Verizon overplayed its hand, got hit with a brutal reality check, and is now back to square one

It seems like not a single week can pass before Verizon does something that lands it in hot water with its customers again. For a very long time, the carrier had been introducing changes willy-nilly, much to the annoyance of its users. But, perhaps because of the silent majority, the company thought that it take it a step further.

Anyone who’s spent any time at all in online circles dedicated to discussion about Verizon knows that many of its customers are only with the company for their discounts. T-Mobile and AT&T often get praised more than Verizon for their service, but they’re also generally more expensive, unless you’re a victim of Verizon’s pricing crisis.

So, when Verizon suddenly announced that it was taking away everyone’s loyalty discounts, that was the final nail in the coffin for a lot of people.

Verizon’s big mistake

In perhaps the most severe lapse of judgment in a very long time, Verizon sent out emails informing customers that their loyalty discounts would soon be null and void. The company’s CFO actively said that the company was focusing more on “high-quality customers” moving forward.

Verizon, it’s safe to say now, probably did not expect the level of backlash this was going to generate. I have never seen so many people not only threatening, but actively promising to leave the carrier for an alternative. Comments across online platforms were flooded with ex-Verizon users boasting about how much less their new plan with another carrier was costing them.



Suffice to say, Verizon’s bluff got called out, and it quickly admitted, through its actions, that it needed the people that were so ready to leave.

Rolling it back with new discounts

This entire stunt has led nowhere, and Verizon is now back to square one, but with even less users. The company has already been losing subscribers, and this just wasn’t something it should have done during such a tumultuous time.

As it stands, customer service has been whispering about a new Verizon loyalty discount that’s going to begin rolling out in September. This new discount will streamline the aforementioned pricing crisis by making it much simpler for the company to handle rewards.

The new loyalty discount is apparently going to be custom-tailored for each individual user. Your number of lines and plans will be taken into account, and a straight percentage discount will be applied to your entire bill. No more unexplained price hikes or discount offers.

Furthermore, until this new offer arrives, the old trick for a Verizon discount still seems to be working for some people as well. It seems quite evident what happened here.

Verizon overplayed its hand

What Verizon did was that it thought it could perhaps get away with a major change that was severely detrimental to its customers. People are already fed up with carrier pricing nowadays, and taking away loyalty discounts just didn’t fly with them.

Unfortunately for the company, those aforementioned “high-quality customers” aren’t enough to save it, and it really does need to start thinking about reversing that falling subscriber count. Verizon isn’t alone in being a source of frustration for consumers — T-Mobile and AT&T also stay busy in that regard — but it’s definitely the carrier that I’ve seen the most complaints about.

I’m not Verizon, and I don’t really have much experience in operating a massive telecom company, but I think keeping the perk that’s making your user base stick around would be common sense.

If nothing else, there’s at least one good thing that Verizon has gotten right recently, and it actually does benefit all of you. Massively, in fact.

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