7 On Your Side helps Bay Area couple with $1,000 phone bill

One of the decisions you make when you travel overseas is how will you make calls on your cellphone? A San Bruno couple had a little trouble with their plan, so 7 On Your Side looked into it.

They bought one of those international plans with unlimited calls and texts and the communications worked perfectly until they got the bill.

Asad and Mouna Kayed took their two sons halfway around the world to a wedding in Palestine. There were four days of festivities, guests danced by a glittering pool and there was a stage set above the water. It was a grand affair in an otherwise volatile region. Mouna and Asad wanted to keep track of their young adult sons.

Mouna said, "They aren't familiar with those areas so we just want to make sure they know what they're doing."

So they bought an international calling plan for their Verizon cellphones. Verizon charged $340 for one month. It worked perfectly -- until they got home. Asad called Verizon to turn off the service and the agent he spoke to cancelled the plan. Except, that didn't happen.

Asad was stunned when he saw his next bill of $1,155.32.

Instead of canceling the plan, the agent had extended it. An agent said she could not remove the extra charges, Asad would have to talk to a manager. He tried calling, emailing, even went to a Verizon store.

He said, "Everybody tells you, 'We cannot resolve it.'"

The couple contacted 7 On Your Side and we contacted Verizon. They refunded $680 in overcharges.

Verizon told us: "Verizon employees strive to provide the best possible experience for each of our customers. In this case, we failed to deliver on that promise. We sincerely regret this error."

This couple set up automatic payments for their Verizon bill. So they didn't realize they were overcharged until the money was already gone it's a good reminder to check your statements if you use auto pay.