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A widespread Verizon outage made headlines

A few days ago, on January 14, some Verizon users were very surprised to find that the network was experiencing a widespread outage that lasted around 10 hours. According to an Engadget report, over 1.5 million reports were registered on Downdetector. Despite Verizon claiming the outage is resolved, some users continue to report service issues today.

Of course, AT&T and T-Mobile took full advantage of the situation in an attempt to poach some customers from Verizon. Or perhaps it was just some lighthearted banter. Either way, it was no less entertaining.

Verizon drops a $20 credit as an apology

As an apology to affected customers, Verizon began rolling out a $20 credit that can be claimed by logging into the myVerizon app. Customers will reportedly receive a text message when the credit is available. Business customers, on the other hand, will be contacted directly about their credits.

According to Engadget editors, texts began arriving Friday morning, prompting customers to log into their accounts and claim their credit.

Honestly, the company should be automatically applying these credits to accounts with no user intervention needed. Alas, doing it in this “opt-in” sort of way makes it so there will likely be many customers who miss the text and never get the credit, saving the company money.

Final thoughts

Outages aren’t uncommon in the tech world, but a phone carrier outage is perhaps the worst offender. If you’re out and about with no easy access to Wi-Fi or a hotspot, you’re unreachable to anyone who might be trying to get a hold of you. Not to mention the potential meetings or business calls you might miss.

Were you affected by the Verizon outage? Did you miss out on anything important? Let us know in the comments!

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