Broken Phone Racks Up Huge Bills From Beyond the Grave

— -- Dear ABC News Fixer: Verizon Wireless is charging me for a broken phone that was returned to them last November.

I returned the defective phone using their own shipping box, and the tracking number shows it was received at their Texas warehouse. But they still billed me $399.99 for it. Every time I called to complain, the customer service rep would promise to straighten it out, but that never happened.

They ended up suspending my service. Now, with monthly fees tacked on, my account balance is $823.40 and they have sent it to collections. I had perfect credit and would like to resolve this. Please help.

- Bonnie Brown, Kingston, Pa.

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Dear Bonnie: If only cell phones existed during Franz Kafka’s time; imagine the tale of alienation he could weave with your seven months of labyrinthine dealings with the customer service call center.

You told the ABC News Fixer that you kept explaining over and over that you had returned the defective phone after Verizon had mailed you a replacement. The tracking number backs you up: the bad phone was delivered to them at 6:26 p.m. on Nov. 19, 2014.

By the time we got involved, you had already gotten a cheapie phone plan from Walmart and changed your phone number.

But still, there was this mushrooming bill threatening to wreck your beautiful credit score.

We had better luck getting this fixed. We took your story to Chuck Hamby, a public relations executive at Verizon Wireless, who immediately got it into the hands of a high-level customer service specialist. Within a few hours, that person had corrected the problem, erasing the entire balance and canceling the rest of your service contract.

One thing that helped was you were super organized. You had the tracking number, account number and notes from your interactions.

Hamby said they’re still trying to figure out what happened, but they wanted to fix it quickly. He also apologized and promised to follow up with the collection agency to make sure nothing negative about this appears on your credit record. In a few months, we suggest you double-check by ordering your free credit report from each of the three credit bureaus at the official site, www.annualcreditreport.com.

- The ABC News Fixer

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