Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Verizon Sucks!

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Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 08-18-2011, 05:57 PM:

#@$!! I'm so pissed right now!

Over the course of the last 11 months I've gone through 3 BlackBerry Curve's. The brand new out-of-the-retail-box one come with a faulty battery management that failed within the first 14 days.
The warranty exchanged one did the same thing in about the same period of time +/- a day.
The third worked for most of this time but started getting slow and glitchy last month.
Most recently, it would lock out the password entry with the whole "keyboard locked..." message. But because it was locked I couldn't enter the password and the password screen locked out the unlock feature.
This would happen a few times a week. Updated software per tech-support instructions. No help.
More fun ensured a couple weeks ago when it mauled 2 text messages into one big fat one and sent the contents to one person!
So instead of my baby-mama getting a message about our daughter and a manager getting a message about a janitors closet, the ol' lady saw "shes in the mop closet by theater 2 demanding ice cream".
That was fun.

This morning the S key locked up and kept repeating over and over.
If you tapped the A for example, you'd get an S. And if you tapped S you'd get nothing. Yeah, that was nice. So I couldn't enter the password to unlock it.

Went to Verizon and was told to go fork myself, basically.
Argued with the store manager and phone support for 2 hours because I would not accept another warranty replacement and they would not budge on replacing the phone with a different model.
Wait...That's not true. They'd give me a warranty repaired Tor from 2 years ago with no battery and no battery cover, I'd have to buy those...

We'll see what happens. As of now I went to a non-company story and they outright LOANED me an old flip phone to use in the mean time while we fight with corporate. At least these guys have some damn customer service.

The saga continues...Please...Vent your wireless frustrations!

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 08-18-2011, 08:05 PM:

AT&T. That's saying enough. I've been thrilled with my Verizon service for internet and cell phone. AT&T has been nothing but a screw job for me.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 08-18-2011, 09:21 PM:

I guess I'm dreading the day if/when Verizon gobbles up Sprint. That will pretty much leave AT&T and Verizon controlling the vast majority of the American cellular phone marketplace. And they'll be free to raise price gouging on service plans to whole new levels while feeling next to nothing in terms of pressure to improve quality or even maintain it.

I guess that's great if you're a shareholder. It sucks if you're a paying customer. But that's American business for you. It's about selling stock, not products or services.

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 08-18-2011, 10:14 PM:

All 5 of us managers here have Verizon phones provided by the theatre. zin 4 years there have been no major issues and the coverage is excellent

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 08-18-2011, 10:56 PM:

"Dom", sounds like your issues are with the phone itself, not the network .. along with a very poor store manager. Did you head to another Verizon store to get another opinion or help?

Also, you have to realize that those fancy phones are like mini computers that does eat battery current on a rather steady basis. My daughter had one of them "curves" and that thing was on the charger more than it was in her purse since she left it on all the time-in standby mode. She finally dumped the thing and went more simpler - a flip phone - and now, she can keep that thing off the charger more.

I used to have Verizon via my former employer since they issued company celphones and had excellent service. Then when I left, I had to go on my own since I lost that fone.

Thus, went to Tracfone since I didn't want to lock up my life for two years with those contracts, since I don't need that smartfone stuff - I'm just a talk and text sort of guy - (and they use AT&T as their service provider..) and had great service, but with Tracfone's plan along with my increase of minutes and texting, my celphone bill was getting rather on the expensive side.

Thus, let Tracfone go and went with another "pay as you go" service with iWireless, which has a great plan for a set amount per month for talk and text, but, they use the Sprint network..

I love the phone I have now with iWireless, but using Sprint is a bad idea, for I've dropped calls, lost signals, gone into roaming service within one room and other abnormalities of a crappy server.

I'm gonna wade this one out some more then decide what to do next - maybe head to Tracfone's other company - Straight Talk since they have plans that closely matches this one I have with iWireless...which, also uses the AT&T network....but have to wait and see for now.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 08-19-2011, 11:39 AM:

quote: Brad Miller
AT&T. That's saying enough. I've been thrilled with my Verizon service for internet and cell phone. AT&T has been nothing but a screw job for me.

My girlfriend has had exactly the same experience with them, with a slow and sometimes non-existent DSL internet service. AT&T are the only provider offering DSL service in her neighbourhood (just outside San Bernadino), and so unless she gets cable broadband, she's stuck with them. The speed is claimed to be 2mbps, but yet has never gone above 0.7 when I've been there. When she phones AT&T's helpline, she is instructed to run their own speed test page. Surprise surprise, it says that she's getting the full speed (which, from her home to AT&T's data centre I'm sure she is, but from there to the server of the website she's trying to look at is a totally different story), the guy on the phone says "Well, you're getting what you're paying for, Ma'am" and starts reading his script telling her to check for Windows issues. However, run an independent (i.e. not run by AT&T) speed test page, and 70kb/s is the absolute maximum. Furthermore, the service frequently freezes totally for minutes on end, especially on weekday evening peak times. And we know that the problem isn't her computer, because that's the top speed my laptop gets, too, when I'm staying with her - running both the Windows and Ubuntu partitions.

As Bobby points out, I'm sure it's the monopoly syndrome. AT&T know that the only way she can get a better service in her current location is by buying cable TV with it as well, which she doesn't want; and so effectively she's stuck with them.

Posted by Jeff Kane (Member # 6372) on 08-19-2011, 11:44 AM:

Two things.

One: Refurb'ed blackberries are a total crapshoot. But by now you already know that.

Two: The text message mangling, etc actually sounds like a firmware issue. No matter HOW good the phone, bad firmware will render it useless. Blackberry is good about putting out firmware updates and BAD BAD BAD about release firmware on phones (meaning: What it comes with out of the box). Load Blackberry Desktop Manager, let it update the thing, and that should help. The Crackberry forums (forums.crackberry.com) have more information than you could ever want about getting your phone working properly/common issues/how to fix 'em.

I gave up on 'berries after the AT&T Torch. Too much gloss and not enough substance. Went to Android and haven't looked back since. The learning curve hurts at first but it only takes a few days. Also, if you're a frequent texter? Swype is your friend.

@Monty: Check out Page Plus cellular. They use the Verizon network but have much friendlier policies and better plans.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-19-2011, 12:24 PM:

Threads like this make me glad I still have an old dumb phone, as opposed to a smart phone. I'll take the plunge someday and then I can come back here and gripe too! [Big Grin]

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 08-19-2011, 03:50 PM:

In my comparison of Verizon vs AT&T, Verizon has a much lower quality signal. I also can't seem to delete voice mails that fax machines leave if they call. Keep pressing 7, nothing happens despite the fact I can clearly hear the tone. I can delete human-made voice mails, though.

Verizon also seems more expensive so far. Their start-up fees are pretty outrageous. Their text plans are a rip off and their per-text charge is astronomical. Texts cost them NOTHING! I can't believe the American public takes it in the ass from cell phone companies like this. But then again, we are a bunch of god damned idiots. I refuse to get a text or internet plan for a cell phone mainly because I am not a god damned idiot. I do regret switching but now I am stuck with them.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 08-19-2011, 11:56 PM:

With Verizon, calling ANY cell phone...regardless of carrier...is free. Have you factored that in?

Putting aside the downright horrible service from AT&T customer service center, I think people's reactions to the two companies is essentially like comparing different theaters. Some theaters are great, some not so much. [Razz]

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 08-20-2011, 03:24 AM:

I was never charged for calling people with other carriers when I was with AT&T.

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 08-20-2011, 06:11 AM:

My experience with Blackberry has not been good. We started off with a few senior management having them, and this eventually increased to about 50. Eventually I was given an old one as I look after the telephone system, and they thought that I should support the Blackberries as well. I don't actually use it, it's just for testing purposes, and can be loaned out to a member of staff if their Blackberry fails, which they seem to do frequently.

The battery life is poor, mine will just about do a working day on standby without being used for calls, and the battery now in it is less than a year old. Falling a metre off a desk onto a wooden floor is often enough to kill them totally, the mini-trackballs are unreliable, though I don't think the newer models have them. The same applies to the similar balls on Apple mice. The Blackberry Enterprise Server is also troublesome; it often just stops working for no obvious reason, and is not very happy working with Exchange 2010.

The Blackberry was a good idea when it came out, much easier to handle mail than conventional 'phones, but there are other options now.

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 08-20-2011, 08:50 AM:

I thought this was going to be a knock against the striking union - which I agree - THAT SUCKS!

But on the cell phone front, we use Verizon Wireless at work. We have probably 80 Blackberries, maybe a dozen iPhones and a few Droids. Plus a handful of flip phones. We replace a few every month, but that's totally understandable. People generally don't take care of them the way they should. We have the BES server, and it runs fine. It hardly ever needs to be rebooted which is surprising for a Windows server. It's connected to GroupWise 8. The only time it acts funky is if our network connection is down or if RIM is down... which actually happens more often than the network being down.

Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 08-20-2011, 10:27 AM:

quote: Monte Fullmer
maybe head to Tracfone's other company - Straight Talk

I have been very happy with Straight Talk. I'm on Verizon's network and see no difference in quality or coverage from my preceding Verizon phone. Note that Straight Talk has phones that work on either T-Mobile OR Verizon network, depending upon the phone. Phones where the model number ends in "c" are CDMA phones and are on Verizon's network, most of the others are GMS phones on T-Mobile's network. If your local Walmart does not have any "c" models, check the phones on their web site.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 08-20-2011, 11:42 AM:

quote: Joe Redifer
I was never charged for calling people with other carriers when I was with AT&T.

Let me rephrase. It doesn't count against your minutes. So if you call someone on another carrier at 1pm Wednesday afternoon, it is as if you are calling them at night or on the weekends...no use of minutes in the plan.

Posted by Robert E. Allen (Member # 1351) on 08-20-2011, 12:17 PM:

quote:
Threads like this make me glad I still have an old dumb phone, as opposed to a smart phone. I'll take the plunge someday and then I can come back here and gripe too! [Big Grin]

I'm with you Mike. I got a mobile phone so I could make and take phone calls. While my phone will do text and take pictures I never use those features and have no plans for ever getting a smart phone. I don't play games, I have satellite TV and internet none of which I need while I'm on the move. I have had Verizon for six years and have used it all over the Pacific Northwest and everywhere between there and Iowa with excellent reception and signal quality everywhere. I don't think there is really any need for anyone to pay bills, play games or do text while on the move. Wireless phones have had a bad enough impact on our social skills without turning over our entire lives to them.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 08-20-2011, 07:05 PM:

quote: Brad Miller
Let me rephrase. It doesn't count against your minutes. So if you call someone on another carrier at 1pm Wednesday afternoon, it is as if you are calling them at night or on the weekends...no use of minutes in the plan.

Then why are there any minutes at all on Verizon plans? Mine is 700 minutes.

The Verizon store person who sold me the plan said that only Verizon-to-Verizon minutes were "free". Verizon-to-Verizon texts are free, but only if you have a text plan (which is super-lame).

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 08-20-2011, 07:26 PM:

Maybe your salesman doesn't know what he is talking about???

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 08-20-2011, 07:47 PM:

quote: Jeff Kane
...Check out Page Plus cellular. They use the Verizon network but have much friendlier policies and better plans.

I checked into this which is true for having good plans, but I can see why they do have good plans since their phones are units that were models mainly that came out 2 to 4 years ago - like they got a hold of some units that were part of a liquidation sale, or what stores couldn't sell.

For example: with my former employer, I was issued a Samsung Alias II, which was a new phone for the spring of 2009 to replace the original Alias of the previous two years. Page Plus sells the original Alias (new in the box) for 80 bucks. Not saying that's bad, but wonder on firmware or update issues.

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 08-20-2011, 08:01 PM:

quote: Joe Redifer
Then why are there any minutes at all on Verizon plans?

Because they assume most mobile calls are to land-lines regardless of a "free mobile-to-mobile" enticement?

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 08-20-2011, 09:50 PM:

quote: Stephen Furley
The battery life is poor, mine will just about do a working day on standby without being used for calls, and the battery now in it is less than a year old.

I find that the battery life on mine depends a lot on signal strength. My home is a flat in a very old building (built 1635-38) with walls that are literally around 2-3 feet thick. Even though it's very close to the city centre of York, I get one bar of signal strength maximum in the flat, and without making any calls my Blackberry will get an absolute maximum of about 36 hous from a full charge to a low battery warning. However, when I'm anywhere else with a better signal strength, it'll go for 2-3 days easily.

Agreed about the trackballs, though they are very cheap and relatively easy to replace (replacement kits are around a fiver on Ebay). I had to do that with my last BB, though this one has a solid state version that you just rub your finger across.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 08-21-2011, 02:43 AM:

quote: Brad Miller
Maybe your salesman doesn't know what he is talking about???

It was a black woman. Clearly you are racist/sexist.

quote: Chris Slycord
Because they assume most mobile calls are to land-lines regardless of a "free mobile-to-mobile" enticement?

People still have land lines? I guess businesses do, but usually calls to businesses don't eat up a large chunk of time.

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 08-21-2011, 03:43 AM:

quote: Joe Redifer
People still have land lines? I guess businesses do, but usually calls to businesses don't eat up a large chunk of time.

Most people aren't you. Most of them still have land lines. And not only that, but in addition to businesses there'd be schools which definitely are run pretty exclusively from land lines. Most people with cell phones either have kids who go to schools or go to one themselves. [Smile]

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 08-21-2011, 11:52 AM:

Most people here have had to call in for KDMs and such, hence the "unlimited minutes" plan. [Razz]

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 08-21-2011, 12:20 PM:

quote: Chris Slycord
Most of them still have land lines.

That seems to be changing quite quickly though, at least in this neck of the woods. There are now 4-5 people I call regularly who do not have landlines in their homes, and several more who only have landlines because they need one to get ADSL internet, and don't even have a voice phone plugged into them.

I know this is probably a Europe-specific thing, but my problem with this is that it it's a cheap solution for the householder, but puts a lot of extra cost on anybody who wants to contact them. Here, the entire cost of calling a cellphone is borne by the person originating the call: from a UK landline, this can be up to the equivalent of 80-90 cents a minute during weekday working hours, while the owner of the cellphone you're calling pays nothing. Of course some landline contracts have inclusive deals that makes it a lot cheaper to call cellphones, and it's usually free to call between contract cellphones on the same network (a pernicious marketing device, of course, as it encourages whole extended families to go with the same provider). But even so, the costs can add up.

quote: Chris Slycord
And not only that, but in addition to businesses there'd be schools which definitely are run pretty exclusively from land lines.

The phone bill of the university I work for got so bad a few years ago that they introduced a rule requiring students to provide a landline number that they could be contacted on, because virtually no shared students' houses have landlines in them and so they'd give their cell numbers on all the official forms. It didn't work, of course - they would just put their parents' number, and when you rang it you'd get Mummy or Daddy reading out their cell number and telling you to call that; and so they admitted defeat and dropped that rule. But the size of the bill must have been significant for them to want to try it in the first place.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-21-2011, 01:59 PM:

"Need to call 9-1-1........ohh, this phone is a prop, it doesn't work!"

Life is again imitating art. [Smile]

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 08-21-2011, 03:37 PM:

quote: Chris Slycord
Most of them still have land lines.

Sounds like most people are pretty stupid. There's really no reason any more for an individual to have one if they also have a cell.

quote: Brad Miller
Most people here have had to call in for KDMs and such

That is 100% the theater's responsibility, no one should be required to use their own phone.

Posted by Jonathan Althaus (Member # 5042) on 08-21-2011, 04:30 PM:

But it's much easier to make calls on a cell. Running back and forth from a phone in the office to the other end of the booth where an incident is occuring is time consuming and a royal pain. And that's when the office isn't occupied by other mgrs doing absolutely nothing

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 08-21-2011, 04:31 PM:

I give a Google Voice # as a "land-line". Heh.

Monte, I did call Blackberry who didn't understand what I was asking and sent me to their "upgrade" department where you get $25-$50 for trading in an old, working, phone.

At this point my boss is livid with them; their website advertises good reviews for the phone and that was what our business manager made the decision based on. However real customers don't like the phone so much for reliability issues.

Either way I'm going to send the remains back to Verizon in a million pieces for my warranty exchange. Just to see if they'll do it.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 08-21-2011, 06:33 PM:

Jonathan, it is still 100% the responsibility of the theater. Maybe they could give the booth a cordless phone or some shit like that. Also, I wasn't aware that KDMs were "incidents".

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 08-21-2011, 07:14 PM:

quote: Joe Redifer
Sounds like most people are pretty stupid. There's really no reason any more for an individual to have one if they also have a cell.

1) I said "Most people aren't you. Most of them still have land lines" and you read that as "Most people aren't you. Most of them [have cell phones and] still have land lines."
2) There are situations where having a land line makes sense. As mentioned, if you want DSL it usually comes with the requirement that you have a line. And depending on the plan/service you want, it could be cheaper to do phone+DSL than to go with a comparable cable internet plan.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 08-21-2011, 09:03 PM:

Well, whatever, Mr. Always Combative. That still doesn't change the fact that my Verizon plan is no better than my AT&T plan was. Verizon does indeed suck as does their reception. Totally regret dropping AT&T.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 09-14-2011, 05:27 PM:

I have a voicemail on my Verizon that I cannot delete. I call, enter my password which it accepts. The voicemail consists of 3 beeps. After the voicemail plays, I am prompted to "press 7 to delete. I press 7. Nothing happens. 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7. I can hear the tone when I press the goddamn button. The voice says "Are you still there?" I cannot get past this message and I have other, newer voicemails that I cannot listen to beyond this because I can't get past this.

Verizon sucks big time!

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 09-14-2011, 05:39 PM:

quote: Jeff Kane
Check out Page Plus cellular. They use the Verizon network but have much friendlier policies and better plans.

I did and did connect up with them since I had a Verizon (Samsung Alias2) phone that I could use. THX MUCH for the TIP!

And now saving 15 bucks a month and a lot better service.

"Wow, no more dropped calls!"

.. and what where the big reasons for the change?: With Sprint, no service at all while in the elevator here at work whereas Verizon, I still had full strength-even in the elevator.

With Sprint, just walking around within the building, suddenly I was going into digital roaming in certain areas.

ENOUGH!

Goodbye, SPRINT - crappy service and I lost so many important calls, along with weak connection due to the bad service.

-Monte

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 09-14-2011, 09:24 PM:

Iphone and AT&T work just fine in Louisville KY and the 300 mile area around it. Louis

Posted by Jeff Kane (Member # 6372) on 09-15-2011, 04:11 PM:

Monte: Glad that worked out!

Joe: Not that you asked but two things to try. [Big Grin]

Try first: Set a passcode on your voicemail if you haven't already and try calling from a home phone. See if you can delete it that way.

Last resort: Call customer service and tell them you need them to reset and re-provision your voicemail to clear a stuck message. Fair warning: This will likely entail setting up your mailbox again including redoing your greeting and could cause other problems. You'll also likely lose any messages you might have saved. But at worst it'll mean another call or ten to customer service. Or you could just switch carriers. [Big Grin]

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 09-15-2011, 05:47 PM:

quote: Jeff Kane
Try first: Set a passcode on your voicemail if you haven't already and try calling from a home phone. See if you can delete it that way.

I already have a passcode (they don't let you NOT have one). I tried calling from land line, however holding the 1 button on a land line phone did not seem to automatically dial my voicemail.

Can't switch carriers when you have a contract otherwise they rape you in the anus with a spiked dildo. Cell phone contracts are bullshit. Anyone who thinks otherwise is an asshole.

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 09-16-2011, 03:55 AM:

Or at the very least they have cognitive dissonance from working at a phone company too long...

And without cell phone contracts... cell phone prices would drop pretty quickly since the "non-contract" rate is just ridiculous and pretty much no one would agree to those rates.

Posted by Jeff Kane (Member # 6372) on 09-16-2011, 10:40 AM:

Joe: Dial your phone number, send the call to voicemail, when you hear the greeting, press *. It should prompt you for your passcode. Verizon may use # instead. You can mash the 1 button if it makes you feel better though. [Wink]

And contracts are CRAP! The UK and Europe do it right. You can buy the phone, pay the actual retail price of the phone like any other piece of electronics and go month to month, or you can sign up for a contract and get a discount. But there's a choice! And much less reliance on branded phones, so you can switch carriers and KEEP YOUR PHONE. Too many different technologies here, it'd never work.

Contracts should've gone the way of the installed carphone.

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 09-16-2011, 11:03 AM:

Well, you can do that here too. It's just that most people are unwilling to pay ~$500-600 for their phones, which is the "retail price" currently. But again, having no contracts would force those retail prices to drop quicker, imo.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 09-16-2011, 01:30 PM:

quote: Chris Slycord
But again, having no contracts would force those retail prices to drop quicker

There was one thing that I did notice when I signed on to Page Plus, is that the the majority of the phones that they offer are not new phones in a heartbeat.

I did a search on some of the models that are offerd, and some are two years old plus - making it why their services are so much more economical than other pay as you go services - they're practically giving the phones away for free.