Hello, Verizon. I’m writing to you because of my frustrations with Verizon. I have spoken with tier 1 and 2 support about my frustration. Some of my frustrations have been ongoing for a couple of years now and it has finally gotten to the point that I feel the need to vent my frustration to you because I haven’t seen any solutions or progress made towards finding solutions with regard to certain issues. Perhaps you might be able to help me change my attitude towards Verizon. I believe the company needs to make some major changes to some of the policy that has been changed recently too. Here are some of my frustrations with suggestions as follows: * I feel that Verizon is intentionally harassing customers who don’t want to accept the newest firmware update. Why do I feel this way? Because I get an extremely annoying reminder that I have a new software update that is ready to install. This reminder pops up about every 10 minutes on my phone. It’s constantly in my notification bar and it won’t allow me to remove it or reject it altogether. I have been told by Samsung and Verizon support that this system update notification is never going to stop harassing me. What really frustrated me was hearing from them that eventually the update will install itself automatically without my consent. What if it installed when I needed to call 911 or poison control?!?! Who knows when it will decide to install on its own? This is a potential lawsuit waiting to happen! I’m not joking around! I never requested for the update to download to my device. It downloaded without my consent. The worst part is that once the update has been installed it can’t be uninstalled. It should be reversible if I wanted to have the previous firmware installed. On top of all of this the newest update is a known bad update by many customers on the Verizon Forums. Verizon won’t pull the update even though many people are saying exactly the same issues are occurring because of it. Doing a factory data reset is all that support reps tell them to do even when they know that won’t help. All of the Verizon rep responses are canned and unhelpful responses too. I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 32GB just so you know. I just want to keep my current update and be left alone with regard to the future updates. Having 1 or 2 reminders is fine but this is ridiculous! I don’t want to defer the update. I want to reject it. * Verizon couldn’t resolve my issues with the network extenders which I’ve had. I’ve had 3 different network extenders in my home and they are all experiencing the same issues. I have given up trying to work with Verizon to find a solution. Just so you know I had Comcast as my ISP during the issues that were going on so I changed my ISP to UTOPIA Fiber with XMission. I still have all the same issues from my last ISP when I use the network extender. I got a new router and that didn’t help either. My router is an Asus RT-AC68U. I give up on this issue now because I have tried everything that support has asked me to do. * Verizon was planning to change the Network Optimization policy as of October 1st of this year. When I signed my contract in May 2011 they didn’t throttle 4G LTE speeds at all ever. The original plan Verizon was going to implement as of October 1st was basically that they can choose to throttle my unlimited data speed if I’ve exceeded 4GB of data in a month. The top 5% of data users use only 4.7GB or more in a month according to Verizon. Why do I care about this? Because I have used about 20GB in a month without tethering my internet with other devices. What makes me frustrated is the fact that Verizon ignores the fact that C block spectrum has certain conditions that they agreed to follow. Because Verizon didn’t follow the FCC rules Verizon lost $1.25 million to settle with the FCC. I have the FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to thank for preventing Verizon from taking my tethering apps out of the Google Play store and for convincing Verizon to stop throttling 4G LTE. * In July 2011 when Verizon took away unlimited data plans they never personally notified me about the plan changes. Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe that they gave customers a period of only 48 hours to lock in an unlimited data plan. I was so glad that I knew about it because I am fairly tech savvy. What about the 90 year old grandma living next door to me? Surely Verizon just expected her to figure it out in time right? I doubt it. There needs to be a way for me to be directly notified of policy changes like that. Having a press conference is not good enough. Lastly, I want to say that I have seen both the good and the bad from Verizon and I know that every wireless carrier has pros and cons so to speak. I realize that Verizon has more pros than cons. I know that Verizon has the best network in the country. That is why I haven’t left Verizon and stayed a loyal customer as long as I have. My entire family joined Verizon because of me. I have many other issues with Verizon but I’m not going to take more time away from you. Please understand that I had to get this off my chest. I will feel better knowing that you have actually read my frustrations.

My Complaints about Verizon

Hello, Verizon. I’m writing to you because of my frustrations with Verizon. I have spoken with tier 1 and 2 support about my frustration. Some of my frustrations have been ongoing for a couple of years now and it has finally gotten to the point that I feel the need to vent my frustration to you because I haven’t seen any solutions or progress made towards finding solutions with regard to certain issues. Perhaps you might be able to help me change my attitude towards Verizon. I believe the company needs to make some major changes to some of the policy that has been changed recently too. Here are some of my frustrations with suggestions as follows:

I feel that Verizon is intentionally harassing customers who don’t want to accept the newest firmware update. Why do I feel this way? Because I get an extremely annoying reminder that I have a new software update that is ready to install. This reminder pops up about every 10 minutes on my phone. It’s constantly in my notification bar and it won’t allow me to remove it or reject it altogether. I have been told by Samsung and Verizon support that this system update notification is never going to stop harassing me. What really frustrated me was hearing from them that eventually the update will install itself automatically without my consent. What if it installed when I needed to call 911 or poison control?!?! Who knows when it will decide to install on its own? This is a potential lawsuit waiting to happen! I’m not joking around! I never requested for the update to download to my device. It downloaded without my consent. The worst part is that once the update has been installed it can’t be uninstalled. It should be reversible if I wanted to have the previous firmware installed. On top of all of this the newest update is a known bad update by many customers on the Verizon Forums. Verizon won’t pull the update even though many people are saying exactly the same issues are occurring because of it. Doing a factory data reset is all that support reps tell them to do even when they know that won’t help. All of the Verizon rep responses are canned and unhelpful responses too. I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 32GB just so you know. I just want to keep my current update and be left alone with regard to the future updates. Having 1 or 2 reminders is fine but this is ridiculous! I don’t want to defer the update. I want to reject it.
Verizon couldn’t resolve my issues with the network extenders which I’ve had. I’ve had 3 different network extenders in my home and they are all experiencing the same issues. I have given up trying to work with Verizon to find a solution. Just so you know I had Comcast as my ISP during the issues that were going on so I changed my ISP to UTOPIA Fiber with XMission. I still have all the same issues from my last ISP when I use the network extender. I got a new router and that didn’t help either. My router is an Asus RT-AC68U. I give up on this issue now because I have tried everything that support has asked me to do.
Verizon was planning to change the Network Optimization policy as of October 1^st of this year. When I signed my contract in May 2011 they didn’t throttle 4G LTE speeds at all ever. The original plan Verizon was going to implement as of October 1^st was basically that they can choose to throttle my unlimited data speed if I’ve exceeded 4GB of data in a month. The top 5% of data users use only 4.7GB or more in a month according to Verizon. Why do I care about this? Because I have used about 20GB in a month without tethering my internet with other devices. What makes me frustrated is the fact that Verizon ignores the fact that C block spectrum has certain conditions that they agreed to follow. Because Verizon didn’t follow the FCC rules Verizon lost $1.25 million to settle with the FCC. I have the FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to thank for preventing Verizon from taking my tethering apps out of the Google Play store and for convincing Verizon to stop throttling 4G LTE.
In July 2011 when Verizon took away unlimited data plans they never personally notified me about the plan changes. Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe that they gave customers a period of only 48 hours to lock in an unlimited data plan. I was so glad that I knew about it because I am fairly tech savvy. What about the 90 year old grandma living next door to me? Surely Verizon just expected her to figure it out in time right? I doubt it. There needs to be a way for me to be directly notified of policy changes like that. Having a press conference is not good enough.

Lastly, I want to say that I have seen both the good and the bad from Verizon and I know that every wireless carrier has pros and cons so to speak. I realize that Verizon has more pros than cons. I know that Verizon has the best network in the country. That is why I haven’t left Verizon and stayed a loyal customer as long as I have. My entire family joined Verizon because of me. I have many other issues with Verizon but I’m not going to take more time away from you. Please understand that I had to get this off my chest. I will feel better knowing that you have actually read my frustrations.

Accepted answers

Verizon_Support

I apologize for the delay, Teal8. Since this is a customer to customer forum, we don't immediately see your messages here on the forum. But what I'm seeing in your post is very concerning to me and I want to keep you a happy customer. In regards to the automatic reminder from Samsung regarding the update available to your device, there's no way for us to turn that reminder off. The updates are all meant to provide you with a better experience, and it's recommended to download it when you're home on WiFi and have no need for the device for about 30-60 minutes while it completes the update. That way there is less chance of the need to use the phone during the update when the device will be unavailable. As for the Network Extender, what's happening with it?

Also, unlimited data is no longer being offered with new contracts. But if you're an existing customer with unlimited data, you are able to keep it at this time as long as you don't make a contract change (new phone at a discount, promotion acceptance, etc). There is no change to your account unless you make a promotional change. Notifications of poilicy changes or even our Network Optimization are available for everyone to see at www.vzw.com/news. You can also sign up for alerts at http://bit.ly/dDumph for big announcements.

JenniferH_VZW

Follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/vzwsupport

All comments

Teal8

Does anyone at Verizon have anything to say in response to my complaint?

unknown

you're posting on a customer to customer messageboard. You are not writing to Verizon

anyarborough

yeah, but I thought by marking a forum post as a question, Verizon reps were supposed to monitor and respond?

unknown

What do you want them to respond to? What could they do any any of the points you bring up. By the way Verizon an still get rid of unlimited data at any time. So while you may be thanking the FCC for Verizon not starting it's optimization plans( a plan the other 3 carriers are allowed to have by the way )you pretty much just guaranteed Verizon is going to kill off unlimited data sooner rather than later.

Verizon_Support

Teal8

Jennifer I don't think you read my compliant very well. If you did you wouldn't have recommended that I install the update because it is a bad update that many people here on the forums are having issues with. I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 32GB. You also didn't comment on why Verizon refused to pull the bad update. This is ridiculous that I have reminders to install a bad update in first place. If Verizon knows that the update is bad then they need to pull it asap. They have done this before with the Galaxy S3. Almost every system update that I have received with the exception of one has made me disappointed because of the lack of updated software compared to other carrier updates from Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile. Also I get disappointed with the updates because of the features that get taken away sometimes. For example The Samsung Galaxy S4 used to be able to let me turn off the LTE radio and only use CDMA 1X for data on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. That was before the update to Android 4.3 KitKat which took that capability away. Yet the Samsung Droid Charge, HTC Thunderbolt, and Samsung Galaxy Nexus still let people use this feature to turn off the LTE radio and only use CDMA. What Verizon does with the system updates is very comical. Another example is how the Verizon Galaxy S5 is missing a feature that the T-Mobile and US Cellular Galaxy S5 have called Download Booster.

Teal8

Almost every update I have installed has messed up my phones ever since I have been a Verizon customer. I've had a Samsung Droid Charge, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Samsung Galaxy S3, and a Samsung Galaxy S4. Verizon needs to let customers update their phone if and only if they choose. This is very annoying to install a bad update and not be able to go back to the previous one.

Teal8

That is exactly why I posted this here. I wanted both Verizon and other customers to read my complaints and comment.