As reported on CNN.com Verizon will be issuing tens of millions of dollars in refunds to customers that were erroneously charged for data usage that they did not initiate.
This has nothing to do with the VerizonMath data rate quoting issue that I was involved with, but is very interesting nonetheless.
I've often wondered about the implications of software glitches, and this one is a doozy. It's probably been hurting Verizon's bottom line for some time even just in customer complaints, customer service calls and customer dissatisfaction (assuming individuals were not able to get the charges reversed). It is tangentially related to my situation in that the CS feedback should really be a priority that is investigated and reacted to early, such that these types of problems are handled when the costs are low (nip in the bud) rather than the typical brush it under the rug and hope it will go away mentality. I can't help but think that if this problem had been caught when the refunds would have amounted to a few million that Verizon's net costs would have been significantly less. Administering millions of refunds has to be a costly process. I wonder if they will issue the refunds including interest.
PS: thanks to Chris for bringing this to my attention.
Timeline
- Original Full Length Recording
- 12-07-2006 - Initial Post
- 12-08-2006 - First Email From Verizon - 50% Refund
- 12-08-2006 - My Response to Verizon
- 12-10-2006 - Response from Verizon - Full Refund - No Explicit Admission of Fault
- 12-10-2006 - Second Known Instance of the Problem
- 12-11-2006 - Verizon Admits Fault - But have not taken care of other cases
- 12-11-2006 - Open Letter to Verizon Management
- 12-13-2006 - Will Verizon Live up to its Worry Free Guarantee
- 12-14-2006 - Verizon is still Quoting .002 cents
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3 comments:
Hi George!
How did the Verizon matter end? Did you have to pay 71 dollars or cents? Or Yen for that matter;)
Happy New Year From Norway
@donotlistentome,
They credited me the full amount of $71.79. Someone from accounting probably educated the customer service reps. They also got barraged by phone calls from readers of this blog so that likely helped :).
But... is it tens of millions of dollars, or tens of millions of cents? :D
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