After the mess with Amazon was finished, I got back in touch with Spectrum.
I come to find out the right wording is that they do not allow 'short codes'. Yet, a few people now I have spoken to said they could get those short codes no problem and Spectrum even uses short codes themselves?!
I went thru the chat on a Saturday on the off chance they might be able to help answer that question, if there was any way they could allow the short code?
So took a while as the chat module is for home services not mobile. The lady said I would have to go to the mobile section on the site and blah blah. I cut her off and asked if she could just transfer me from that chat to there? She was like oh yes, I can do that!
I get this guy and he said yes, that was true, no short codes. Not all of them, just some of them. I asked him then about possibly rearranging the free line that was part of the deal and he said he wasn't sure. So I realized I would have to call them on Monday but yes, he did say it would be better to call Spectrum first then call Verizon about the big phone device bill.
That's exactly what I did. Spectrum was first in line. But before I called them, I tried once more to get Amazon notification and guess what? IT WORKED! So now I don't need to transfer my line back to Verizon, thank the Gods! And I got super lucky when I called Spectrum as I got ahold of a great guy from Maine! Awesome! He was brilliant and we talked over different options and ideas I had as to how to sort this mess out.
He said I could not move the account to my daughter because she doesn't have an internet service with them only a phone line and she is the free line. And if I were to change anything then I would lose the special deal we had when we signed up which was get one line for $29.99 and the 2nd line is free for a year. Plus, he said my internet with them was giving us a $10 discount and when we move, our phone service would go up to $39.99 then. Good to know!
But my son's account with them would not go up the $10 when he moves back and we can all keep our phone services with Spectrum but just at the new place, they are not there yet with internet.
Next stop was Verizon to call. They were a nightmare.
It took me 6 people before I finally reached a Financial supervisor. The other people I talked to kept trying to set up a promise to pay for payments on the two phone bills. The total of the bill is $1,900. They told me at first I could only make 2 payments (still ouch!) and then I had another lady tell me I could do 3 then another told me I could do 5. I had one lady a few weeks ago set up a promise to pay but it was not for the phone devices, it's for the phone service itself!
Once I realized what they were doing, I had to stop them there as the 2nd lady who tried to set this up, got an error message that she couldn't because the accounts are closed. So after that I had to teach the next few ladies that no, they can't set me up with a promise to pay because that does not work with closed accounts, only active ones and it's for the service not the device.
When I finally got to the supervisor, she was more forthright and clear but she was also saying that I could only do two payments and each one had to be 15 days apart. But she said I could wait til the 18th when the bill is due to set up the first payment to be due on March 5th and then the 2nd on the 20th. Whereas the lady or two before her said I had to make the first payment on the 14th of Feb and even if I wait and called back later my first payment would still be due on the 14th. Say what?
So they really don't know what they are saying or doing there in the financial dept at Verizon. It was horrible.
I told the supervisor I would call back then when it was closer to the due date and figure something out then. I didn't try harder or at all by then as I was fed up with the run around and they obviously have no clue.
Even making payments, they would be charging me a $10 service fee and a $5 late fee. The supervisor was even trying to threaten me that they could always take this bill to collections at any time. She backed off when I informed her the bill wasn't due until the 18th of February tho', so I have until then anyway!
My solution is to put them off for now as the bill isn't due yet and then as soon we move and that is all done, get an American Airlines cc and just use it to pay off the bill for the phone devices and then I would earn frequent flyer points for that whole thing. Makes better sense yes? Pay it off from there on my own.
Bottom line---lesson here are:
If you are making monthly payments with a phone service provider, do not change your provider until you have paid off the phone because they will send you a bill for the total balance left, due all at once!
Verizon is expensive compared to Spectrum and their financial dept is a mess.
Suggestions for Verizon and any other phone service company, is to be sure and tell the person when they go to switch to a new phone service provider that if they have not paid off their phone device then don't switch or make sure you are ready to pay it off.
Also, the phone device payments SHOULD be able to be transferable. But since they are not, then for example, Verizon could have been creative about this. They could have done all sorts of things when someone is willing to pay them too!
Set up payment plans, charge interest, charge a set up fee for the payments, make it so that there is an autopay for it too. That way, they could feel more assured to get the account paid.
I even was going to go ahead and set up another line with them just so that I could go back to payments but they informed me that nope, I would have to pay off the balance before they would set me up with another line. That is stupid. They lost out on money that way.
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