PR Whoops

Verizon Exec Sorry for Charging Dead Woman for Internet Service

There’s a lot of ways to bungle PR — but charging a dead woman for internet service that she never received could be among the worst moves a company could make.

Of course, if you’re the director of analyst relations at that company and you go on the record with the Los Angeles Times saying things like “mistakes were made” when asked about the situation, that could actually make matters worse. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what one exec at Verizon did.

In the LA Times’ epic story today, a California woman, Marilynn Loveless, said she spent months trying to set up internet service for her ailing mother-in-law, so that she could keep in touch with the outside world while she fought breast cancer. The company kept charging for the service, even as repeated attempts to get the internet up-and-running failed.

Yup, this story begins with a woman who has breast cancer who gets swindled out of money while being unable to check her email. And it gets worse from there.

After her mother-in-law passed, Loveless called Verizon to cancel the service… but the company kept on charging her. When approached by the Times, the Director of Analyst Relations Les Kumagai, offered up this gem:

“In the vast majority of cases, customers are heard by our company. But there are circumstances where mistakes are made. No one is perfect.”

How sensitive.

At first, Kumagai slashed only part of the bill (apparently — huge shocker — Verizon was accidentally charging double for the “service”). After a little more pestering from the press, Verizon eventually decided to completely wipe Loveless’ account clear. Isn’t that generous?

TAGS: verizon | verizon charges dead woman for internet

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