Millenicom Update: November Billing & Service Questions

We've been getting a lot of questions lately about how the Millenicom transition to Verizon will be accommodated come the next billing period.

First of all, if you were billed by Millenicom at the beginning of this month, they have already paid Verizon for service through November 1st. Millenicom made the request to Verizon that service not be interrupted during the transition, and so far it seems they are abiding by that request.

We only know of one account that has been been reported to be shut down early, and as best we can tell that was the result of the individual pushing a Verizon representative too hard for information on their account, which could not be found in the system. As Verizon does not yet have the Millenicom accounts setup in their system as individual accounts, any department a consumer would deal with DOES NOT KNOW WHO WE ARE.

Contacting Verizon about your account, other than to obtain a new SIM card to transfer your Jetpack to a Mobile Share plan, is pointless and will only yield confusion and possibly frustration.

What comes November 2?

We do not know. Millenicom does not know. And Verizon isn't set up yet to offer an answer.

We hope that regardless if Verizon has made contact with us all that they might continue service - but that is nothing more than hope on our part. There is no promise that they will have made contact by then, or that they'll continue service.

Remember, you bought a no-contract service plan and you have not paid for service into November.

But that sure doesn't leave a lot of folks feeling confident, especially as the October 31st deadline is quickly approaching for locking in double data promotions with the major carriers.

Here's what we do know:

All of this confirmed with the Dennis Castle, owner of Millenicom today:

• 

  Millenicom WILL NOT be billing anyone for their Verizon based service in November, or at any point further. If you log into your Millenicom account online, you should see that your account is now marked cancelled. The only customers who will continue to get billed are the few folks who had non-Verizon based services, such as the T-Mobile iPad plans they sold earlier this year.

• Dennis also assures us that when Millenicom handed over customer account information to Verizon, that their credit card billing information WAS NOT included with that information. Until Verizon contacts you and makes an offer for plans going forward, they have no way to bill you. You will have to provide them that authorization directly.

Should you encounter anything differently, you should contact your credit card company to seek options for refuting the charge. But we really have no reason to suspect that anyone will get billed without express authorization to Verizon.

If you have questions that Millenicom might be able to answer or clarify, apparently their skeleton crew is answering e-mail and support ticket requests. Obviously, there's not much they can do in most cases other than tell you to wait for Verizon to contact you.

Which is really all any of us can do.

Side Note: We've heard from a lot of Millenicom customers that they still have not gotten either of the two e-mails from Millenicom announcing this acquisition. We honestly do not know why that is, but you are not alone if that includes you. Your account however IS impacted by this change.

To date, we have not heard from a single account holder contacted by Verizon. As soon as we start hearing buzz that Millenicom customers are being contacted by Verizon, we'll report back... so make sure to keep 'in the know' by checking back here or subscribing by RSS.

Related articles:

• Millenicom Update: Still Waiting For Options
• Millenicom Customer Accounts Acquired by Verizon