Check your phone bills

[LauraMax]

Just saw this on my local message board. I don't know if it's a national thing, but I'd really hate to see this company profit from this scam.

The last 2 bills my husband received from Verizon had charges through OAN Services, Inc. which claims it's a clearing house for some companies. Neither charge was valid, and was a nominal amount: roughly $6 the first time, $16 the second. Each time my husband called OAN -- the first time they issued a credit, the second time he was referred to the company that the charge was attributed to, Lifeshield. This time he was issued a credit from Lifeshield, a service to supposedly safeguard your ID! The charge had been had been incurred by someone using my husband's phone listing name, phone number and our address, but an invalid DOB and email address. So instead of protecting your ID, it was an ID theft!

I thought I'd post this as all the information used came from the phone directory (our listing in under a variation of our real name, so we KNOW this is where it came from) and we're all at risk. It's not a coincidence that both charges came through OAN, you think? We plan to report this to the police this week.

 

[PhyllisG]

I just was on the phone with Verizon for 45 mins. yesterday because of erroneous charges totalling $22. It was a different situation but I was overcharged. I had to explain 5 different times to 5 different people before they agreed to remove the charges. I just switched to to digital phone for one flat fee a month. Let's see how this works out.

 

[kellymom]

This just happened to me!

Last month there was a $20 charge for a company called Info Dial USA LLC, billed on behalf of ILD Teleservices, Inc. We called the company and they issued a credit to Verizon and gave us the name and birth date of some man who had added this to our bill, with our address and phone number. Then we called Verizon and they took it off and blocked our bill from 'third party billing'. My husband then reported it to the FBI and we filed a police report. We checked our credit reports and everything looked okay. It doesn't seem like our SSN or things like that were used, but now everything is down officially so that if anything pops up, we've got documentation of tampering.

Weird.

 

[looking good]

Are we talking about home lines or Cell phones?

Therese

 

[LauraMax]

The woman whose post I copied was talking about a land line, but you should check both. Verizon cashed one of my checks on my cell phone account & claimed they never recieved it. It took me 3 months, about 2 hours on the phone & faxing the cancelled check 4 times before they finally admitted I made the payment.

Verizon is horrible. Fios, wireless, land lines, you name it--watch them like a hawk or they'll steal from you.

 

[kellymom]

Mine was a land line as well--our home phone.

Kelly

 

[kathryn]

Is this in particular with Verizon?
I don't have a cell phone, but our university has an agreement with Verizon for a discount, and I was considering them. I won't if they are that ...well, 'dishonest' is the right word, isn't it?

 

[Fidget Queen]

More than anything else, I'd be very cautious about Verizon. I don't think it is a coincidence at all that these problems are stemming from them. I finally switched from them 8 or 9 months ago after my phone bills were coming back to me every single month very different, even though I kept my usage under the allotted amount I paid for. They tacked them on everywhere, and I spent hours every month on the phone with them. My tax amounts were always different, service charges always different, etc., etc. And they weren't small differences, either. They'd even add HORRENDOUS roaming charges (we're talking hundreds of dollars) even though I'm on the No-Roaming plan. I was literally in tears every time I got the bill, because I had no idea what to do. Oh, and when I first signed on with them, they tried to add the "hook-up" fee of $30 to my bill EVERY SINGLE MONTH for nearly a year. That is a company I hope folds in this economic crisis.

I'm now with T-mobile, and I have yet to have a single itty-bitty problem. I know exactly how much I'm paying every month, and I've never seen anything suspicious. I'm not too fond of the phone I picked, but that's another problem... Oh, and the customer service is absolutely wonderful.

 

[cataddict]

I'm sorry about the problems everyone seems to be having. I've never had any problems with Verizon as far as land line or cell phone charges or service. They were much better than Sprint, who I had previously for cell service. As far as DSL or FIOS, forget it, wouldn't do it but that was a customer service issue, not an overcharge issue.

 

[dreamyjeanie]

Need to be cautious with any phone company bill. We have had problems locally with Sprint and AT&T (both cellular service)not necessarily their fault. We once had our cell phone # copied and applied to another cell phone. Our cell bill was huge. I think we had AT&T at the time. Once we showed them that there was no way we made calls from Colorado and Texas from the same phone only minutes apart, they gave us a credit, and we had to switch our phone number. We have not had a problem with Verizon.

Jean

 

[LuvExercise]

I think people need to be cautious with anything they're billed for and I'm always surprised that people need to be reminded to check their bills. Do people just pay them and go on their merry way, without looking at what they're paying? That's just crazy talk to me.

 

[SirenSongWoman]

Yep. A similar thing happened on my AT&T land-line bill about a year ago. I called the phone company all hot and it took a while for me to realize she was telling me to call the company phone number listed on my bill to have it removed because she couldn't. I called, the charge was removed but the point was that I'd never heard of those guys, never asked for their "service" but it wound up on my bill, anyway. You have to watch EVERYTHING anymore. Deregulation. It's just brought us all sorts of little presents.

 

[jennifer-in-mi]

my landlline has gone up $10 a month and I was told it was a tax credit no longer.

 

[cakebaker]

No phone bills for me!

I just was on the phone with Verizon for 45 mins. yesterday because of erroneous charges totalling $22. It was a different situation but I was overcharged. I had to explain 5 different times to 5 different people before they agreed to remove the charges. I just switched to to digital phone for one flat fee a month. Let's see how this works out.

I have Tracfone - I add minutes when I need them, and have no bills with which to contend! I was roped into Verizon & their plans for several years & dumped them.