Anyone have Verizon Wireless?

[Newfie2000]

I have to stress that the most important piece of advice I have read hear is to check with others in your area... no matter what provider you are considering!

I had At & T wireless for about 5 years which then turned into Cingular and I think I kept them for about 2 years! We loved AT & T but when the merge took place the service, reception, customer service... everything went straight downhill. No matter how hard I tried to correct things or adapt it just kept getting worse. My DH is in construction and I consider his phone to be a kind of lifeline, if there is ever a problem I NEED that phone to work. I don't care whether he is in a tunnel, crawlspace, skyscraper, rural area, industrial park, whatever, I need to know that he will be able to use that phone. Obviously job locations change frequently so this can be a big issue for us. With Cingular it got to the point that 90% of the time he had no service (even in our home in the middle of Chicago) and when he did manage to get servive about 50% of the time the call was dropped. (Hard to believe in a place like Chicago?) So when we went into to Verizon I explained all of this. I think originally Verizon offered us a 15 day trial period on the phone model where we could switch phones for any reason, and 30 days on the provider. After telling the salesman that this was virtually useless to us because job locations varied greatly and often - he offered us a 9 month trial...no questions asked. Wow!! We were amazed and I did make him put it in writing but talk about going above and beyond for a customer. We did get two lines and he applied everything to both lines along with the package he gave us both free activation, Bluetooth headsets and leather cases. It was a very nice feeling walking out of the store knowing we had come out ahead for once, customers are not treated like that too often!

As I said this was in November and to date we have had no issues, not with the phones, with the servive or with the bill! I am just sorry it took me so long to dump Cingular, I can't believe I put up with 2 years of aggravation after the merge.

And oh...forgot to mention one of the biggest reasons I remained with Cingular was that I had an awesome plan with AT & T that Cingular "grandfathered" in. With Verizon I am paying double but I have all my old benefits plus a second line, shared minutes and two new camera phones!

But that is just my story, in my area and I understand different areas have a whole different set of rules...good luck!

 

[T. Lynn]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Guess I might be doing a poll around my area on service providers.

It's just going to take some working to convince DH to switch from Nextel. Most of our friends have Nextel so he loves the direct connect feature. If we go with Sprint, I might be able to convince him since you can direct connect Sprint & Nextel customers. I love our plan, but hate the service. We have FREE INCOMING calls which is great when you have 3 business's. You never know who & when someone is calling you.

I noticed that Verizon has a shared 2100 plan which would work. We normally use 1700-1800 minutes a month between the 2 of us (that would include incoming minutes - they track it for you but not charged).

I just hate Nextel phones as well. My phone has always cost around $250 and it's nothing compared to what other companies offer in that price range. Again, I really like the LE enV. I wish you could use the direct connect/push to talk feature between all the companies and I'm sure it will be coming in time. Then I'm sure DH wouldn't mind switching at all.

 

[ducklite]

I've had Verizon Wireless with the same phone number for over ten years now, and have been very happy with them!

Anne

 

[T. Lynn]

Sounds silly but I wish companies would offer a one or two week trial. After the week is up, you either have to sign a contract or go elsewhere. They could also track this so people don't take advantage of it.

 

[dopeyfanatic]

We live in CA, but around here, everyone I know that has Verizon has TONS of problems with it. Not connecting, dropped calls. My phone ALWAYS works and I have Cingular. Everyone else wishes they could change because when they're with me they always have to use my phone because theirs doesn't work. Definitely ask your friends near you....

 

[Brumeiser]

We had Verizon prepaid which I think is almost the same as Verizon in that we use the same network. Main reason we had the phone was my wife drives to Adrain every day a 45 minute drive one way to work and when she did have a few car problems she had no reception to call for help. So what good is the phone if there is no coverage. Cingular let us try it out for 30 days in which we drove the back roads and she had coverage in some of the black out areas for Verizon. Plus we had many dropped calls with Verizon and no problem with cingular.

 

[mookie]

I'm in Chicago too and we had nothing but problems with Cingular. For some reason, they never honored the plan that I was on every month, and would bill me the standard rate for EVERY CALL I MADE!!! No minutes as part of a package, nothing. Well, every month I was fighting an 800.00 phone bill for me and DH. And every month they would say "this will take some time to sort out, and then we'll just give you a credit." They wanted me to pay the 800.00 every month!!! It would take them at least 2 billing cycles before they would figure it out, but we were always battling them. This is on top of all the dropped calls I had!!!

Switched to Verizon a few years ago and have not had a single problem. They are wonderful. DH and I even had our phones damaged while we were in Hawaii (Saltwater got into our bag and ruined our phones) and they had 2 new phones sent to us within 48 hours with their insurance plan!

 

[Newfie2000]

Sounds silly but I wish companies would offer a one or two week trial. After the week is up, you either have to sign a contract or go elsewhere. They could also track this so people don't take advantage of it.

It does not sound silly at all - you should definitely look into this! Around here I think most providers do offer a trial plan similar to what you just described. But I think it works a little differently in theory. You do have to purchase their phone and sign a contract but you have x amount of days to change the phone to one that better suits your needs or cancel the contract. For example Verizon originally offered us 15 days to change phones and 30 days to void the contract entirely if we were not happy with them. My mother-n-law recently switched over to T-Mobile and she was also offered a 15 day phone exchange and 30 day contract cancellation thing and I believe Cingular, then AT & T gave us the same thing many years ago. That being said it might be a good thing for you to look into! The only thing I am not 100% sure on is if you get the money back for the actual phone but if not you can always get one of the freebie ones they always offer and later you could always upgrade it! Good luck!

 

[M 'n C]

I'm in Texas and I have Verizon and love it. I switched from Cingular about a year and a half ago. Cingular was horrible - didn't matter where I was I would have bad coverage and dropped calls. My family is still on Cingular back home (Louisiana) and everytime they call we get disconnected. I am trying to get them to switch.

 

[amwhitaker]

I was really bummed when I first got my LG VX8100 'cause they didn't have Disney ringtones. But they recently have them available, so I'm a happy camper!!

 

[crossfamily]

We have had verizon for the past 7 years and our contract is up this march and we are switching... Not sure to where yet... The service has gone down so bad this past year. My dh works on the border of Canada. He picks up the Canadian towers daily. I have to call all the time to get the charges taken off. You would think after me calling every month for over a year now someone would help us. No they tell us to hang up and keep trying till we get a local tower.. HELLO!!! I just lost my patience.. Our bills keep going up more and more every month..

 

[kydisneyfans]

We have had Verizon for 6 years and are also switching in May when the contract is up. Way too many billing issues, CSRs not following through on what they say they will do and so forth.

As for coverage-they are great. It is not worth the billing headaches anymore though.

 

[Mom2Ashli]

What do you guys mean when you say billing issues? Just wondering if it is problems with over min. charges or other things.

 

[jspahn]

I've had verizon for years - even before it was Verizon actually (started with Bellatlantic Mobile).
I used to travel all over for my job, and 99% of the time, I still had service when my co-workers who had other providers didnt. The network by far is the largest, and i rarely experience dropped calls.
I laugh because my boyfriend has cingular and he has sooooo many issues with the network its ridiculous.

Verizon does have a 15 day window for you to try out the service/equipment where you can still return it with in that period with out penalty.

It really does depend where you live too. There are definitely some markets where Verizon is not the strongest carrier, though that number is getting less and less.

I have the enV - just got it before xmas and I LOVE IT!!!! I love having the full keyboard - makes text messaging and emails so much easier. The pricing does depend on the feature, but if you know you are goign to be using the internet browser, or downloading videos from their V-cast service, you are so much better off gettign the $15 feature that let you use all that unlimited - not penalize your airtime minutes...

 

[Darth Cupcake]

We've had Verizon for the past 5 years. They have awesome coverage; even up in the Rocky Mountains! As others have said, the family plan is really nice. Even though DH wants Apple's new iPhone he won't buy it because its wireless carrier is Cingular.

 

[mookie]

We've had Verizon for the past 5 years. They have awesome coverage; even up in the Rocky Mountains! As others have said, the family plan is really nice. Even though DH wants Apple's new iPhone he won't buy it because its wireless carrier is Cingular.

DH is SALIVATING over this thing...especially since his crackberry is almost kaput. But no way will I switch from Verizon!!!

Hopefully it will not be exclusive to Cingular and they'll offer it from other cell providers soon.

 

[Darth Cupcake]

DH is SALIVATING over this thing...especially since his crackberry is almost kaput. But no way will I switch from Verizon!!!

Hopefully it will not be exclusive to Cingular and they'll offer it from other cell providers soon.

LOL Yes, salivating is a good word! I guess we are both married to some tech junkies!

So Verizon must be doing something right to keep our business amidst this incredible temptation!

 

[Oreo Cookie]

We've had verizon wireless for several years and we've had no problems at all. I've not experienced dropped calls, and very rarely any dead zone while traveling.

 

[jspahn]

LOL Yes, salivating is a good word! I guess we are both married to some tech junkies!

So Verizon must be doing something right to keep our business amidst this incredible temptation!

I'm thinking the $500 - $600 price tag for the iPhone is going to turn some people off too! I mean, its a phone for pete sake!!! And you want me to spend how much?

 

[simpilotswife]

Just an FYI for anyone with OnStar. You can link the OnStar telephone in your car to your Verizon Wireless account for an additional $10/mo with the Family plan.