Telecommunications company Verizon has been the protagonist of a controversy after increasing prices between the end of 2024 and during 2025. Many customers reacted negatively to this and some of them decided to leave the company. That is when Verizon CEO, Dan Schulman, spoke publicly during a financial earnings call and admitted that some of the company’s pricing decisions had hurt its relationship with customers. So, to know more about Verizon’s situation and why its customers left the comapny, you should keep reading this article.
Higher prices at Verizon
During 2025 and the end of 2024, Verizon introduced several different price changes that affected multiple services and plans. One of them happened in February 2025, when the company increased between $3 and $5 the monthly cost of some plans, including myPlan and New Verizon Plan. The company said they had to do this due to higher operating costs.
Then, in March they also increased $8 some protection plans for several devices, like Verizon Mobile Protect Multi-Device and Verizon Mobile Secure Multi-Device. Later, in September, the company increased the cost for changing or updating the device from $35 to $40.
What is more, Verizon included higher Administrative and Telco Recovery Fee, so customers were charged 3.50 dollars per voice line and 1.60 dollars per data line. Also, some tablets increased between $5 and $10, and the Regulatory Charge had an additional increment.
Another important change was the removal of renewable loyalty discounts, which were from $10 up to $40. Customers received emails saying these discounts would stop being applied.
The CEO about customers
During the financial call, CEO Dan Schulman recognized that the company made mistakes. He explained that Verizon has been increasing prices without providing additional value to customers, which made many customers leave the company.
Schulman talked about the concept of ‘’churn’’, which means the loss of customers. According to his data, churn increased 0.25 percentage points in the last three years, and every increment of the 0.01% is equal to about 90,000 clients less. This means that Verizon stopped earning around 2.25 millions of new net clients.
The CEO pointed out that these higher prices were not the only reason why customers left the company, but it was a crucial factor. He also stated that the company does not want to continue with this type of strategy and it is expected to change the way they work in the future.
Additional problems and unmet expectations
Apart from customer criticism, Verizon also faced technical issues. On January 14, many customers were left with no service for several hours due to a system failure. After solving the issue, the company announced that it would give a $20 credit to affected users as compensation for their time and frustration.
During the same earnings call, Schulman said the company is planning a transformation strategy for 2026. The goal is to make Verizon more efficient and improve its long-term financial performance. He emphasized that relying on “empty price increases” is not a sustainable way to grow revenue or profits.
To sum up
As Verizon moves forward with its planned changes for 2026, the company says it wants to focus on efficiency and long-term improvement instead of relying on “empty price hikes.”
For you, as a reader, this story is a reminder to pay close attention to what you are actually getting for the money you spend, because when prices rise without clear benefits, customers often respond by walking away.
Have you ever experienced any situation like this with a company? In case you have, did you react the same way as Verizon’s customers?