Who do we contact?

[PassiveGiraffe]

I live in a rural part of Oklahoma....apparently so far out in the sticks that modern technology does not reach us.  I am paying for the Unlimited Plus plan x's 6 (6 lines)....which boasts 5G Ultra Wideband.  However, here I am shelling out close to $400 a month on LTE.  I have one line (my elderly father) who lives in the country and has to walk 1/4 of a mile to call, however he can text from the porch....just not inside his house.  He has multiple health issues and needs cell service.  We recently had a small company (Pioneer) that Verizon took over.  He had service on Pioneer, so why does he not have it on Verizon?  They promised a booster, never got it.  They promised to turn on a tower that they did not have active, so far...they have not.  I am tired of contacting "support" only to get the same run around....How does one get a ticket escalated?  

[SynthpopAddict]

If it were me, I'd downgrade your service plan to Unlimited Welcome, since you apparently have no 5G service at all.  Or maybe even switch all your lines to prepaid service.  While Unlimited Welcome customers have to deal with some level of deprioritization to customers on the more expensive plans and prepaid customers are deprioritized to all postpaid customers, in a rural area there probably isn't that much traffic on the towers as compared to a city so your service won't change all that much?  You have better priority on the towers on Unlimited Plus, but 5G UW service is a city thing.

I don't know why your father can't get signal at all on Verizon at his house when his former carrier worked fine until they got bought by Verizon.  The only thing I could suggest is getting a new SIM card or seeing if his account needs to be reprovisioned.  Or try asking his neighbors who they use, because maybe someone else works better.  Dead zones have many reasons for occurring, so it's hard to say what's causing it.

[vzw_customer_support]

We're sorry to read about the issue with service on your family member's area. When was he offered this extender? ~Peter

[PassiveGiraffe]

It was around September of 2023.  He does not have internet and this seems to be an issue...as of August 2024 "they said they added more but are also adding more cvand out there but I dont have a eta on when it will be live." I asked if there was any additional options for the booster since he does not have wifi, they responded with "let me find out" and I then asked if the existing tower that they had acquired (that was not in use) was now in use. The response was "thats what they said. But they didnt tell me if it was on or if it will be with the new cband so let me get clarification." 

[PassiveGiraffe]

So in the land of cell service, would you think we would get better signal with the other cell company?  verizonother

[vzw_customer_support]

Thanks for getting back to us. Let's take a closer look at your account so we can gather more details as to the service in the area. So we can better assist, we will be reaching out via Private Message.

-Lauren

[vzw_customer_support]

We are here to help. Please reach out for assistance.

~Geo

[vzw_customer_support]

Thank you for these additional details. That is correct that a network extender needs to back off of home internet, so it would not be a viable option in this case. As far as towers go, this is all with our Planning and Developement teams that we do not have access to as it's not public information. You can however reach out to our Real Estate Team https://www.verizon.com/business/real-estate/ if you or someone you know has land that can have a tower. 

-Melissa

[PassiveGiraffe]

So back to the original statement....If Verizon took over Pioneer Cellular and he HAD service with Pioneer Cellular....why would he not have service with Verizon?  We were told service would be the same/better when we transitioned.  His tower is literally "as a crow flies" 2.5 miles away.....what benefit would he gain on an additional tower? How was the existing towers effective before Verizon? Along with the fact that I have already visited the option of a new tower....they could not promise me that his service would improve...due to the possibility of it being too close

So again, I am wanting to know who to contact to get a ticket escalated, preferably to the specific people that were a part of the pioneer cellular transition.   Neither responses from service reps addressed the issue, I have already exhausted the basic levels of troubleshooting.  I am paying for service that I am not receiving and that is frustrating.