Who I have the same questioned this topic

On 10/7 went online to place and order. Was switching from another service provider, 2 phones I was bringing over and would be getting 2 phones from verizon.  Website said I would receive email confirmation. I never did receive email confirmation and on 10/9 I called verizon and explained that I placed an online order on 10/7. Agent said that she could not find the order and that it did not process, and proceeded to place a new order. Fast forward a week or so and I receive one box with two phones one day, and another box with two phones the next day.

I go thru the email instructions to activate the phones that I have email confirmation for. Get porting numbers from the old provider, phone EID, IMEI, IMEI2 numbers etc. Process is a disaster. Try online, try agent chat and try speaking to a human. In each instance I am told that everything is all set, only for the phones to never activate. Days go by and finally get someone from this country to speak with who is seemingly competent.  After telling him that if the phones don't get activated that day I will be returning them all and be looking for another provider, he investigates ..... Well, turns out that the original online order did process and that is the one that is tied to an account. So spend hrs on the phone with him and he finally is able to get the phones that were opened activated as well as the 2 devices that we brought with us.  So I ask about the additional 2 phones that were sent to me. He tells me that the billing is all a mess, and he will be working on that in the coming days and will call me back once it is all straightened out.  He never calls...... So weeks go by and I finally call Verizon and say "Hey I have 2 phones here that you sent me that are not activated that I assume you want back". After spending another hour trying to get them to understand and reiterating which phones are active and which ones are not, they email me a label to bring to a local UPS store so I can return the devices.  

Devices are returned, and shown delivered on 12/18/23. My bill notification shows that I have a nearly $1000 charge for a phone. So I do the agent chat, spend another hour going thru the details. Agent confirms that they received the devices and assures me that I will not be charged for the device. I also bring up the second device that was returned that I seemingly have not been charged for yet and want to ensure that I am not. Agent tells me that they are opening a ticket and  not to worry. I receive a text from verizon stating that a ticket has been submitted.

Fast forward to today...... I see the charge for the phone come out of my bank account - $1000 for the phone I was told would be removed from my bill before the due date (it was not). I obviously need to resolve this so I try the agent chat. Waste another hour there only to get dropped 3 times. I finally schedule a call with a human. 2 hrs on the call here. Only to be told that because the phone was returned after 30 days that I am stuck with the charges and that the other phone that was returned will be coming as a charge on the next bill! I am obviously unhappy with this, but it gets even worse! Agent assures me there is nothing they can do to reverse the charge and stop the next one even though they confirm that they have received the unopened devices. So then I tell the agent that I at least want the devices I have no paid for sent back to me (If I am going to pay $2k I at least want the phones in hand)! I am told that there is no way they can send them back to me! I ask to speak with a supervisor and am told that one will call me, but am given no commitment as to what time, other than being told that it likely won't be today. 

This is outrageous.  A multi-billion $ company, and they get the phones back to resell and stick Joe Average Guy with a $2K bill for absolutely nothing. And it has been their error from the start, starting with the agent called on 10/9 who said they could not find the online order and placed an additional one. I have spoken with no fewer than 7 people from the point of order to activation to billing and along the way have been told that things were going to be fixed only to get this news today 2 days after Christmas.  Is this how you conduct business Verizon? Mishandling the situation on your side of things, and then charging customers for devices that they physically returned to you that you will undoubtable resell? Stay as far away from this company as possible.