Although a lot of people think that federal law prohibits businesses from discriminating against customers on the basis of sex, the reality is that federal law contains no such prohibition. But Utah state law does. It allows a lawsuit for the actual damages suffered as a result of the discrimination. Note that the law generally does not recognize embarrassment, humiliation, hurt feelings, etc., as a form of damage that can be compensated in a lawsuit. Your wife certainly may sue for any financial loss suffered here. But that loss, to there is any, is going to be small. She’d likely want to do this in small claims court as the legal fees to pursue this in regular court would almost certainly exceed what she’d get in a judgment. Before trying that, though, I’d suggest she write the CEO of Verizon and explain what happened, how it made her feel, and that it was obvious that the difference was that she was a woman since the company easily exchanged the same phone for your but not for her and see if they will do anything to try to make this right. A company that values its image with the public will do something for this. The company very likely doesn’t want a public relations problem on claims that it treats women poorly.