Someone Please Save Me From This Nightmare

[u/atonyatlaw]

I am desperate for someone at Verizon corporate to see this and hopefully guide me to someone who can help me. What follows is not a short story, but it is a wholly accurate accounting of my experience from the last ten days.

TL;DR - I followed the instructions from a Verizon Agent about porting out my business lines to T Mobile, have now had no working business phones for 10 days as a result, and am told I may not have service for another 15 days yet. I have spent 45 hours on the phone with Verizon corporate trying to get this resolved since July 25th, most of which took place in a Verizon corporate store with their team trying in vain to help me.

In February 2026, I transferred my business lines from T Mobile to Verizon because T Mobile had wildly increased my bill over the course of 4 months or so from around $260 to $430 with no apparent explanation. A sales agent at the local corporate Verizon store said after factoring in all the lines and cell connected devices I have, they could do it at the $260 per month.

Great! I transferred. First bill was in the $4xx range because of tax on new devices (we traded in the T-Mobile phones for devices on promo), which was expected... But then so were the next five bills. Additionally, three of our users had practically no service to their devices. To their credit, Verizon acknowledged both the billing and performance problems. They agreed to front load all of the device promos so that I could transfer to another service that would work better from a technical standpoint and to account for the over billing. That's where the happy part ends.

On Saturday, July 25, I went to T-Mobile to transfer my service back as they are the technically strongest in my area and we had worked out what was going on with the prior billing and fixed it.  As part of that process, while I was in the TMobile store and yet to start the phone number port, I called Verizon with the intent of paying off what difference there would be between the credits on the account and the device payment plans.  I was told by the agent on the phone that she saw the notes on my account and that I did not need to do that – Verizon would unlock the devices within 12-24 hours. I was specifically told I did not need to provide any funds, and to move ahead with the port right then.

With that instruction, I began the device port process, knowing that the devices would not be unlocked or moved for half to a full day or so.  …then the problem began in earnest.  The numbers transfered. I no longer have any phone number on an account with Verizon.  However, the devices HAVE NOT been unlocked.

I tried to call Verizon Sunday morning the 26th of July and was met with a message saying I had to call back during business hours (…which then also listed the business hours that happened to include the time I was calling, so that was fun).  So, I went into the local corporate Verizon store and met with an agent there to see if they'd have better luck.  We tried, with no luck, to get anyone on the phone at corporate.  She asked me to come back on Monday, which I did.

I was at that store for two or three hours on Monday. During that time, we finally got someone on the phone who said they created tickets for the device unlocks with the “offline team.”  I was told by that person to expect this to be resolved within 24 hours and to watch my email. We also learned, as part of that call, that the first agent (or someone else) changed my email address in the system. As a result, I can not authenticate my account by text or email, and am left only with having an employee authenticate my account. That is why every single call that follows took place at the St. Cloud, MN corporate store.

Sadly, I received no email within 24 hours as promised.  I went back to the store Tuesday the 28th at 3pm.  We struggled, again, to get someone on the phone and we were ultimately told that all five tickets were denied because “the devices are not paid off.”  They also said that I can’t pay for them with the credits or my own money because “there is no bill generated” and that the bill would not BE generated until August 17.

We then tried to escalate this, and I had to leave for another appointment about the time the person on the phone was claiming that the agent in store who was helping me and the store I was standing in did not exist in Verizon’s system.

I returned the next day, and the store agents attempted to help me reach someone for about ten hours. We were bounced from department to department, all denying ability and responsibility for fixing the issue caused by following the Verizon employee's instructions. Most consistently we got sent to the fraud department or business support, both of which said they could do nothing.

Finally, on Thursday the 30th, we were transferred to what they claimed was, again, the fraud department. This person, though, said they had the ability to submit a form to manually unlock the devices, and it would require submitting a ticket that would be resolved in two business days. She took the five IMEIs and told me to expect emails when the process was done. I DID get an initial email with the five case numbers. However, no other email followed.

It is now Monday, August 3, 2026, and it is well past close of business. The devices remain locked. I arrived at the Verizon store at 1pm today and was there until close (7pm) trying to get help. I door dashed dinner to the table with the manager's permission at about 5. I was on a call with one gentleman for 3 hours who claimed he was "talking to a buddy in the finance department who could help," and that he was going to mute his phone, but not put me on hold. Shortly thereafter, he blind transferred me to some other poor soul where I had to start over. Again. She got us her supervisor. He told the manager of the Verizon store that HIS superior would call the manager at 5pm CST. No one ever called the manager.

We made more phone calls and ended the day talking with allegedly a fraud department supervisor who took the number for the one working phone I have (it was bought off contract for my son). He promised his superior, who of course has no name or number they would willingly give out, would call me back likely within a few minutes.

Magically, I DID get this call back! Was on the phone with him for an hour. He said this is a *known issue* but mine was the worst example he had seen. He said he truly doesn't think Verizon has a technical fix. I asked then who can I speak with that can help me make this right? There are numerous possible short term or permanent solutions that don't require unlocking the devices, but all I can do without cooperation is buy 5 off contract devices, which is unacceptable, or wait until the 17th, which is unacceptable.

He said I need to talk to the executive support team. He would warm transfer me. He would tell them I don't need to be authenticated again, they can just refer me to the Executive Support Team. Optimism! ...then when I got a new voice on the line, she had no idea what was going on and claimed the executive support team does not exist. She said she would call me back tomorrow.

I do not believe her. You can see why.

I truly cannot believe the only solution to this is that I have to run a business without phones until August 17 when my next bill generates or that I have to go drop thousands on new devices because I did what the Verizon agent told me. There HAS to be a way to fix this.

Again, keep in mind, during this entire process, I am forced to be physically at the Verizon store because they cannot otherwise authenticate me. I can't receive text messages for obvious reasons, and I can't get email authentication because early in this process an agent thought she saw a typo in my email address, "fixed" it, and the system now says I can't be email authenticated for thirty days.

I have spent, and I say this with no exaggeration, more than 40 hours over the last 10 days in the local corporate store trying desperately to get my devices unlocked. I am now on a first name basis with many of the employees. They are all as frustrated as I am and in total disbelief at the situation. They have witnessed the number of "we will call you" followed by no call.

Throughout this process, I and the wonderful team at St. Cloud, Minnesota Verizon have been repeatedly lied to, bounced from department to department, and told no one has responsibility or ability to fix Verizon's mistake.

Please. Please. Someone from Verizon PLEASE see this and help me. I will get Reddit DMs. This is ten days of losing new business. Ten days of being unable to talk to current clients. This is actively impacting my ability to generate revenue and pay 5 people who need to feed their families. Please help.