Verizon outage: How customers can get money back on their bill

NEW YORK — Verizon is apologizing and offering customers a $20 account credit after a 10-hour outage hit the cellular provider on Wednesday. 

The outage started around noon Eastern and reports remained elevated throughout the evening. The New York-based carrier confirmed that the outage was resolved by 10:20 p.m. ET. Verizon previously said it had deployed its engineering teams to address “an issue impacting wireless voice and data services.”

“Today, we let many of our customers down and for that, we are truly sorry,” Verizon wrote in updates shared on social media. A spokesperson later added that the company would give those impacted a $20 account credit through Verizon’s app, which on average “covers multiple days of service,” and directly contact its business customers with compensation.

Customers can redeem the credit by logging into the myVerizon app to accept, the company said. The credit will cover multiple days of service for average customers, while business customers will be contacted directly about their credits.

The company said on social media that customers will receive a text message when the credit is available. 

“This credit isn’t meant to make up for what happened,” Verizon’s statement said. “No credit really can. But it’s a way of acknowledging our customers’ time and showing that this matters to us.”

Verizon did not specify what caused Wednesday’s outage in their Thursday press release, but said the systems should be back up and running as normal. The company first said the issues were “resolved” late Tuesday night.

Any customers still experiencing issues were told to restart their devices and reconnect to the network.

“We are sorry for what you experienced and will continue to work hard day and night to provide the outstanding network and service that people expect from Verizon,” the company’s statement said.