Visible suddenly terminated some customer accounts — here's why

Visible App on an S20
Visible App on an S20 (Image credit: Samuel Contreras / Android Central)

What you need to know

  • Some Reddit and Twitter users have complained that Visible suddenly terminated their accounts and phone numbers.
  • Affected customers took advantage of a recent promotion featuring a $200 gift card and reduced plan pricing for the first two months.
  • Visible has responded to indicate that the cancellations were targeted at those that have the promotional terms and conditions.

As reported by XDA Developers, some Visible customers have been taking to Reddit and Twitter to share that their Visible accounts had been suddenly terminated. However, it appears that some innocent customers may have gotten their accounts removed in error to prevent abuse of a recent promotion.

The prepaid wireless carrier Visible recently ran a promotion offering a discount on the first two months of service alongside a $200 gift card when users stayed with the carrier for three months. This is a good deal any day of the week, with the carrier offering unlimited data on Verizon's LTE and 5G network. The plan usually costs $40 per month with the ability to reduce your rate to just $25 per month when you use the carrier's Party Pay discount.

The affected customers appeared to have taken advantage of the promotion, which included a $200 virtual gift card that was available after customers used Visible for at least three months. This gift card promo paired with the recent 2for22 promotion, which offered a discounted rate on the first two months of service, made it a pretty good deal if you wanted to try out the prepaid carrier. Unfortunately, it also opened the door to those looking to make some easy money.

Visible provided the following statement to Android Central when asked about the reports.

Visible identified a set of accounts that were established illegitimately and in violation of our promotional terms and conditions. We terminated those accounts, but have heard from some customers who have asked us to review the decision. Our goal is to ensure that we are providing promotions and service to our legitimate members, so we are taking steps to review these escalations, and will restore service if warranted.

One affected customer stated on a Reddit post that their account had been restored and they had been informed that the carrier was terminating new accounts with multiple lines activated from the same address. Still, it's a curious way for the carrier to handle customers taking advantage of their promotions, particularly since it appears they weren't informed of the reasoning behind the decision.

Samuel Contreras

When Samuel is not writing about networking or 5G at Android Central, he spends most of his time researching computer components and obsessing over what CPU goes into the ultimate Windows 98 computer. It's the Pentium 3.