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Verizon customers furious over unexpected travel charges

New Yorkers who signed up for Verizon Wireless’ Travel pass service — $10 a day for phone, text and data usage overseas — say they’re getting slammed with hundreds of dollars in unexpected charges.

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One of those with sticker shock was Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who used the service during a recent trip to Israel and got a bill for $925 when he got home.

Hikind’s tab included the expected charges of $10 per day, but Verizon Wireless also tacked on 141 international minutes, and nearly 40,000 Kbytes of international data for texts from Jordan.

“I thought it was a joke — and not a very funny one,” said Hikind.

“I hadn’t visited Jordan. Not ever. So I knew there was some kind of mistake.”

Hikind got the bill reduced after lengthy discussions with Verizon supervisors.

He discovered he wasn’t alone. Other visitors to northern Israel were also billed roaming charges from neighboring Jordan.

Refoel Silberberg, a Monsey, N.Y. resident, said he was startled when he returned home from a a month-long trip to Israel last October and got a $999.61 bill.

More than half the charges were for roaming in Jordan, he said.

Silberberg said he had used Travel Pass in other countries without a problem.

He ended paying 30 percent of the roaming charges after complaining to the company’s supervisors.

“They said if you get too close to a country’s border, you hit their towers and there’s nothing we can do about it. That’s wrong,” he said.

Sarah Moskowitz of Brooklyn resident, was stuck for $500 in extra charges from Jordan and Saudi Arabia, also while in Israel.

After getting threatened with collections following a six-month dispute, Moskowitz got her bill slashed — but only after Hikind intervened.

The lawmaker is demanding a probe.

“These people used an advertised service in good faith only to find themselves bilked out of good money and hours of wasted time trying to rectify a problem that is clearly a Verizon Wireless issue,” Hikind said.

A company spokesman said, “We are looking into the customer issues you shared.”

He noted that Jordan is not covered by its “Travel Pass” policy.

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