airmotive

I'm looking for some guidance from those who may have been down this path before, because I've just about exhausted my customer service route. Appreciate any feedback. Thanks.

I have a Verizon Wireless data card (PCI air card) I use with my trusty, dusty Thinkpad. I travel internationally a lot and to avoid any surprises, I make sure my VZAccess Manager program is set up to never connect while roaming. Additionally, my data usage plan specifically excludes 'I-Dial', which is required to connect in China, Isreal, India and most other countries outside the USA.

So, I was in India two weeks ago, staying at the ITC Sheraton in New Delhi (lovely place). I purchased the hotel's internet access plan for the week, plugged in my laptop and surfed away the sleepless night. 20-30 minutes into my session, I noticed my 'network cable unplugged' icon in my systray. "That's odd", I thought, since I was still downloading several radio programs I regularly listen to. A bit of probing revealed that my air card, in spite of all my precautions, had connected to the internet. Don't know how or why, but there it was. So I disconnected (and unplugged the card) and reconnected to the hotel service....I figured that was a $20 or $30 mishap.

Nope.

The bill came two days ago - $607.43.

I called Verizon and explained.
At first the CSR offered to credit 50% of the charge. I fussed a bit and he offered to credit 75% of the charge. I was about to bite, but then I also had a technical question about how/why the card connected even though I set everything up to not connect while roaming (I would hate to make the same mistake twice). The next day, Verizon called back and said I owed the entire amount, it's a legitimate charge and that the roaming prevention features only apply within the United States.

To make a long story short, they're saying it's a legitimate charge, I should be more careful and they are not budging one penny.

I'm a long-time Verizon customer and the kind of client Verizon spends millions every year to try to attract as a customer. Other than cancelling my account, what recourse do I have???

ScottC

If your plan specifically blocked roaming in that country, then I'd take the compaint to the Verizon execitive support team. Give the office of the CEO a call at (212)-395-1000 and mention the complaint. Make it clear that you'll have no problems taking the issue to the FCC (even though the charges were made abroad, you are being billed by an FCC regulated company).

It is obvious that you did everything you had to do to prevent roaming charges in India. Naturally, in the future I'd recommend disabling the hardware in your device manager to be 100% sure it won't screw you over.

airmotive

What a great forum; that's just the sort of advice I was hoping to learn. ^

(Please don't let this stop anyone from chiming in, though)

BTW, the CSR who has been helping me on the phone has been outstanding. I am drafting a letter today to send to his university (where he's getting his electrical engineering degree) to give him his due praise...perhaps one to Verizon as well, but I don't think Verizon customer service is his career choice.

chanp

I was in Canada in Aug and had a $900 data bill. Someone forgot to change my data plan to global. They have credited most of it. I will be calling to get th rest back. On another topic, I had a replacement phone I got early Aug, I returned the old one and still haven NOT got a credit back to my account for the returned phone. If we didnt pay our bill for 2 months, they would cut us off, but its ok for them not to credit us our money.

wiredboy10003

(It is obvious that he didn't do everything to prevent roaming charges in India.)

ScottC

Do explain...

He had international roaming in India disabled in his account and he told the connection manager to refrain from international roaming.

Please tell me what else he would be expected to do?

cordelli

While the charges are insane, I agree you should have pulled the card just in case. Verizon and all the others will do whatever they can to connect and ring up a bill. The only sure way, and not saying it should be that way, is to disconnect it.

I would take whatever credit they offer and call it a lesson learned for the future.

ScottC

He says he has a PCI aircard, so unless he meant to say PCMCIA aircard, I'm not sure how easy it would be to "pull the card".

OP - were you using an internal card, or a card plugged into one of the slots on your Thinkpad?

cordelli

He also said once he realized it was the card, he disconnected and unplugged the card, so I'm assuming by his post that he had the ability to disconnect it (since he in fact did disconnect and unplugged it).

I'm saying anybody with the ability to physicially disconnect a card, as was the case here, should always do that instead of relying on the software or whatever to make that happen for you.

gfunkdave

I don't understand why you wouldn't just take the PC card out of your laptop.

airmotive

My bad on that. PCMCIA.
The old, outdated, but incredibly convenient way to access the internet. (much moreso than a USB dongle). In fact, it's the one thing that has kept me from upgrading my laptop. I hate the dongle!

The card has not been pulled out of my laptop in 5 years. It's traveled all over Europe, Asia and Africa (maybe one day Australia!), all without ever a problem.

On a side note, in Hong Kong a few years ago, I tried to use it (on purpose) to connect to the internet and the VZAccess manager halted me with a warning that I am roaming and my current settings don't allow for roaming.

I'm not buying the whole "roaming disabled only works within the US" schpeel.

ScottC

Thanks for the correction - while it would have been safest to remove the card, I still think the software (and your account) should have prevented this.

autospy

My old laptop used to have this. And even tho, I knew not to use it, I would disable the aircard in control panel when I was international.

I think it was VERY generous of VZ to credit 75% of the charges.

autospy

I don't think its possible to have a feature plan to disable international data roaming...I believe data roaming is not settled (billed) in real-time. The I-Dial feature has to do with voice calling. Perhaps, you're thinking that you don't have i-dial cell phone, not the data card.


From: http://wirelesssupport.verizon.com/f...tance.html?t=3

ScottC

I disagree - if the account was setup to disallow roaming in that country, it is unfair to credit anything less than 100%.

If I tell someone I don't want my account to have access to XX feature, and their defective software goes ahead to do XX anyway, you can be pretty certain that I'd tell them to pound sand.