Verizon Apologizes for Outage and Gives $20 Account Credits, but What Caused the Meltdown?
- - Verizon Apologizes for Outage and Gives $20 Account Credits, but What Caused the Meltdown?
David Chiu, Abigail AdamsJanuary 16, 2026 at 12:40 AM
0
Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty
A Verizon store in New York -
Verizon has apologized for the nationwide outages that impacted thousands of customers on Wednesday, Jan. 14
Customers are now being offered a $20 account credit to "to help provide some relief"
“Today, we let many of our customers down and for that, we are truly sorry," the company said in a statement
After the Verizon outage finally came to an end, the company apologized — and shared how they'll be making it up to the tens of thousands of customers who lost service.
Verizon confirmed the network "issue" in a statement posted on social media just after 1 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Jan. 14. About 10 hours later, they shared that the outage had finally been resolved.
The next day, the company apologized in an update to customers, writing that they "did not meet the standard of excellence our customers expect and that we expect of ourselves."
The company then offered customers a $20 account credit "to help provide some relief" to anybody who was impacted.
“This credit isn’t meant to make up for what happened,” Verizon continued. “No credit really can. But it’s a way of acknowledging our customers' time and showing that this matters to us.”
Yesterday, we did not meet the standard of excellence you expect and that we expect of ourselves. 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. You will receive a text message…
— Verizon News (@VerizonNews) January 15, 2026
Reports of outages — which resulted in phones being stuck in "SOS" mode — flooded in around 12 p.m. EST on Wednesday, according to the website Downdetector.
“We are aware of an issue impacting wireless voice and data services for some customers,” the company said in its initial statement. “Our engineers are engaged and are working to identify and solve the issue quickly. We understand how important reliable connectivity is and apologize for the inconvenience.”
Bruce Bennett/Getty
A general view of a Verizon store
That night, the company also issued an apology that read: “Today, we let many of our customers down and for that, we are truly sorry. They expect more from us.”
Just a little more than an hour later, Verizon said that the outage had been resolved — and those who still had trouble connecting were are asked to restart their device.
It remains unknown what caused Wednesday’s disruptions.
PEOPLE contacted Verizon on Thursday but did not receive an immediate response.
— sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Throughout the outage, T-Mobile and AT&T took jabs at their competitor on social media, while also touching on why some of their customers might be encountering issues.
"T-Mobile’s network is keeping our customers connected, and we’ve confirmed that our network is operating normally and as expected," T-Mobile said on social media. "However due to Verizon’s reported outage, our customers may not be able to reach someone with Verizon service at this time."
A short time later, AT&T encouraged Verizon customers to give them a try. "Our network? Solid," they wrote. "If you’re experiencing issues, it’s not us.....it’s the other guys. Some things are just out of our hands!"
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
