In another one of those stunning bill-shock stories, a man finally got nearly a quarter-million dollars worth of charges removed from his wireless bill, but not before his stress level went sky-high.

Randy Posusta, a small business owner, got a call from Verizon Wireless a while back, telling him his bill was $233,000. Naturally, he almost passed out. Posusta told Phoenixs 3TV that he asked Verizon to review the bill again, and the carrier made an adjustment to it.  But not what he was expecting. He was still left on the hook for $122,000.

Verizon had a chance to turn this into some good P.R. After all, the company got off on the right foot by calling the customer and starting a dialogue about what was obviously a bogus charge. But then it all went wrong. Instead of eliminating what was clearly an error, Verizon only compounded it with a ridiculous reduction.

And it got worse. Posusta told the TV station that Verizon went as far as to take the money from a credit card he has on file with the carrier. Then came the customer-service nightmare we always hear about in these cases: constant transfers to different people at the company followed by assurances that things will be straightened out.

Verizon wound up shutting off his service, which obviously didnt help him attract any customers. Once the TV stations reporters approached the company, the carrier cleared the balance and sent an email that said, We did not meet our own standards for promptness in resolving this.”

3TV says VzW never did explain how the mistake happened. It would be pretty difficult for anyone to rack up nearly a quarter-million dollars worth of charges on an unlimited plan.