My sister is in a huge mess with Verizon Wireless.
In the first days of COVID here in Illinois, her phone died, and she's a healthcare worker. She has to have a phone. She went to Best Buy to get a new phone and new service with Verizon. She had been previously using a "month to month" carrier for service, where you buy cards for service at Wal-Mart. She was ready to "move up" to Verizon.
She picks out her new phone, does all of the paperwork, but Best Buy can't get the phone to activate in the store. Again, this was in the very first days of the COVID shutdown here in Illinois, and things were all screwed up...everywhere. After a couple of hours waiting in the store, the staff at Best Buy tells her to take the phone and they'll keep working on getting her service established.
Three days later, the phone still doesn't work. No service, no nothing. She gives up and takes the phone back to Best Buy and they give her money back for the phone.
Now... she's in collections with Verizon for $335, for cell service that she never had. No monthly bills, no nothing. Just a collections letter out of nowhere.
In the letter, Verizon provided a phone number for her to call to address the issue. When she calls the number for Verizon, no one will help her, as she doesn't have a PIN number, for an account that never worked. No PIN, no assistance from Verizon. Yesterday, she spent over 2 hours calling Verizon, and tried 5 different times with 5 different reps at Verizon. No one at the number that Verizon provided is able to help. When she doesn't have a PIN, the Verizon reps end the call, as they don't know what else to do. She's asked for a supervisor and they can't do that, as the undertrained droids that take the calls can't establish ownership of the account though a PIN number.
So what is one supposed to do, when Verizon pulls a stunt like this? They won't talk to her, in her attempt to resolve a problem that they created.
It has been 21 years since I've dealt with establishing new service on a cell phone, and I can't remember how it all works, and it probably has all changed since then.
In the first days of COVID here in Illinois, her phone died, and she's a healthcare worker. She has to have a phone. She went to Best Buy to get a new phone and new service with Verizon. She had been previously using a "month to month" carrier for service, where you buy cards for service at Wal-Mart. She was ready to "move up" to Verizon.
She picks out her new phone, does all of the paperwork, but Best Buy can't get the phone to activate in the store. Again, this was in the very first days of the COVID shutdown here in Illinois, and things were all screwed up...everywhere. After a couple of hours waiting in the store, the staff at Best Buy tells her to take the phone and they'll keep working on getting her service established.
Three days later, the phone still doesn't work. No service, no nothing. She gives up and takes the phone back to Best Buy and they give her money back for the phone.
Now... she's in collections with Verizon for $335, for cell service that she never had. No monthly bills, no nothing. Just a collections letter out of nowhere.
In the letter, Verizon provided a phone number for her to call to address the issue. When she calls the number for Verizon, no one will help her, as she doesn't have a PIN number, for an account that never worked. No PIN, no assistance from Verizon. Yesterday, she spent over 2 hours calling Verizon, and tried 5 different times with 5 different reps at Verizon. No one at the number that Verizon provided is able to help. When she doesn't have a PIN, the Verizon reps end the call, as they don't know what else to do. She's asked for a supervisor and they can't do that, as the undertrained droids that take the calls can't establish ownership of the account though a PIN number.
So what is one supposed to do, when Verizon pulls a stunt like this? They won't talk to her, in her attempt to resolve a problem that they created.
It has been 21 years since I've dealt with establishing new service on a cell phone, and I can't remember how it all works, and it probably has all changed since then.