I had a recent similar experience with Verizon. A few weeks ago my wife and I went to a Verizon office (Verizon Victra) to pursue a "free phone" deal. We had old phones (iPhone 7 and and were also combining our lines to a single account. The sales rep told us that by combining lines, this would be considered a new line and entitle us to new iPhones (iPhone 12 and 13). We then signed up, paid the tax for the new phones as well as the $40 (per phone) setup fee and a week later received a bill from Verizon where we were being charged for the 2 new iPhones. We called Verizon (dialing 611) and spoke to a sales rep that said there was no code showing that the cost of the new iPhones was being waived. They advised that we go back to the Verizon sales office and clarify the charge. We went there right away and spoke to the 2 sales reps at the store (the one that had setup the account for us was not there). After an hour of retracing steps of the other sales reps, they said that the "new line" code that was used for the new phones was invalid since it wasn't actually a new line, but an existing Verizon line being added to an account. They said that the sales rep working that day "was new" and perhaps didn't catch this. Unfortunately, they did not make any effort to "make good" on the deal that we signed up for and when saying that we then didn't want these phones, they said there would be a $50 restocking fee (per phone) if we returned them. So, at this point if we abandoned the phones, between the phone tax, setup fees, and restocking fees, we would be out around $260. We ended up downgrading our plans to offset the cost of the new phones, but overall this was a very pitiful experience with Verizon. Given that they made no efforts to make good on the deal we were promised and later denied due to a mistake on their behalf, it leads me to believe this is their standard business practice.
