The Bottom Line: Soldier Cell Phone Update

Phoning home? 

For a local soldier still overseas, his "phone fight" here at home continues -- and again, his mother turned to CBS6's Dori Marlin, to get to The Bottom Line.

Loretta Phillips of Ballston Spa first contacted Dori several weeks ago.  Her son, Josh, is stationed in Afghanistan; before being deployed, he signed up for an International Calling Plan with Verizon Wireless.

Unknowingly, Josh racked up a series of shocking phone bills -- costing thousands of dollars -- because of ridiculous roaming charges.

Verizon had told Dori it would make good on the charges -- and it did, by crediting his account.

But the hefty fees continued, even though Josh wasn't even using his cell phone.

His mom, Loretta, kept fighting his fight when she received his monthly bills.

To keep her from fighting any further, Josh got in touch with Verizon Wireless himself -- from Afghanistan -- to shut the account down completely.

Loretta says, Verizon told him -- sure, you can shut it down.  But -- for a price.

"They told him it would be a $200 service fee," Loretta told Dori.  Frustrated even further, she got in touch right away after hearing that news.

Loretta also said her family knew other active duty military members, who managed to terminate their account early -- for free.

So what's The Bottom Line here?

Dori went straight back to John O'Malley at Verizon Wireless, to find out.

"Josh asked apparently if he could just shut the service down, because he doesn't want to have to focus every month on fighting these charges, because that's what's happening," Dori explained to John.  "And he was told it'll be $200 to terminate."

John replied, "Okay, that should not be the case.  I don't know who he spoke to, or why they said that, but the way I understand it is that if you're active duty, and you want to suspend or cancel the account, you can do so and there's no early termination fee."

As it turns out, that is the policy.  The company has since contacted Loretta, and notified her they will be shutting down Josh's account -- fee-free.

If something is affecting your Bottom Line and you'd like Dori to look into it, send her an e-mail: news@cbs6albany.com .