Cancelled Order Not Refunded Yet and Received a Bill for it

[PeasantKing]

At the beginning of December 2024 I purchased two new phones (S24+ and iPhone 16 Pro) because of the holiday deal Verizon was running. I was a new customer, transferring over from T-Mobile.  Purchasing the phones online was really simple and easy.  But after a few hours I decided I no longer wanted the S24+ and wanted the Ultra instead. 

I opened up a chat to see if it would be possible to return the S24+ and get the Ultra instead. The agent said it was and in fact he could order the Ultra for me and so he did. Anyways, I ended up deciding against the Ultra as the S24+ and iPhone Pro were already shipping and the Ultra had not shipped yet. Opened up chat again and requested they cancel the second order, the one with the S24 Ultra. Told me they couldn't over chat and gave me a number to call to cancel, which I did. Or so I thought.

The next day the second order shipped. Opened up chat and they were finally able to cancel it because a cancellation was put through but never confirmed or something along those lines. Checked the second order and the phone was moving but rerouted back to return to the warehouse. I had paid for three phones essentially and knew I would be getting a refund on the Ultra but probably had to wait until it returned to the warehouse before the process could start. Phone finally returned to the warehouse based on UPS' tracking. So I waited, and waited, and waited, but I still didn't get a refund.

A week or two goes by and I get two emails about how a line on my account was inactive - weird, but okay. A few days go by and I get a bill from Verizon. Cool, I thought it was my first bill for the two phones. Nope, it was a bill for the Ultra. The same Ultra that was supposed to be cancelled. The same Ultra that was returned. The same Ultra I never received.  Opened up a support ticket and they reassured me that I didn't have to pay but to check back in 2-3 days from now to get a status on my refund. And just today, 2 days later, I get a letter telling me I have an inactive line on my account. Checked my bank to see if a refund went through, nothing.

Opened up a support ticket today and they told me that they couldn't check the status of my refund because they do not have authorization to access the account because I wouldn't be able to authorize it - to authorize, I would need to access the Ultra, the one I don't have. Gave them my order # and location code instead and told me that the return process was never started (okay...). They created a ticket to escalate it but would take 4-5 business days for someone to get back to me. Okay, cool, but what about the bill that's due in a few days - no answer. Asked again and they told me that my upcoming bill shows $0 and there are no outstanding balances on the account with lines ending in XXXX. Awesome, wait, but there's a problem. The account they mentioned was my active line, they checked my actual, active account. I gave up on that support ticket and stopped responding.

Of course, I'm not going to pay this bill for a phone I never received, never activated, and don't even have. I'm just worried that if I do not pay, it would cause other issues and more headaches of back and forth with Verizon. Would they send me to collections, will it affect my credit? I am planning on calling Verizon to talk to an actual person, but is there anything else I can or should do? This experience has been terrible and am starting to regret switching to Verizon.

Tl;dr: Had two separate orders for phones. Cancelled one order but have not been refunded yet but still received a bill for it and letter saying the line was inactive. Found out the return process never even started despite UPS saying it was returned to the warehouse. 

[vzw_customer_support]

We hate to see that you had tried to cancel the order and it didn't go through from the start. Did you set up the Ultra on the same account as your other 2 active lines or was it set up and billing on its own account?

-Meg

[PeasantKing]

Hi Meg.

The Ultra was set up on its own account separate from the other 2 active lines as it was a separate order. When I look at my current active bill, it shows only 2 lines.

Although, I never activated the phone or the line because the Ultra was never sent. It was rerouted midway through back to the warehouse. 

[vzw_customer_support]

PeasantKing thank you for that information. We would be happy to look more into this for you. When are you able to chat more?

-Harry