A single mom who was only a Verizon customer for a week says the company mistakenly charged her $10,000.
TikTok user JJJ (@frencherican_jj) is a single mom of two teenagers who says she became a Verizon customer around the holidays because she saw an iPhone promotion. In an emotional video posted on March 22, which has since accumulated 8.7 million views, she explains how that decision led to Verizon mistakenly taking $10,000 from her bank account.
“It was around Christmas time, and I wanted to be Santa Claus, so I bought them,” she says of the phones. However, it wasn’t long before she became dissatisfied with Verizon’s services. So she returned the equipment. “I turned it back to the corporate location,” she says. “Long story short, on Feb. 14, they charged me $4,936.56 for supposed equipment that I didn’t return.”
JJJ says the company at first didn’t believe her story, but she produced documentation in the form of a receipt. “So you can take $5,000 out of my account? It was crazy. My account was overdrawn. I couldn’t pay my bills. And I got the money back in two days. So I’m going about my business, and again, for a second time, on 3-15 they took out $5,234.12 out of my account. Again! And I was like, are you kidding me?”
JJJ says the Verizon representative she spoke to blamed the occurrence on the autopay button. “There is no account. There is no autopay. You guys received the equipment, so there is nothing to autopay,” she says. “Yet, y’all have taken my money. Verizon, you’re going to give me a [expletive] stroke. I’m a single mom. I can’t even buy groceries for my [expletive] kids.”
To make matters worse, JJJ says she didn’t receive the money back within three days as she was promised. “Three days was yesterday,” she says. “I waited for today. Still didn’t get it. I called today. They tried to give me the same run around that they gave me last month. ‘You need to prove this and prove that.’ Y’all need to check your records.”
When she called back, she says she was told they would escalate the situation. “So I had to call myself. … And I have to wait three more days, supposedly, so now Monday, to get my money back. Hopefully,” she says. “Are there lawyers, attorneys, anybody I can talk to about this? Is it legal? I don’t have an account. Not even seven days. And turned it all off. Turned everything back in like I was supposed to do. And now over $10,000 later. Overdraft account. Missing work. This is absolutely absurd.”
@frencherican_jj 3/22/24 Verizon is literally going to give me a stroke!! Over $10,000 INCORRECTLY Charged to my bank account and i havent had an acvount with them BUT 1 week in January!!!! NEVER GET VERIZON!!! And NO ONE gave a shyt! All they could say was we’re sorry for the inconvenience 🤬🤬 #verizon #verizonwireless #neveragain ♬ original sound – JJJ
In the comments section, viewers expressed solidarity and outrage.
One user wrote, “$10k from a single mom in this economy?!”
A second user wrote, “I’m fighting Verizon for returned equipment charges too.”
A third user wrote, “But what’s crazy is, if you took 5,000 from then it would be a felony!” JJJ replied, “Yas girl!! Don’t get my engine REVd up again!!! THIS!!!!”
In a follow-up video posted two days later, JJJ dances to celebrate the fact that “my money is ‘pending’ y’all.”
This is not an uncommon complaint from Verizon customers. On this Verizon community forum thread, several users recount tales of returning equipment to Verizon only to receive unreturned equipment charges on their bills. None reported a charge as large as JJJ’s, however.
One user wrote, “If Verizon cannot make this right, I will be obtaining a lawyer and will be going to the media with this. It is evident that I am not the only victim of this!!! If I do have to obtain legal counsel, I will be posting all over social media for those of us who were impacted to join me. Additionally, I will be filing every complaint possible. This is wrong. Nearly $1200 charged to me for a phone that I returned! This is absurd.”
Verizon is in the process of settling a $100 million class-action lawsuit that would refund customers who were charged an administrative fee that lawyers for the plaintiffs called “misleading.” While Verizon is preparing to shell out the refunds, the company did not acknowledge wrongdoing as part of the suit.
The Daily Dot reached out to JJJ via TikTok comment and to Verizon via email for comment.
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