Verizon Offering To Repay For Lost Hours After Major Outage In New York

Like it or not, we're slaves to our phones. Work, leisure, hobbies, and socialization all take place behind that screen in your pocket.

Read More: Verizon Goes Dark, Leaving Consumers Without Cell Service in NY

All that to say, if something happened to our phones, our society would collapse within minutes, and we got a taste of what that would look like on January 14th...

Get our free mobile app

Massive Outage in New York

On the morning of January 14th, Verizon customers across the state of New York, and America as a whole, noticed that their phones were no longer connected to the network. The majority under Verizon's coverage saw their bars go blank and show "SOS", meaning no service was getting through.

The problem began in New York City at around 9:30 a.m., and got worse as it spread across the eastern seaboard, and further west across the continent. The problem persisted through the night of the 14th, with reports dwindling but not totally eradicated.

Verizon's Ready to Pay You Back

By the morning of the 15th, the problem had largely been resolved. Verizon has not released a statement on what caused the outage, but they have recognized the issue and are doing what they can to fix public perception.

They tweeted at 10:17 a.m. on the 15th that they apologized profusely for the incident, and that every Verizon account would be reimbursed with a $20 credit they can redeem in the myVerizon app. A text message will be sent when the credit is available, and can be used towards your next phone bill. While this might not be what many disgruntled customers wanted, it is still a sign that the company is disappointed in their work and want to move forward.