Dead man billed by Verizon, death certificate not enough proof says the carrier

Most companies realize that once you have passed away, you no longer will be using their service and the account is closed. The nation's largest cell carrier, Verizon Wireless, thinks differently. If Verizon's action in regard to Bill Young is any indication of how the company works, Big Red must be offering some type of service between Heaven and Earth. Mr. Young of  Calvin, West Virginia passed away in June, but was still getting billed monthly. His daughter, Cynthia Lacy called a Verizon customer representative who said that without her dad's PIN number, there was nothing she could do. The rep laughed and hung up the phone. And this happened even though Lacy had mailed a copy of the death certificate to Verizon. It wasn't until the daughter contacted several members of the media that the cellular operator finally closed out the account in February, 8 months after Mr. Young had died. Bob Elek, a spokesman for Verizon, said that the customer representative handled the call poorly and has been reprimanded. The account has been backdated to September 1st and the money that was paid every month since September for a dead man's cellphone account will be refunded. That sounds like Verizon made an effort and did the right thing, right? Well, our question is, why did Verizon keep the charges for the June-August period when Mr. Young had already passed away back in June?

source: St.PetersburgTimes