Winning free airfare and tickets to the Superbowl is a chance of a lifetime.
Verizon customer and Patriots fan Faye Hill of downtown San Diego says he was one of the lucky ones, but that excitement was intercepted in a manner of seconds.
Faye jumped at the opportunity to win Superbowl tickets when he saw a special promotion on Verizon's rewards program Verizon Up. Fay entered the contest. He says he was shocked when he got a message in his inbox. He thought it said he won the Super Bowl LIII Fly Away tickets.
He clicked on the offer and the screen showed a 3-minute countdown to enter in his name, number and email. Faye says he made it just in time.
Faye says the next email was congratulating him on his win. But the celebration didn't last long, the next message on his screen said there had been a mistake.
He says the tickets he saw on the screen turned into vouchers for five-dollar movie tickets. Not exactly what Faye expected. He complained to Verizon... but they didn't budge. Faye thought he was a winner, Verizon said it was a misunderstanding.
A message from Verizon to Faye said:
Local
"Although you were not one of the winners based on our first-come, first-served structure, we understand from feedback that messaging in our app was not clear that all tickets were already claimed."
Apparently, Faye wasn't alone. NBC 7 Responds found that thousands of other Verizon Up members entered and also complained about the misleading wording. Instead of Superbowl tickets, people got an apology from Verizon saying:
"Our goal with Verizon Up is to provide amazing rewards and experiences for our customers, and we take feedback seriously. As a result, we are depositing two complimentary Up credits to your account to redeem for chances to win other Super Ticket experiences or for everyday rewards.
Since then Faye was offered a 100-dollar credit from a Verizon Executive. Responding to Faye's frustration over the ticket mishap.
