Promotional credit for phone that was advertised as free

[deeandram]

I have been a Verizon customer since I was 18 with no issues until December of 2023. I wanted a new phone so I reached out to Verizon about their deals and promos. I was informed via online chat with a salesman that I could get a new IPhone 14 for free. At this time I was a prepaid customer, so I informed him of that and he said it wouldn't be a problem to change from prepaid to a contract plan (with the free #IPhone 14). I thought this was a great deal so I went for it. After I received the phone, I learned that it had a new number as well as my old number. I contacted customer service and was informed that a ticket was opened and  it would be fixed. It was not. I  was stuck with bills for each phone number. I reached out again and was told the issue would be fixed and that I could actually get a free IPhone 14 Pro instead, so I thought wow, let's do it. I returned the IPhone 14 as soon as I received the IPhone 14 Pro. I received confirmation that the IPhone 14 returned to Verizon safely on December 12th. Yet, I still had a phone number on my bill for the IPhone 14 and also a new phone number connected to the IPhone 14 Pro. I called customer service numerous times and was told it would be fixed. In late January my bill showed monthly charges for all three phone numbers. I called again and they opened a new ticket and they finally removed the two new phone numbers, left me with my original phone number and applied credit to my account for the other bills. So I ended up paying my regular monthly bill for December and January. Almost immediately after I pay my bill, I receive another bill for over $800. I call numerous times to get this fixed with no solution. Each representative I spoke to said that they would open a ticket and take care of it, but nothing happened. I discovered the bill was Verizon charging me outright for the price of the IPhone 14 that they had received in December. I provided the customer service representative with the order numbers and tracking number of the phone, and she confirmed that they received it. She said that I would not be paying the $800 and it would be credited to my account within two weeks (this way the end of January 2024). I waited and nothing happened, I kept receiving texts stating that my phone would be shut off without payment (I did pay my monthly bill as advised, but not the $800 for the phone). When I got the text stating that my phone would be shut off in 48 hours (February 12, 2024) I spoke to another representative who assured me that it would be fixed just like the prior representative. Near the end of the conversation, after being on hold for an hour, I reminded her that my service would be shut off in the next 48 hours and her response was that I had been on hold for too long and she would call me back. She never called back. I tried to reach out again with no luck. My phone was ultimately disconnected. I've tried to set up a payment plan and I'm not allowed to. I've been locked out of my account since my last conversation with a representative. I cannot call Verizon Customer Service, they just send me to the automated bill payment message. I do not live near a Verizon store so I haven't been able to take that route. My phone has been shut off since February 16th and it is March 6th. I would like to just cancel my service at this point, but I'm afraid they'll make me pay the $800+ regardless. I'm at a loss and I feel like I've tried almost everything.

[vzw_customer_support · Accepted solution]

Hey there, deeandram, I'm sorry to hear about the issue with your returned devices and the subsequent charge and service interruption. I'm certainly disappointed that you haven't been able to find a resolution to this issue and this has caused you to want to disconnect service. We would like to help take a closer look at this issue to make sure this gets fixed for you ASAP. So we can best assist, we will be reaching out via Private Message.

-Lauren

[CGaultier81]

This is the way no doubt I give major props to the customer support that reaches out via the Verizon threads. I too had a horrible experience with an upgrade and trade in that i did and I’d have to call every month because they got my trade in but never did the credit so every month I’d call theyd assure me that it was fixed then the next month no credit I’d call they’d apologize for the previous rep not fixing and assure me it had been fixed on and on and every time I would have to explain everything over again like don’t yall keep notes. It was 6 or 7 months of this then I posted here just exhausted all hope in the issue getting resolved was lost explained my frustration within 48 hours customer service reached out to me fixed it credited my account for all of the months that I had been paying full price at first I was hesitant when they said it was fixed I explained like I explained every month before that’s what everyone before you has said but this time it was handled 100% and swiftly. The reps here that reach out deserve huge props. Thank you all. You’re the ones that get it done.