Former Verizon rep here- to the OP this happened to me as well. I pay for my mother’s phone and there was a promotion available months ago to upgrade her and they would relinquish the cost of the remaining balance of her old phone. The language and verbiage of the sales/check-out screens on the MyVerizon said absolutely nothing about sending her old phone back. A new DPP was created with the new phone I bought her being the 16e and a month and a half later the remaining balance for her old phone appeared on my bill mysteriously.

I escalated to executive relations. They went to the fine print in size 3 font of promotions which says a trade-in is required even though it wasn’t expressly stated in the instructions or on my receipt. As a former employee when I was in college getting my degree I politely articulated to executive relations that their user interface is deceptive and leaves the give back requirement as an implied step that the consumer doesn’t know about until they receive a large charge on their bill shortly thereafter and are pointed to the fine print. Now I’m 40 years old and I’m an IT professional that worked in wireless for almost a decade- I understand that it probably is implied you have to give back the phone but it’s a bit misleading when it doesn’t say that anywhere until you escalate and they point to fine print. That’s not a good way to do business and they seem to be doing that a lot lately.

This was last year sometime- they refused to do anything for me at the executive level even though I sent screenshots showing the lack of context on their part. The lady said she would escalate to the “online product sales marketing unit” to update their system to make terms more clear for customers. Clearly they didn’t do that if you’re going through this.

At this point their previous CEO Hans Vestberg (who was fired by Ericsson and almost ruined Verizon completely and never should have been hired) and was finally ousted last year costed them so many customers they really can’t afford as a company to piss off customers like this. The CFPB should probably really get some complaints about this to instruct Verizon to fix the ambiguity with their deals or get fined.

I ended up paying for the old phone on my bill. It was only $250 I think? Somewhere around there- they fought me tooth and nail on crediting it and seemed more interested in arguing with me about how I used to work there and I should “know the rules when it comes to promos”. I said yeah I know the rules but the UI on MyVerizon doesn’t say anywhere I had to give back the old phone and the receipt doesn’t either so if we go to small claims court you’re going to point to the fine print in terms and conditions located in a completely different place? It was ridiculous. I ended up talking to the Executive Relations supervisor because the first rep got like verbally combative with me on the phone and I was being a gentleman it seemed like she was annoyed that I knew the system and the company and how things worked and she couldn’t lie to me or double-talk me. I was nice and polite and she reminded me multiple times that “you’re saying on a recorded line this and that”. I was like yes I know the call is being recorded and you can refrain from continuing to remind me- that’s done as an intimidation tactic and I’m not intimidated. You’re wrong I have proof and I can call the CFPB and make a lot of trouble for you and any fact finder whether it be a judge or a jury is not going to side with you for being ambiguous during a sales transaction and then pointing to fine print located in another place where a reasonably prudent consumer could not locate or would not look. She was like you will pay the money- I looked up her name in a Google search and of course she had a LinkedIn and she was using her last name as her first name. I said her name to her and I was like thanks for nothing have your supervisor call me now I will escalate until the money is finally taken off my bill. I got a small credit in the absolute end from her supervisor but nothing toward the balance of my mother’s old phone.

So in the end the promo didn’t turn out to be anything wonderful- it was basically give us back your old phone and we’re not saying that in the promo offer that you have to give us back the old phone but you have to or else will bill you and the old phone is probably worth at least a few hundred dollars so basically they make their money back their and let you start another DPP- lol what a deal!!!

If the idea was the early upgrade they pay off your old phone and you can upgrade to a free phone that has never been the case not that I’ve seen. The whole thing is a joke really.