OPEN LETTER TO VERIZON SEARCHING FOR HELP WITH ISSUE

[APL2025]

To Whom It May Concern,

Recently I had the pleasure of upgrading my iphone12 to an iphone 16 via your trade in plan. I made the order for the purchase via the phone with one of your representatives on the mainland who gave me a location of where I could pick up the new iphone 16 on the Island of Maui in the town of Kahului. This place was the Victra mobile store which is a Verizon Authorized Retailer located at:

275 W. Kaahumanu Ave

Kahului, HI  96732

United States

When I spoke to the representative on the telephone upon placing the order they said that I can send the old iphone 12 back to Verizon in the box of the new iphone 16 via the nearest UPS Store on Maui. They said I could just show up and drop it off and they would know exactly what to do with. There was never any mention of needing a shipping label or what not.

When I finally made my way to the UPS Store after transferring all of my data over to the new iphone 16, I was told after waiting in line for over half an hour, that I would need a shipping label. So I got back on the phone with Verizon and spoke to someone who sent me via email a shipping label. No problem right? 

However when I went back to the UPS Store and waited another half an hour in line, they told me that they could not accept this label as it is for Ground Shipping and because the iphone 12 has a battery and we are on an Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that I would need to get a 2nd Day Air label from Verizon. No problem right?

Yet when I got on the phone AGAIN with Verizon and explaining my story by rote for the third time that day that they could not give me another label and that this is the one they send out to everyone.  I tried explaining to the Verizon representative that the supervisor and another associate at the UPS Store both said they could not accept this label and they have countless other Verizon customers coming in with the same situation and time and time again they are not able to send without the right Shipping Label.

We even discussed the possibility of returning it to an actual Verizon store on Island but the only address the Verizon representative could send me via text was to a location in Honolulu on the Island of Oahu,  which is entirely on a different Island.

I then took my self over to the original place where I picked up the phone at Victra to see if they could accept the phone. They said that they could only accept phones purchased in  store and not transactions made via the website or with Verizon on the telephone.

So with that I called Verizon yet AGAIN, and told the lady that understandably these are first world problems I am dealing with but the fact that a corporation as big as Verizon can not make this a simple trade off is completely mind boggling.

The lady at Verizon, who was very kind, told me that she could mail me physically a label to send the phone back but it would take four or so days. I then proceeded to tell her that my expiration for returning the phone was coming up and I was afraid that I would not be able to get it sent by the due date if there was a physical label sent to me here in Hawaii. Not to mention I live forty five minutes from the location of the UPS store where I came all the way to Kahului to send back the device, and furthermore I am doing this on my day off which at this point has already consumed half of the day.

She then told me that if I wanted to I could go back to the UPS Store and pay for the shipping myself they would reimburse me for the shipping and give me a courtesy credit on top of that equal to the amount the shipping cost. So I went back to the UPS Store and had them ship it and got a receipt for $74 2nd Day Air. Ok no problem right?

So with that said I called your first available Verizon representative on this 29th day of January 2025 to see where I could send the receipt for shipping to obtain my reimbursement. The rep told me that they can not do for more than $30 and could not give me a courtesy credit even though there are notes from the rep yesterday that said I would be reimbursed. I asked to speak with a supervisor and with that I am waiting to be contacted.

I am not a Karen and I am not wanting to cause problems however this has been a complete inconvenience on my end and a company like Verizon that makes millions and millions of dollars can not handle this situation makes me want to switch to another provider like AT&T which actually has better service in my coverage area anyhow. If I was shipping the device from Sri Lanka or Afghanistan, I could understand how there may be problems but Hawaii is part of the United States. Thank you for your time in reading my situation and have a great day.