LG Wireless Phone

Do I have a law suit against Verizon Wireless?

I was enlisted in the U.S. Army. Before I deployed to Iraq (in March of 2003), I gave a copy of my deployment orders to verizon wireless and in return there were going to terminate my contract at no charge. While I was in Iraq, I received a bill for $17,000 from verizon. I called them to see what had happened. They stated that my account was changed to that every minute my cell phone was used, I would be charged $5 minute. My phone was stolen out of the mail and never made it home. Verizon assured me that I was not at fault and the matter would be taken care of. Later, I received a bill for $40,000, I called verizon and again got the same story from them. I returned from Iraq and started to get bills from a collection agency for the amount of $40,000. A local newspaper wrote an article about my situation and now verizon wants to clear the situation up. This has been going on for 5 years now and my credit is in shambles. Do I have a legitimate case against them if I sue?

Public Comments

1. I would say so.
2. oh yeah.but five bucks a minute...seems kinda weird to me
3. Most likely..since they didn't deactivate your phone after you informed them..of course you their response in writing...right.
4. Absolutely. They destroyed your credit by failing to help remedy the situation. It sounds like they could have prevented what happened and did nothing. I would say you certainly have a case.
5. What are you suing them for? They seem to be willing to clear the situation up. You could sue them for not taking the bad things in your credit report, but it will be capped at 1K per entry. So you would basically break even with a lawyer. I assume you have not paid the 40K. Bad publicity on your part telling the world how crappy Verizon is would be more effective then suing. Thanks for your duty overseas. You shouldn't have to put up with that crap. Respectfully, Judobigdog
6. I went through a somewhat similar thing with them but the amount was not so big. I pondered what to do even after they started kissing my butt. It had made the local paper. I did go see an attorney and was utterly flippin amazed at what he knocked out in a heartbeat. He threatened all sorts of lawsuits. Verizon already had all sorts of class action suits and was already being investigated by attorney generals in various states. But most importantly he threated that since I had been a deployed soldier that there would be many national news organizations that would be more than happy to cover it. I did not take it as far as court because they offered me a very nice settlement right out the gate. Verizon had to do whatever they had to do to clear my credit. Plus I got free TV, home phone, internet and cell for a year.