Transfer prepaid service from one phone to another

[Philsang]

Hello;

First, thanks for reading. I've spent nearly 3 hours on customer service automated lines, and browsing the website and have got nothing at all ot show for my time.

In July 2015 I purchased a Samsung Galaxy J1 and activated it with the prepaid plan of $45/ month. All was fine and well until I received a new phone for my birthday in 2017. This new phone is a HTC Desire 530. I was told by the gifter that I could be able to transfer my account and number to the new phone without having to pay an additional activation fee, etc etc.

My problem is, I got home and opened up the new phone box and took a look at all its contents. Then began reading the user manual because I'm one of the rare members of the human species to actually do this, and it said that I first needed to activate the phone. Step 1 of that process was to first charge the phone, and then turn it one and follow the prompts on screen.

Well I did this, and it set me up with a new number (something I didn't want) and asked me to create a my verizon account (something I already have). There was no option to sign in to an pre-existing account on the phone, so I attempted to simply type in my pre-existing info and was greeted with "Sorry that username is not available."

So then I logged into my account on verizon's website and was greeted by an automated chat bot. I typed in my question and it told me to do the following:

1. Click on My services, then My devices
2. Click on "Change device"
3. Put in the Device ID code and the SIM code

When I did all of this I saw an error pop up on the page "Unable to use Device ID, already in use."

So back to the chat bot I went, and it told me to do the same exact thing. Obviously that wasn't going to work, so I tried the customer help line. It told me to do the exact same thing the automated chat bot did. So now I'm stuck here with an old phone that works, and a new phone that is semi-activated(?) but unable to do anything.

If anyone made it this far, what in the ever loving [Removed] do I have to do to transfer my prepaid plan from my Galaxy J1 to the HTC Desire 530 without having to pay an additional 45.75 and setting up an all new verizon account.

- Phil

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