By COLlive reporter
New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) says telecom giant Verizon Wireless is scamming U.S. travelers to Israel with its TravelPass service.
The plan, which promises big savings to customers who travel abroad with a flat rate of only $10 per day, has resulted in a bait-and-switch for many New Yorkers…including the Assemblyman himself.
“When I travel abroad, I’m like everyone else—I want the best possible deals,” said Hikind. “Naturally, when I heard about Verizon’s TravelPass, I was interested. Who doesn’t want to save money and have the convenience of using their own phone?”
“Now your wireless plan travels just like you do,” reads the online Verizon Wireless ad for TravelPass. “For just $5 a day per line in Mexico and Canada and $10 a day per line in more than 100 countries you can take your domestic talk, text and data allowances with you. You’re only charged on the days you use your device abroad. It’s an economical way to stay connected while you travel.”
But Hikind and others were far from satisfied with the service. When the Assemblyman returned home after just eight days of staying in Israel, he was shocked to find a bill that was ten times more than what he expected.
“My cellphone bill totaled $925,” said Hikind. “At first, I thought it was a joke—and not a very funny one.” Hikind’s bill included the TravelPass charges of $10/day, but Verizon Wireless also tacked on 141 international minutes, and nearly 40,000 Kbytes of international data for texts issued from Jordan. “I hadn’t visited Jordan,” said Hikind. “Not ever. So I knew there was some kind of mistake.”
Hikind says a call center specialist insisted that his bill had to be accurate. Only after speaking to a supervisor, did Verizon admit its mistake and corrected the bill.
But not every Verizon Wireless customer has been that lucky. Other New Yorkers have presented Hikind with similar stories about the exact same issue.
Sarah Moskowitz of Brooklyn used Verizon Wireless’s TravelPass only to find herself stuck with an additional $500 in charges for calls from Jordan and Saudi Arabia—countries she had never visited.
Adding insult to injury, Verizon Wireless’ customer service refused to acknowledge their company’s mistake and threatened Moskowitz with collections. Hikind’s office had to step in to get Moskowitz satisfaction, but it cost her six months of terrible aggravation before the Assemblyman got involved.
Refoel Silberberg of Rockland County didn’t fare as well. His bill for $999.61 was $700 more than it should have been. “I was charged for supposedly roaming in Jordan and there was no one to talk to at Verizon,” said Silberberg. With “no one to talk to,” Silberberg gave up and paid in full.
“I am calling upon Verizon Wireless CEO John G. Stratton to demand that he immediately address to this blatant rip-off of innocent New Yorkers,” said Hikind. “These people used an advertised service in good faith only to find themselves bilked out of good money and hours of wasted time trying to rectify a problem that is clearly a Verizon Wireless issue.”
The following was sent to COLlive.com by David Weissmann, Verizon Wireless Spokesman for North East Market:
Thanks for reaching out to us. Let me first reassure you that there is no widespread billing issue related to our TravelPass service.
When a device loses signal from the mobile network it is roaming on, it will scan for a new network to attach to. The search for a new signal doesn’t consider a country’s borders.
So, if a customer is traveling along the border of two countries, depending on the location of the cell sites, it is possible their wireless device would connect to the neighboring country’s network – because that signal is the strongest. And if that country’s wireless network is not included in TravelPass, international roaming rates would apply.
That in mind, we have safeguards in place to ensure our customers are not surprised when this happens. For instance, the first time a customer connects to a new international network, we send them a text message with that country’s name and billing rates.
To further protect our customers from unexpected charges, in March, we introduced a feature that requires customers to respond and opt in to use data not included in their TravelPass plan. We will continue to look for opportunities to further educate our customers on important things to know while using our TravelPass service.
We appreciate the opportunity to work with New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind on this matter. We encourage any customers with billing questions on TravelPass, to give our customer care team a call at 800-922-0204.
It’sabout time we take a stand against all these big companies ripping us off for the basic services we need for everyday life. It’s good that news outlets like collive are reaching out to them for comment (and hopefully fix it).
T mobile has similar story but the second I told them I have no idea where this country of Palestine is, they right away adjusted my rates. Tmobile treats their customers right.
‘Something’s rotten in Denmark’ as the saying goes.
The exact same happened to us 4 months ago!
But I do know that many Crown Heights businesses and landlords are ripping off their customers.
For just $25 a month you have unlimited – and unlimited internationally!