LOUISE & KEVIN LAROY
195 Barclay Avenue
Staten Island, New York 10312
Home: (718) 966-4317
Louise Cell: (646) 734-5439
Kevin Cell: (917) 751-3028
October 15, 2010

Verizon – Consumer Information Verizon (Copper Phones)
P.O. Box 9000 P.O. Box 33078
Annapolis, MD 21401-9000 St. Petersburg, Florida 33733-8078

Verizon Verizon Wireless
Fiber Phones (FiOS) Attention: Correspondence Team
P.O. Box 33077 20 Alexander Drive
St. Petersburg, Florida 33733-8077 Wallingford, CT 06392

Via e-mail [email protected] Via e-mail : [email protected]
and U.S. First Class Mail and U.S. First Class Mail
Attn: Hon. Jaclyn A. Brilling Mr. James Denn
Secretary to the Commission Public Information Officer
New York State Public Service Commission New York State Public Service Commission
Empire State Plaza Empire State Plaza
Agency Building 3 Agency Building 3
Albany, New York 12223-1350 Albany, New York 12223-1350

Federal Communications Commission Predicto
445 12th Street, SW Cannot locate an actual address – sent a text to
Washington, DC 20554 654654 ‘If they would like a copy of the complaint
FCC ID: NY1893 (number listed on phone bill) please supply us with an actual address’ no response

Via website: http://www.complaintsboard.com/new_complaint/
Complaints Board

Via e-mail [email protected] Staten Island Advance
and U.S. First Class Mail Staten Island Local Newspaper
Better Business Bureau 950 Fingerboard Road
Serving Metropolitan New York, Inc. Staten Island, New York 10305
30 East 33rd Street – 12th Floor
New York, New York 10016

New York City Department of Consumer Affairs
Public Office
42 Broadway
New York, New York 10004
Re: Verizon Complaint and Predicto Complaint
Verizon Acct No.: 718 966 4317 317 22 1

Dear Gentlepersons:

Please be advised that we are customers of Verizon Fios Package. We have two cell phones, home phone and cable all attached to the same bill. My bill is always at least 12 pages long and in the range of $370.00 to $400.00 monthly. Just recently a family member told us they reviewed their cell phone bill and saw a fee of $14.99 a month with a phone number next to it. While the family member called Verizon Wireless to clarify this charge, she was informed that this is a third-party that was allowed to bill her through Verizon because Verizon said she “gave this third-party permission to do so.” This “permission” did not come from my family member, but instead through the word of a third-party. The family member was charged this fee without knowing for the last six months. The third-party is in the process of crediting my family member’s Verizon Wireless account and the she put a block on her Verizon Wireless to not allow any third-party company to bill her through them. Then while bringing our oldest son to school the next day we heard another mom talking about a premium fee she just noticed on her Verizon Wireless bill. While talking to her and informing her of the problem we just heard of the night before, another mom said she had the same problem a week ago.

So this is where we are at now. We went home and, of course read through our 12 page bill. While doing that we noticed a premium texting package of $9.99 on Louise’s cell number (and of course, just assumed that it was for texting usage of Louise’s phone). It did not list that this was a third-party company or that this was not a Verizon service. And, unlike a family member’s problem, it did not list the third-party company or a phone number next to this item. This was listed in the middle of other services, for example, PIX-FLIX Messaging, Kilobyte Usage, Unlimited M2M TXT, etc. (please see page 10 of 12 which we attached for your review). While reviewing Kevin’s cell “Data” we noticed that he did not have a similar fee.

We then called Verizon with the Verizon Fios number listed on our bill, who informed us it was a Verizon Wireless matter, and we would have to contact them. Upon contacting Verizon Wireless and being told this was in fact, a third-party company that we ‘supposedly’ gave them access to bill us through Verizon, we informed the customer service operator that this in fact is not true and we never gave permission for this. When starting to explain that this is not the first time we are hearing about this problem, she kept on interrupting us that we gave the third-party company permission to bill us through Verizon, and then she hung up on us. When re-contacting Verizon Wireless (and after playing with the automated system for about 5 more minutes to get to a live operator again) we informed the new customer service operator (Andy) that we wanted a supervisor and we were just hung up on. We also wanted the woman’s name who hung up on us so that we could put in a complaint. He informed us that he was not allowed to reveal the person’s name and he could not give us that information. We asked for a supervisor again, which Andy kept on dismissing this request and just kept saying that this was Company Policy and could not give that out but wanted to help us with our problem. So after explaining to him the problem regarding the fee of $9.99, he repeated the same thing the last operator did (that we had to give the third-party permission to do this, it’s legally done and doesn’t have to be confirmed with the customer). After asking him to stop repeating himself that we did not give any third-party company access to bill us through Verizon, he said that maybe someone else got Louise’s phone. We have a four year old son and a one year old son. Neither of them could have gotten Louise’s phone, never mind what my 4 year old son would have to do. 1) Go through the complicated tasks of how we ‘supposedly’ accessed the web, 2) accept service and 3) type in Louise’s cell phone number back to the third-party company to acknowledge this premium service! We were told that we have been paying for this service since April 12, 2010!! This date is around the time Louise purchased her Blackberry. She was just getting use to her phone never mind accepting anything via her Blackberry.

We asked Andy why we would even want a premium text package when we have unlimited text messaging. He never gave us an answer. We feel like this was done very shady and fraudulently. We were never asked to confirm this service before Verizon added on this third-party company. In the bill itself (which is attached) this “Premium Messaging” is listed right in the middle of other Verizon services and not listed separately as a third-party company’s service. We believe this is done very sneaky. This is just put right in the middle of other services of Verizon Wireless for that specific cell phone. The reason we are saying how sneaky and shady this is done is also because Louise cannot even access Verizon Wireless without Kevin actually getting on the phone to verify information and okaying Louise to be able to request information. Louise and Kevin both are customers and have numbers through Verizon, but since Kevin is the primary person, Louise cannot access this account without Kevin being personally there to get on the phone. This is just ridiculous and unacceptable!! We know we are not the first persons being taken advantage of this way and we are sure not going to be the last. This needs to be brought out in the open so that other people who are not reading their entire 12 pages plus bills can stop being taken advantage of in this sham.

While talking with Andy, we asked for the name of the third-party company that was billing us. Andy informed us that by law he was not allowed to give us this information and this was legal what was being done to us. We don’t understand how Verizon cannot give us a company’s name that we ‘supposedly’ okayed to bill us through Verizon, if in fact this was legal.

After going back and forth with Andy, and how this was unacceptable as we are customers of Verizon and are stating that we never want a third-party company to bill us through Verizon he told us we would have to text the numbers “654654” and text the word “STOP.” While doing that we received a message that stated “You are UNSUBSCRIBED from Predicto. No further charges applied. No further texts will be sent. Have questions: CALL 800-360-0518.” We have never heard of Predicto and after about 20 minutes on the phone and Andy suggesting how all the different ways we could have accessed a website like horoscopes or dating, and okayed this service and wrote back the cell number to confirm, etc., Andy asked for the number that was texted back to find out the problem and how exactly we were billed. After a few minutes Ann from Predicto gets telephone conferenced in with us and Andy, and states she is a representative and that we ‘supposedly’ purchased this through an online ad. She also informed us that we have been getting texts from Predicto since April confirming said service. We informed her that we have not received texts from Predicto. Recently Louise did received a text from an unknown place and the name Predicto could have been it, but nothing to the fact that Ann said it confirmed a third-party service. In the last six months only that one text has ever come in from an unknown name. Again, the reason why this is so memorable is because both cell phone numbers ONLY get texts from family and friends.

Obviously, Ann could not prove any such proof of acknowledgment on our behalf to bill us through Verizon, because she is crediting our account for the last three months. She said she can only credit us for the last three months since that was on her system. She also informed us that since the first three months are not on her computer anymore Predicto will have to go through the system/managers for the additional three month credit. Ann gave us a confirmation number of P57932289. We will be following up with Predicto to make sure the credit went through and that the first three months are being reviewed.

After Ann hung up, and while still on the line with Andy we told him that we wanted a block on our phones so that no other third-party company can access our account without our knowledge. Andy informed us that Premium Messaging was blocked but there was no way of blocking all third-party companies if we give the third-party an okay to do so. We informed Andy that there is no way we would okay a third-party company to bill us through Verizon and we wanted a block. We are customers of Verizon and we did not want that option of another third-party company billing us every to happen since we will NEVER okay it. We also informed Andy that the family member with a similar problem had a block put on and they informed our family member this was called “cramming.”

Now, after the repeated remarks of Andy along with his tone which has become very unprofessional, as well as that we are still being repeated with, we “must have” okayed this service since Verizon doesn’t give out our information… We told him we didn’t care how it happened, it was done fraudulently and we wanted to make sure this will never happen again. After we kept on repeated that we wanted our number blocked from a third-party company and Andy informing us it can’t be done, Andy then changed to say it was done. Louise asked Andy what his Verizon ID was or his last name, because if we ever got charged from another third-party we are sure going to bring up his name and ID and that we were told by Andy that we were blocked from third-party companies billing us.

Andy then informed us, very rudely, that it was his turn to talk… and that this was “only a $9.99 fee.” At this point, we became very angry. We informed him that Louise owns her own small business and Kevin works for the Fire Department of New York. We are average people and how dare he make a comment that this was only $9.99 fee we are complaining about. He has no idea about our living expenses, our money, or anything about us for that matter. We informed him that since it was “only $9.99” then we suggest he make the first three months credit that we are waiting for. This is uncalled for anyone to make any comment like he did. We don’t care if it’s 97 cents!! This is our money, this was done in a sneaky and fraudulently manner and it needs to stop!! He said what he meant was that it could be worse like with a credit card and thousands. We said it didn’t matter the amount, when you’re being robbed, you’re robbed. The fact is we did not okay this service, we were not notified that a third party company would be billing us through Verizon, and that this service didn’t even come on our bill from a third-party. We are customers of Verizon and can’t imagine treating a customer of Louise’s company like this and still having a business. Just by saying “well… the third-party company said you okayed it!!” is not good enough! This should not be a valid or lawful reason to put a third-party company’s fee on a customer’s account without their personal confirmation. Verizon should have a duty and obligation to verify and notify their own customers of a change/add-on in their account. We were not notified of any such change/add-on by Verizon. Instead, it just appears in the middle of a breakdown of Data. And it took hearing of a problem with Verizon bills for me to take the time to read all 12 pages.

While not letting Andy speak anymore after his “well, it’s only $9.99” comment, we kept interrupting him and saying we were done with this, and wanted a supervisor. We wanted our account blocked from any third-party having access to bill us through Verizon. After a few minutes of requesting this, Charles came on the phone and identified himself as Andy’s supervisor.

We restated the above for him. He apologized for Andy’s behavior and said that he should have given us the name of the first person who hung up on us. When Louise asked for the woman’s name who hung up on us and that we wanted to make a complaint, he informed us that it will be taken care of, and he will be e-mailing this information. Charles, a supervisor from Verizon, informed us that our account is now blocked and no other third-party company will be allowed access to bill us through Verizon. Again, he stated this is legally done. And we informed him we would be writing about this situation and problem, and the policy needs to be changed!! ASAP!

This is a terrible problem that needs to be brought to light so that other people are not taken advantage of. Any help or suggestions anyone can give us regarding how to get our full refund from Predicto along with how to stop these fraudulent third-party companies access to someone’s account without being notified/confirmed with a customer, would be greatly appreciated. Also, this is also to put in a complaint for the way we were treated and talked to by Verizon’s customer service. Louise being a small business owner could not imagine finding out that an employee would be treating a customer like this. Knowing how big Verizon is, we would hope that this would still be looked into and be an important complaint to follow-up with.

Verizon’s policy needs to be changed. Why is it taken on a third party company’s word that we ‘supposedly’ okayed them to bill us through Verizon, without anyone from Verizon calling us or contacting us about this acceptance of service!! We don’t get it… Louise cannot access an account she is on jointly, but a third-party can say that we okayed a service and a fee be added on and that is acceptable… no proof, no verifying!! That’s just a sham on both Predicto and Verizon’s part! And more to the point, on my bill, it no where lists Predicto or that this fee for “Premium Messaging” was not part of Verizon.

P.S. While searching for addresses on-line where to send complaints to Predicto there is no way of getting an e-mail address or mailing address for them. In the meantime, there are MANY complaints listed, class action suits, shams, and other problems, etc. (Just Google Predicto Complaints, you’ll see voluminous complaints about Predicto such as shams, unwanted service and fees, unauthorized charges, people who never signed up, etc.) Louise sent a text to 654654 stating “to receive a copy of a complaint against Predicto, please supply me with an address.” As of end of the day October 19, 2010 (when mailing this complaint) no one has responded to our text. If anyone has any suggestions where to mail this complaint to them, or for that matter, anyone else we can send this compliant to that is not listed above, please provide us with an address, and we will be happy to send them a copy. All the help we can get will be helpful. Also, if you are not a correct provider to put in a compliant with please let us know, or please forward it to the correct department within your company.

Also, speaking to a co-worker who has Fios, we found out something similar happened where it was stated this ‘supposedly’ woman went on line and accepted a fee and service for a different third-party company. She was charged $20.00 for two months, and a similar situation happened to her father. This just has to STOP!!! Both of them do not have cell phones through Verizon, but have Fios at their residence. We hope that everyone that is having this problem will take the time like we are, to write in since this has been going on for a while now.

Please know that you can contact us at any of the information above. Again, thank you for your time and attention to this matter. Again, any help or suggestions, we would love to hear from all.

Thank you again.

Very truly yours,


Louise LaRoy


Kevin LaRoy