I truly hope this message reaches the right people.
Recently, my neighbor mentioned he was shopping around for mobile service and found better pricing elsewhere. Curious, I decided to call in to see if I could save money too. As expected, I was told I was on an old plan and was offered a newer one that would save me money. During the call, the representative informed me I was eligible for a loyalty discount as a valued customer for over 20 years — great news!
She mentioned the call might disconnect during the service switch and advised me to restart my phone; she would call me back. After being disconnected, I waited 45 minutes but never got a return call. When I called back, I learned the loyalty discount hadn’t been applied yet, as it required back-office approval rather than being a simple button press by the rep.
Over the next several days, I called multiple times seeking clarification on pricing for upgrading two of my lines, and what it would look like if I added a physical hotspot device. Despite clearly explaining which numbers corresponded to which devices (iPhone 16 Pro Max and iPhone 16), I kept receiving confusing or incorrect information.
After several attempts, I paused until I got a call from Shoshanna, who acknowledged the loyalty discount wasn’t approved but said she would try to help. She found another discount saving me $40/month for 12 months — a welcome relief.
A few days later, I decided to upgrade our phones since our current ones were old and malfunctioning. I spoke with Julianna, explaining that my mother’s phone needed to stay on a basic unlimited plan, and I wanted to get the iPhone 16 Pro Max. We added an Apple Watch and an iPad to take advantage of a deal. Julianna confirmed I was eligible for a $300 Verizon gift card after checking with her supervisor, and we proceeded with the upgrade.
She said the gift card process would be handled by another department and transferred me, noting she’d add remarks to facilitate this. However, the next agent said the remarks were insufficient, and the process required investigation. After some back and forth, I requested to speak to a manager but was told the manager was busy and could not call back for three hours.
Though frustrated, I accepted the callback timeframe. After hanging up, I called back and spoke with a gentleman who understood my situation and reached out to both Julianna and Shoshanna. Unfortunately, Shoshanna was offline, and Juliana said she would return my call — which never happened.
I kept calling, sometimes being disconnected or receiving no resolution. I grew increasingly frustrated by the poor customer service from such a large company. During one call, an agent listened carefully, noticed some missing details regarding the gift card, and after 15 minutes assured me everything was set. He provided a market ID and promo code and said I would get an email within 48 hours.
Due to past issues, I requested confirmation via email. The agent couldn’t send an email himself but arranged for a text message confirmation instead — progress, I thought.
The next day, my new phone was supposed to be delivered by noon, but I hadn’t received any tracking information. Checking the order, I discovered it was on hold due to a fraud alert. I tried to verify my identity via the app, but the camera didn’t activate, so I called in.
On the call, I was informed the gift card had not been processed. After explaining everything again, the call was disconnected without a callback — a disappointing repeat of the pattern. I called back, told the story again, and asked to speak to someone who could resolve the issue without bouncing me around or feeding me misinformation.
After a long hold, I finally reached the fraud department - Not what I was looking for but oh well. She cleared the fraud alert and assured me she would route me to the right person.
Finally, I spoke with an agent who applied credits, sent me confirmation emails, and helped with the issue in about 31 minutes — one of the shortest calls in this saga, aside from the disconnected calls.
Believe it or not this is a summary and I'm sure I missed some notes.
