Verizon cut off my 90 year old mother's phones

[harllee]

My 90 year old mother has an old Verizon flip cellphone and uses Verizon for her landline. Mother does not use the internet or a computer. Back in August she got a letter from Verizon that stated that both her landline and her cellphone are 3G and would be cut off on 12/31/22. My sister who lives nearby volunteered to look into getting her a new landline (probably with the local telephone company) and a new flip cellphone (probably the Jitterbug phone) and she planned to get all this done well before the 12/31 deadline. Over the weekend on 9/3 both mother's cellphone and land line suddenly quit working. She was panicked. She borrowed a neighbor's phone and got in touch with my sister who took her to the local Verizon store. The employee at the store said that Verizon decided to cut off all 3G phones in the area on 9/3. He claimed mother was notified of this by email (my mother does not have an email and no internet). The store employee was not helpful, did not have any flip phones in stock and told us to call Verizon. I have called Verizon and got nowhere other them saying mother could order a new cellphone to be shipped. My sister is arranging new home landline service with the local telephone service and has ordered a Jitterbug phone for mother but all this will take several days. In the meantime my 90 year old mother is without any phone service (fortunately she lives in a Continuing Care Community and has neighbors who will let her use their phone).

I am really upset at Verizon for not notifying mother her phones were going to to cut off on 9/3 instead of 12/31. I am considering filing complains with the FCC and better Business Bureau. Any other suggestions?

 

[pb4uski]

Yes, 3G was cut off on a rolling basis by area so what you said isn't surprising... I had similar experience with different hotspots that relied on 3G... the one in Vermont went dark in June but the one in Florida was still working and then a few weeks later the one in Florida went dark.

With respect to the complaints, I think you need to find yourself a hobby... not worth the effort... like peeing in the wind.

 

[njhowie]

I am considering filing complains with the FCC and better Business Bureau. Any other suggestions?

Waste of your time. You have nothing to gain. No money was lost, you aren't asking them to do anything for you. Move on, you all have better things to do.

My mom had Boost Mobile and they did the same thing earlier this year. She had email and internet so we knew it was coming as they sent her SMS messages periodically, though they were not very clear. Just put her on the cheapest Mint plan with new phone - half the price of her Boost with better service.

 

[harllee]

Yes, 3G was cut off on a rolling basis by area so what you said isn't surprising... I had similar experience with different hotspots that relied on 3G... the one in Vermont went dark in June but the one in Florida was still working and then a few weeks later the one in Florida went dark.

With respect to the complaints, I think you need to find yourself a hobby... not worth the effort... like peeing in the wind.

Did Verizon give you any sort of notice regarding the cut off?

 

[disneysteve]

That's awful. Verizon needed to take a lesson from AT&T.



They handled the ending of 3G far better. We got notification ages ago, sometime last year I believe, that the service would be ending and my mom's phone would no longer work. We got several reminders. Finally, they sent out a new flip phone free of charge totally on their own. Her old phone remained active until we set up the new one so she was never without service and we didn't have to do a thing to make sure she had uninterrupted service.

 

[MichaelB]

I am really upset at Verizon for not notifying mother her phones were going to to cut off on 9/3 instead of 12/31. I am considering filing complains with the FCC and better Business Bureau. Any other suggestions?

Cutting off communications service to anyone without proper notification is improper, but to do so to a senior citizen is inexcusable.

Sometimes it’s important to complain, not for financial remedy or reimbursement, but for the principle and to help prevent the same from happening to others. I think complaining to the FCC is warranted, and would also complain to the state Attorney General and even write to the Verizon CEO. I would also consider sending a “letter to the editor” of her local news organization and the AARP.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

A 3g landline?

 

[harllee]

Cutting off communications service to anyone without proper notification is improper, but to do so to a senior citizen is inexcusable.

Sometimes it’s important to complain, not for financial remedy or reimbursement, but for the principle and to help prevent the same from happening to others. I think complaining to the FCC is warranted, and would also complain to the state Attorney General and even write to the Verizon CEO. I would also consider sending a “letter to the editor” of her local news organization and the AARP.

Good ideas. Mother has found out that several other people in her Continuing Care Community are in the same boat--Verizon phones cut off over the weekend with no notice. If one of these elderly people fall or have a heart attack and cannot use their cell phone to call 911 that would be a lawsuit.

 

[harllee]

A 3g landline?

That's what Verizon says, that mother's landline is 3G so they cut it off.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

That's odd in that Verizon was replacing 3G phones for free.

https://www.verizon.com/support/3g-cdma-customers/

 

[harllee]

That's awful. Verizon needed to take a lesson from AT&T.



They handled the ending of 3G far better. We got notification ages ago, sometime last year I believe, that the service would be ending and my mom's phone would no longer work. We got several reminders. Finally, they sent out a new flip phone free of charge totally on their own. Her old phone remained active until we set up the new one so she was never without service and we didn't have to do a thing to make sure she had uninterrupted service.

Thanks for this info on AT&T. That is the way it should have been handled. Mother's 911 service was cut off also. I could see a lawsuit a out there if she needed 911 and she could not contact 911 because Verizon cut off her service.

 

[harllee]

That's odd in that Verizon was replacing 3G phones for free.

https://www.verizon.com/support/3g-cdma-customers/

That is odd, mother did not receive a free phone and when I called Verizon about this and asked about a replacement phone they told me the least expensive phone would be $100 and it would be a week to 10 days to be shipped.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

It probably wouldn't hurt to add your e-mail address to her account as well so you can keep an eye on any communications, mail can get lost or stolen.

 

[harllee]

It probably wouldn't hurt to add your e-mail address to her account as well so you can keep an eye on any communications, mail can get lost or stolen.

Mother does not want to use Verizon anymore but I will be sure my sister sets up online accounts for the new service she is getting with sister's email. Mother is very upset about being cut off and says she has always paid her Verizon bill on time. I noticed that Verizon took the bill out of mother's checking just a few days before they cut off her service. That's great customer service.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

Good ideas. Mother has found out that several other people in her Continuing Care Community are in the same boat--Verizon phones cut off over the weekend with no notice. If one of these elderly people fall or have a heart attack and cannot use their cell phone to call 911 that would be a lawsuit.

I bet your local TV consumer action rep would love to hear that this is happening in your area. If it's happening to others then it needs to be brought to Verizon corporate attention quickly and loudly.
You can't do that to the elderly.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

That's what Verizon says, that mother's landline is 3G so they cut it off.

Must have been a system that connected to the cellular network and not a copper POTS (plain old telephone system) since 3G refers to the third generation cellular network. I seem to recall that some phone companies offered these. (Quick Google search turns up something called Verizon Home Phone Connect?) I’d suggest checking if anyone offers an old fashioned line to her home.

 

[harllee]

Must have been a system that connected to the cellular network and not a copper POTS (plain old telephone system) since 3G refers to the third generation cellular network. I seem to recall that some phone companies offered these. (Quick Google search turns up something called Verizon Home Phone Connect?) I’d suggest checking if anyone offers an old fashioned line to her home.

Yes she can get an old fashioned landline through the local telephone company but it is going to take a few days.

 

[anethum]

Verizon is awful to deal with. My 100 year old mom has Verizon Fios in her home. Late last year, her Fios died. I went to my mom's home and spent an hour or more on my cell phone diagnosing the problem with a Verizon tech. We both reached the conclusion that the Verizon box inside my mom's house where the fiber optics cable comes into house had fried. The next day a Verizon repair guy came to my mom's home and removed the fried piece of equipment but left its empty case on the wall, and installed a smaller replacement on another wall. My mom was billed $100 by Verizon for "equipment relocation". I disputed this with Verizon. The customer service agent was unhelpful and her supervisor was nasty. He refused to remove the bogus charge. At that point, I emailed my mom's local government Consumer Protection Office and attached photos of the empty case of the fried Verizon equipment, and a photo of the new replacement. A very helpful man in the Consumer Protection office called me within an hour and told me he had a contact at Verizon he would notify that same day. He added that both Verizon & Comcast (my mom's only options) are awful. Anyway, a few days later Verizon removed the bogus charge on my mom's bill, credited her for a couple of days of outage (which I had to insist upon), and promptly increased her rate.

 

[FIYes]

Harlee, this is a shame. I think a complaint to FCC is in order. It probably won’t be a remedy for your mom, but if enough complaints come in it will force Verizon to quit such heavy handed tactics.

I use an MVNO (Tracfone) that was bought by Verizon. As part of their push to move all users to Verizon sims, they temporarily cut off my service. In fairness, they did send a notification that my service would be interrupted a couple of days beforehand. I was able to get service restored in just a few minutes, but I have the time, interest, and tech know how to deal with this.

I think Buffet was right when he recently sold most of Berkshire Hathaway’s Verizon shares. I certainly don’t want to see Verizon go under….with just 3 big players in the US cell phone service market, competition is needed.

 

[harllee]

Op here-- I am going to do all the complaints people have suggested as I get time, very helpful. I know mother does not have any real damages at this point but someone needs to hold Verizon accountable. Once mother gets her phone numbers ported I am going to demand a refund of mother's Verizon charges back to the date they cut her off.

 

[ivinsfan]

Whatever the big V is spending their money it isn't customer service. We had a huge issue upgrading our company cell plan and phones..how long did it take on the phone and in person. Well, lets just say we could have combined at least 75 acres of corn and had time left over. It's beyond irritating and in H's Mom case they don't make much off of her so they don't ready give a you know what.

 

[ERD50]

It probably wouldn't hurt to add your e-mail address to her account as well so you can keep an eye on any communications, mail can get lost or stolen.

+1

I'm betting that she got text warnings - maybe she doesn't respond to texts, but I bet you will find them on her phone.

One of my phones on my Ting account was considered non-compliant (long story - short story is beware of unlocked phones on Amazon or other places, after the fact I realized one of ours was set up to get updates through AT&T Mexico) and we got lots of emails (I understand your Mom didn't use email) and texts warning us.

Mother's 911 service was cut off also. I could see a lawsuit a out there if she needed 911 and she could not contact 911 because Verizon cut off her service.

I was thinking they can still be used for 911, but apparently not. This would affect a lot of phones donated for abuse victims and others. I don't think this has got enough attention, and I don't know of any good way to test it - I don't think 911 wants a "just checking" call.

-ERD50

 

[harllee]

+1

I'm betting that she got text warnings - maybe she doesn't respond to texts, but I bet you will find them on her phone.

One of my phones on my Ting account was considered non-compliant (long story - short story is beware of unlocked phones on Amazon or other places, after the fact I realized one of ours was set up to get updates through AT&T Mexico) and we got lots of emails (I understand your Mom didn't use email) and texts warning us.



I was thinking they can still be used for 911, but apparently not. This would affect a lot of phones donated for abuse victims and others. I don't think this has got enough attention, and I don't know of any good way to test it - I don't think 911 wants a "just checking" call.

-ERD50

The way I know that 911 is cut off on the 3G phones is that the letter mother got saying that her phone would be cut off on 12/31 states that once 3G is cut off 911 will no longer work. There is also a FCC bulletin warning people about this. Regarding mother getting texts, her phone does not receive texts, the plan she had was voice only. She does get voice mail and she says she had no warning about 3G on her voice mail.

 

[youbet]

Back in August she got a letter from Verizon that stated that both her landline and her cellphone are 3G and would be cut off on 12/31/22.

Similar situation here but our letter said “cut off BY 12/31/22.” Big difference. I wonder why the two different versions?

 

[ShokWaveRider]

They cut DWs 3G device also, but we were warned well in advance.