Verizon shows a complete lack of customer service to the elderly who are ill!

You are very kind to want to help your neighbor. I was in a situation
where the first cable guy who came out to hook up my phone botched the
job. They had to send out another installer. Because I didn't want to
miss more work staying home waiting for the second installer I made
the appointment for the next Saturday which was a week away.
In the meantime I used my cell phone. It was a life save because I had
just moved to a new apartment and had to make lots of calls to
co-ordinate with various providers not to mention friends and family.
I urge you to suggest to the elderly woman's daughter to get her a
cell phone. That way she will have a back up in situations like the
one you describe and also if her land line ever goes out of commission
she will not lose touch with the outside world.

it's nice of you to be concerned but they won't discuss this with you.
It has to be a family member or an agency speaking on her behalf.

First, every one who wrote that Verizon can't discuss this with you is
correct, it's against the law for any phone company to discuss an
account with anyone not authorized on it. It's admirable that you are
trying to help, if it's possible, have your neighbor call in with you
there and authorize you to discuss this matter.
Second, the state's PUC can (and will) get involved in this and help
this customer get her phone service back on quickly. Again, though,
you have to be authorized to file a complaint.
Third, there's also an emergency medical need for a phone that ALL
phone companies honor (she can contact her doctor for this) that
should help also.
I work for the 4th largest phone compnay in the United States, and was
a manager in an inbound collection call center for six years and I do
know how frustrating it can be dealing with any utility company.
Please understand there are many many laws that govern public
utilities that the average consumer doesn't know.
Hope this helps, the PUC (public utilities commssion) can be found in
the white pages under state government.
Goodluck.

You can double check this with LadyMac if you'd like, but I am pretty
sure that with just about all personal accounts these days, even
public utilities like phone service, any Joe Schmoe off the street
cannot call on behalf of another person.

Companies don't want to be liable for providing private or potentially
sensitive information to people who are no authorized to have
knowledge of that info.

For those of you claiming to have gotten away with it recently, then
shame on whatever company permitted you to do it. They are violating
their customer's privacy.

Have her daughter, who as ticky pointed out, probably has a POA on her
mother, contact them. Have her start no lower than the supervisors
and not to back own until she gets help. But sadly, the
responsibility to get this done does not and should not rest with you.
You aren't even a relative.

You sending a letter via PFB, while thoughtful on your part, will not
get you the timely response that you need in this instance.

And while I'm at it, the demand for the free wireless with pre-paid
minutes in lieu of immediate service was tacky.

While it is very sweet that you are concerned about your neighbor's
well being, I sincerely doubt Verizon is going to listen to you. I
would imagine you would need to have power of attorney for your
neighbor in order to be able to authorize any service on her phone.

As others have pointed out, Verizon Wireless is not Verizon, so giving
her a free phone is not an option. Have you considered buying a
simple prepaid TracFone? That may be an option.

Hopefully, her daughter will have better luck.

Call the "Special Needs" number for customer's with disabilities. You
can find it on the website. If they can't help you, tell them that
you will be making a "presidential complaint". You may have to do
some digging to find the "presidential complaint" line.

Unfortunately, what others said is true, Verizon Wireless and Verizon
are two different companies so they will not supply her with a cell
phone.

Um...where in this letter does the writer say anything about the phone
being shut off because the bill wasn't paid? In fact she specifically
said the phone line needed to be FIXED. They don't have to come out to
your home if your service was shut off due to not paying a bill. So
Gino's advice is pretty useless, except for the part about the prepaid
phone.

To the orginal poster, Verizon and Verizon Wireless are two different
companies so Verizon has no way of giving your neighbor a free cell
phone. I suggest you and her daughter purchase one for her. Please
keep us posted! :-)

I agree with Gino. It's good that you are concerned for your neighbor.
However, you'd probably have better luck calling Verizon directly
until they come out. Also, you and the daughter should both contribute
to getting the lady a prepaid phone for her emergencies.

Generally on this site the last post listed was the first and any
above that were added later.

In this particular case there were no posters before my response. I
simply responded to a question.I didn't know I was opening a
pandorra's box...was simply trying to give a reasonable solution to
the problem.There were NO other opinons listed so there was nothing to
read.

Again, I'm sorry if it offended or harmed anyone in any way. That was
never my intent.

I knew nothing about this law. I never had to call my state's utility
commission because I've dealt directly with the phone company and
utility company. If my neighbors utilites are out and I see flashing
lights and hear power equipment and see people in hardhats working in
the area then I take it that there's an outage somewhere and wait for
it to get fixed. If I was away for a period of time and left noone in
charge of my finances, and my service gets cut off, which is in the
realm of plausibilty, then I get my bills paid and my services
restored. Can't think of any other scenario's... but things do
happen....

I think it's wonderful information and that's the beauty of sites
like this I learn something new every day. I'm glad I came back or i'd
have never known.

I didn't mean to suggest that any child break their piggy bank and
fork over cash for a phone for a neighbor. It was general advice not
meant to offend anyone. I am glad it opened up a reasonable dialogue
in a generally adult manner where I could learn new things and
possibly others at the same time and no one got attated or hurt in the
process.

You did nothing wrong. He should apologize to you.