The End Result

My Beef With Verizon: Prepaid Plans Are Like Contracts Without The Contract

I wanted to share my thoughts on this because I feel we shouldn’t just let companies doing these things walk all over us.

Some Background
Currently, I have a prepaid plan with Verizon with an unlimited texting for an additional $20/month. The prepaid plan is $2/day for unlimited talking that day. I only pay the $2 if I make or take a phone call.

The Problem
Yesterday I added money to my account because my account has a due date for payments. Yes.. a contract-free service has a DUE DATE. A date telling me when I need to pay them. Verizon is telling me what to do with my money? I don’t like that.

Here’s the other clincher. A minimum payment of $15 is required. So now you’re telling me how much I have to spend? Not cool Verizon. Not cool at all.

So let’s say I want to end my service and I have $20 left on my account. I haven’t made many phone calls, in order to let the money go further. The payment day to keep the service going is in one week. There’s no way that I can spend the $20 in one week even if I made a phone call every day.

When I proposed this scenario to a Verizon representative on the phone today she said that they could credit it to my account… Yeah. I already have it on my account, don’t really need a credit. What I NEED is my money back because it’s MY money. Not yours.

Basically their prepaid plan has all the consequences of being on contract and whenever I mentioned that, the rep really didn’t have anything to say. And probably because she agreed, but couldn’t do anything about it and had to support the company she works for, which I completely respect.

But isn’t this the WHOLE point of not being on a contract? The ability to just do whatever you want? Yet, large companies have slowly began changing rules and policies here and there… and we just let them without ever taking a stand!

Some people pretend that there isn’t even a problem at all. These people are also probably ones who don’t care what the Government does (which is sad, but that’s a different topic).

Conclusion
So I’ve decided to find an alternative plan asap. Use up the money Verizon requires me to spend, before the next due date.

What are your experiences with big companies like Verizon?