BOSTON, MA – Christmas came early for one man as his incredible cell phone bill was forgiven!
Verizon apparently believes in the old adage of forgive and forget. No one is more thankful to that fact than Bob St. Germain. Verizon has said that the Massachusetts resident won’t have to pay the balance of an $18,000 cell phone bill that his son racked up when he connected his phone to a laptop to get Internet service.
St. Germain has been in a long-running dispute with the phone company over the staggering bill, which his son mistakenly accumulated over a six-week period in 2006.
“Nice to see Verizon dismiss all the charges,” St. Germain said. “But it’s still on my credit report. Someone has to take the next step.”
Last month, the Globe reported that four years ago St. Germain’s son, Bryan, tethered his cellphone to a laptop to connect to the Internet, amassing $18,000 in charges over six weeks. Bryan was unaware that the two-year promotional period that made his access free expired when his father renewed the family’s cellphone plan.
Originally, Verizon agreed to cut the bill in half to $9,000. St. Germain was by no means satisfied with that agreement and Verizon then sent the bill to a collection agency. On Friday night, the company issued a statement saying it had concluded the remaining balance was “uncollectible” and that it considered the matter “closed.”
“Bills of this nature are exceptionally rare given our policy of clear disclosure of price plan details at the point of sale and through confirmation letters, the customer’s ability to change price plans at any time without fees or extensions, and the many customer tools available for monitoring and managing voice data,” Verizon Wireless spokesman Michael Murphy wrote. “This combination of transparency, flexibility, and technology serves our customers well.”
