Verizon RMA scam
 

I've got a buddy that returned a failed iphone to Verizon, using the return packaging that came with the replacement iphone. Flash forward a month or so, and he recieves a $700 bill from Verizon. After calling them he finds that Verizon received a "Windows phone" in the RMA packaging, and that his original iPhone is now in service in another state.

Verizon is stopping him cold in his claims of fraud, and refusing to investigate how his phone is now operating in Oregon. They want $700, or $170 to report the phone as stolen.

This screams plain as day that someone in the postal service or at Verizon is redirecting their RMA packages, but I haven't really seen anything about this when searching Google. Perhaps my Google-fu is weak "Verizon RMA scam".

Anybody have any knowledge or experience with this kind of thing?

Why does Verizon need $170 to report the phone as stolen?

Seems that he could report the phone as stolen himself and then send Verizon the police report.

Apparently Paying the $170 will officially remove his liability for both the old phone and the replacement. I think from Verizon's perspective, this is the fee they charge someone when a customer loses their phone and gets a replacement.

Verizon won't do anything to pursue or investigate how his phone is suddenly operating in Oregon or Washington. He can't shut it off because it isn't tied to his account anymore. The replacement is.

I know with my replacement phones, I had to ship back to TMobile via UPS.

Does he have the tracking # of his return for whichever carrier he had to send back through? If he can prove the package was picked up (I'd think it would be scanned in at the point of pickup), I'd think at that point, he's out of the loop. If Verizon wants to hunt down the phone from there, it's on them.

But it's his word that he put the correct phone in the package.

Exactly. Verizon could essentially say they believe that he sent them a bogus phone, and sold his "bad" phone on the black market.

I've told him to escalalte to a supervisor, tell them he is going to walk away from the contract if they don't deal with him in a reasonable manner. It has to be clear to everyone that somebody tampered with the package, and he should not be held liable for it. If Verizon didn't insure their RMA package, how is it his responsibility to reimburse them for the loss?

Apparently after much frustration and a bit of escalation, he got them to waive the $700 fee without paying them the $170 either. They did upgrade the old version 4 iPhone to a 4S, but he had to pay $90 for the upgrade.

So he didn't pay them for the lost phone or their stolen phone fee, but he did end up doing an upgrade that he wasn't planning on.