Opting Our of Verizon Cloud

[kfander]

As I was having major connection problems, Verizon offered to let me trade my phone in on another. The replacement was a slightly different model, an Android HD. The new phone doesn't provide a better connection, but that's not the problem I wanted to discuss here today

When I plug the new phone into my computer in order to retrieve a photo, rather than popping up iPhoto as my old one did, it pops up a thing for Verizon Cloud, and the only options it offers me are to "Subscribe" or "Download" an app, when all that I really want to be able to do is retrieve the photos. On my old phone, plugging it into my computer would boot iPhoto but iPhoto would not import photos from the phone as it would any other device. Instead, I would have to retrieve them through a Finder window, copy them to the computer, then import them to iPhoto.

The new phone doesn't even show up in Finder, so I have no way to even access the photos in my phone, other than through Verizon Cloud or whatever it is that the app is supposed to do.

On my MacBook, I chose the "Subscribe" option and let Verizon backup all of my photos, video, and documents to Verizon Cloud. It took more than twenty-four hours to do that, then when I tried to access it, I was told that my username and password didn't match. Four different times, I had Verizon send me a temporary password, yet I still couldn't get in.

I went into Verizon's live online support chat. They texted me another password that didn't work. Then I tried to remove the program since, if I couldn't access it anyhow, there was little point in having my stuff there, and I had trouble removing the program from my MacBook. I went back to Verizon's online support chat, and got some guy who called himself Ross, who was no help whatsoever. When I asked for a supervisor, he refused to refer me to a supervisor, saying he didn't have access to a  supervisor. Then he said he didn't work for Verizon, although there he was on Verizon's live online support chat. I'm sure that what he meant was that this was being outsourced, probably to some foreign country.

I was finally able to remove the thing from my computer, but I still can't access photos from my phone. I just tried it on my iMac and, again, the only options I have are to subscribe to Verizon Cloud or download the app, which apparently does the same thing. Verizon Cloud looked like it might be a good thing, but it would be silly of me to spend another twenty-four hours uploading stuff to Verizon Cloud only to refuse to let me access it.

I just want to be able to access the photos that are in my phone now. Verizon Cloud would be nice, but only if I could actually get to it after everything was uploaded there. Barring that, I want some way in which I can bypass all of that nonsense and simply be able to get to the photos that are there. Otherwise, the camera is of no use to me.

On my last phone, the one that was replaced, although iPhoto would pop up, it wouldn't import the photos. But I could manually click to the folder in the phone that stored the photos, copy them, and paste them to a folder on my computer, and access them that way. My computer doesn't seem to even know that the new phone is plugged in, other than to prompt me to subscribe to the damnable Verizon Cloud.