Closing out a phone account did not come easy for a Cape Cod man. And after months of getting nowhere, he contacted our NBC10 Boston Responds team for help.
When Paul de Ruyter’s father-in-law died in early June, he tried to disconnect the phone line that had been in his room at an assisted living facility.
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“He had a landline and I was simply trying to say, OK, we don't need this anymore. My father-in-law has passed away, please cancel this account,” says de Ruyter. “I thought it would be pretty simple.”
But it was not.
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“It was only the beginning of a five plus month process where the bills just kept coming and coming,” says de Ruyter.
De Ruyter says he called Verizon several times to resolve the issue and was even given a disconnect confirmation number, but the bills continued, along with past due notices.
“I'd gotten the June bill, July, August, September, October, and I'd had enough. I become totally frustrated,” says de Ruyter. “And again, a death in the family. You would have thought even a big corporation could find a path to bring sanity to a situation that was insane.”
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De Ruyter emailed our NBC10 Boston Responds team in October for help and that day we contacted Verizon on his behalf. The company told us they would look into the situation.
“I sent that email to you and your response knocked my socks off. It was instantaneous, almost,” he says. “Day after I introduced the situation to you, I finally get traction…it was so impressive.”
De Ruyter says Verizon told him in an email that due to a system issue, the order to disconnect his father-in-law’s account did not completely flow through all systems to complete the total disconnect. They took action to complete the process and de Ruyter received a final notice in November that the account was closed. He was also refunded $86.14.
Verizon told us:
"We're happy we've come to a satisfactory resolution with the customer. Because of privacy laws, we won't be able to elaborate on specifics, but feel free to reach out to the customer for additional information."
And de Ruyter was happy to have the situation resolved.
“You were my last recourse,” he says. “We’re very, very grateful.”
If you have a consumer problem, contact NBC10 Boston Responds by filling out our online consumer complaint form. We will get back to you!
And we promise, we will get back to you.
