Verizon customer's simple request is severely botched by multiple agents, and he allegedly has proof
A simple request by a Verizon customer turns into a massive headache for him, and the loss of his phone number.
Verizon customer's eSIM request turns into a major headache | Image by PhoneArena
You would think that Verizon would make sure that a loyal subscriber with five active lines would be treated the right way. Instead, a series of blunders by the carrier's customer service team led the customer to lose his primary phone number for a few days and suffer through, what he would call, an "absolute nightmare."
A simple request from a Verizon customer turns into a massive headache
The Verizon customer wrote all about his experience on Reddit under the username of "Beginning_Staff_1877." He claims that the whole mess began with a simple request. The customer merely wanted to have the eSIM transferred from his old phone to his new one.
Evolution from SIM card to eSIM. | Image by HONOR
Unlike a regular physical SIM card that you can take out of the SIM tray on your old handset and place in a SIM tray on your new phone, an eSIM is an embedded SIM card placed on the phone's motherboard. To make changes, you have to call your wireless provider and tell them what you want done to your eSIM. That’s exactly what this Verizon customer was doing when his troubles began.
Verizon agents failed to call back the customer after promising to do so
To reiterate, the customer was on the phone with a Verizon agent trying to move his eSIM from his old phone to his new one. The agent didn't appear to know what he was doing, according to the Verizon subscriber, who noted that the conversation had been going on for over two hours and nothing was getting accomplished.
Based on what we know, who is to blame here?
The agent told the customer that he was going to try and "trick the system" to reserve his number. Whatever he meant by that, it didn't work, and he told the customer that he would call back the next day at 1 PM EDT to fix it. Of course, the time came and passed without the customer receiving the promised call from the Verizon agent.
The carrier accidentally suspended the customer's phone number
Since the agent failed to call him, the next day the customer got back on the phone and called Verizon, which meant that he had to start from scratch with a new customer service agent. The new agent had some stunning news to relay. Whatever the original representative did when he said that he was tricking the system resulted in the carrier accidentally suspending the customer's phone number.
The Verizon subscriber was told that it would take 24 hours to reactivate his number, and the new agent promised to call at 4 PM the next day to make sure that his number was working. It's too bad that you couldn't make a bet that there would be no return call at the promised time on Polymarket, because once again, this agent failed to live up to her promise and did not call back the customer.
Feeling fully frustrated, the jilted Verizon customer spoke with a third agent who informed him that because his phone number was suspended, the system is returning "a massive error code" and a full investigation is required. To make matters worse, this agent refused to transfer him to a supervisor stating that the latter would be unable to help him.
The Verizon customer is forced to pay out of pocket for an Xfinity Mobile account to stay connected
Because he did not have a working number for four days through no fault of his own, this Verizon customer had to open an account with MVNO Xfinity Mobile and pay out of his own pocket for a line so that he could remain connected to the world. He also had to get a new phone number because the suspension of his Verizon number meant that he could not port it out to another carrier.
For protection, the Verizon customer allegedly recorded the conversations he had with the last three customer service agents. Each one admitted that the original customer agent screwed up and wrongly suspended his phone number. To be fair, we have not heard the recordings.
The customer wrote, "Verizon, you have failed on every single level. Your customer service value and basic respect for loyal consumers is nonexistent." He also said that if Verizon didn't escalate this to an executive supervisor and fix the problem immediately, he would send the recordings of the calls and a formal complaint to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Better Business Bureau (BBB).
Just keep in mind that this whole thing started when the Verizon subscriber made a request that is pretty simple. He wanted his eSIM transferred from his old phone to his new handset.
Verizon has sent this statement from a company spokesperson. "While we cannot comment on anonymous social media posts, we always invite customers who experience something that does not live up to our standards to contact us directly so we can make it right."
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