A bit of background info for any readers who don’t have a FREEUP phone:
FREEUP is a prepaid system where you buy a card (for $30 or more) and add money to you account, and money is deducted as you call. The way that they get ya is that after 60 days you have to add more money to your account (or REUP). If you do, yippy skippy, your previous balance carries over, plus whatever you added. If you don’t add more money in time, you lose the balance in your account and you’re also in danger of losing your phone number. No sweat, though, they compute your expiration date for you, and you can look it up any time online, or get the information through the customer service computer, and a few days before the expiration date the phone notifies you that you have X days left.
However, as the hubby and I recently discovered, the “Expiration date” for your account means that if you don’t add more money to your account by 12:00 AM on that date, your lose your balance. That means that if your expiration date is today, June 14th, and you haven’t added any money to you acocunt, guess what, your account has expired! You should have added money by 11:59 AM last night, June 13th.
I combed through the literature we have, and their website, and I cannot find this policy explained in enough detail that a reasonable person would know that they have to reup before the expiration date. And I found at least one statement that seemed to indicate pretty clearly that reuping on your expiration date will cause your balance to be carried over.
We called customer service and complained, and the nice customer service lady quickly restored our balances–while stressing that this is a one time credit–that is, if you don’t reup before your exp. date from this point forward, you’re S.O.L.
I’m sure that Verizon is making a tidy sum off people who reup on their expiration date, and either don’t notice that they lost their balance, or figure it was their fault–when really it’s Verizon’s fault for being very vague about the meaning of the “expiration date” about 90% of the time, and pretty misleading about it 10% of the time.
I got an address to complain to from the customer service rep, and I have written a stern letter, and I thought I’d put the word out to any Dopers who have or who are considering this service. Make sure you reup before your expiration date.