It’s probably not just Verizon. It’s probably a lot of cell phone carriers, but our experience was with Verizon.
Their phone and internet (both) services were down in our area one day back in Jan lasting most of the day. It was a day I really needed to be in touch with mom, but I was out of luck so was quite annoyed. We went to our local library to contact Verizon using the library’s Wifi. The person on their end was understanding/nice and promised us “since it’s our - Verizon’s - fault and covers a large area, everyone affected will be getting an automatic prorated reduced bill” for the time. There wasn’t much else I could do.
Two bills later. No refund. Granted it wouldn’t have been much - perhaps a couple of dollars - but they said it would be coming automatically. That day still sticks out in my mind because I needed info about my mom - her health had been bad (fever, etc) and no one could get in contact with me, nor I them. Texting worked, but my mom doesn’t text. It was the principle that mattered. They said we’d have a refund for that day. We didn’t.
Since there was no refund by the second bill afterward I contacted Verizon again today asking what the problem was and was told they only give automatic refunds for “national outages.” “Oh really?” I asked. “That’s not what we were told. There should be a recording of it somewhere. It was Jan 10th.” I ended up with $10 applied to our bill - now. It’s still not much, but it’s something.
I can only imagine how much Verizon makes by promising everyone “there will be a credit automatically applied to your bill,” then not doing it - only if someone remembers and calls. Nifty system they have if one is on their end I suppose. (Grr)
FWIW I wouldn’t keep Verizon at all if we didn’t need it for the coverage in many places where H works and where my mom lives. It’s not just this incident. We rather despise the company, so that came into play with not getting a promised credit too. If they say something I expect them to stick with it.
In hindsight it’s amazing how much the small things can affect what we do. Looking back it’s such a small amount of money - we spent three times as much today spontaneously getting some canned soup for a food bank that was requesting it - but the annoyance of having been told we would get a credit and not getting it sure was frustrating.
We didn’t even “argue” to get it back in Jan. It was just something they told us they would be doing when we mentioned the problem, heard the answer, and asked how much longer they thought it would take to get fixed. They also said they were getting a lot of chat asking about it (since phones weren’t working). I suspect they promised everyone something never planning to pay out - just to appease the masses - then figuring “out of sight, out of mind.”
So… if anyone else was affected in the area and contacted them about it, feel free to call or chat (I went back to chat). If you don’t want the money, I can also tell you about a local food bank that would like it (or canned soup)!
I’m pretty annoyed with Verizon too. I auto-pay my bill with one of my credit cards. One month I looked at my credit card and I was double billed so I flagged it with my credit card company and the second bill wasn’t paid pending an explanation. So Verizon just cut off my phone service. No warning. Whats the use of an established bill questioning process if they can just cut you off with no notice and not go through the process? I did get them to go through their records and explain the reason for the extra bill, and in the end I did owe the money (and I paid). My issue was no warning about being cut off. And being treated like a deadbeat. And being very concerned about not having service for a period of time because that’s my only phone and I have a very sick family member. What if they needed to contact me while Verizon was pulling this power play? That just didn’t seem right. BTW, I’ve been a Verizon wireless customer for over 15 years and have always been on auto-pay, so this was the first time I was ever “late” in 15 years. Not happy.
@melvin123 Yes, 'tis very much that mindset with Verizon that annoys me. Overall we’ve ditched many “big” companies in favor of smaller, more personal ones - those who seem to share our values better. I wish I could do the same with cell phones! “Mom and Pop” give so much better service than “Nameless Top Whatever” company in dollars.
Even when small brands get bought out by larger firms we quit buying/using them when we can. Things seem to go downhill. Money (to them) means more than quality and/or service.