I don't understand consumers not wanting to take responsiblity for their and their children behaviors. There is no way that you accidently get $144.90 in data charges. Why would a for-profit-company allow you to use it services for free. Please be aware that a cell phone does not dial itself and how can you accidently download a ringtone when you must confirm that you want it at least twice before the purchase.

I went on a cruise from Nov 1-8th. I used my cell phone twice, when leaving Miami and reutrning to Miami. I tried to use it several times during the cruise but unable to get a connection. I was charged $90. When I called Verizon I was told that although I was not able to connect, once I turned on the phone it started roaming. They could not give me a credit.

We were long-time satisfied Alltel customers who were rolled into Verizon. Our very first bill had $9.99 added for premium texting on one phone, although we didn't ask for it and don't text - the only texts we receive are from Verizon! When we called customer service we were told you had to text back the word STOP. Our second bill again had a $9.99 charge on one phone and texting charges for over $1.00 on another phone - again the only texts we receive are from Verizon which we don't ask for or want. (I'm guessing that they expect most people won't bother with a couple of $$ on their bill as we all know what a pain it is to try and get through to customer service!) The customer service rep said we were being scammed by someone sending us texts, although there was no record of us receiving any texts except from Verizon and they were the ones collecting the $9.99. She said we had to text back STOP, QUIT and a variety of other words until we got a text back saying they would stop (at $.15 each - do the math.) When we suggested Verizon was the one doing the scamming since they were putting the charge on our bill, immediately the rep agreed to take all charges off the bill and block premium texting. My experience tells me that Verizon can't be trusted - perhaps they have someone in corporate who came from from AT&T in California!

A few months ago I switched to Verizon pre-paid and was told I had to buy one of their 2 prescribed phones. Fortunately the rep in the store told me in a very quiet voice that next door at WalMart I could buy for 19.95 the same model phone that Verizon had a 49.94 price tag on in their store. I did this, brought it back to the rep in the store and he hooked me up with prepaid. So far, so good.

Some time later I discovered I that when I closed this phone after a call it was designed to remain silently connected until I pushed the END button. There is no mention of this anywhere in the info with the phone. And there is no way to set it up differently. I've had several other cells and they ALL disconnected when i closed them.

Until I discovered this, and until I retrained myself to turn the phone of manually after calls, this feature was eating up plenty of minutes. A dime call went on to become a $2.00 call, for example.

So beware. Verizon seems to be often too clever for its own good when it comes to reaching into your pockets in ways that, while maybe not illegal, are certainly deceptively immora.l I'm sure I won't be the only who makes a switch to other services due to this very poor treatment.

I have four phones and we use the family plan, no picture or texting. All options were blocked for the first 1yr contract. When are phones were three years old we replaced our phones and signed up for a 1yr pplan. First month we had data charges on three phones. They told us we had to pay the charges, I thought it was possibly our fault. Same thing the next month. We never changed our phone set up we had for three years. I think Verizon is intentionally stealing when new contracts are started. Shame on you, as soon as I can "They will be FIRED". Lets all let our state Attorney General's know.

I had everything explained to me. When I didn't understand fully, I asked questions and had further explanation. Now sure who you all are talking to but every Verizon rep I've spoken with has been very helpful and I understood exactly what I was and was not getting. Never had any bogus charges on our bill.

Sorry, noticed I had a typo. Should read;

We have had that happen to us too. Customer no care says that the only way to block these charges is to disable phone photo texts. So basically you have to disable a service you want, and pay for to stop these bogus calls.

We have more to report about their customer No service.
We extended our contract in Sept 08. Bought 3 phones for our 4 lines. My husband said that his phone was fine, and did not want another. The salesman said that uder their "new very two" or so forth that he should just get one now and keep it in case his current phone started to mess up. He did so.
He bought one and paid $50 for it. In the meanwhile, as the salesman said, he continued to use his old phone as it was working fine.
Last week, he switched to the new phone. The guy on the end of the phone said that his phone contract would run the same as family plan contract. The phone range at 10.23 one evening last week, and when I picked up the message, it said that this would not apply, and that my husband now had a new 2 year contract! UNBELIEVABLE! Calls to Verizon reps get us nowhere at all, and each reps just says that the others "misspoke" "were not authorised to say that" etc. As a customer, you are not entitled to a written log of the communication, so basically, the reps can say anything they want to you over the phone to induce you to buy/extend, and you have no right to expect that what they tell you will be either true, or honored by the company.
Sound a lot like Fraud to me!

I got charged for a couple of data charges even though my phones all have the data plans turned off. When I called, they would not refund the money and said that was the way it was. So I ask to have data turned (which I had already requested) off but somehow my children managed to incur the charge. They then turned everything off but then I could not send any pictures which I am paying for. So yes VZW is looking for ways to cheat you.

David
(Can't wait for my contract to end)

It truly amazes me that so many people have mobile devices with data plans or for that matter even need data services. Most people are either in their homes or in an office environment where internet or data is available at no extra charge. Except for on the road professionals who need to stay connected for business reasons, there are very few people who truly need to have instant access to data services. This whole idea of being constantly connected is just marketing hype concocted by those who profit from it..namely the data and hardware providers.
Now I know I am preaching to the choir, but for those of us who value our life (the time it takes from your life to earn the money to pay these outlandish mobile phone bills), but one of the best things everyone can do is take an honest look at spending $100+ a month vs ditching that and going to strictly pay per minute cellular phone usage only. I did, now granted not everyone may use a cell phone for only 75-100 minutes a month, but I do and it costs me less than $100 a year for a nationwide callling plan. Same for my wife. Take your savings and save it, pay down your mortgage, credit card debt or even take a trip with the savings.

where you been Clark, this has been going on for awhile, I caught it on my first bill and blocked it on all phones, they hide it in the website under self service options, add/remove features and you have to block web access and downloads. Even if you want to look at the apps store they charge you to connect. If you have kids, them doing this every day can get expensive

It is odd to me why David Pogue would write an article with so much misinformation instead of just calling VZW to get a better understanding of what he was talking about. It is equally intersting that Clark Howard would jump on the bandwagon. While it is true that without a data feature or plan, 1 MB of data is 1.99, it is not true that this charge is an under-handed sneak attack to rob people. As a VZW customer service rep, we are trained to give customers a consumer clear disclosure (CCD)about data usage, how it happens and how much it costs. It is the consumer's choice to use it or not. Every basic handset has 3 shortcut keys, or convenience keys that can be programmed to the destination of the user's choice. The factory default sends the user to the mobile web, but if the user doesn't want to go there, he can redirect the key. More enhanced data devices have HTML browsers. These browsers cannot be redirected. The person buying the phone must obviously understand what he is buying, as with any other responsible consumer purchase. There is plenty of published and verbal communication about this disclosure. When a phone is purchased, the store reps provide the CCD about the data capabilities of a device--most phones today support data. When I get a call from a customer who got a data charge, I explain the charge, offer data feature or block and refund the money, especially when I see that the access was a mistake. I have never been able to call my electric company, cable company, or any other service company to get a break on my bill; in customer service, I hear a lot of stories, difficult life situations, people getting in a jam with a wireless bill, etc. and at no time has VZW prevented me from using my judgement to issue credits to people when it is justified. Obviously, VZW is a for-profit company and wants to make as much money as it can, as does every company. There is nothing wrong with VZW offering customers alternatives to data-blocks. Believe it or not, there are millions of VZW customers who want and use data. The logic of the data feature is to protect the customer from huge bills. A customer wanting to access the mobile web who uses, for example, 75 MB($1.99/per MB) in a month would pay 19.99 with a data feature and $150.00. without a feature. I have seen customers who used data and ended up with very large bills--I have also seen these bills forgiven. Verizon Wireless is a great company who employs hundreds of thousands of Americans. The intimation that VZW is cheating people is ludicrous and irresponsible.

If you go with pre-paid then you don't have to worry about this. I was paying $60/year in taxes just to have a cell phone with T-mobile which I why I went to prepaid (with T-mobile).