My phone bill is automatically billed to my credit card, and I have unlimited long distance, so I rarely ever even open the bill when I get it. Last month I almost had an issue with my home equity loan because I didn't look at the bills so on a whim opened this Verizon bill and looked at each line...

Near the end of the bill was $12.95 for "EscalateISP.COM Silver Pack". I immediately called Verizon and was told since they are a local provider that they have to allow anyone who feels like it to add things to my bill. Apparently in October escalateisp.com web hosting started billing my Verizon phone account for a hosting pack. A hosting pack that I don't have and never authorized.

So, boys and girls, in today's age of automatic debits and credits, don't forget to look at the occasional statement or bill. You might find yourself surprised.

A quick call to Verizon billing department was all that was needed to file a chargeback apparently for everything billed currently and to get the monthly charge off my bill.

I hope.

She happened to comment "It may have even been a pop-up or a virus."

I explained "Not on my network. We run Linux and my network is probably tighter than yours."

She also examined my bundle and found another $15 a month she could save me by changing my deal since I don't use three way calling or call forwarding. She also asked "When you got your Internet line did you get our 30 days free of virus and spam protection"

I explained "We run Linux."

"Right, but did you get the..."

I cut her off "We don't run Windows so it wouldn't work here."

"Oh, you don't run that. Ok." You could hear the confusion through her very polite voice.

Last month I happened to open a statement for my home equity line which is also automatically deducted from my account only to notice them demanding the balance in full. Yeah... how nice. I called my bank and they assured me it was a clerical error that my account was supposed to be auto renewed and somehow it slipped through. He told me it was handled and just to pay my normal amount. Today I also got a late payment notice demanding full payment plus late penalties. Yeah, it was handled all right.

Sigh.