Employee Discount: live VZW contact?

[sallylee]

I am ready to upgrade my phone so I went on-line too look at the new smartphones. I was greeted with a pop up message stating that I had to verify my eligibility for my employee discount. I realized then that I was still on an old employer's discount and so I tried to change my employer information. That was last week.

I enter my email address on the appropriate page and get an email back stating that I may be eligible for a discount as an employee of company xxx . Great, except that I don't work for xxx. Still, I am able to get on the employee discount plan for company xxx but it is not as good as my actual employer's discount.

So, I try another page: http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/controller?&item=b2eItem&action=discountEligibility&zipcode...  and when I enter the information requested I get, "We're sorry, the information you provided us does not match our records. You may go back and resubmit the form."  I've done that about a dozen times, slightly changing the information each time. (Street to St, etc.)

I work for a franchise, so I am inputting the corporate headquarters information, not my local employer's information.

Is there  a phone number for the employee discount department? or an email address?

Are there some secret specific steps  that I am supposed to somehow know and follow?

Can I go into a Verizon store and get this resolved?

Who has the power to resolve this issue and how do I contact that office?

Thanks,

SL

[vzw_customer_support]

Hi sallylee!

Let's get you going with the correct discount! I'm happy to help with this. First, please let me know if the following is the page you went to, in order to get your discount: http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/support/employee-discount?zipcode=all&market=all

You can also go here if you have an email address through your employer. http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/employee/emaildomainauthentication.jsp

If you still have issues, I have followed you in the forums. Please accept me, and follow me back. Then, please send a DM with your name and mobile number. I'll check this out and find a resolution for you.

Thanks!

ChristinaB_VZW
VZW Support
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

[sallylee · Accepted solution]

Here was the issue: the account owner was my husband and the employee discount is from me.

The solution: Call Customer Support and then eventually get transferred to the department that could change the ownership of the account to me. Then I had to take my pay statement (proof of employment) into a Verizon store and have them apply the Employer Discount. Nowhere on the Employee Discount web pages that you referenced above does it say that the account owner has to be the same name as the person requesting the discount for the account. That is a shame because I could have done this a long time ago. Also, I had previous employee discounts applied to our account over the years without any of this extra work.

Issue resolved (YAY!)  in a rather convoluted manner that created more work for Verizon staff and an hour on the phone for me.  Thanks for replying though! 

And I have to add that everybody I spoke with today on the phone and in person was very helpful, nice and understanding. Not a poor attitude or exasperated tone from any of them.

[budone]

Doesn't it make sense that the discount be based on the account owner? If not based on the account owner, what keeps anyone from using a friends work email address to get maybe a larger discount than they currently get.

[sallylee]

Wow Budone, thanks for nothing.

Some of us would never even consider what you suggested because it is unethical.

My suggestion -  to add one simple line of information to the webpage - would've saved me a lot of time and effort. And as I stated above, I've applied other employer discounts to the account when I was not the account owner, so it obviously has not been a requirement in the past. 

Your response is condescending and not helpful, or even needed since the issue is resolved. I even took the time to note how it was resolved in case others run into the same issue.  I'm hope you're not a Verizon customer service employee because your response is exactly the kind of attitude that many Verizon customers run into and why they dislike Verizon.

Thanks for putting a sour note on what was a nice resolution.

[budone]

My post was not condescending, I simply am speaking the truth about people in this world. There are many unethical people in this world Why do you think you now have to pay an ETF even if you move to an area not serviced by VZW? Because many used the moving excuse to get out a contract without an ETF and never moved.

I did not say you would do this, but if the option was out there, people would abuse the option.