Verizon bug leaves customer in limbo for weeks over a mystery fee

We’ve all encountered unexplainable problems and bugs: it’s part of life, not tech is perfect, just like no human is. But it’s quite annoying nonetheless, especially if a strange bug or issue is preventing you from upgrading to a new phone and taking advantage of a nice Verizon offer. As is the case with this customer, who confided in Reddit their frustrations about a seemingly minor issue that has yet to be resolved for almost a month now. The customer says that they stopped by a local Verizon store to take advantage of a nice offer to get a new phone. The Verizon rep was helpful and polite, and everything was going well… until the carrier refused to finance the new phone. Apparently, the customer had an unpaid fee of less than $70 on their account.

The customer reports they’ve had automatic payments on their account and are certain they never had any issues with payments. The Verizon rep spent nearly an hour trying to resolve what could be a bug in the system or some other occurrence but was unsuccessful.

Advised to go home and contact Verizon, the customer left empty-handed. Then, they did what we all would do: called Verizon‘s customer support, looking for a way to resolve the mix-up.

-FolwarkPAPL on Reddit, April 2025

Unfortunately, the user was not given a resolution. They report that three days ago, they found out there might have been an account opened and closed years ago (apparently not under the customer’s name), somehow connected to the customer. That account had less than $70 unpaid on it.

Despite finding the probable cause, the user has yet to see a resolution and is not able to upgrade their phone at the moment. They are even considering switching providers.

Redditors suggest that they contact BBB to find a resolution to the issue or get their help.

We have reached out to Verizon for a comment and we’ll update this story when we receive the response.