Verizon CEO sounds alarm on why customers are leaving in droves

Verizon is struggling to shake a consumer trend that continues to grow legs, especially after the phone carrier issued several price increases for its services last year. The increases have understandably angered customers.

in it third quarter earnings report For 2025, Verizon reported a net loss of 7,000 postpaid phone customers in the quarter, compared with the addition of 18,000 postpaid phone customers during the same period in 2024, with subscriber churn reaching 0.91%.

The customer loss follows Verizon’s decision to make pivotal pricing changes for its wireless services over the past few months.

• February: Verizon increased monthly fees for myPlan and New Verizon Plan accounts by $3 to $5, citing “increased operational costs.”

• March: Verizon increased the monthly price of the Verizon Mobile Protect Multi-Device plan and Verizon Mobile Secure Multi-Device plan by $8.

• August:Verizon device activation fee It increased from $35 to $40.

• September: Various price changes have come into effect.
  Verizon has increased tablet plans by $5 to $10, depending on the plan. Verizon’s Administrative and Telecommunications Recovery fee increased by almost 30 cents, while the Verizon Issuance Fee increased by 3 cents. Renewable loyalty discounts, which typically range between $10 and $40, have also been discontinued.

As these changes rolled out throughout the year, many Verizon customers became increasingly frustrated with the company and threatened to cut ties. Verizon launched various deals and discountsAlongside the new three-year price lock guarantee to try to win back customers; however, the loss rate continued to increase throughout the year.

Verizon shuts down Oct. 6 amid customer issues named Dan Schulman He was appointed as the new CEO of the company, replacing Hans Vestberg.

during a earnings call On October 29, Schulman said Verizon was “clearly falling short” of its potential.

“We are not delivering the shareholder returns our investors expect,” Schulman said. “Even though we made significant investments in network leadership, we were unable to translate that into winning in the market.”

He also said there are four reasons why Verizon is losing customers: price increases, customer experience friction, negative value perception and intense competition in the telecom industry.

Related: Verizon teases customers with new tactic to increase loyalty

Schulman emphasized that Verizon must “aggressively transform” its culture and financial profile by being more “customer-focused and executing with financial discipline with a focus on shareholder value.” He also admitted that the recent price increases were a bad idea.

“Our financial growth over the last several years has been heavily dependent on price increases; a strategic approach that relies too heavily on price without subscriber growth is not a sustainable strategy,” Schulman said. “Growing becomes harder every year as we outpace price increases and experience higher volatility. This cannot continue, and there is no doubt that meaningful change is needed.”

His comments come at a time when many Americans are looking for cheaper phone plan options as they face price increases on phone services.

• Average cost of an unlimited data plan for American families $244 per month.

• About 42% Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T customers saw their phone bills increase last year. 7% higher than average.

• On 83.2 million U.S. households overspend on phone plans every year.

• Moreover, 58% Proportion of Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T customers switching to a different phone carrier as their services become more expensive.

• All three telephone operators risk losing a common card 230 million customers due to high mobile plan pricing.
  Source: WhistleOut

Telephone operators are also struggling with increasing competition from cable TV companies that offer consumers phone, internet and TV services at discounted prices. Many customers flock to these offers.

Latest data from MoffettNathanson, Shared by Light ReadingSpectrum found that Comcast and Altice USA added 886,000 new phone customers in the first quarter of 2025, an increase from 804,000 in the same quarter in 2024.

To attract and retain customers, Verizon’s main goal will be to “build loyalty and drive significant improvements in retention,” Schulman said.

“We have to make it much easier to do business with us,” Schulman said. “You should expect bold execution backed by sophisticated and smart marketing, actions that strengthen loyalty, and the elimination of practices and processes that negatively impact the customer experience. Raising rates without corresponding value rarely pleases customers.”

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He also said Verizon’s transformation won’t be “about promotional activities that can be quickly imitated.”

“This is about real innovation that cannot be easily imitated by our competitors,” he said.

Schulman also highlighted the company’s plans to use AI-powered innovation to “transform” the “customer experience.”

“I plan to use AI as a key tool to simplify offers, improve customer experience, and reduce customer churn through smart, consistent, and more personalized marketing and offers,” he said. “We will also leverage AI across the company to make it easier for our employees to delight our customers and significantly improve service by reducing cost and complexity across the vast majority of our business processes.”

He also warned that all these changes “will not happen overnight and there is no magic bullet.” He said it would “require hard work, strategic focus and thoughtful execution” for Verizon to win.

RTMNexus CEO Dominick Miserandino told TheStreet that it is necessary for Verizon’s CEO to implement a plan that improves customer experience to reverse the growing loss at the company.

“You can build the best 5G network in the world, but if the customer feels that prices are going up and it creates headaches, people will leave,” Miserandino said. “The plan is not about another marketing effort; its goal is to make Verizon simpler, faster and easier to deal with. Customers don’t want to play games, they just want a plan that works and don’t want to deal with the technical side of the business.”

Related: AT&T has a worrying customer problem

This story was first reported by: Street First appeared on November 1, 2025 Retail section. Add TheStreet at: Preferred Source by clicking here.