DAMASCUS, Ore. — An Oregon man got quite a shock when he called Verizon and was told he owes them more than $2 million.
Ken Slusher, of Damascus, Oregon, told KPTV.com that he called an automated phone line to check his Verizon account balance. A voice recording said, "Your total amount due is $2,156,593.64."
Slusher said he and his girlfriend opened a Verizon account last November and bought two phones.
They said they only kept the service for one month after noticing major discrepancies on their bills.
Slusher said their first bill should've been about $120. Instead, it was $698, which included a previous balance of $451. Slusher said their next statement was $9.
"The number of errors and the comedy of which they happened is astounding to me," he told KPTV.com.
Shortly after closing the account, Slusher said they started getting notices from several collection agencies demanding upward of $2,000.
Slusher and his girlfriend said they've been going back and forth for months with customer service representatives who agree there's been a mistake.
However, with no resolution, Slusher checked his Verizon account balance again Monday, at which point he heard the $2 million figure.
Slusher had just closed on a new home and now he's afraid he may lose his house.
"If I don't get this straightened out in the next 24 hours, I can almost guarantee I'll lose this house," Slusher said.
A Verizon spokeswoman responded to KPTV.com saying she will look into it.
In a statement Wednesday Verizon officials said:
<em>"</em>We have apologized to an Oregon customer for a programming error in an automated voice response system. The error caused him to receive an incorrect voice message that he owed $2 million on his bill. We are correcting the error now and have resolved the issue to his satisfaction.<em>"</em>