NBC Connecticut Responds helped a Bloomfield man resolve his complaint about having to pay an additional charge fee when he picked up a second cell phone during a Verizon buy one get one free promotion.
Wayne Heywood says he’s been a loyal Verizon customer since 1997. Last September, he decided to take advantage of the company’s buy one, get one free promotion for cell phones.
“Buy one, get one is something that everyone does and normally there’s no problem,” said Wayne Heywood.
Heywood paid the full amount, $1152.80, for a new Samsung Galaxy Note 9 cell phone and got a second phone as part of the promotion. When he discovered an additional $41.81 monthly charge for that second phone on his first bill, he called customer service.
“They said, well, part of the promotion is that the phone that you actually bought, you’re going to have to pay a device charge for the 24 months of the contract,” said Heywood.
Heywood said he was instructed to go back to the store and speak with a manager. He did, and said the manager confirmed the device fee was part of plan.
“I don’t understand that, it doesn’t make sense to me. I’ve already paid for that phone and the other phone is supposed to be free,” said Heywood.
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Heywood admitted that he didn’t read the fine print for the promotion which mentioned the device fee for the second phone. But he argued, it should’ve been discussed before he purchased the phone. After getting no resolution from Verizon, Wayne reached out to NBC Connecticut Responds.
A Verizon spokesperson told Responds:
“When purchasing new devices most customers choose to spread the cost of the phone out by taking advantage of Device Payments. This Buy One Get One Promotion was designed to work with that program. Thank you for bringing this customer's issue to our attention, so we were able to resolve the issue.”
Verizon agreed to drop the $41.81 monthly fee for 24 months in which Wayne saved $984. His message to others about NBC Connecticut Responds,
“If they have a problem and they can’t solve it themselves then they need to reach out to your organization. So, that you can help them,” said Heywood.
