Verizon customer gets sky-high bill from traveling overseas

RICHMOND, Calif. (KGO) -- The last thing you want if you travel overseas is to incur roaming charges that send your wireless bill into the stratosphere. That's what happened to a Richmond woman until she contacted 7 On Your Side.

As you might expect, this woman was stunned when she received her bill, buy what made it worse was she had done everything right.

Teresa Harlan was charged $3,632.50 by Verizon in her July phone bill. The Richmond woman had recently returned from trips to Europe and Puerto Vallarta.

"I was shocked when I got the bill, but I didn't panic because I thought I'd just be able to fix it," said.

She had set up a temporary international calling plan so she could avoid the expensive roaming charges. She set up one up for Europe, and after returning, set up another for her next trip to Mexico.

"You can call the phone company and they will set it up so you can use your phone there and you're not just paying for roaming," Harlan said.

Teresa had done what Verizon recommends customers do when they travel overseas. She remained confident she could fix her billing problem, but her confidence was quickly shattered.

"They told me there was no mistake," Harlan said.

When she ordered the Mexico package, Verizon retroactively made it effective to the beginning of the month when she was still in Europe.

The data she used in Europe incurred tons of roaming charges. Harlan talked to a supervisor, then a supervisor's supervisor and then corporate, but no one could help her. She contacted 7 On Your Side and we contacted Verizon.

Verizon told us: "This was an isolated incident that was caused by human error on Verizon's end. We work with our customers on a case by case basis to make things right for them."

Verizon reversed the $3,600 charge.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you. You guys are wonderful, I really am grateful," Harlan said.