Eliminate your Reconnection Fee, Verizon

Thank god I found this to vent!! I received my Verizon bill today and
noticed it was higher than usual. In reviewing my bill I saw that they
charged me a reconnect fee on all 5 of my lines. Imagine my surprise
when my service was never interrupted. I told the rep that I have been
a customer with them for numerous years who recently added MiFi and if
they did not remove all of the charges I would be switching companies.
I was transferred to the finance department (I believe that's what I
was told) where I told this rep the same thing. Her response was to
tell me that service was d/c on 9/23 and reconnected the same day. I
told her this was interesting because I paid my bill on 9/20 and I
have phone calls on my monthly statement coming in and out with no
missed time. She graciously offered to credit hald which I declined. I
then sent an email stating the above and also that I would be
switching carriers if the charges were not removed. In response I
received an email offer to credit half the charges. Can I also add
that in the email my name was misspelled 2x and there was different
sized font used throughout the email which is an indication to me that
they thought my email was laughable and would not be bothered in the
least to lose my business.
If I had incurred these charges I would pay them. I know that it's
less than $100 but it's the principle and I might add this may be
their way of recouping money lost from having to refund all of the
customers they duped out of the mb/kb they charged fraudulently.
I am very disappointed and am switching to AT&T whom I hope has better
ethics.

This is standard. Every single company out there, phone, water,
electric, tv, internet, ect. will charge a re-connection fee. Verizon
is actually pretty cheap. One of my utilities charges 40. Also, they
are one of the easiest companies to work with when you are behind on
your bill. If you call before the due date they are more then willing
to give you an extention. I have gotten more then a month behind with
them and as long as I kept calling and working with them they worked
with me, I still had to pay, but only had to pay a late fee...which I
completely understood.

Essentially, Verizon has entered the payday loan business. As a
stockholder, I am initially thrilled to hear about this. However, on
closer inspection this $15 fee isn't the windfall it appears to be.

Every company expects its customers to pay on time (if not, people
would never pay). Verizon has implemented a feature to allow
customers to pay late. In the meantime, they shut you down so you
don't incur more charges (until they get their money). And they
charge a fee for the convenience. They have representatives sitting
in the phone with you for maybe a half hour total, and those people's
time costs money. $15 for a half hour of labor is pretty fair,
actually cheap. So VZ breaks even.

Let's say your monthly bill is $50. The fee is $15. So that is 15/50
or 30% interest annualized. For one month, that is 360%. Moral - pay
the bill on time. To take advantage of paying late costs you a lot.