Reinstate device payment agreement when come back to Verizon 2 weeks after porting out?

[PlantBegoniaBrooklyn]

In June 2024, I ported out of Verizon with 4 iphones but quickly came back to Verizon after about 15 days at another carrier because I had a very high amount of unpaid device fees at Verizon. I did not realize this would happen, so I called Verizon immediately upon being made aware of the large amount of money owed and asked Verizon to bring me back into Verizon with everything the same way that it was before, so that I could continue paying off the devices monthly (and, I was getting a credit for the amount of the payments, resulting in a net cost of $0 per month as I paid out the devices). Again, I came back to Verizon less than 3 weeks after porting out. After coming back to Verizon, I was surprised when Verizon sent me a bill for the entire unpaid device payment value. I called verizon to ask about this, and the agent assured me that I would not have to pay this, and that they would take care of the problem, and issued a refund for the entire charge. They told me that this never should have happened, that it was a mistake on Verizon's part. I was told that they should have brought me back into the same account that I had been using before porting out of Verizon, but instead what mistakenly happened was that the old account was closed and I was brought into a new account. This has made it impossible to reinstate the device agreement, the change from the old account to the new one. I have been through many conversations with quite a large number of Verizon agents since then, and each step of the way I was assured that this mistake would be corrected and that they would reinstate the device payment agreements. However, I did receive another bill for the unpaid device payments again, and this money was taken out of my bank account, even though Verizon turned off  autopay in my account in order to prevent the money from being taken from my bank. I was told this was being done because we had to wait until the charge posted to my verizon account, and that we had to wait till it was posted (but the fee would not actually be taken from my bank) in order to be able to reinstate the device payment agreement. So, I accepted the Verizon agent's plan and waited. I was told that once this charge posted to my account, they would then reinstate the device agreement. Then, I saw that the money had in fact been taken from my bank account. I called Verizon to tell them about the situation and they then changed their position to be that the device payment agreement could not be reinstated and there was nothing further that they could do for me. This is where I am today: Having been told by quite a few Verizion agents that the problem was caused by Verizon's error in the way my account was set up when I returned to Verizon (they failed to do a "win back", and instead closed my old Verizon account and opened a new one), Verizion's new position is now that they cannot reinstate the device payment agreement and I must accept that I have paid the extremely huge device payment fee and nothing can be done about it. The fact that I was assured by so many Verizon agents that this problem was caused by an error on Verizon's part, and that they all promised me they would fix it, that has all disappeared and I am left with having paid a huge sum that I. never would have had to pay had they done the win back (the process for bringing a customer back to Verizon) correctly.  How is any of this fair? How can this actually be happening? What recourse do I have?

[SynthpopAddict]

OMG, I am really sorry to hear you got talked into paying off your devices because the system thought you had terminated a contract early and then someone messed up with not bringing you back as a winback.  I've read somewhere else on the internet that not every Verizon agent knows how to do a winback correctly.  If you are still within 60 days of when you last had your original account because I think that's the window for winbacks, I'm wondering if your current account can be transferred to the original one.

Can you dispute the charges with your bank?  If they reverse the payment, and you can get your original account back as a winback, then you might be able to have your contract reinstated.  Otherwise, you have my sympathy as Verizon really let you down.

[PlantBegoniaBrooklyn]

Thank you so much for your response. I will investigate your suggestions. At this point I am not sure if I am inside the 60 day window. I think it might be slightly over but this is only because I’ve been delayed many many times by Verizon agents as they tell me to wait, as I said in the beginning, I started trying to rectify this situation as soon as it occurred. 

[vzw_customer_support]

Thank you for reaching out to us on this platform. To better assist, tell us a little more. Did you get new numbers for each line on the account?  Do you recall if an agent fill out a form to reinstate the Device Payment Agreements?

~Maria

[PlantBegoniaBrooklyn]

All of the phone numbers on the account stayed the same.

I do not recall if I filled out forms to reinstate the payment agreements at the time that I came back to Verizon. As far as I’m concerned, it was the agent’s job to take care of things properly, and I did not document everything that we were doing along the way because I trusted that they were doing things the right way.

What can be done here? the amount that I paid (device payments) is so very much money. At this point what I can say is that I had numerous Verizon agents tell me that my situation was handled incorrectly and that I ended up paying out all of the device fees as a result of those errors, but that it is impossible to fix the situation. If it were just a question of the timing of these payments, in other words, if I were just having to pay it out now as opposed to paying it out over the next number of months, I guess I wouldn’t really care. But,  I wouldn’t actually have to be paying this money at all because of the credits that I get along the way, which make the payments net zero dollars per month,  so the amount that I paid to buy out my devices, I never would’ve had to pay in the first place at all, even during the monthly payments if Verizon had done the correct thing. And Verizon insisted after many many calls that there were simply nothing they could do about it, even though it is wrong and they felt I am owed a resolution, even though it was result of their own error. I was told to write a letter to some office in Albany, a suggestion which strikes me as a future dead end avenue. Please tell me what I can do. 

[vzw_customer_support]

PlantLoverVerizon, we're truly sorry to read of your experience, and want to make sure we provide you with accurate information in regard to your account and device payment plans. Unfortunately, once a device payment plan is in paid status, legally, it's unable to be reinstated. We'd still like to take a closer look at your account and the promotions you were receiving, to see how we can help. To best assist, we'll be sending a Private Message. 

~Izzy

[PlantBegoniaBrooklyn]

I am testing to see if I am still able to post after changing my account username 

[SynthpopAddict]

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@PlantBegoniaBrooklyn wrote:

I am testing to see if I am still able to post after changing my account username 

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Working fine. 🙂  As for your earlier comment about maybe being outside of the 60 days now, if you are past the window for "winbacks" then your old account is gone.  If someone at Verizon gave you an address for somewhere within the company to write, I'm wondering if that is for the arbitration process, for which I've never seen anything about how to do in the forums.  At this point, it can't hurt to write to the address and see what happens.  The only other thing you can do to see if you can get any compensation for Verizon's error in not giving you back your original account when it was possible is to seek assistance with a 3rd party source.

[PlantBegoniaBrooklyn]

I got the private message referred to above. I replied to it. I gave the additional info they requested and I have not gotten an answer.