Why Do I Have to Wait 60 Days to Get My Money Back? My Fun with Verizon DSL...NOT

Here's the background story about my latest fun adventures I'm having in my life. Uh, please note my sarcasm. I've had my Verizon DSL internet service for three years without a hitch and my automatic electronic payments were deducted from my checking account via my MasterCard Debit card. Then beginning in November or 2009, for some reason my electronic automatic payments weren't going through. Don't ask how many times I contacted Verizon, mainly by email directly on their Verizon.net website but also by phone to try to settle the issue. But with each passing month, I would get an email from Verizon, indicating that my electronic payment wasn't processed due to my bank returning the payment. Through an email from them I was instructed to contact my bank. Okay, I did (each time this happened I might add). My bank informed me there was no indication or record of any returned or unprocessed payment for Verizon. Each month I make a number of on-line payments including a separate Verizon payment for my landline phone and have never had a problem with any of them, only my Verizon DSL internet service.

On February 22nd, I received a snail mail letter from Verizon which instructed me to send a check for the full amount of $121.96 that was "past due" that was though NO fault of mine. My regular monthly payment to my DSL service is $29.99, and thank goodness in all this time I've kept the money aside, just in case by some "miracle" the payments would go through electronically. But over and over when I contacted Verizon, they kept saying my electronic payment couldn't be processed as the bank returned it. I had pointed out to Verizon via email and phone that this was a serious glitch on Verizon's part, not mine, not the bank. In the letter and in a phone call made to them, I was told if I didn't make the full payment by February 27th my service would be disconnected. So with an additional and great expense to me, I sent my payment via Express Mail/certified to Verizon. Not only did they receive it on February 25th, but when I checked my bank balance, the check had cleared the same day. You can only imagine my relief and thought my problems were behind me. Uh, no they weren't.



You can imagine my horror when the next day,on February 26th, I checked my bank balance again only to find an additional $121.96 had been deducted from my account. In other words, after all these months the electronic payment kicked in and went through. Now in all this time, I haven't exactly been sitting on my duff and you better believe I've been in contact with Verizon all this time but not getting any satisfaction. All I was being told that yes I had now had a credited amount in my account. Uh, excuse me, I know that and I wanted a refund for the overpayment that was due me.



Well, on March 10th, I called Verizon again at the phone number that had been given to me in a recent email and it indicated that it was a direct line to their finance and billing department. My suspicions that it wasn't. Verizon seems to have about thirty phone numbers to call them, and I suspect the vast majority are to call centers that aren't even in this country but somewhere in India. So, I'm talking to this woman with a heavy accent and yes, she indicated that the credited amount will be reposted and returned to my account. However, it will take 60 days to get it posted to my account, like WHAT? By that time I won't even have a credit of the now $89.97 rather than $121.96 since they had already included and deducted this month's bill.



When I communicated to Verizon by phone on March 10, and in a rather not so pleasant manner, which isn't like me as I'm usually polite, I told them that Verizon was sure fast enough to take my money, but I asked why does it take so long, that is 60 days to wait for my own money to be returned to me? During the phone call, I was practically screaming at the woman that hey, I'm on SSI disability benefits, I need that money now, since that additional deduction severely affected my funds for the entire month and I haven't been able to pay all my bills. I asked to speak to a supervisor but the woman said the person would say the same thing to me. She indicated to me, that it's their "Policy" to reimburse credited money in 60 Days and not sooner.

I guess the whole point of this article, which I realize is more of a rant, is that yes, I'm frustrated and I'm sure there are many other people who have gone through similar stories with other major companies, that is where the company in question was quick lightening to take your money, where the company in itself was wrong to do so, but slow as molasses in reimbursing that extra money or payment.

Isn't life fun? NOT.