Can You Hear Me Now?

Mwhahhahhaa

 

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I moved recently.  Actually last month my husband, little girl and I moved to Newton, NC.  It’s a very little town outside of Hickory, don’t blink or you’ll miss it.  One of our perquisites when looking for a new home was service (please note we are renters).  Our cell phones had to work at our new home.  We don’t want to have a home phone; our cell phone bill is large enough all on its own. 

When we looked at the place we of course looked at our phones and were happy to see all our bars!  Yeah!  The perfect home and cell phone signal.  So, we were definitely a little confused when we moved in and started trying to make phone calls.  It would show full service, 3G, the whole nine yards and then we would try to dial out and the bars would disappear.  We were dropping calls left and right, had spotty signal and could barely hold a 5 minute conversation.  The crazy thing was that sometimes you could make a call and hold your conversation without an issue and then the next call out would drop.  Yes, we have two phones and it was happening on both. 

Keep in mind that during this time I also did not have internet or cable, so I felt like I was suffering a total media blackout.

I used to work for a cell phone company so I knew that this was not normal at all and that a few things could actually cause it.  Just so those out there without this experience are aware; cell tower outages, cell tower problems, overcrowding on a tower.  These are things that the company would never find out if it’s not reported.  Here I would like to explain how things have gone over the last month of trying to fix this ongoing issue.

Call #1 – I called Technical Support.  We went through all the basics.  Updating my towers (*228) and even going into my advanced settings.  None of it helped of course, or else I wouldn’t be writing this blog.  She transferred me to tower support so that I could file a ticket and get a tech team working on my issue.  Obviously whatever was wrong was not our phones.

Tower Support – He was very hard to understand and my phone was cutting out constantly.  What I did understand from him was that there were no other reported issues in my area.  He said he would submit a trouble ticket.  A guy would come out to my area by Friday (it was Wednesday) and I would get a call regarding a resolution.  I was so happy.  At this time I felt that my company was redeeming themselves.  So many people bad mouth them and maybe they really aren’t that bad regardless of price.  My company?  Verizon Wireless.

Friday came and went.  No call received.  I started to think that maybe due to the spotty coverage I had misunderstood which Friday.  I waited until the following Friday.  So at this point we are at 1 ½ weeks since my initial call.

Call #2 – I called Technical Support.  I got a really nice guy that I would have, and did, at that time say repeatedly was an asset to his company.  He looked and said that actually there were other reported issues in my area with the same problem.  My exact address is showing as 100% coverage.  Hmmm, this is odd.  What trouble ticket?  No, there isn’t one on the account.  Just a note from the first person you talked to about what she tried. 

So, the tower support guy not only did not submit a trouble ticket, but he also didn’t even put in notes that he talked to me.  Guy #2 gave me a $45 credit as an apology and submitted a trouble ticket.  He said I would hear from him the following Wednesday.  It might not be fixed, but they will know what is wrong by that time. 

This time I knew better than to get excited.  Tower Support guy may not have spoke English well, but he basically made me the same promise.  But this guy was so nice and seemed like he really wanted to help me.  He promised to call me personally.

Wednesday came and went.  Guy #2 didn’t call.  I thought maybe he needed more time.  I waited.  The following Tuesday I finally got tired of waiting and I called again.  At this point we are hitting one day short of 3 weeks since I placed the initial call.

Call #3 – I called technical support.  I got a lady who said the ticket was completed and she was sorry no one called me (which I needed to say she was snitty and not a nice person at all).  The issue?  There are too many hills, trees, houses and cars where you live.  Okay.  I asked if Verizon offers something that allows you to make calls via your Wi-Fi.  She said no.  Then thank you and have a nice day.

Wow, thanks.

So, it took 3 weeks for them to tell me that my service sucks where I live and their coverage map is wrong.

We talked about it and decided that we would give Verizon one more chance to keep our service.  We’ve been with them 10 years and the last time we were late on a bill was maybe 3 years ago.  Our bill is $185 a month.  They really need to do something, right?

So, I went into the office today and asked them what they could do.  The CSR asked if I was interested in getting a range extender.  Basically it’s like having a tower in my home, but gets plugged into my Wi-Fi.  Strange, I feel like I asked about that and was told that it doesn’t exist.  Well, there is no contract on these, but they cost $250. 

Thanks Verizon!  So, to keep using my service I can pay you another $250, on top of the $185 I already pay you every month, just so I can use your service at my home.

I asked the CSR what my cancellation fees would be.  He informed me that would be a bad idea.  After all Verizon gets the best service in this area.  Really?  I’m only going to be using that service when I leave the house.  I’m a stay at home mom so honestly that isn’t that often.  I like my Smartphone and so does my husband.  That’s why our bills are so high.  So, why exactly does it matter that you have such good service?

Well, in our searching we discovered we could switch to various other companies and only pay $130/month (after taxes) for the exact same service.  Granted, we still won’t get signal at our house, but guess what?  These other companies offer the ability to make voice calls over your Wi-Fi for free.  Yes, I said free.  There is no extra equipment to buy, it’s just there automatically.  Plus we’d be saving enough that we could get a home phone if we really wanted.  Plus, have enough left over to make a monthly payment on our cancellation fee to Verizon.  Which by the way is $570 for our three phone (we have a phone for my husband’s dad).

So, that’s the end of my story.  As of right now we are still shopping for a new company.  We don’t want to make any rash decisions and basically are looking at all the options.  I am very happy that we will be leaving Verizon soon.  I feel that a customer like us should be pretty important, but they made it quite obvious that they don’t want our business.