Phone DOA 20 hours after billing; not a great first impression, Visible

[DeadPhone]

New Visible customer, so far not so good. Got the Visible SIM installed, followed the steps to activate, got "Success!" message in app, then...No Service. Checked old carrier, phone # was removed from my account. Called customer support ha ha no because kids these days don't talk on the phone. Chatted twice with an exuberantly friendly (I'm awesome!...for providing an ICCID...apparently) customer support rep who honestly did seem to try to resolve the issue, but ended up forwarding it up the chain as a "critical" issue (with a 24 to 48 hour resolution estimate). Meanwhile, Visible billed my account $25.

Now it is the next day and the phone is still dead. Old SIM won't work because old carrier thinks this phone has ported. New SIM not working because...whatever is going on at Visible. No way to call and no way to see status of the "critical" support ticket. The chat-only support system is a real cost-saver I'm sure, and it probably works fine for 80% of the mundane support issues. For people just joining Visible, when first impressions are made, maybe it's not the best choice. And 24 to 48 hours to activate a phone - with a ported number meaning the customer is DOA while you sort your stuff out - is ridiculous.

Fingers crossed that I'm awesome! enough today to help them help me to resolve this.

[DeadPhone]

Now 27 hours with no resolution. Expected call from doctor's office, but of course number is out of service. Can't log into e-mail or bank because 2FA is broken. This is ridiculous. Back into the chat queue...

[DeadPhone]

Now just recording this for future potential customers. Visible agent promised a 1-hour solution to the issue. It has been over an hour and no e-mail, no status update, nothing. And after I told 'Daniela' that she had an opportunity to save an angry customer and keep me with Visible! She was "totally" going to solve this for me, I feel so let down.

Drop the overenthusiastic BS and just solve the problems, Visible. Back into the chat queue to cancel and get a refund. What a joke this company is.

[DeadPhone]

Final chapter: spent 30 minutes on chat, which went something like this:

Agent: I am super happy to help you DeadPhone! I will do my best!

Me: Great. I need this phone activated during this chat, or have one of your specialists call me back so we can sort it out.

Agent: I totally understand DeadPhone! And I am so sorry for the inconvenience. I will do my very best to help you!

Me: Excellent. How do we solve it.

Agent: I am working very hard to find a solution for you, DeadPhone! Thank you so much for your patience, you're awesome!

It was the most non-support support chat I've ever experienced. Literally zero solutions offered, just 30 minutes of occasional happy-talk followed by "24 to 48 hours" (again - was told that 30 hours ago). Visible support is the ultimate expression of style over substance.

The cancelation and refund request was easy, however. Sorry about the pending horrible reviews, Visible, but you earned them. Good grief.

[DeadPhone]

Coda: spent another 30 minutes in chat with Visible late last night to ask them for a PIN so VZ could take the number back. Agent could only put my case on "high" priority (it was "critical" before...) and I could wait for an e-mail. At 3AM I got an e-mail "we don't have the number, can't help." (Paraphrasing of course, Visible agents are nothing but polite.)

Called VZ first thing this morning and got a live person who a) was only working with me, not multitasking and b) found the right technician to solve the problem in 15 minutes. I have a conspiracy theory that Verizon spun off Visible as a ploy to make people realize how good the support at VZ is.