Reddit user lawrencenathan said that a local store employee sent them a message about ongoing promotions. What’s strange about the message is that it didn’t come from a company number and didn’t seem to be automated. Instead, an employee apparently used their personal number, crafted a custom message, and even mentioned their name.
Very surprised to receive an SMS spam from a store employee (see linked image). Yes, this is a local company store, but I have never set foot in it or interacted with any employee there. IT appears to be the personal phone number of “G”, the employee who spammed me.
—lawrencenathan, Reddit user, June 2025
Verizon employees are texting customers using their personal numbers to promote deals. | Image Credit- lawrencenathan
According to several Verizon employees who responded to the thread, this practice is not only encouraged, but mandated by Verizon. The company asks store representatives to chase leads via calls or messages.
yeah as a corporate rep we get local leads and have to reach out.
—Suitable_Potential_9, Reddit user, June 2025
All of us use several different tools to send promotional text messages to customers. I’m a manager for Verizon and it is a requirement for every sales employee to do these. They’re not doing it on purpose. Trust me we hate doing that but it is closely monitored and if we don’t do it we are actually held accountable.
—sk8trix, Reddit user, June 2025
Some people have argued that this technically isn’t spam and that a single benign message is nothing to get worked up about.
—LMNoballz, Reddit user, June 2025
Regardless, many customers may still find such messages annoying and their best recourse is to ask representatives contacting them to take them off their internal list. Some people are of the view that this is a harmless practice and that employees usually only contact people who are eligible for attractive upgrades and line offers. Viewed this way, some customers may actually benefit from these calls and messages. However, some employees have pointed out that in most cases, these calls don’t work, so it can be assumed that for most people, they are a nuisance.
Verizon is seemingly not the only company pushing this behavior, which is kind of ironic, given that the company comes across as a fierce advocate against spam on its website. However, with growth cooling off, and Verizon losing customers, it’s not hard to see why this strategy is being pursued.
We’ve reached out to Verizon for a comment and will update the story when we have a response.
Source: Phone Arena
