Verizon cut off my 90 year old mother's phones

[harllee]

OP here. Sister got in the new 4G Jitterbug cell phone for mother (looks good, perfect for mother). Sister is now trying to help mother get her Verizon cell phone number ported to the new phone. Verizon is saying her number cannot port because it is 3G and no longer has service. Is this so? Anyone here that had a Verizon 3G number able to port it to another carrier? What a nightmare dealing with Verizon.

 

[Sue J]

I ported my Verizon number from a 3G flip phone to T-Mobile last fall. It worked perfectly and took less than 10 minutes before it was activated. My service was still active on Verizon, unlike your mother's situation.

I moved the number to a shiny new Apple Iphone 13 mini. My first smartphone!

The new iphone was delivered to the house. I thought I'd have to go into the T-Mobile store if I had issues, but I was able to make the transition without any hassles.

 

[harllee]

I ported my Verizon number from a 3G flip phone to T-Mobile last fall. It worked perfectly and took less than 10 minutes before it was activated.

I moved the number to a shiny new Apple Iphone 13 mini. My first smartphone!

Sue, How did you get the port done? Did you do it online or by calling Verizon? Was your phone already shut down when you tried to port it? Mother did not have an online account so I have been trying to open her one but it will not recognize her cell phone number. Sister went to mother's apartment and got on a call with mother to Verizon and the Verizon employee said it could not be ported because it was no longer a working number due to 3G being shut down. We had not terminated her account, we knew we had to wait until after the number was ported to do that..

 

[Sue J]

I think I did it on my computer. When I activated the phone it assigned it a new number. Then in my T-mobile account online I was able to ask T-Mobile to port my number from my still active Verizon prepaid plan that used the 3G flip phone.

I'm thinking that your mom's number was not specific to 3G, but was attached to her account which is closed now.

I'm sorry you and your mom are in this situation. She may just have to get a new number, which is an adjustment!

 

[harllee]

I think I did it on my computer. When I activated the phone it assigned it a new number. Then in my T-mobile account online I was able to ask T-Mobile to port my number from my still active Verizon prepaid plan that used the 3G flip phone.

I'm sorry you and your mom are in this situation. She may just have to get a new number, which is an adjustment!

Thanks Sue, so your old Verizon phone was prepaid and still active, probably made a difference. We were hoping to avoid getting a new number, that will be very hard for a 90 year old to remember, plus none of her friends will ever remember it. Then there is all the doctors offices, etc that have her old cell number.

 

[ERD50]

Thanks Sue, so your old Verizon phone was prepaid and still active, probably made a difference. We were hoping to avoid getting a new number, that will be very hard for a 90 year old to remember, plus none of her friends will ever remember it. Then there is all the doctors offices, etc that have her old cell number.

I've always read that the number needs to be active to be ported. They always warn you, don't cancel your service and then try to port it, it's lost. Keep it active, port, and then cancel.

But since yours was made inactive by Verizon, rather than by the end user, I would hope they could handle this for you. But it might be an automatic thing, where it just goes into a pool of numbers to be re-used, I don't know. Might have even been re-assigned already? Push Verizon for an answer.

-ERD50

 

[ivinsfan]

The beatings will continue until morale improves....what a cluster...

 

[SecondAttempt]

Interesting. I just called my mother and asked whether she had gotten a replacement phone from Verizon and she said she is sure she did not. There are also about 10 other people in her building that Verizon cut off and they did not get replacement phones. I also called Verizon (I called the local store and the 800 number) and asked about this and they say there were no free phones sent out and they did not know anything about this.

I have had Verizon for at least 10 years and always get great customer service from them. I'm not defending them because I think your situation shows they have really bungled the 3G phaseout. Just saying my experience has been completely different.

One thing that has worked for me in the past is that sometimes the call center people do not know everything. I have had to show them something from their website after which they have always honored it. Verizon is also really good about tracking orders If you found on their website that they are providing a free phone, show it to them then if they claim they sent one ask for tracking info.

 

[harllee]

I have had Verizon for at least 10 years and always get great customer service from them. I'm not defending them because I think your situation shows they have really bungled the 3G phaseout. Just saying my experience has been completely different.

One thing that has worked for me in the past is that sometimes the call center people do not know everything. I have had to show them something from their website after which they have always honored it. Verizon is also really good about tracking orders If you found on their website that they are providing a free phone, show it to them then if they claim they sent one ask for tracking info.

Thanks but we have given up on a Verizon phone and got mother a Jitterbug. Now our problem is that Verizon says we cannot port mother's number to the new phone. You have had good service from Verizon but I have had awful service. Very frustrating

 

[athena53]

I urge all of us to keep up with technology as we age rather than shun it.

While I wholeheartedly agree with you, somehow the ability to deal with technology seems to be one of the skills that can diminish when your brain starts to go. I saw this with both my Dad and my husband. Dad was a retired metallurgical engineer who was just fine changing over to a new computer or printer, downloading drivers, managing his investments on the Internet and with Excel. It was sad to see his skills deteriorate in his last year after a stroke. My husband had designed web sites and could code HTML but in his last few years he didn't cope with tech well, either. He took a class in advanced web design (style sheets, etc.) and it was clear he just didn't get it. Once he forgot his password to log in to his desktop. Fortunately I got there before he'd gotten locked out of it.

EDR50 got it right- cut out the technobabble and the marketing BS and tell customers clearly that their phones are gonna die.

 

[misanman]

This info is too late to be of help for this problem but I think it's important to remember that many "Verizon" stores are operated by third parties. I'm not sure if it's a franchise arrangement or how it's structured. We have one local Verizon store that is actually operated by Verizon and that's where I go if I have an issue. Think I've been there once in the last five years or so. I think the third-party stores tend to have less knowledgeable staff.

 

[Skoach]

I've always read that the number needs to be active to be ported. They always warn you, don't cancel your service and then try to port it, it's lost. Keep it active, port, and then cancel.

But since yours was made inactive by Verizon, rather than by the end user, I would hope they could handle this for you. But it might be an automatic thing, where it just goes into a pool of numbers to be re-used, I don't know. Might have even been re-assigned already? Push Verizon for an answer.

-ERD50

I worked on a Local Number Portability interface for a pre-Verizon wireless company. AT THE TIME the number did have to be active to be eligible for porting.

Note, this was at very beginning of number portability so things may be different now.

I believe that you will have no luck with ‘standard’ store reps and customer care folks. They simply don’t have anything but standard tools available to them which you would have available IF your number was still active.

That being said, there is a group who could make this happen, but they are not reachable outside the company.

As a ex-insider, I think your efforts to port this number are likely in vain.

 

[Midpack]

EDR50 got it right- cut out the technobabble and the marketing BS and tell customers clearly that their phones are gonna die.

For all any of us know, Verizon made every effort to warn customers.

I have no idea if it applies here, but forums are rife with posts sharing one side of any given story. And people love to run with that and pile on. I learned a long time ago, if you don't have both sides, you can easily draw the wrong conclusion(s) - where you shouldn't draw one at all. Nextdoor is overrun with people whining and expecting full support from everyone else, and they usually get it.

Mistakes were made on both sides I suspect...

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

For all any of us know, Verizon made every effort to warn customers.

I have no idea if it applies here, but forums are rife with posts sharing one side of any given story. And people love to run with that and pile on. I learned a long time ago, if you don't have both sides, you can easily draw the wrong conclusion(s) - where you shouldn't draw one at all.

Mistakes were made on both sides I suspect...

+1000. I took a look on the Verizon Reddit and the consensus is that this shouldn't have been a big surprise and most folks saw it coming and the shutdown has been happening for a while. I am not "victim blaming", it's just how it goes. How often have you been in the TSA Pre-check lane and the agent has been YELLING "LEAVE ON YOUR SHOES!!! DO NOT TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES!!!" for 20 minutes straight but YOU KNOW that a good 1/5 of folks are STILL going to take off their shoes.

I agree that as we age, understanding technology can get pretty complicated. It behooves us to have someone trustworthy to help us down this road that many of us will take.

 

[ERD50]

.... I agree that as we age, understanding technology can get pretty complicated. It behooves us to have someone trustworthy to help us down this road that many of us will take.

Another problem is *which* tech to learn? Some of it comes and goes pretty fast. Do you use Facebook, Instagram, TicToK,PayPal, Zelle, other?, etc

And even the same branded browsers have different interfaces on phones, tablets, and computers. I don't use the browser much on my phone, but recently the way tabs work changed, and I'm still not 'getting it', they put them in 'tab groups', but what determines what makes up a group? I'm no techno-phobe, but I just don't really care enough to find out how it works, I manage to plow through enough when I need to. And if I took the time to learn, they'd change it and I'd have to re-learn.

I recall someone saying that answering a call on their phone went from a right-swipe to an up-swipe after some upgrade, no notice of the change. I recall when we got our smartphones, we don't use them much (our VOIP home phone is our main phone), and when a call came in, we see the call alert pop up, figure we should tap it, but no, you need to swipe. No 'hinting' so how do you know this.

I looked at the manual for our new phones, if you are in the phone app you swipe to answer. But if you were in another app, and the notification comes up, you tap to answer. How do you know that w/o reading the manual? IOW, these so called "UI designers" need to get their act together.

When the Mac OS first came out, there were strict rules about "hinting" - you were supposed to be given a 'hint' as to what action to take. That's gone by the wayside.

-ERD50

 

[MichealKnight]

I don't do social media, but for one fake Facebook account to talk with fellow MASH and Star Wars and Beaver Cleaver fans.....BUT - while the ATTY GENERAL might indeed help...... these companies are mildly scared of social media. They have teams of Chipotle Toting Kids on staff for this. Many times - I've seen companies quickly address stuff that was brought up on Twitter or Facebook. Once - in my own company - I had to adhere to dumb corporate rules and a customer felt shafted. Said customer got on Twitter. 2 days later the corporate putz mule district manager gave me authorization to handle it. Many times I did stuff like that out of my own pocket but after awhile, you get sick of corporations penny pinching and expecting us on the street to deliver the bad news. After that - once in awhile - I might have coached customers how to complain on social media, OR how to call the corporate line and what words and names to use.....

 

[hart02]

This happened to my mom too with att. She at least was sent a smartphone. She got a Samsung s9 sent. It's the same one I have. I got a homescreen replacement called baldphone on it too.

 

[rayvt]

It might be good to get her a spare, prepaid burner type phone or two, like the kind they'd keep in stock in Breaking Bad. Then if she loses her main phone or forgets to pay a bill, she has a back up emergency phone all set and ready to activate.

HSN and QVC regularly have sales on Tracfone phones which come with 1500 minutes/365 days service for cheap. On HSN's recent sale I got a Moto G Pure for $50.

 

[Global Wizzo]

Cell service.

I sympathize with you. My mom is almost 100. TMobile did the same thing. And months early. Offer of a phone was only good on one of the glass screen phones. No tactile buttons and useless for an elderly person with severe vision issues.

Voice commands are confusing and don’t work for her 90% of the time.

I bought a CAT flip phone. That is still too hard for her to use.

Many companies want the customer to have email, multi authentication, respond to text, etc. they are totally failing the elder market segment and the cell providers are leading the failure.

Rant over. Mom still can’t use her cell phone and she is mentally sharper than I am.

 

[harllee]

I sympathize with you. My mom is almost 100. TMobile did the same thing. And months early. Offer of a phone was only good on one of the glass screen phones. No tactile buttons and useless for an elderly person with severe vision issues.

Voice commands are confusing and don’t work for her 90% of the time.

I bought a CAT flip phone. That is still too hard for her to use.

Many companies want the customer to have email, multi authentication, respond to text, etc. they are totally failing the elder market segment and the cell providers are leading the failure.

Rant over. Mom still can’t use her cell phone and she is mentally sharper than I am.

Thanks for this. Some people responding on this thread don't know how difficult it is for an elderly person to adapt to new technology or any change for that matter. We got Mom a Jitterbug flip phone and looks like mother will be able to use it, it is red and she likes that, easier to see. The only problem is that Verizon will not port her old number to the new phone because her old phone was disconnected and that is making the transition harder.

 

[Global Wizzo]

Verizon cannot release that number for a new subscriber for a while. They should easily be able to pull it back. Start asking for a supervisor and work up from there. Document everything.

Check Chris Elliott.org site for the executive contacts. Send the bottom one an email, explain what happened and the resolution you want.

Good luck.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

HSN and QVC regularly have sales on Tracfone phones which come with 1500 minutes/365 days service for cheap. On HSN's recent sale I got a Moto G Pure for $50.

That's what I did for my last new phone as well.
i got the Moto G Stylus with 1500/1500/1500 with HSN coupon and Paypal discounts for $80, Best Buy was selling it for $199 at the time. Tracfone unlocked it after 60 days and I moved it to my main number with Tello.
I don't really need the minutea etc but decided to keep as backup so to keep it active I added an old unlocked phone with a BYOP sim and it's good for a year.
What a steal.

 

[imnontrad]

Check to see if the coverage from T-mobile is solid for that area. I have an unlimited Magenta plan that was cheaper than Verizon.
But yes, that phone is no good and longer. She should be able to get a "free" phone if she switches carriers.

 

[Midpack]

Thanks for this. Some people responding on this thread don't know how difficult it is for an elderly person to adapt to new technology or any change for that matter. We got Mom a Jitterbug flip phone and looks like mother will be able to use it, it is red and she likes that, easier to see. The only problem is that Verizon will not port her old number to the new phone because her old phone was disconnected and that is making the transition harder.

And some know from first hand experience exactly how hard it is to help elderly parents, but we’re more proactive about getting help sooner rather than later. Sorry for your troubles, sounds like you’re back on track.

 

[harllee]

And some know from first hand experience exactly how hard it is to help elderly parents, but we’re more proactive about getting help sooner rather than later. Sorry for your troubles, sounds like you’re back on track.

I live an hour and a half away from mother, sister lives 15 minutes away from mother. I have taken over mother's finances. Sister volunteered to work on the phone issue when mother got a letter referencing phone to be cut off by 12/31. When mother's phone was cut off last weekend sister was taken by surprise. I am 71 and have a husband with health problems and I am his caretaker as well as helping mother. I am overwhelmed and feel depressed. I am as "proactive" as I can be but I have to look after myself too. Verizon has done an awful job on this and has made my life harder.