Verizon has physically powerful service record

Even companies that seemingly get the consumer service right most of the time can mess up in spectacular fashion. That's one conclusion from examining the data-service goof by the Verizon Wireless against the company's track record for customer service in our annual approval survey of subscribers about cell-phone service.

Verizon announced that the 15 million of its customers would receive refunds for the cost of data service to their phones that they did not order. With the minimum refund being 2 dollars, and some expected to total 6 dollars or more, according to the company, the total cost to Verizon will run upwards of 30 dollars million. And that of course doesn't count any losses from the PR fallout from the refund, which may be the largest in U.S. telecom history.