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No viable Service in St.Croix, USVI

I have just spent 2+ hours trying to get my voice messages and make calls with my Samsung Note 3, using a Verizon unlimited Voice & Text, Plus 2GB data Plan from several locations in St. Croix, USVI. I have tried to chat with Verizon Support, but no chat services seem to be available, although I have a good WiFi connection from my Villa and can get plenty of eMails and URLs anywhere in the world!

Verizon Support seems to be the worst on the planet, quite a distinction as customer service is an arcane art used to test the emotional fortitude and character of intelligent human beings. Actually, intelligent human beings avoid any customer service like the plague, as do I in normal circumstances. However, since the Verizon web site provided no answers or self service capabilities for providing service in St. Croix, I was left with engaging their support organization. Do not waste your time. Unless you can wrap your hands around the throat of a Verizon representative, I would suggest other ways to waste your time.

Strangely enough, I get 3 and 4 bars of signal quality on my phone, yet no calls come inbound or are successfully made outbound, in over a week from various locations on St. Croix. Seems I can ignore their coverage map for this island. PS - there are no hurricanes or weather conditions that could affect signal quality at this time.

Comments

budone

Are you on the East End? If so, once you pass Cheney Bay Resort, service is lousy at best, but mostly non-existent.

VZW does not provide service on any of the US Virgin Islands, so they are at the mercy of the provider on island and being an island, that runs on, 'Island Time', if there is an issue, it can take days to repair and VZW has no control over it.

May not be required, but did you activate global services and data roaming on your device?

tbishop1

Roaming happened without any specific activation or setup selection by me. Global Services is "supposed" to be for Foreign Countries, yet St. Croix a US Territory with an international phone country code of "1", just like the rest of the good old US, is in the Verizon Global Services Other Countries Drop Down list. Seeing this, and knowing that I had not signed up for Global Services prompted me to try to do it online, as I have a good internet WiFi connection in the Villa. However, after going in circles on the Verizon Web Site, and getting no where with a Verizon Global Services Support Chat Session that popped up during my attempt to discover pricing and activation procedure, I simple drove to the highest peak, got 5 solid, unwavering bars on signal strength and my Samsung Note 3 started acting like a phone, again. Verizon support was useless, yet I did find viable service in St. Croix. I believe it will cost me $1.99/minute, but that remains to be seen as there is some contradictory information on the Verizon site regarding Global Services and Pricing. Especially as I do Not have Global Services, so not sure about the Roaming Charges down here.

tbishop1

This was between Chenay Bay and the Buccaneer, so in the eastern part of the island, which shows solid coverage on the Verizon Coverage Map. As you say, the island culture is a bit different, so the real story on coverage is fluid, at best.

pherson

Let's clear something up here.

Verizon does not have towers outside of the US. The islands even if they have the dialing that you showed (as does Canada mind you) service is contingent on their roaming partner, I.e "island wireless". Therefore your issue is with the island not VZW. And yes you should have made sure your phone service was properly configured. Guess you'll know for next time.

Verizon_Support

tbishop1 lets make certain that you stay connected! We apologize for the trouble you are experiencing but we're here to help! I would recommend ensuring your roaming is turned on http://vz.to/1adJXXP and then powering the device off and on. If you continue to experience trouble, our Global Support Team will be able to get everything taken care of for you! http://vz.to/17KseUf

AshleyS_VZW

Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

tbishop1

Thank you for your kind response. However, I have already performed the actions you've suggested. It appears the issue is with the signal quality in St. Croix. The frustrating aspect of this issue for me is the contradictory information on the Verizon Site.. . ie Do I need to activate Global Services or Not.. . appears Not, as I was able to get my Voice Mail and make a call to the contiguous US, even though St. Croix is identified as one of the Global Services "Countries" that requires this service. Additionally, I was not able to find information about "Roaming" covering St. Croix. I was able to find a PDF that identified $1.99 for St. Croix, and more information about monthly Global Services charges, all leading to more questions about the overall cost, service options, or how to activate service in this location. The Verizon Customer Service Rep on the other end of the chat line could answer "None of this", although she did have me re-boot my phone a couple times, to no avail. So it boils down to Clarity of Communications, setting proper expectation with a customer, providing service as identified and/or implied, along with providing knowledgeable support.

Verizon_Support

tbishop1, We apologize for any confusion, but we are here to clear up any concerns you may have. In order to to have full voice functionality in St. Croix, the international dialing feature must be added to the account.

Has this feature been added to your account? The per minute rate for usage in the selected country is $ 1.99/minute. For this selected country, both text and data services are considered domestic which would explain you were able to use these features without the requirement of adding a global romaing feature.

EfrainM_VZW

Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

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