Why is Verizon having issues with activating prepaid accounts since 10/5?
the_blur
Enthusiast - Level 3

I have been without a phone since Thursday (it is now Saturday night) because I purchased a new phone and when they went to activate it, they deactivated my old phone.

This was before the agent realized that they could not activate any new prepaid phones.  This has been an issue since they began an upgrade on 10/4 and was to be completed by 10/5.  It is now 10/11 and after spending over 10 hours on the phone, escalating all the way up to tier 3 support and in a physical store speaking with the store manager, they are still unable to give me any service on either my old phone or new one! I use this line for a business! The only option is to create a new account but they stated if they create a new account they still will be unable to activate a prepaid phone.

This is pathetic.  When will you resolve this issue?

I work in IT and having an issue like this for 7 consecutive days, leaving customers without service, is a complete lack of competence.

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Re: Why is Verizon having issues with activating prepaid accounts since 10/5?
yvette84
Enthusiast - Level 1

I'm having the same issue. Its been like this for 3 days now. still no straight forward anwsers. I'm getting really upset about this!!!

Re: Why is Verizon having issues with activating prepaid accounts since 10/5?
the_blur
Enthusiast - Level 3

At this point, Verizon has proven that they do not care about their prepaid customers.

I have spent over $1000 in work hours and lost $600 in business because of this outage.  Meaning Verizon technically owes me $1600.

The only answer anyone at Verizon can give (even escalated to their highest tier support) is that they do not know when this will be resolved and they cannot help me in any way.  When I was in the store, even the manager of the store was frustrated with their own technical support and lack of information given about the status of this issue.

If Verizon does not resolve this, they will lose customers.  Although one customer probably does not mean much to them, the publicly that will happen because of this will make them loose much more 'face' and customers in the long run.  Unfortunately we live in a time of social media and 'need it now' and a company that provides a 'now' service being down for over a week is unacceptable.  Some sort of status update is the least they could provide instead of making their customers jump through hoops, wait on hold and get un-informed answers.

Working in customer service for over twenty years now and providing world class support I know this does not cut it.  Verizon is performing the lowest level possible of support to their customers and the people that really need to answer to this issue are the directors of IT.

Verizon can talk the talk, but cannot walk the walk....

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Re: Why is Verizon having issues with activating prepaid accounts since 10/5?
asd401
Newbie

I have been in the same boat since Monday 10/6. Been through the same non-sense as you including going to a corporate store where they said nothing they can do but open a new post pay acct. Luckily mine is not business but it is my only personal phone so when outside of work I have no phone at all. My primary concern is that I will forever lose my phone number which I have had for 8 years. Of course Verizon has changed me for prepaid already and not delivered anything.

In your case, and mine too, they knew there was a problem with setting up pre-paid accounts but still cancelled our post pay accounts and left us stranded.

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Re: Why is Verizon having issues with activating prepaid accounts since 10/5?
the_blur
Enthusiast - Level 3

I agree, I totally feel abandoned by Verizon.

I spend a few hours at the store today and the Manager even called the Operations Manager and they still were unable to help me with either activating my old phone back into service or activating the new one.

I was basically just told to keep trying to reprogram my phone every hour in hopes that it works and would receive a phone call from the 'floor manager' which I have yet to get.

I also used the live chat and they stated that a representative would call me back with an update.  I hope I do because I am flying home tomorrow without service of any kind (a service I have paid for up front for but not received).

This is amounting to be the single worst customer service experience I have ever dealt with..  Just get me a working phone, please....

Also, do not feel stuck with Verizon, there are other carriers that are available and even use the Verizon network and your phone number can be transferred to another provider!

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Re: Why is Verizon having issues with activating prepaid accounts since 10/5?
asd401
Newbie

The number can only be transferred if there is an open acct on it.....at least that is what everyone is telling me.

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Re: Why is Verizon having issues with activating prepaid accounts since 10/5?
the_blur
Enthusiast - Level 3

Just get another provider while you still have your Verizon account open..

if you have paid for this month, you have the rest of this month to find another provider and have the number transferred.

Once you no longer have any account that is holding onto that phone number the number is open and I'm not sure how/if you can request a specific number.

Or wait till later in the month, or the end of the month.  You may be out some of the service you paid for but you will have a provider that is better for you.

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Re: Why is Verizon having issues with activating prepaid accounts since 10/5?
m_bler
Newbie

Well, now Verizon screwed me over even more.

I made a last ditch effort last night to get this resolved, I was transferred to a 'tier 2 technical support' rep and waited on hold for 2 HOURS! I finally got in touch with a technician who said that my account was so screwed up that the only way to remove my old phone was to close out the account and create a new one.

He told me that there was a 95% chance that he would be able to recover my old phone number and he would call me today at 8:30PST.

Well, guess what, he didn't call... and he only credited me $45 dollars to my account when I paid $60 this month and did not have service for 5 days.

Congrats Verizon on having the WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE ON THE PLANET!

It is also horrible that I was told that I would receive THREE callbacks and not ONCE did you call me back, but you also screwed me over by disconnecting my old phone number and did not credit me money that I paid to you.  Also after speaking with a technician over the phone you also apparently erased any single record of the 20+ hours of escalation by wiping the notes from my previous account.

I didn't think things could get worse but they did!

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Re: Why is Verizon having issues with activating prepaid accounts since 10/5?
asd401
Newbie

Your experience is the same as mine. I think the people do not call us back because they cannot fix the problem - I expect because a certain department inside Verizon has the keys to the kingdom (database) and they have a system that is FUBAR due to the mistake made with the revision update. One of the well meaning people I talked with game me his personal number, and even they did not return my last call. It has been over a week now so just buy a used phone and go to AT&T - looks like their prepaid is actually a bit less expensive and they seem to have good coverage. You have to understand how these corporations work and not get so mad about it. Long term Verizon will be limited in their success because the top mgmt. is not on the ball with the details it takes for long term success. All the individual can do is take their business somewhere else and warn their friends.

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Re: Why is Verizon having issues with activating prepaid accounts since 10/5?
the_blur
Enthusiast - Level 3

I agree, when in doubt they ignore the problem and hope it goes away.. pretty standard procedure for companies these days.

I was finally able to get this resolved and it was a fairly simple process, but getting someone to actually go above and beyond saying 'I don't see anything, sorry there is nothing I can do' it seemed was the most difficult thing.

All they needed to do was setup my new phone on a 'blank/test' account, enable my old phone back and then move the new phone to the old account and it worked fine. (this happened after speaking with 3 reps and getting hung up on after I asked for a manager)

I gladly acknowledged the rep who actually took the time to listen and understand my situation and had some knowledge of how things work within their systems.  He was able to get a manager to re-enable my old account with the correct credit and the rep worked the system correctly to achieve what I needed.

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