Closing a deceased relatives account
ABRSCU46
Newbie

WOW!!! I am at a lost for how difficult and frustrating of a process this has been.  Verizon has really showed its true colors and how desperate they are to squeeze every last penny from customers that have passed.

Shortly after my mom's passing I contact a Verizon store for guidance on how to close her account.  I am told that I will need to bring in a death certificate and documentation for power of attorney in order to close the account.  No notes made to the account nor was I informed that I was to contact the customer loyalty team.

It has been a long process dealing with everything and my time to get to a store has been lacking.  Primarily due to the fact that my mothers residence is different than mine.  All free time has been traveling back and forth between her residence an mine.  My wife (bless her soul) has been trying to help with everything and called customer customer service for clarification on how to close the account.  At this time it is about a month and a half since my mother's passing.  She is told the same thing I was told in regards to taking in power of attorney documents as well as the death certificate.  At this point, a marker is placed on the account.

I finally get some time in my schedule to get to a store.  To save time and effort, I call the closest one and they tell me they cant upload the documents and I should try a another store..  I call the next closest store and they say the same thing and tell me the store I should go to.  Twenty minutes later I arrive at the corporate store.  I tell customer service why I am there and their response is that I need to call the customer loyalty team.  They also say that they no longer review and upload documents any more.

Up to this point, all my experiences with Verizon representative I get told I should talk to a different person, go to a different store, and/or call a different number.  The associate does the best they can an place a marker on the account and pass along the customer loyalty team number.  So now I get to call a different number and finally I get in contact with someone that can close the account.  The best they can do is close the account on the date the first marker was placed on the account.

Really.?.?.?  The account hasn't been used since the day she passed, but because they weren't notified sooner there is nothing they could do.  With all the account information they have access to and considering the circumstances, I think some common sense can and should of been used.  Apparently, Verizon has no compassion or empathy when it comes to customers passing away.  Verizon is about making every dollar they can.

Overall, this experience has left a salty taste in my mouth knowing that Verizon finds it acceptable to collect an additional fees from someone whom has passed.  Verizon will get the $117 they feel they are owed, but will be loosing my account with the 4 additional phones.  It truly is sad that someone needs to notify Verizon the day of the passing to keep from continuing charges.

Labels (1)
0 Likes
Re: Closing a deceased relatives account
Minissa
Newbie

I realize this post is 2 years old, but I was so happy to learn that mine wasn't the only horrible experience when trying to close a deceased relative's account (my mom, God rest her soul). I am dismayed to see that conditions have not changed in the two years since you wrote. I went thru 9 hours on the phone dealing with the same nonsense, Verizon's one saving grace being that they were able to call the nearest corporate store to see if that store could handle the problem (they couldn't), but that was where the local franchise store sent me. Verizon has just gotten too big. If it weren't for coverage issues, our whole family would be changing providers. It has even been relatively difficult to get to this reply page and to keep the cursor where it needs to be in the 3/4" space I'm being allowed to type in (I'm on my phone).

My issue was compounded by my mother not having a cell phone, just a land-line and DSL package. Verizon's VM tree is frankly user-hostile if the account you're trying to close doesn't have a mobi attached to it. Even for recovering a password, your options are send it to email (which you can't access because you don't know the password) or have it sent by USPS to the physical address. I live 3000 miles away from my mother, so that and the alternative I learned about later--having a call sent to the landline--would have been helpful when I was back in my mother's home town settling her estate but wasn't helpful 8 hours' worth of calls down the road when I had returned home. The one person in the whole organization who seems able to help in this instance finally let me make an intelligent guess on the 4-digit PIN that could access the account when--surprise!--Verizon had ported its emails over to AOL a few years ago. He gave me the sales pitch they gave customers at that time and allowed me several guesses and I finally guessed right. He at least was honest enough to back date the request to the first time I had attempted contact, although that was still a week after her death. But I underwent the same routine via phone and live chat you're describing of being randomly sent from place to place, even landing in their outsourced areas several times and apparently talking to tech support who, to be honest, were frankly rude. Adding all this unnecessary garbage onto a situation where you're already bereaved (also jet-lagged and sleep-deprived is inhuman and cruel. I have more to say but Verizon's site is making it so hard to type this reply that I'm just giving up

I

0 Likes
Re: Closing a deceased relatives account
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

I am very sorry that you had this experience and we certainly always want you to have an amazing experience every time you interact with us. I am so sorry for your loss and I am sure that the difficulty you had closing out your account didn't help with the pain you experienced. It looks like you were dealing with our Fios team. Did this eventually get resolved?

 

NicholeK_VZW

0 Likes