Why Doesn't My Number Appear in List for Text Verification?

Currently going through this and I've seen others are as well so I'm going to use this post to describe my experience.

Some time in the last few months I lost the ability to send texts to my phone when trying to log into my Verizon account. I don't mean the text doesn't get through, I mean I can't even see my number as an option to send it to. I can see my wife's number, I can even see my daughter's number, and she's only had her phone for a week. But I can't see my number. I just added a line for my daughter and even in an affiliate store they couldn't fix it, they had to send verification texts to access my account to my wife, who was still at home. For what it's worth I am the account owner.

Fortunately I can still log into the MyVerizon app using biometrics, so I did that and started a chat. I was on that chat for 2 hours today. The first suggestion that came back was to create a new profile, which I obviously didn't want to do as I'd almost certainly lose all my account info. Next suggestion was to make an appointment to go into a store, which is ridiculous. After telling the agent I was done she finally mentioned that she could just start a ticket with the backend team and they'd fix it in 48-72 hours, no new profile, no store. Can't imagine why this wasn't the first option, but for anyone reading, just tell them to skip to this.

I had the agent verify that I would be contacted via my e-mail and/or number, and made her confirm that they had my e-mail and number on file correctly. Of course 2 hours later they're sending messages to my wife instead of me. That's where things stand right now. When trying to log in online I still don't see my number as an option for the verification code. I'll update this as things develop.

Accepted answers

ssalvat

So I think this issue is finally resolved. The exact technical details are lost to one of the many side chats I've been in, but maybe if James is still monitoring this thread he can explain it better than me.

The non-technical explanation is that the Verizon network stopped fully recognizing my phone. It knew I had a Verizon SIM card and I should have basic network access, but a security database somewhere was missing an entry for my phone. As a result my phone wasn't considered trustworthy enough to send verification texts to.

The solution was to add my number back to the security database. This only takes 1-2 business days and required me to provide my IMEI and EID numbers from Settings > About Phone. That's it. Just took someone recognizing the issue (again, huge shout out to James).

A clue that you might be experiencing the same issue is that your phone make and model don't appear in the my Verizon app under Mobile > Devices. In my case I could see my number but not my make and model. I could see the make and model of my wife and daughter's phones, so pretty clear something was up.

As an added bonus I got a 5g signal for the first time in months today. I thought that was a separate issue but maybe not. Hopefully it keeps working too.

So hopefully that's it for me and this thread helps someone else.

All comments

ssalvat

Well, 48 hours in and no contact from Verizon, still can't select my phone number for the verification code. Hopefully they address it in the next 24 hours.

Verizon_Support

I'm sorry you are having difficulties with your online acount ssalvat. Are you listed as the account owner? When was this ticket opened? -Joe

ssalvat

I am, and have always been, the account owner. Ticket was opened on Monday, 9/15. Looks like work started (instead of completed as promised) on Thursday, 9/18, although all I can see is "In Progress," I have no insight into what's actually happening.

I contacted Verizon via chat through the app around the 72 hour mark since that's the only way I can access my account anymore. They couldn't provide any update beyond it's in progress, although they did give me a bill credit, which was nice.

Today (96 hours) I received an e-mail from a Verizon case manager, once again telling me my ticket is in progress, with no details as to what that means.

So I guess at least now people are paying attention, which is an improvement, but after 96 hours still no resolution, which is disappointing considering the fix is something along the lines of manually adding a phone number to a database table somewhere.

Verizon_Support

I apologize for the misleading expectations for the time of a resolution. We certainly want to help with any and all we can, and I'm glad to hear our Case Management team is in contact with you. You're in good hands with them. Typically a ticket take 5-7 business days for resolution. In addition, if there has been a device change on the line in question, it would not be eligible for secondary verification use for 30 days after the change. I hope you find this information helpful, and rest assured our case management team will be in touch as soon as they have more information for you.

-Anthony

ssalvat

Thank you for the reply. I'm now at a week without a resolution and no update on the ticket, or outreach from the case manager, since late last week. I guess that's still in the 5-7 business day window so to be expected.

There has been no device change on the line in question for over 2 years. The brand new device that was only added two weeks ago is already eligible for secondary verification, so I can't imagine this is the issue.

Verizon_Support

We want to make sure to get things corrected, and know you've been working on this for a while. We're sending a private message your way so we can take a deeper look.

-Cait

SynthpopAddict

I was having a similar issue with 2 other businesses, where I couldn't get texts sent to my phone because the number wouldn't appear as a choice in their menu, or there was some other error message appearing. The thing which worked for me in both situations was to go into your account and use the update contact information section and re-enter all the contact details.

ssalvat

Thank you for the suggestion. At this point I can only access my account through the app so my options might be limited. I can tap on the "Me" icon, then "Profile & settings", then "Contact info" under "Account. Is this what you're referring to? Under "Contact info" I see "Greeting name", "Email address", "Primary contact number", and "Alternate contact number Optional." Are these the fields you updated?

SynthpopAddict

For the other businesses, yes, I went to my profile contact information and checked whatever details they had there and updated them.

ssalvat

Now on 10 business days since contacting support and I still can't get verification texts to my phone number. The social media team reached out to me and I ended up chatting with a representative for over an hour a couple of days ago. For some reason (maybe this is all they have visibility into?) the focus was almost entirely on my account login, logout and log back in, change your password, etc. Considering that my login is already recognized, I just can't have verification texts sent to my number, this made no sense and I didn't want to do this and lose the one way I can still access my account.

My ticket with the "backend" team hasn't been touched in at least 2 days. The social media team rep who chatted with me said the one thing that was found was that I was opted out of sharing my Customer Proprietary Network Information. The privacy setting literally says "If you don't want your CPNI used for the marketing purposes described above" then you should opt out. It's a marketing setting, shouldn't have anything to do with receiving verification texts. And I can't imagine why the backend team is looking at my privacy settings instead of looking for the database table with my phone number in it and setting a flag field to allow it to receive verification texts.

Overall very disappointed that after nearly two weeks I appear to be nowhere near a resolution.

SynthpopAddict

Hello again. This is speculation, but I'm guessing if you've opted out of all 3rd party marketing and otherwise turned on maximum privacy settings in your account and it's been that way for a long time, then what happened is the system has now lost track of part of your account. I'd turn back on those settings in your account, then do a network reset on your phone if that's how you normally login to My Verizon and reboot the phone. If you're using a computer, clear your browser cache. Give it some time for the changes to update on the servers, and then see if you can add your number for push verifications. You may also need to update the My Verizon app on your phone or reinstall it.

ssalvat

Thank you again for your suggestion. This is an interesting theory, although I'd be more inclined to believe it if my wife didn't have the same settings on her line. At one point I was shown an option to send a verification text to my daughter's watch line, which an in store rep told me isn't even capable of receiving such messages.

All of this taken together leads me to the conclusion that the issue is not due to account settings but rather Verizon just having bad data in their database. I know database people don't like touching tables directly, but it sure seems like somebody could go in, change a value in one field, and we could all call it a day.

Verizon_Support

ssalvat We understand you are still not able to received those verification texts to your number. We will be sending you a PM to look more into this with you so we can get a resolution.

-Harry

ssalvat

As an added bonus I got a 5g signal for the first time in months today. I thought that was a separate issue but maybe not. Hopefully it keeps working too.

So hopefully that's it for me and this thread helps someone else.