My on-going Nightmare with Verizon Wireless
Hi, I wanted to share my nightmare of a month with Verizon Wireless, see if anyone had any advice on how to approach this next and if I should contact anyone different (also to vent my frustration!)
I’ve had a really long saga with Verizon so am putting this here:
WAYYY TL:DR – Decided to switch from AT&T so I ordered 12 devices (4 iphones, 4 watches, 4 ipads) from Verizon on Dec 1st . Had several issues, the worst of which being receiving 11 devices and 1 empty box (supposed to be an iphone). One month later, still don’t have a phone, and have wasted 15 and a half hours of my life trying to get a replacement. Verizon states despite me being originally approved for 12 devices, I have hit my ‘finance limit’ and cannot get anymore phones (ie a replacement) on monthly plan. Supposed to hear back from a supervisor tomorrow – if she can’t fix it or if I don’t hear from her, plan on going back with AT&T…
I was happy with AT&T wireless but took advantage of Verizon’s black Friday sale to get free iPhones, Apple Watches and iPads for myself, my wife and two kids. So, on December 1st, I ordered a total of 12 devices from Verizon online. Before finalizing the order, I got a message that I needed to call the credit approval department, so I did and they said they’ll approve the order, which went through. That was the beginning of my many issues. After placing the order, I never received any confirmation emails of any type, which I thought was odd, but didn’t worry about it. I did start receiving ‘order shipped’ emails the next day, and noticed for some reason my order was split into two separate accounts. At the time I didn’t think it was such a big deal, I figured I would just call and have the accounts merged. Around December 3rd and 4th, I started to receive my devices, including three of the four ordered phones. The first two phones I tried activating were unsuccessful – the first one activated and connected to the network but couldn’t send/receive texts or make phone calls. The second one wouldn’t even connect to the network at all. After chatting with Verizon support online, they said I would need to contact the ‘port’ department, as I was importing my numbers from AT&T. I then spoke with the port department (probably the easiest call I made in this whole saga) who ‘re-pushed’ the port, and the devices started working. The third phone had the same issue and I called the port department to ‘re-push’ the port, and they claimed they did, but the phone still wouldn’t connect to the network so they transferred me to the Verizon troubleshooting department. After 1.5 hours on the phone with them, they realized the ‘re-push’ didn’t work and had to call the port department to redo it, which connected the phone to the network.
Now, onto the biggest headache…the fourth phone. I received the box for the fourth phone on December 5th via UPS. I gave my daughter the box to her phone when she opened it, she discovered an open iPhone 16 box inside, which was empty. I immediately called Verizon customer service who said a ticket needed to be placed to replace the phone, and I would receive a phone call back to get it all fixed. I never received a phone call, so a week later, on the 12th, I called to inquire. They informed me that a replacement phone or refund will not be issued because of ‘fraud concerns,’ due to me having two accounts. So, the accounts were then merged, and a new ticket was placed for the missing phone. On the following Monday (the 15th), the Verizon rep called me to say nothing changed with the ticket. The rep said he’d call back again to check on the ticket, but I never heard back, so I called Verizon again on the 19th. They checked into the ticket, which was closed stating the ‘activation team’ needed to be contacted. The rep I was speaking to at the time called the activation team, and was told a new Verizon ticket needed to be placed, in addition to a ticket with UPS, which the rep thankfully did for me. Again, I was promised a call back, and heard nothing.
On Monday the 23rd, UPS showed up at my house asking about the package I wanted to ship. After some discussion, we realized they were referring to the empty boxes I received, so I happily gave it back to them for their ‘investigation.’ I called UPS on December 27th to inquire about the ticket and their investigation, and they told me that their investigation was concluded, but they could only give the results of their investigation to the shipper (ie Verizon). They did tell me the empty box was returned to Verizon. So, I made yet another call to Verizon to follow-up on the tickets placed. The rep told me they have no record of UPS’ investigation, but if they are mailing the empty box back, then it should be ‘no issue’ to get me a replacement phone! Of course I was extremely happy, since it had been 4 weeks since I placed my order, but my happiness wouldn’t last… the rep seemed to do a lot of work and spoke with a bunch of people to remove the service agreement on that line, and to ‘upgrade’ the line to basically a new phone. After at least another two hours on the phone, he kept getting an error that my Verizon finance limit was reached, and I wouldn’t be able to get the ‘free’ phone ($0.00/mo after credits) I was promised. He attributed this to the system needing to be ‘refreshed’ so he promised to call me back to recheck it. He did call me the next day (the 28th) and said he was getting the same error, but he’d keep rechecking over the weekend and would get back to me – as expected, I did not hear back.
On Monday the 30th, I called Verizon to check into the finance limit issue and was told that I had too many devices, and Verizon would not allow me to get anymore devices. This obviously confused me, as I had originally finalized my order with limited difficulty at the beginning of the month. He had no explanation but said yet another ticket would be placed. I frustratingly agreed, but as the day went on, my frustration worsened, so I called yet again. This next rep confirmed the finance limit was reached and said there was no way of changing it. He did humorously suggest that I call one of the credit bureaus to have them ‘increase’ my credit score, which I thought was ridiculous, because 1) it doesn’t work like that and 2) I already have a score of over 800. He then suggested I open a Verizon credit card, spend the $999 for the new phone, and somehow, I would get credit on my month bill for it. Considering the whole reason for me switching to Verizon was the promise of a ‘free’ phone, I was not willing to agree to spend the money for the phone. This also just added to my frustration and made me even question more why I should keep Verizon if I can’t get the fourth phone. At this point I asked to speak with a supervisor (which I should have done a long time prior), and I was placed on hold. About an hour later (and 2 hrs 15 minutes of being on the phone), the line disconnected with a message of ‘technical difficulties.’ I received a ‘sorry you were disconnected’ text which said Verizon would call back, but I never heard back…
The next day on the 31st, I called Verizon again and immediately asked to speak with a supervisor. She seemed sympathetic and was just as confused as I was – why a replacement phone couldn’t just be shipped out, without having to worry about the finance limit, since it was already approved. Another two-hour phone call later, after speaking with the sales team, the supervisor told me it was all ‘worked out’ and I will be able to go to a store or go online and ‘upgrade’ the line to get a new phone on Friday 1/3. I asked for a follow-up phone call in case things didn’t work out, which she promised she would call back on 1/5.
Friday January 3rd came, and I went online in hopes to ‘upgrade’ the line. Of course, the line wasn’t listed, and I didn’t have the option to just simply ‘upgrade’ it. I was tired of calling Verizon, so I went onto their online chat to try and fix it. Three hours and four reps later, they found out the line was disconnected and (shockingly) I couldn’t simply just add a new line since my finance limit was reached, and there was nothing they could do to raise it. I asked for a supervisor to contact me but never heard anything.
So today, January 4th, over a month after I ordered my Verizon devices, I am still without a fourth phone (despite me paying for the line and taxes) and am still currently paying for one line on AT&T so my daughter could at least have a working line. My plan is to wait until tomorrow for the supervisor to check back in and hopefully work it out. If she can’t, I will happily cancel my Verizon account and send back the devices (thankful for the extended holiday return period!) back to them. We shall see….
On top of all this, it took three weeks and an additional ticket to be placed in order for my military and Fios discounts to be applied…
Total time on the phone with Verizon (yes, I counted): 11 hours 7 minutes.
Total time on support chat: 4 hour 31 minutes
Total tickets: 6
Thanks for reading (and sorry for the length)!