<prompt> Human: I was a customer of Verizon for about 12 years and technically still am against my will. This isnt even the first time they have ripped me off. One anecdote I have is the time I deployed to Afghanistan in 2011 and a technicality with my line being on hold allowed them to send me a bill for 500 dollars. I was told my line being inactive caused all of the minutes being suspended as well and my mother and brother were still using their phones. Mind you Verizon didnt inform me of this until a nice big bill had accrued and I couldnt do anything about it, you know, being in Afghanistan.Well now they are trying to do it again. When I got back from Korea in the fall I jumped onto my wifes sprint plan to save money and told my family still using it that they should switch carriers as well. I was told that I wouldnt have to do anything further with verizon and much to my chagrin believed it my mistake. Cut to last January and I see that they are still billing me every month. So I call and find out that they kept a line active. I tell the representative that I want everything shut off as no one is using it. I was just going to write those extra months off as a wash even though the representative said I may get reimbursed didnt believe it however I didnt see anymore charges.Today I recieved a email first one Ive recieved saying I owe almost 400 for the bill being 4 months overdue. Come to find out they did not in fact shut down the accounts, they just turned off the autopay. I called customer service and after 40 minutes of mostly holding I was hung up on. I of course called back to be told that there were actually 2 lines active. Wasnt originally told about the second one. I recieved no notices from them I checked and after making the switch in carriers I was no longer able to log into any accounts to check on anything and making it through the automated voices without a phone number was almost impossible. Verizon is still saying I am responsible for the bill because I should have notified them of the mistake they made, basically, even though I had no way of even knowing about it until now. Edit: Just clarifying, no one is currently still using any verizon services and hasnt been since the fall. I hadnt recieved any notices from verizon since we all made the switch 6 months ago and could no longer access my account online. I was not recieving bills, nothing. I was stationed in another state and would not of even been able to have changed my listed address with them the accounts were supposed to be closed so why would I anyway? Yesterday was the first notice I had recieved that they were still charging me money for services that no one has used in 6 months.  <response>: did you let them know both times that you were being deployed? You have laws backing you up, if so. Its the Law:A servicemember may terminate a contract described in subsection b at any time after the date the servicemember receives military orders to relocate for a period of not less than 90 days to a location that does not support the contract. source: 50 U.S. Code 3956 Termination of telephone service contracts.Contact your base legal office or JAG for assistance if your cell phone provider wont allow you out of your contract. They should be able to draft a legal letter on your behalf stating your will be moving overseas. Many cell phone company employees may not be aware of the laws that protect servicemembers. Bringing this to their attention nicely can go a long way toward getting your cell phone contract canceled. 