Last Wednesday I contacted Verizon about a charge off from 2011 that I was totally unware of. I should never have been charged for this error.
In 2011, I went abroad to work and cancelled my Verizon wireless service. I specifically asked for the service to be turned off on the day after I left the country, though the service was paid for two weeks more though the end of the month.
When I returned to the States and go around to looking at my credit report, I was shocked and dismayed to find a charge from Verizon for less than $200. On some reports it was listed as late 90 days 24 times. And while it was listed as a charge off, they were still updating my credit report. I can't imagine how many points I lost.
This was now the ONLY negative on my report. So the weeks leading up to calling Verizon, I read a lot on this site and others about how to approach trying to get a PFD. I knew that Verizon was notorious for being inflexible. But I had been with them for going on 12 years. I had the expensive Verizon Fios as well.
When I was a customer all those years, I loved Verizon. The service was great, and I thought the customer service was very good, with the exception of some of the service in some of their stores. I thought they were a good company. So with that in mind, I really PRAYED in the days leading up to calling them. I was willing to pay for the bill if it was truly mine. But if it was not mine or I truly was NOT responsiblefor it, then I wanted the charge REMOVED and my credit report cleaned. Honestly the day before calling I felt very strongly in my spirit that Verizon was going to retract it, because I was firmly convinced the charge was illegitimate. I knew that before I left the country I had arranged to finalize everything before departing. I stated to myself that Verizon was going to delete the charge and my record was going to be clean.
Long story short, I called Verizon and spoke to a rep who asked me if I wanted to pay the balance, I explained my story. I was NICE. Be NICE and GENUINE. I stated that I was willing to accept responsibility for the charge if it was mine. I detailed everything about how I had cancelled my service with dates etc. She said that there was nothing she could do because Verizon did not do PFD. I said I was a great customer and Verizon was a great company and that there was no way that this could not be satisfactorily handled. I explained that this was the ONLY negative on my record and I was trying to buy a house. I weanted to not only speak to a manager, but I wanted an address and name of who I could write, because I was going to get this handled and deleted from my credit report. I asked again to speak to a manager. The associate put me on hold for some time.
I explained my entire story to the manager who was very NICE. She put me on hold. She then came back and told me that the associate who originally helped me had put a seasonal suspension on my account, in the event I returned to the USA within a few months and wanted the same #. I politely explained that I never authorized nor requested this. The seasonal suspension cycled for several times, and required me to actually cancel it. After politely telling her I was NOT responsible for this and that this was clearly an error on their part, and they could verify that NO calls had been made on the account, she apologized and said that Verizon should NEVER have sent the account to collections. She zeroed out the balance. And she said that Verizon would be contacting the three CRAs to remove the negative or derogatory account from my record. She apologized for the situation. I thanked her for all her wonderful help and the great customer service she and Verizon had given me.
When I calledVerizon today for a copy of what they sent to the 3 CRAs, I was told they were notified on the same day I called. Today I received two email letters withe the zero balance and a letter apologizing for any inconvenience they may have caused me adn lettinge know that the CRAs had been notified to delete the nagative.
I really cried. I thought this was going to be on my record for several years and hurt my chances to hit the magical 760 this year. I thought Verizon would not budge. But I was wrong. But I prayed, marshalled my data and facts, faced my fear, and triumphed.
I can't wait to see what the score increase will be! Debt free and a 760 score in 2015 is soon to be achieved.
Stay encouraged everyone in your journey. The best is yet to come...Face your fear, stand on faith, be nice to everyone you deal with, and give it your best. You will make it.
