TL;DR: Verizon franchise stores using unethical business practices and false advertising while Verizon doesn’t uphold any protections for customers

[Bthriller]

A little less than a week ago my family, who has been with Verizon for 30+ years (shoutout to Bell Atlantic), heard from another family member, and later saw advertised on TV, that Verizon was running a promotion for existing customers where they could upgrade their phones to the newest available iPhone for free depending on their plan level. So my parents called Verizon and were informed that Verizon owned stores were only offering it to new customers but their franchise stores were offering it to existing customers and it was a legitimate advertisement. So my parents went down to their nearest Verizon store to see about switching. 

Since we’re on a family plan for 6, my parents received all the phones that day and then the plan, as advised by the employees, would be for us to activate our new phones and then we could take our old phones back to the store or mail them back to Verizon because that’s where the store mails them to. 

But a few days later, and now out in California visiting me, my parents received an email from Verizon with their new monthly bill estimate, and instead of it just being a little higher from phone activation fees, it was astronomically higher. 

So, now being out of state and not being able to go back to that store, my parents reached out to Verizon about the bill discrepancy and how it didn’t reflect the deal they received in the Verizon store. Verizon then informed my parents that was a franchise location and Verizon is not responsible for those stores and the deal would not be honored and they would either have to pay the new monthly fee or return everything that was purchased to go back to the old billing. 

Since my parents are out of state (and were supposed to be on vacation) they have spent the last 24 hours trying to figure out what to do to both fix this problem and also not be stranded on the west coast ostensiby with no phone. It’s really frustrating that this is happening and we’re working to fix this but it’s so totally wrong that this had to happen in the first place. 

If in-store they had been honest and up front about the new monthly fees my parents never would’ve agreed to it because it’s outside of our means. But I think the store was more driven to make money based on deceit than to consider a loyal customer’s needs and limitations. 

It almost feels predatory, and maybe consumers could really benefit from having the FTC look into their franchises selling products and plans using unethical business practices and false advertising, especially if Verizon is not going to. 

[vzw_customer_support]

Bthriller, the last thing we want is for you to have any problems with your parents upgrades, and we're sorry that they're going through this situation. None of our loyal customers should feel like they were lied to after an interaction. We'd be happy to take a look at what happened. Please be on the lookout for a Private Message.

~Jesse