TLDR: I called to switch from prepaid to postpaid, and a Verizon employee made multiple mistakes with my name and address resulting in the fraud department blocking my social security number and marking me as fraud. Verizon will not help me further (tried in store, on phone, and on digital assistant).
To give some context about me- I'm a veteran, an engineer with 785+ credit score, and a loyal Verizon customer for about 10 years. I've never missed or paid late with Verizon ever. I have never been treated so badly by a company as Verizon has treated me in the past 24 hours.
I called yesterday to switch from a prepaid to postpaid account for better cell reception and a Ticketmaster presale. I own my phone outright and just wanted to come close to the cost of my prepaid plan. After a length phone call, they eventually said I was approved and I was good to go.
Then I saw on the confirmation email, that the application had the wrong first name, my last name misspelled, and my address was completely butchered. I brought this up and they transferred me to multiple people ending with the fraud department who said that I was now denied and they cannot approve me. They refused to speak to me or answer questions. Then they hung up on me.
I called back and persisted, ended up talking to about 20 different people. I submitted documents (drivers license, taking a selfie, providing a utility bill) and provided my social security number probably a dozen times. Overall I spent 5 hours on the phone with more and more applications submitted and denials. The guys seemed to be helping and escalating, then they got fraud on the line who promptly hung up on us and they all hung up on me completely.
At this point, I went to 2 different Verizon stores and then went back to one today. The same thing happened in store as over the phone. I brought an abundance of documentation with me just in case- ss card, passport, drivers license, car insurance, and utility bill. The fraud department hung up on the store employees just like they had done to me. The employees in store said that this is how it's been since COVID.
Our only guess of what is happening is that the original employee entered my information incorrectly which flagged the system. No one could give me a timeline, or say how to fix this, how to get a postpaid account, or when could I try again. They just said there's nothing they can do. They said my social security number is likely blocked or marked as fraud in the system and the only way to get a postpaid account is to use someone else's social security number (not possible for me and not an acceptable solution). They told me my best bet is to switch to another carrier.
I have gone through this forum and tried the phone numbers Verizon recommends. I can't get anyone on the phone. The digital assistant is a joke- the chat completely closes itself out over and over, completely wiping the conversation history and disconnecting me from the agent.
This is the worst customer service I've ever experienced. I can't believe Verizon would treat me like this after so many years of loyalty. I have never experienced a company so resistant to help fix a simple problem.
Please help- how do I file a formal complaint? How do I reach out to the executive team? How do I get Verizon to fix THEIR mistake? There is no problem with my identity- it was easier for me to get a military security clearance than it was for me to try to go from prepaid to postpaid account. I can provide an abundant of information and I have active identity theft monitoring systems on my ssn so I KNOW that there's nothing wrong with my identity.
