Verizon Deception

[MTS11648]

Jurisdiction

New Hampshire

I recently had an experience with Verizon where my mother (the owner of our account) was told that my phone would be compatible with their services. When I heard this news, I paid off my phone from our old carrier, AT&T, for a sum of roughly $840. When we got our new SIM cards from Verizon it turned out that my phone was NOT compatible and that I had essentially paid off my phone for no reason. We had recently moved and we had to commute nearly two hours just to get the situation figured out, in which we had to swap back to AT&T.

I feel we have been deceived, intentionally or otherwise, into switching to Verizon despite the fact that my phone was incompatible. Of course I would still have to pay the $840 anyway, but this was originally spanned out over the course of several months and was my preferred method of paying, I would not have paid this money up front if Verizon had simply told me my phone was incompatible ahead of time.

I wish to seek a partial compensation for the price of my phone and have any fees imposed by the plan with Verizon waived for this inconvenience. What are my options, if any?

 

[army judge]

What are my options, if any?

You can ask AT&T to refund you the money, beg them to refund the loot, or sue them.

I am not commenting on your chances of ever seeing $1.00 no matter what you do or say, I'm only disclosing the options you probably already knew.

 

[MTS11648]

You can ask AT&T to refund you the money, beg them to refund the loot, or sue them.

I am not commenting on your chances of ever seeing $1.00 no matter what you do or say, I'm only disclosing the options you probably already knew.

I believe I would like to sue Verizon, but I am not really sure if I have a solid case. The $840 went to AT&T, but again, this payment wouldn't have been made if Verizon didn't trick me into believing a simple carrier swap with my current device would have been possible. I just want to verify if I even have a case against Verizon because of this deception or if it's irrelevant because the payment went to AT&T.

 

[shrinkmaster]

Part of your problem is you were NOT present during conversation so what details were given or left out are not known. Its "possible" that based on info given Verizon said what they did. You need details on what was said before you jump into action.

 

[adjusterjack]

What are my options, if any?

Well, you certainly aren't getting any of that $840 from Verizon since, by your own admission, you had to pay that to ATT anyway.

Your options:

1 - Go to Verizon with your mother and see if you can get a refund of any costs you incurred.

2 - Sue Verizon if you can't. Good luck with that.

3 - Accept the fact that you jumped the gun without verification of compatibility based on second hand information obtained from somebody and move on.

 

[MTS11648]

Well, you certainly aren't getting any of that $840 from Verizon since, by your own admission, you had to pay that to ATT anyway.

Your options:

1 - Go to Verizon with your mother and see if you can get a refund of any costs you incurred.

2 - Sue Verizon if you can't. Good luck with that.

3 - Accept the fact that you jumped the gun without verification of compatibility based on second hand information obtained from somebody and move on.

Well my mother was told that my phone would be compatible with Verizon's services, which is why we paid it off, I didn't owe AT&T $840 up front originally, that was just because I was leaving the contract with them. The "second hand information" in question is what the representative told her in the store, you would think their word would be trustworthy as they do represent the company. I guess I won't really be able to build up much of a case considering Verizon didn't give her any information in writing - I will make it a habit to get as much written information as possible from now on when dealing with these things and will just let this one slide by. Thank you for the information.

 

[army judge]

I will make it a habit to get as much written information as possible from now on when dealing with these things

There you go, you determined the correct course of action in all situations.

Always get it in writing, dated, and signed!

 

[mightymoose]

I am not really sure if I have a solid case.

No. You do not. You don't really have any damages, just an inconvenience.
If you make enough noise complaining to Verizon they might do something to appease you, but you aren't their customer anymore so don't count on it.

 

[Highwayman]

Well my mother was told that my phone would be compatible with Verizon's services....

Maybe there are different versions of that phone. Many people know that the Verizon and AT&T networks are totally incompatible. Perhaps the rep thought that your mother was smarter about those things than she is. It happens.

Besides, if someone can afford to pay $900 for a lousy phone, a little inconvenience is nothing.

You didn't lose any money, just a little bit of time. You really have no recourse except maybe your mother can get a little bone thrown to her from Verizon.