'After This, I Think I'm Leaving Verizon': Customers Furious After Verizon Ignores Outages Affecting Thousands Over 24,000 Verizon customers reported outages in cellular and internet services on Wednesday.
By Emily Rella
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Can you hear me now? Apparently not!
Verizon's infamous slogan didn't seem to be too accurate on Wednesday when cellular service and internet outages swept the country unprompted.
Over 24,073 people reported outages per Down Detector, with peak outages being reached around 4:30 pm EST.
The majority of outages reported came from the West Coast (partially California) though they seemed to affect customers all over the country.
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Verizon did not immediately make a statement regarding the outages, leaving many customers confused as to whether or not their was something wrong with their individual devices or if the issues were widespread.
Many turned to social media to lament that they had heard nothing from the service provider, causing outrage on Twitter by disgruntled customers who demanded answers from Verizon via the Verizon Support account.
We just gonna sit here and pretend that the entire #verizon entire isn't down. I can't make a call. I get no internet. The Eagle is compromised.
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) March 4, 2022
I like how I had to google Verizon cell outage to figure out why my phone suddenly couldn't make or receive calls because #Verizon couldn't be bothered to notify their customers that the network was down. Super awesome customer service right there.
— Melanie (Mel) (@melon_reads) April 20, 2022
@Verizon Are we just going to ignore the fact that your entire network is down? Why wouldn't someone post an update for customers? After this, I think I'm leaving verizon. #busted
— Mr. (@woirhaye) April 20, 2022
@Verizon @VerizonSupport This is the part where you make a public statement, so that you don't hit #1 trending for an outage you won't acknowledge.#Verizondown #Verizon
— John1918 (@Johnc1918) April 20, 2022
@Verizon why in the world is my service down? The amount I pay for this should give me service well into heaven! #verizonoutage #westcoast
— Mimosa (@bruncheveryday) April 20, 2022
So Verizon Wireless is down just about everywhere in the US?
— K-Med (@TBCcast) (@K__Med) April 20, 2022
Great...#verizon
@Verizon my phone service has been down for 24+ hours w no updates from your team ????
— AMRIT (@_itsamrit) April 21, 2022
Hey #verizon, do you know that your service is down? I cannot make it receive calls. Can't even call customer service. And with everyone i know with Verizon.
— Brad Bradley (@BradArn54608589) April 20, 2022
@VerizonSupport please make a public statement about your #outage and stop asking customers to have private DMs. @knxnews #verizon
— Vicky Moore (@VickyMooreNews) April 20, 2022
@Verizon an outage for more than 5+ hours yet you still haven't posted a statement reassuring your 110 million customers that their service will be restored &/or isn't under threat of an outage (for those not currently affected). Waiting for your response. #Verizondown #Verizon
— Katie Laas (@KatieLaas) April 21, 2022
Yo @Verizon, what's the word on the service outage??? I'd like to make phone calls please
— Stephen Barnett (@ScubaSteve425) April 21, 2022
Though some received individual responses, Verizon did not release any sort of widespread statement or confirmation on Verizon Support, Verizon main or any related Twitter accounts.
There was also nothing posted to the Verizon website or any sort of email sent out to customers.
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"An outage for more than 5+ hours yet you still haven't posted a statement reassuring your 110 million customers that their service will be restored," one user wrote.
"Are we just going to ignore the fact that your entire network is down? Why wouldn't someone post an update for customers," another pointed out.
Many called the company out for poor customer service and pressed the company to give any updates.
However, a Verizon spokesperson released a statement to KCRA 3 on Wednesday during peak outages around 4:30 pm.
"A fiber issue in the core of the network caused some of our customers to experience intermittent call failures today," Verizon spokesperson Liz Maly told KCRA 3 in a statement. "The issue was identified and resolved by Verizon engineers and the majority of impacted customers should be seeing service as usual. If any customer is still experiencing lingering issues, please restart your device. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused."
Reports of outages started dwindling down about an hour later with less than 1,000 outages being reported by midnight.
Verizon was down just shy of 5% year over year as of Thursday afternoon.
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