assured of being late.
I got pissed and decided to close the account. This time they wanted both my parents death certificates. I told them to talk to my lawyer and we stopped any payment on the account. After about a month of fighting my way up the Verizon chain (including a letter and several phone calls to the CEO's office...he never answered) we got a final bill for several months of service I never used (after I called to cancel). They tried to collect and I refered them to mail their addresses and send their collectors to the cemetery where my parents were burried.
We switched to U.S. Cellular and have been satisfied ever since.
I know the value of that phone and how important reliability is. You did the right thing...just keep an eye on the corporates...they have zero compassion when their profits and egos are questioned.
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