The loss of customers follows Verizon\u2019s decision to make several crucial pricing changes for its wireless services over the past few months.<\/p>\n
Verizon’s price hikes are angering customers. Image source: Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images <\/p>\n
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February<\/strong>: Verizon hiked the monthly rates<\/a> for myPlan and New Verizon Plan accounts by $3 to $5, citing \u201crising operational costs.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
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March<\/strong>: Verizon increased the monthly price<\/a> of its Verizon Mobile Protect Multi-Device plan and Verizon Mobile Secure Multi-Device plan by $8.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
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August<\/strong>: Verizon\u2019s device activation fee<\/a> rose from $35 to $40.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
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September<\/strong>: Several pricing changes went into effect.
Verizon hiked its tablet plans by $5 to $10, depending on the plan. Verizon\u2019s Administrative and Telco Recovery fee increased by almost 30 cents, while the Verizon Regulatory Charge spiked by 3 cents. Renewable loyalty discounts, which typically ranged from $10 to $40, were also discontinued.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nAs these changes rolled out throughout the year, many Verizon customers grew increasingly frustrated with the company and threatened to sever ties. Verizon has launched several deals and discounts<\/a>, as well as a new three-year price lock guarantee, to try to win back customers; however, its churn rate continued to elevate<\/a> throughout the year.<\/p>\n
Amid its customer struggles, on Oct. 6, Verizon named Dan Schulman<\/a> as the new CEO of the company, replacing Hans Vestberg.<\/p>\n
During an earnings call<\/a> on Oct. 29, Schulman said that Verizon is \u201cclearly falling short\u201d of its potential.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not delivering the shareholder returns our investors expect,\u201d said Schulman. \u201cDespite investing significantly in network leadership, we have not been able to translate that into winning in the market.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also said that there are four reasons why Verizon is losing customers: price increases, friction in the customer experience, negative value perception and intense competition in the telecom industry.<\/p>\n
Related: Verizon angers customers with new tactic to boost loyalty<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n
Schulman emphasized that Verizon needs to \u201caggressively transform\u201d its culture and financial profile by being more \u201ccustomer-centric and executing with financial discipline with a focus on shareholder value.\u201d He also admitted that recent price hikes were a bad idea.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the past few years, our financial growth has relied too heavily on price increases, a strategic approach that relies too much on price without subscriber growth is not a sustainable strategy,\u201d said Schulman. \u201cEvery year, it gets harder to grow as we lap past price increases and experience higher churn. This cannot continue, and there is no question that meaningful change is needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
His comments come during a time when many Americans are seeking cheaper phone plan options as they face price increases for phone services.<\/p>\n
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The average cost of an unlimited data plan for American families is $244 a month<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
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About 42%<\/strong> of Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T customers have seen their phone bills inflate in the past year, which is 7% higher than average<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
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Over 83.2 million<\/strong> U.S. households overspend on phone plans every year.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
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Also, 58%<\/strong> of Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T customers are considering switching<\/strong> to a different phone carrier as their services become more expensive.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
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All three phone carriers risk losing a combined 230 million<\/strong> customers due to high mobile plan pricing.
Source: WhistleOut<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nPhone carriers are also battling growing competition from cable TV companies, which have been offering consumers bundled phone, internet and TV services at discounted prices. Many customers have been flocking to these offers.<\/p>\n
Recent data from MoffettNathanson, shared by Light Reading<\/a>, found that Spectrum, Comcast, and Altice USA added 886,000 new phone customers during the first quarter of 2025, an increase from the 804,000 they added during the same quarter in 2024.<\/p>\n
To attract and retain customers, Schulman said that Verizon\u2019s main goal will be \u201cto build loyalty and drive significant improvements in retention.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must make it much easier to do business with us,\u201d said Schulman. \u201cYou should expect bold execution powered by sophisticated and smart marketing, actions that strengthen loyalty and the elimination of practices and processes that detract from the customer experience. Raising rates without corresponding value rarely, if ever, delights customers.\u201d<\/p>\n
More Telecom News:<\/strong><\/p>\n
He also said that Verizon\u2019s transformation will not be \u201cabout promotional activities that can be quickly imitated.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is about true innovation, not easily replicated by our competitors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Schulman also doubled down on the company\u2019s plans to use innovation powered by artificial intelligence to \u201ctransform\u201d the \u201ccustomer experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI intend to use AI as a key tool to simplify offers, improve the customer experience and reduce churn through smart, consistent and more personalized marketing and offers,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we will leverage AI throughout the company to make it easier for our employees to delight our customers and to dramatically improve service of reducing cost and complexity across the vast majority of our business processes.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also warned that all of these changes \u201cwill not happen overnight, and there’s no one silver bullet.\u201d For Verizon to win, he said, \u201cit will require hard work, strategic focus and thoughtful execution.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement to TheStreet, Dominick Miserandino, CEO of RTMNexus, said it is essential for Verizon\u2019s CEO to implement a plan that enhances the customer experience to reverse elevated churn at the company.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can build the best 5G network in the world, but if the customer feels prices are going up and it’s a headache, people are going to leave,\u201d said Miserandino. \u201cHis plan isn\u2019t about another marketing push; it\u2019s about making Verizon simpler, faster, and easier to deal with. Customers don’t want to play games but just want a plan that works and not to deal with the technical side of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Related: AT&T is suffering from an alarming customer problem<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n
This story was originally reported by TheStreet<\/a> on Nov 1, 2025, where it first appeared in the Retail<\/a> section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Verizon is struggling to shake a consumer trend that continues to grow legs, especially after the phone carrier…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":349196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,171147,58125,160618,67,132,68,4522],"class_list":{"0":"post-349195","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-dan-schulman","10":"tag-phone-customers","11":"tag-price-hikes","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-verizon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115477387088267512","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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