Crazy Phone Bill After Travelling
 

Went to Europe for a few weeks. One night got a call from the States and I asked "How did you get through?" since
I thought I was blocked overseas. I spoke to this relative about 45 minutes and then hung up. The next day I came home from supper and it said on the phone an 18 hour connection was still running....and I promptly hung up. Arrgghh.
I called V**** and they said this happens sometimes and that the $2500 bill which was pending would quietly disappear.
(They said they would change the payment so that I paid 10 dollars a day on the minority of days where I used the phone, about 1/10 the price of $2500.)
A month later the enormous bill was still pending and I called the company and again they said not to worry and that the bill would go away.
A month later my account was suspended and they wanted the big bill. Several people involved with payment there told me not to worry and that they could fix things but several days later the account was still blocked. It happened a third time yesterday
and the explanation was the attempt to give me credit was "denied." I asked why and they said it was confidential.
So anyway, on Monday I have to do rotations in a hospital and this block is going to affect me, patients, physicians, etc
and I don't have any faith that the company can clip its own wings and remove the block, despite countless promises. What should I do?

Probably not post this in the Trip Report forum. I'm not really sure the best place (Information Desk in the Miles & Points forum?), but this isn't the best place.

You are probably going to be stuck paying a large part of this. Escalate within CS in writing and insist that you were told a credit would be given and to refer to the recorded calls. They will eventually offer a 50% cut, in my opinion.

If I do an information subpoena and show the other party had a phone call (to me) that lasted just 45 minutes would that help?

I don’t understand what difference that would make. What does your itemized bill say?

How would you issue a subpoena?

What would the information you receive demonstrate other than that there was a connection for some period of time?

I did an "information subpoena" years ago for information relevant to a Small Claims suit. It seemed pretty straightforward.
In response to the second question, it was a landline so there should be evidence of a phone call to me and the call's duration, I would think.
I didn't get an itemized bill. I always paid by phone a small monthly fee and never had much motivation to see the itemized bill until now; they CS guy found the 18 hour call
and read off the details to me. Lower-tier people at the company want to help me it seems, but higher-ups are unexpectedly denying the credit after it gets recommended.
When I asked why I was paying for a call made to me they went off on some tangent about it being a "collect call"--a term I have not heard in years,

I don’t think you’re going to get anywhere with this. You used your phone overseas, whether you called or were called really doesn’t matter. For some reason I don’t fully understand, neither party properly disconnected the call which went on for 18 hours. Ask to be met in the middle.

Like I said, I don’t think you’re going to have much luck with your provider. I suspect they will have records showing an 18 hour phone call.

You left that part out of your earlier post.

You will first have to file a small claims action in a court which permits discovery (and does not require you to pay the other side's cost for document production). But, your assertion that you could simply issue an "information subpoena" without a pending case makes no sense.

In any event, as LondonElite points out, the charge is for the connection, not whether you spoke. I would be working on negotiating this out rather than filing a lawsuit, pursuing discovery and learning what you (and Verizon) likely already know.

Persistence paid off. Finally got the $1700.
Found someone in Tech Support (Amy) who analyzed the call or something, picked my brain for 2 hours over call details. Heard she put in a very strong recommendation on my behalf, higher- ups probably decided to pick on someone else.
Moral of the story, don't give up til you find an angel. There are a few of them out there, strategically placed among the riffraff.

So they cut your $2,500 to $1,700? That’s a good outcome and better than what I managed when my wife left her phone roaming on!

2500 versus 1700. There was a whole other issue related to the $10/day promise they made versus $10/day plus international rates. That was a stickier issue than the other, and harder to prove, so I decided to move on an accept the offer. Definitely a good result considering the opacity
of the whole process, and lack of a simple email address to negotiate the matter (something even small companies have).
I got lucky.