Buyer Beware

A marketing representative for Southern California Telephone Company was rather persuasive that we would discover savings by accepting their Senior's Service Package, which meant leaving Verizon's landline service.


We would get a separate billing from them; however, our other services would remain bundled with remaining Verizon services + DirecTV. Imagine our surprise when DirecTV notified us that it was now unbundled from Verizon's billing.


All of this meant that our $48 monthly discount had vanished. Where was the wisdom in switching to Southern California Telephone Company? This necessitated a quick phone call to Verizon to switch back to them.


And some hassle has been added to the situation. I had to pay DirecTV around $95 (April's billing) to re-establish the bundling to my Verizon bill. And because of where we are in the billing cycle I may need to pay DirecTV for May's services. By June we will definitely be back on the Verizon bundle with DirecTV.


What a mess. The representative for Southern California Telephone Company misinformed us. Was it intentional, or did she just not know what she was talking about? When a representative has not researched specific issues regarding bundling then that is tantamount to intentional misrepresentation, IMO.


To my California friends I would say "buyer beware." The special package for seniors might be a good deal for some telephone service consumers. It was definitely a bad move for us. The money saved by switching away from Verizon was less than the lost monthly $48 discount from bundling.