DESPARATE FOR HELP!!!

[Anonymous]

   Sorry to hear this, i bet this is eating you up....I have worked for verizon wireless for quite a few years now and our customer service has been willing to work with the customers. What my suggestion to you is to call back and talk to another rep or talk to the supervisor to see if you can get someone more helpful. I have seen bill credits for around that amount, although this situation is a bit diff. Let me know. Hopefully things get better 4 ya

[#2]

I am truly sorry for your position.  I too have been in this situation.  I was however able to pay the bill and it was no where near this high.  My suggestion is of course to temporarily stop service on the phone.  They usually do not charge you a disconnect fee for this.  I would terminate the service as soon as I could afford to.  I think you said that you already did this though.  My advice on the bill would be for you to go to a local Credit Union and apply for a credit card or personal loan to pay this bill if you do not want the bill to go to collection.  The Credit Unions will usually work with a person more than a bank.  One of the suggestions of another person said for you to call Verizon and ask for a credit from another Customer Service Rep or a Supervisor.  That is a great idea.  But if it does not work, try the credit union.

[Anonymous]

I've had the same response from Verizon.  You can get them to go back and change the plan as long as it is in the same billing cycle.  As for collecting from your son - good luck!  I've learned it's not in their nature to take responsibility for their actions until they are much older than 20 - they feel entitled  to anything they want - maybe it comes from being nurtured (spoiled?).  I believe everyone is right - your best bet is to try to work out a better repayment plan - and immediately put some blocks and limits on your son's phone.  Tough love isn't easy any loving parent will agree.  And sell the truck - buy him a bus pass- it's more environmentally friendly anyway.  :-)

[Anonymous]

I would agree with the comment of calling back and immediately speaking with a supervisor or  manager.  They are going to have more authority to do credits/writeoffs and would be required to make this kind of decision, so skip over the rep and go immediately to them.

Make sure you are really speaking with a supervisory level employee by asking what their offical title is as well, as many times you can get handed off to "floor walkers" or other people that are actually just senior reps to handle complaints that can't be handled by average phone reps, but not real supervisory authority.

Point being talking to the right person makes all the difference...and the right person does have the discretion to help you with this, you just need to convince them they should.

[Anonymous]

1. Unfortunate that it sounds like Verizon has come back with an offer that still does not work for you.....I would remind everyone of Suze Orman (people first, then money, then things).....don't do anything too crazy that it will cause long terms problems between you and your son. Not saying that selling the truck is bad, but be careful with this teaching moment.

2. Can you buy your house in the next six (6) months? Which sounds like the alleged time Verizon will send to collections.

3. Not sure why your son is making international calls; however, if this needs to continue....then use Skype (very, very, very affordable) and not a cell for international calls.

4. I would make this months payment with what you can afford, and then call them again to show them that you are serious and this is all you can afford (and you may have to do again the next month).

[Anonymous]

Sounds like you need to teach your child how to be a responsible adult instead of doing stupid things like making 3500.00 worth of calls. How did he get into college? I mean, thats pretty dumb! 

Anyhow, I doubt you will take  my advice seriously because you wont like the bold face truth I said above, but....

You need to first contact Verizon to tell them they were not authorized by you. That should hold off that bill being due until the investigation is over. 2nd - If they will not remove the charges, you will have to pay OR have a collection on your C.Reports. If they wont remove the charge, 

I recommend you work out a payment plan with them, tell them NO MORE LONG DISTANCE CALLS ALLOWED, and kick your son off the plan and in the pants. Lesson learned....but since you allowed yourself into this situation, kick yourself once too!

[Anonymous]

If you have good credit, then you should be able to take out a good short-term unsecured loan to pay it off. Sucks, I know. But it's better than ruining your credit. 

I have poor credit, and I recently got a $5000 unsecured loan with my credit union for 4 yrs at 15% interest. With good credit, I'm sure you could get a lower APR. If you got a $3500 loan at, say, 12% APR for 4 yrs, that would only be $92 a month. 

If, for some reason you can't get a loan at your bank or credit union, there are personal finance companies, like Wells Fargo Financial and CitiFinancial. I've borrowed from both of them before, as well. Loans are easier to get; but interest is much higher.

Either way, you should be able to secure a loan. I would definitely take the 6 months they're giving you, try to pay as much as you can, and then get a loan to pay it off before it goes to collections.

That being said, I'm APPALLED that your 20 year old son isn't willing to take responsibility for this! He's 20 years old. He needs to be a man. And if he's unwilling to pay it, then you need to make him pay it. If it means he gets a part-time job and can't hang out with his buddies as much at college, then so be it. My son's in college and works part time and still has plenty of time to goof off! I'm sure your son can find it within himself to get a job and pay his bill so his mom doesn't have to. This isn't a good precedent to set for him for later in life, that he can just get out of these things.

Even at $7/hr he can get the whole thing paid off with 500 hrs worth of work. That's a little under 100 hrs/month. If that's too much, then let him work 10 hrs a week and give you the money and get most of it paid off. Then take out a loan for the rest, and let him make payments on the loan. End of story. He needs to take responsibility for this, and having you pay ONE PENNY of this is not right. He needs to pay you back for every penny you spent on this.

Please keep us updated and let us know how it works out....

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Sounds like you need to teach your child how to be a responsible adult instead of doing stupid things like making 3500.00 worth of calls. How did he get into college? I mean, thats pretty dumb! 

Anyhow, I doubt you will take  my advice seriously because you wont like the bold face truth I said above, but....

You need to first contact Verizon to tell them they were not authorized by you. That should hold off that bill being due until the investigation is over. 2nd - If they will not remove the charges, you will have to pay OR have a collection on your C.Reports. If they wont remove the charge, 

I recommend you work out a payment plan with them, tell them NO MORE LONG DISTANCE CALLS ALLOWED, and kick your son off the plan and in the pants. Lesson learned....but since you allowed yourself into this situation, kick yourself once too!

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Not our business and does not help the OP pay the bill. 

[Xarquinn]

I seriously doubt that your son thought that he was running up your cell phone bill so high.  Also, it would have been nice of Verizon to have given you a text, email or courtesy call to let you know that your bill was climbing as it was happening so you could have put a stop to it.  I used to get call all of the time from my credit card companies when they detected “unusual” activity.

I wouldn’t let Verizon control my life to the point that I am forced to sell my sons belongings just to pay an overinflated bill.  I would try to determine if the credit hit is worth 3,500 or not.  If you don’t pay, you would have 3,500 more to put down on your house.

[Anonymous]

First, the suggestions to get a loan seems like a good idea, especially if you can improve your credit score this way.

Next, who paid for the truck?  Your son?  Then he needs to sell it and pay the Verizon bill.....that's the consequence he has to have for mindlessly running up the phone bill.  If he wants another vehicle then he can get a job and save up for one.  But the priority now is to get this bill paid off.  If you paid for the truck, or helped pay for it, then check the title to see if your name is on it.  You may, indeed, have a legal right to sell it.  But either way, be sure it is worth at least $3,500 so that you can pay off the whole bill.

Third, try going into the Verizon store (if there is one close by) and ask to see the site manager.  Sometimes going there in person and sitting down with a manager or supervisor can help them "see" how sincere you are.  I agree with another post that you need to make sure you are talking to someone who is really in a "position" to help you and make the changes and/or adjustments that you need.

GOOD LUCK!!