A Bill sent to Collection - I have questions
RtcFrtc
Enthusiast - Level 1

Hello Everyone,

My apologies in advance for this lengthy message but I wanted to give you some history so that you might better direct me as to what I might possibly do.

I am hoping someone can help lead me in the correct direction.

May 2014, we were eligible for an upgrade of our phones.
We are an older couple (50s and 60s) and have never owned a SmartPhone....only flip phones.

We spoke with a very nice young man at length, at least two hours, and he guided us through the SmartPhones and the basics as how to best use them as beginner SmartPhone users.
We made our decision and both selected the Galaxy S4.
The young man (SA-Sales Associate) told us we were in luck, that we qualified for the promotion of a Free Tablet for each phone.
I had no idea what a tablet was and my husband thought the SA was talking about an actual lined/ruled/yellow paper note pad!  This shows you how behind the times we are.  Smiley Happy

The SA guided us on the use of the tablets, told us that tax was going to be the actual price of the phones and tablets (a little bit of a coronary moment at that point) and then asked if we would like him to transfer all our contacts from our old phones to our new phones and tablets and basically set everything up for us on our new equipment.

He said it might be about 15 minutes and asked if we wanted to wait so we walked outside and sat in our truck and people-watched  the Starbucks next door to the  Verizon Store.

In about 20 minutes the SA came to the Verizon Entrance and waved, signaling our phones and tablets were ready.

He put everything in the bag, handed us his card and told us if we had any questions to please call him.
I asked if we had to charge the phones or tablets and he told us that the equipment was ready to go....just log in and go to our favorite sites.

We got home and that's what we did and played on our phones and tablet until the wee hours of the morning and had so much fun doing it.
Coming from the Flip Phone generation, and the only computer we have is  our huge desktop tower,  these new toys were a big deal to us!  LOL


Last week I received snail mail, professional looking envelope with a return address I didn't recognize.
I opened the envelope and inside was a rather lengthy worded letter about my delinquent account with Verizon.

What The Heck? 
I logged on to my PC and went to my billing page at Verizon and just as I knew, I had a CREDIT of $21 and some cents.
While the Verizon page was open, I called Verizon.
A nice man told me that my delinquent account had been sold to a collection agency and he was no longer authorized to discuss the matter with me....he said I had to take it all up with the collection agency.

After explaining (the above message to you, I also explained to the Verizon man), the man must have taken pity on me because he prefaced what he said with "I could get in a lot of trouble for telling you this".

He told me that as soon as my husband logged on to his new tablet, a "Sub Account" was created under our original 14 year Verizon Account.
That sub account tallied up all the data used for the tablet, via Verizon.
My adult son lives with us now and he has Fios everything.
Our phones automatically picked up the Fios (router? Wi-Fi? I have nooooo idea about this stuff)  signal but the tablet didn't.
Somehow in September 2014, my husband's tablet switched and started to use my son's Fios.  But for those four month in 2014, we racked up an amount that we are unable to pay ....almost $600 is way out of our league.

I asked anyone at the collection agency who would listen to me...... Why didn't this "Sub-Account" show up on my online Verizon Bill instead of the  Credit on our bill each month that has shown up for the last 14 years?
The Verizon man said the Tablet Sub-Account is online and  basically it's up to me to find it so I can pay the bill from that different screen page....the account number is different but the name and address are the same, according to the Verizon man.

I want to explain all this to someone higher up at Verizon and maybe they will understand, or take pity on me?  I can't believe we weren't informed about a "Sub-Account" that would not show up on our Cell phone bill!
Why isn't everything billed together, on one billing statement?

More background.....we are a one-employed family with one member disabled. We have no, None, Zip Credit Cards and our vehicle is a 2001.

Is there anyone out there who can tell me how to get that bill changed?  I've Never Ever been sent to a collection agency before.
I am so  thankful if you've read this far and I'll be grateful for any advice you can give.
DL

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