Verizon Wireless was reportedly having problems with its billing system that also affected their My Verizon online portal.
Customers of one of the largest mobile and wireless provider in the United States reported that they could not access their user data including their account information, usage rates, and line activation or pay their bills through My Verizon. There were some Verizon stores that could not sell mobile phones to their customers.
A spokesman for Verizon emailed Business Insider: "We are unfortunately experiencing issues with our billing system, affecting customer accounts mostly in Northeast, Midwestern and some southern states. We are working on a fix. This is an internal billing systems issue not affecting network services; call, text, data services unaffected. Verizon Wireless apologizes for any inconvenience."
The defect in their system also affected other Verizon stores located in other states. The company has no data yet as to the number of customers affected by this problem, but they estimated that it could be thousands. On Twitter, Verizon subscribers from different areas including New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, New Hampshire, Illinois, and New York voiced out their difficulties with hashtag #VerizonOutage, Mashable reported.
The problem was isolated from data services and voice functions. Still, it caused enough hassle for users who cannot even activate their new lines or be able to pay their bills.
Twitter users reported that the widespread outage problem is ongoing for more than 24 hours already, and they were unable to activate their accounts for at least two days. Customers who were able to login were welcomed with a message "some account actions are temporarily unavailable while we upgrade our systems."
This billing problem had the wrong timing for Verizon. For one, the end of the month is near, and billing cycles typically start on the 1st of the month. Also, phone retailers would launch mobile phone sales in anticipation for the Fourth of July.
