Customer Service and unresolved issues - help needed!

[LynB63]

Since last Thursday I have spoken with a minimum of six different customer service reps.  Some were wonderful, some were horrendous (and that is being polite).  My Samsung Galaxy began sending spam texts to people. Not a few but 40-50 at a time - none were sent to existing contacts.  One rep was so honest he shared information about a virus that was a known issue with Samsung and even gave me the website to read it for myself.  Another shared it may be an Android virus.  After a factory reboot (yes, hours getting everything back), a new gmail account (Verizon suggestion) and much more, nothing has changed.  In fact, this morning at 5 am I apparently sent myself a text telling me to go online and change my user name, password and security question.  Verizon confirmed they did not send this to me.  As for the other reps, one "supervisor" suggested I may have sent them and "forgot" and I explained it would be physically impossible for me to send 40 text messages to 40 different numbers all at the exact same time and then suggested as I was well over 400 of these that I forward each of them to 7726 and report them to the fraud department.  I tried to tactfully explain that was nearly impossible since once you forward it you also have to type the number it was sent to.  The folks in the store were sympathetic and very nice but cannot do anything for me without tech support telling them they can.  All in all, I think I have been pretty patient even after the one I thought would be helpful who said his name was Scott was going to call me back between 1 and 1:30 on Saturday and never did.  So.....after getting advice from network folks, two other reps I decided to take their advice and ask for an early upgrade to an Apple as they said it is a different and more secure operating system.  I thought that was a great idea and he transferred me to yet another person who said he should not have told me that because he didn't have the authority to do so.  I actually asked him to think about someone close to him, imagine it happened to them and would he want random people calling back or messaging back very angry that I was sending them these messages.  So, yes, I am a bit on edge waiting for another angry person and the best he could do was sell me a refurbished iPhone 5 or 5S for $179 or $350.  Really?  Of course each time I speak with someone they notice the length of service with Verizon and thank me for my loyalty - called him on that too since loyalty means nothing!  By the way, I am due for an upgrade December 28th - not like I am asking for much here.  So, my options are becoming limited - I am researching switching to another carrier one phone at a time as their contracts expire but honestly do like the service coverage from Verizon.  Can't seem to get a person authorized to help me just a bunch telling me they are not authorized and someone will call me.  Anyone else had these issues? Anyone from Verizon with authority reading this and want to help? 

[Weth]

Do the texts stop when you have the phone off completely? If so, that strongly suggests a virus on the phone. When you did a factory reset, did you restore from any backups? If so, that likely will bring the virus back. You need to do a factor reset and set up everything by hand again, not from backup.

If it is a virus, that is your responsibility and not Verizon's. Getting a used iPhone 5S or some other used phone to tie you over until December will be the cheapest route.

[LynB63]

Hi Weth,

Yes but as soon as I turn it back on there is a higher volume of them.  Verizon themselves have told me "they gave me the virus" which is what is so frustrating.  One tech shared the news story from June 17, 2015 released by Samsung that it is created from a glitch in their keyboard function which cannot be disabled. They released a patch to all carriers but Verizon could not confirm that they took care of it.  The chance your phone will be impacted is rare (I am one of the lucky ones) as you have to have all the right scenarios lined up and one of those is an unsecured wireless network.  Shortly before this happened I traveled to New York on business and did use a wireless connection I was not familiar with but provided by the hotel.  If it was a download or something I did to cause this I would understand but I am so careful and do not download anything except via play store. Regardless of what they let me do I will not use another Samsung (love the phone but this has been a nightmare and can't risk it again) and two of the Verizon techs told me themselves the Apple is the route to take but to be safe I should manually enter everything and not use any backup already in the cloud.  Hope this explains it a little more and thanks for your reply.  

[vzw_customer_support]

I can only imagine how upsetting and frustrating this whole situation has been LynB63. We truly do value you and your long time loyalty and would never want to see you go. I apologize you did not receive the call you were promised on Saturday, and apologize for all this inconvenience. Let's put an end to these spam messages.

How long has this been going on? Did you notice this started after downloading a certain app? Which Samsung Galaxy device do you have? Is only your line affected? Has the software on your device been altered? To better assist I will need to access your account. Please reply to the Direct Message I just sent so I may access the account and further assist.

I am confident we can get to the bottom of this and put an end to these messages. I know you mentioned your upgrade date is just around the corner. Although I am not able to offer an early upgrade I can help find a resolution to your messaging issues.

JohnB_VZW
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