Finally, some muscle to match the unabated monopolies of the telecom industry: Beth Israel Medical Center is suing Verizon for overbilling them $9 million for services they didn't want in the first place. According to the complaint, they got away with it because of their confusing billing scheme, and "Verizon's guide and website are designed to be impenetrable to its customers." But Big Red isn't paying up, and continues to charge an 18 percent interest rate on the hospital's unpaid bills until the dispute is settled.
According to the Post, Beth Israel claims that they were overcharged $7 million for services it had pre-paid, $1 million for jacked-up long-distance rates, $345K for unused data services, and they're also asking for $25 million in damages. Verizon says the hospital's claims are "too old" for them to refund, and through a spokesman, uses the fairly sleazy excuse that they're a massive, evil conglomerate too: "Verizon is disappointed that the hospitals, themselves large, sophisticated business, have attempted to spin a past billing dispute into tales of fraud." Says the company that started giving it's customers less for more. Now who will take on the bloated, sinister, "please-hold-while-we-transfer-you-to-sixteen-different-people" morass that is Time Warner Cable?
