Who I have the same questioned this solution

My brother is also a Verizon customer, when I try to call him sometimes I get a message that he is no longer a Verizon customer and other times the call goes through. We thought it was his phone so I upgraded my phone and gave him my old I phone that I had never had a problem with, I am still getting this message about half of the times I call him. This has been going on for about 3 weeks and had yet to get resolved by Verizon. When he was talking to customer service they said his phone was turned off even though he was talking on it. I am at a loss, I am frustrated that sometimes I have to call upwards of 7 times to get through to him just once. If there is someone who knows what the problem might possibly be please let us know. Also I have tried to call him from other phones non-Verizon and get the same message sometimes.