Part 2: My Verizon Nightmare and how it came to be...

As of today, I've called Verizon Wireless more than a dozen times. I've called nine times since March 17, 2011. For a total of almost 3 hours of talk and hold time. That's how it usually goes: talk and hold, talk and hold.

My calls have really taken on sort of a Groundhog Day scenario. I call, ask where my money is, explain that I'm tired of telling the story over and over. Then I tell the story again. I get apologies, promises to follow up (that almost never happen). Meanwhile, I'm still out $119.99 plus all the time I've wasted.

Something kind of good has come out of this. Once during one of my calls, I found out that these CSR's have the power to issue and discretionary $50 credit to your account. The fellow I talked to (in addition to promising me to get all the money I owed back to me) gave me this 'courtesy' credit to my account. You might think 'Hey! He got some of his money back'. Maybe, but I never asked them for this. They volunteered this. I thanked them but all I want is my money back.

This whole thing has show my many things that I already knew but they're much clearer now:

• Companies with billions of dollars have procedures in place to 'wear you down' in lieu of given you a refund.

• You and I think there is disconnect and that things are broken when we have episodes like I'm having. Not true. They are put in place so that the corporation will not have to part with money that is not really theirs.

I can't decide if I want to call them and waste some time tomorrow. Hmm. Maybe not. A guy is supposed to call me next Thursday anyway. We'll see...