Never had such an awful customer experience before in my life. Am between London and the US constantly and was excited that the eSim feature allows two sims to be on one phone, but I forgot how capitalistically cutthroat American mobile companies are. My family gifted me a new iPhone for Christmas, and made sure to go into the store in advance to ask questions about the situation - she lives in London so uses Verizon while in the States but will want to put her own eSim when she is in London, will this be a problem? They said no problem at all. No one mentioned the 60 day lock
They sold her the phone, a more expensive plan, and lo' and behold upon trying to add my UK eSim when I travelled to London it was carrier locked.
- she called, they explained the lock, one employee saying it was because Apple forced them to (it's not, it's supposedly 'for theft' but also because the FCC told phone companies they couldn't lock them for MORE THAN 60 days)
- they say they can expedite and unlock it at 30 days
- 30 day mark, they say no they can't unless she pays in full
- she pays in full, they say it's unlocked -- it isn't
- she goes back in, they now say they only can 'put a request in' for it to be unlocked but it may take 7 days
- get a notification on the phone that it's being activated, but 7 days pass and it's still locked
- she goes back in, now they say they can't unlock it before the 60 day mark
At this point my mother knows the people that work within the brick and mortar store by name, and ever since person both they and we have spoken to on the phone have told us something different every time. She was never told before buying the phone despite being clear I was always going to add a secondary eSim to it straightaway and they also upsold her on it. She was told to pay in full to unlock it and that was a blatant lie. There's not even any sales reason to have it locked, as I continue to use Verizon when I am in the US.
Have seen so many threads here and on Reddit about people also having their phones held hostage by Verizon. We've always used them, but I will never again after this. She's considering changing the entire family's plan after this too. At this point I can see why so many people file FCC complaints about Verizon, will be adding to that list.
Absolutely abhorrent business practice and way to treat customers
