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Author Topic: Verizon Sucks! Dominic Espinosa Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1172 From: Boulder Creek, CA. Registered: Jan 2004 posted 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!  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 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.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 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.  |  IP: Logged Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 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  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 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.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 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.  |  IP: Logged Jeff Kane Film Handler Posts: 74 From: corpus christi, tx Registered: Jun 2011 posted 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.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 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!  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 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.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 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.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 08-20-2011 03:24 AM                        I was never charged for calling people with other carriers when I was with AT&T.  |  IP: Logged Stephen Furley Film God Posts: 3059 From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England Registered: May 2002 posted 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.  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 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.  |  IP: Logged Mitchell Dvoskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1869 From: West Milford, NJ, USA Registered: Jan 2001 posted 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.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 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.  |  IP: Logged

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