Situation with Verizon Wireless

[Snaploud]

My favorite bit of hilarity was that, in this day-and-age of young people buying cellphones as land-line replacements, Sprint required--in order to purchase a cellphone--a separate land-line phone number for their account records. That was two years ago, so I don't know what the story is lately.

 

[knine]

I used T-Mobile a long long time ago. I went through several phones and all I had to do was move the chip from one phone to another and I was good to go. Later, my family all decided to go with Verizon. It was not until about 4 years or so ago that they "had the ability" to transfer my contacts and what not to a new phone. I acted surprised and said "oh so you can do that now" and they were like "ya, before we didn't have the technology." So me being me, I said "Really, T-Mobile has had that technology for several years." I got a dirty look, then the lady finished, gave me my phone and didn't say another word to me.

Also, something that kills me about all these phones.... they want you to sign a 2 year contract with a phone they are willing to warranty for only 1 year. I point this out to the sales person every time I go into one of their stores. "Uh, ya...uh... well ya... uh...."

The other thing I've learned, only deal with the ACTUAL dealers. These guys in malls stands that try to sell you phones can't do a whole lot if you have any sort of real problem. I had a problem with a phone so I went back to where I bought it and they had zero ability to do anything for me because they were not an official something or other.

 

[Spot's Meow]

It always shocks me how expensive cell phones are, I'm never willing to pay that much for any of the good stuff so I end up going with the cheapest thing possible. It's funny because I actually take good care of my phones and one of the expensive ones might be a good investment for me, whereas it seems like friends and family are dropping/breaking/losing their overpriced phones every few months and having to buy new ones.

 

[bluedana]

Oh, Verizon, they of the "unlimited texting, except we'll charge for data and connecting to the network."

Isn't that every phone company? Of course you have to pay for data if you want to use it.

Well, since I don't download movies or music, or use the GPS, or have any ringtones, or use the thing for anything other than calling and texting, and those two things are supposed to be unlimited on the plan, one would think that actually connecting to the network to do those two things would also be included. Apparently not.

 

[STR]

Sprint is...inconsistent. You never know what you're going to get with them.

As a former Sprint customer, I disagree with you. They are very consistent. They screw you every time you give them a chance. Between that, the dropped calls, and not getting some of my phone calls/messages for three days even though the phone was on and had 4 bars, I am now a happy Verizon customer.

Trust me, I'm fully aware of their problems post Nextel merger, but in the last 18 months they have improved their retail staff to generally competent. Over the phone care is back to being Rule of 3 compliant, like the other providers. As evidence, I cite the fact they've stopped hemorrhaging customers at the rate of two million per year.

AT&T has gotten a lot worse. The entire front line staff from 2 years ago has completely turned over, replaced with far less competent people that they don't pay nearly as well. Telco care is really basic IT care, you have to know how to work the billing and network systems, which are all integrated together and stacked on top of each other. As such, a veteran rep is a lot better equipped to fix issues when they inevitably crop up in such a complex system. You end up with ~2007 Sprint. The day the iPhone launches somewhere else will be a the start of a LONG year for AT&T.

So me being me, I said "Really, T-Mobile has had that technology for several years." I got a dirty look, then the lady finished, gave me my phone and didn't say another word to me.

You were far, far, far from the first person that month to say that to the sales rep. Having said that, even for Verizon phones, there's been a machine that can copy your info from phone-to-phone, even across carriers. It's called a Cellebrite UME and they've been made by the Cellebrite company since 2000. VZ, or whatever franchise agent you dealt with was just too cheap to buy one (to be fair, a UME runs almost a grand).

 

[knine]

The day the iPhone launches somewhere else will be a the start of a LONG year for AT&T.

AT&T used to be the only reason I would not buy an iPhone. I played with one at the store and loved it. But every experience I've had with AT&T has not been good. And the Apple Store seems to hear that story all to often.

Now on top of that, after doing some researching of other phones and looking at my needs / budget, I can't justify spending an extra ~30 bucks a month for a data plan when I'm already spending ~40 bucks a month at home to have the internet.

Now, as long as the phone works and I can play music and do a few custom things like ringtones, I'm happy.

 

[PsychoPere]

^ If you were in love with the iPhone, there are plenty of Android OS-based phones that would likely satisfy you as well. I, for example, am in love with my HTC Incredible (or "Droid Incredible," as Verizon brands all of its Android phones with the "Droid" heading).

 

[doubleohfive]

So me being me, I said "Really, T-Mobile has had that technology for several years." I got a dirty look, then the lady finished, gave me my phone and didn't say another word to me.

You were far, far, far from the first person that month to say that to the sales rep. Having said that, even for Verizon phones, there's been a machine that can copy your info from phone-to-phone, even across carriers. It's called a Cellebrite UME and they've been made by the Cellebrite company since 2000. VZ, or whatever franchise agent you dealt with was just too cheap to buy one (to be fair, a UME runs almost a grand).

Verizon has these machines now. I think it's more an issue these days of them not wanting to have to use them unless they feel they have to. It's easy enough for them to send you on your way with your phone/replacement phone and tell you to charge it (usually for 24 hours) and then input everything yourself, whether manually or via backup on your computer. However, if you push and bitch at them enough, they'll do it all for you, and it can be done in under 20 minutes; this is precisely what happened last January when my phone died on move-out day as I described earlier in this thread.

 

[STR]

A UME transfer takes all of 2 minutes, unless you have 10,000 contacts, and you don't have to do anything other than push "START." Plus, a lot of places will charge an additional $5 or so to do it.

Trust me on this, if they had one, they'd use it. If only to spend the 2 minutes staring at it instead of talking to you.