In summary:
- Macworld reports that Verizon is offering a $20 account credit to customers affected by Wednesday’s widespread voice and data outage that impacted hundreds of thousands of users.
- The outage primarily affected major cities across the East Coast and other metropolitan areas, leaving many iPhone users without service for hours.
- Affected customers will receive a text notification when the credit becomes available through the myVerizon app for redemption. Detailed instructions are provided below.
Update: Verizon has announced that customers affected by the outage will receive a $20 account credit. This article has been updated to reflect that.
If you’re a Verizon subscriber, there’s a good chance your iPhone was without service yesterday. For much of the day, hundreds of thousands of U.S. customers were left without voice and data service so they couldn’t make calls, send texts, or access any Internet services when away from Wi-Fi.
In a post on X Wednesday night, Verizon promised it would “make this right,” and followed up Thursday morning with some specific information: “To help provide some relief to those affected, we will give you a $20 account credit that can be easily redeemed by logging into the myVerizon app.”
The company hasn’t offered any details about what caused the outage, though it seems to have been an avoidable issue rather than a hack or attack. Verizon has apologized and admitted that it “let many of our customers down.” An additional post reinterated that the credit “isn’t meant to make up for what happened. No credit really can. But it’s a way of acknowledging your time and showing that this matters to us.
Verizon says customers will receive a text message when the credit is available in the myVerizon app. Users will then need to log in and claim the credit, which should show up on the following month’s bill. Verizon says the credit represents “multiple days of service.” Additionally, business customers who service multiple people will be contacted directly.
According to Down Detector, East Coast cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Miami were among the most affected, though the outage also affected Houston, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The outage began around 1pm ET and lasted well into the night, with users seeing “SOS” displayed on their phones where the bars should be.
While Verizon said the issue was resolved as of 11pm ET last night, Down Detector was still showing scattered reports of outages around the country, but the bulk of the affected customers appeared to have been restored. If you’re still showing “SOS” and not receiving service, try restarting your phone or toggling the cellular button in Settings> Cellular to restore the connection.
Author: Michael Simon, Executive Editor, Macworld
Michael Simon has been covering Apple for more than 20 years. He started covering rumors with Spymac when the iPod was the iWalk, and has owned nearly every iPhone Apple has ever made. He lives in Connecticut with his wife, son, and far too many gadgets.