Kids are kids; In a decent world you should be able to call the company and explain what happened, that your kids were meddling with the phone; then delete all the games and have the charges dropped from your bill.

Suppose your kids took your wallet to Games R Us and whipped out $700 for video games; a responsible proprieter would insist on seeing some parental permission before making the transaction. This is just common decency. It's irresponsible to sell that many cell phone games all at once to anyone.

Maybe the "letter of the law" holds the parents responsible for every penny, but that's just not right in my book.

Hello,
My children 10 and 11 downloaded games (not knowing the expense nor did I) and I had a $ 700 charge on my VERIZON bill. I immediately called Verizon and I too was explained the the "3rd party vendor" and I too was told there were charges "pending". they said they would credit the charges associated with the "megabytes". I am sick about this. We have been long time Verizon customers. Television, internet, land line and wireless for 10 + years. A friend of mine in another state had a similar situation with her son and ATT credited the full amount($300).

I want to take my business elsewhere. This damage was done over the course of 3 days. I do not think it is possible t hat a 10 year old can even play 32 games.

Also, the Verizon rep that I spoke with was very condescending with his comments to the tune "well, you gave him a phone". I was not aware that these charges were so high and my children had no idea either. Kids are kids and they are minors.

Help !!

any suggestions ???

In late November 2006 my business partner noticed that there were high "data download" charges on our phone bills. Not knowing what they we, I contacted Verizon Wireless (VW) to inquire I was advised that they were charges for downloaded games which were primarily on my wife's phone xxx, but also on my phone xxx. I later found out that my 8 year old son learned to download them from a friend. I immediately asked Verizon to have them blocked on both lines. She tried to tell me that is was a 3rd party billing issue since it was not actually their service. I replied by stating that if it is a line item on their bill and downloaded via their network, it is their responsability. I then asked the ethical question as to how could the phones be pre-enabled and not password-protected to access these recurring charges. She gave no answer. I requested a full credit and was denied.

In early Dec 2006 I called again and found my way to a more helpful contact (Susan #319354). I was told that since there was more than one month's worth, they could only credit me for one month. At this point, I asked to speak to someone who could finally resolve the issue. She said she have to look into it but assured me that she would handle the "blocking and cancelling" of the game and downloads.

In mid-December after the Dec 15th bill arrived with the charges on it, I called again to attempt to resolve the issue and get a full credit. (David #4798). I was denied again, but told there was a credit pending.

In January 2007 my phone stopped working and I went to the Costa Verde Retail Location for a replacement. No problem. I asked if there were any credits applied to my account. I was told there were "credits pending", but nothing applied. I made the fakse assumption that they were finally on track to fixing my account.

On Jan 39th, 2007 I spoke with Thelda Cobb #113697 who review the notes on my account, noticed that there were no credits applied in December and agreed to issue a partial credit ($12.98 and $73.39) for the invoice dated Jan 15th. She claimed to "hear it all the time" when I referred to the download issue.
3 months of tradeshows, business travel and no resolutions from VW....
Fast forward late May, the May 15th bill and still no credits posted. I made multiple calls to VW and never received more than a sympathetic "I can't help you", but I did hit many walls with rude and impolite VW staff of various levels. I was even made one offer of another month's credit which would preclude me from pursuing any further credits.... yeah sure! I was finally advised that the reason the monthly charges were still on my account was that although future download were blocked, the monthly "subscription" amount was recurring. This was in direct conflict with what I was told in December. I then went home with the subscription cancellation instructions and proceeded to remove them one by one from the phone (35 minutes worth)

On Thursday June 14th, I entered the VW retail Location on Pearl St in La Jolla and two sympathetic young guys listened, explained that they are not staffed with "supervisor-level" managers, but did offer to place a call to VW on my behalf. After going from Financial Services to some Account Resolution Dept, I found my way to Sean (his VW# is in my other office).
I explained that I am a 5+ year Verizon Customer with a cumulative transaction history of over $13,000 with VW. In 5+ years, I have had 2 minor billing and/or service issues with VW and they were promptly resolved and credited.

He seemed more than willing to listen and offered to fully review my account and call me back (on my cell) Saturday June 16th. I patiently waited, phone by my side, but never received a call.
I called VW again June 18th and eventually spoke to another gentleman who reviewed my account, found Sean's employee # and sent him an email reminding him that I had expected a call the previous Saturday.

Expectations:

There are now a total of 6-7 months of "subscriptions" at $73.99 and $12.98 plus a few data downloads. These should be credited in full.