HomeFusion- No support Service disappeared

[dbw77]

I am hoping this may gain some attention, or anyone else can share if this has happened to them

On July 5th, after 2 SOLID months of very good speeds and HomeFusion service with 3+ bars on the router, the service disappeared.

YES: The 4G Signal is GONE, only Verizon 3G. I am in the "4G Extended Area" (HomeFusion does not roll back to 3G)

Also notable, I have a Verizon 4G LTE Ipad and it too used to work on 4G and now only 3G

Now, I have been calling Verizon daily since July 5th, and get no answer, is this service GONE? Is it Broken, When will they fix it , will they fix it.

It has gone from "We will have our network people looking at the tower to, well, it's 4G extended service area and it could just go away, sorry"

Am I crazy, or is this a very poor way to service customers and run a business? If I had a service that they installed and approved on their network, shouldn't they maintain the service, or give notice that the service is going away?  They are still billing me in advance for next month, 7 days of which I have been ale to use 0 GB of bandwidth.

I call tech support, ask to esculate, they tell me it is esculated, there is no one else to talk to. There is no answer or hope of knowing if the service is coming back or if/when they will do anything and decide to do anything except take my money. Oh, I expect a hassle when I tell them I am not paying for something I don't have.

So question: What should I do next, any suggestions on escalation? Seems Verizon could care less about it's 4G LTE network and customers that they put up on a service, they just don't seem to care.

Thanks!
Dave W

[John_Getzke]

Hello,

My suggestion would be to continue to check back in with VZW and ask for updates on your incident.  Try to pick one case / incident and focus on that one.  Starting several incidents for the same issue doesnt ever appear to help anything.

If they are able to return your service back to normal then you are good to go.  You can try to ask for compenstation for your downtime but VZW bills monthly and not daily. Unless you were not able to use your service for the entire billing cycle they wouldn't likey help you out there. 

If VZW cannot return your service within your acceptable time frame then it will be time to go.  Considering you would be leaving due to technical limitations VZW should be flexible and either discount or cover your ETF.

FWIW: Extended Service Areas are labled that way for a reason.  VZW is trying to tell you that they can push a signal to that area under good conditions, but when interferance picks up the signal will not be relyable.  Theres no way to tell for sure unless you are willing to stick it out and keep digging into the issue.

If it were me, I would grab the 4G iPad and travel back into town, stopping along the way to plot out where the service starts/stops.  Eventually you could build your own coverage map of where the problem starts/stops and relay that info back to VZW in order to help them with the troubleshooting.

[dbw77]

Well that works if you want to give Verizon the benefit, but they are the giant corporation and they are the ones who have the monopoly on the services in my area, so based on the fact they must thing I have to use them or nothing, I guess providing basic customer care is not an option.

You are saying it is on me to make a coverage map of my area and determine for myself that the service us gone?

No.

It would be accecptable for Verizon to get back to me in a timely manner and tell me something like:

1. The service has been lost due to changes in the towers

2. We made a change to our towers and we are working on it

3. There is no more service so we will refund your money and we are sorry we installed it in the first plae.

Not, we don't know, we will not get back to you and we will not tell you anything about why if failed or when it will be fixed, yet still take my money. 

I think they have some basic level of responsibility,if the agree to install the service at my location to mainatin it or tell me why it is not working.

If it was not going to work for me, they should have told me that when they installed it,not yes you have 4G coverage and we will install this.  They didn't say, oh,it might disappear for no reason and we will not tell you why, so be prepared for that, and take your iPad and go search for where th new 4G signal is.

Shame on them.

[#4]

dbw77 wrote:

Well that works if you want to give Verizon the benefit, but they are the giant corporation and they are the ones who have the monopoly on the services in my area, so based on the fact they must thing I have to use them or nothing, I guess providing basic customer care is not an option.

You are saying it is on me to make a coverage map of my area and determine for myself that the service us gone?

No.

It would be accecptable for Verizon to get back to me in a timely manner and tell me something like:

1. The service has been lost due to changes in the towers

2. We made a change to our towers and we are working on it

3. There is no more service so we will refund your money and we are sorry we installed it in the first plae.

Not, we don't know, we will not get back to you and we will not tell you anything about why if failed or when it will be fixed, yet still take my money. 

I think they have some basic level of responsibility,if the agree to install the service at my location to mainatin it or tell me why it is not working.

If it was not going to work for me, they should have told me that when they installed it,not yes you have 4G coverage and we will install this.  They didn't say, oh,it might disappear for no reason and we will not tell you why, so be prepared for that, and take your iPad and go search for where th new 4G signal is.

Shame on them.

You apparently have knowledge that you're in a 4G "extended" area and not a normal 4G area. The website makes it very clear what "extended" means. It doesn't matter what some installer told you. Yes the installer SHOULD be more knowledgeable, however if you knew already you were in an "extended" area well then you already knew your reception would be iffy, yet you chose to still get service. And it's not the installers job to convince you to NOT get service. Since you are in an "extended" area it shouldn't be too long before you get regular 4G.

[dbw77]

I guess you work for Verizon. I can see why it is hard for you to see the consumer/customer side. They seem to feel the same.

They decided they would now assign the ticket, after being open for 5 days, to a person who his actually working in the office rather then the person who is on vacation for the rest of the month.

I guess I can just wait some more, and then pay my bill like a happy robot, even with no service...

[#6]

dbw77 wrote:

I guess you work for Verizon. I can see why it is hard for you to see the consumer/customer side. They seem to feel the same.

They decided they would now assign the ticket, after being open for 5 days, to a person who his actually working in the office rather then the person who is on vacation for the rest of the month.

I guess I can just wait some more, and then pay my bill like a happy robot, even with no service...

Yes I work for Verizon. That's sarcasm in case you didn't get that. Gee dude get a grip.

[dbw77]

Thanks for telling me.  I would get a grip if I didn't call Verizon and I have to start over explaining everything with a new person.

This time, the network "group" closed my ticket and said "there are no alarms in the area so everything is OK"

Then they proceeded to recommend I restart my router, like I haven't done that 100 times.

Then they tried to tell me I need a network extender. But wait, I thought a network extender uses a broadband connection to backhaul the signal to VZ.  But if Honme Fusiuon is a fixes wireless signal how does this help me get the 4GLTE signal?

I told them I would just like them to tell me whether the signal is gone forever, it is a problem that they may fix or that I should just give up and cancel the service.  Seems if 2 devices (Home Fusion and Ipad lost the signal it is them not me.

Also, I can clearly see on the homefusion where I previously had 3+ bars, now I have 1 bar and very low signal.

VERY VERY Frustrating, so I wish I could get a grip. 

[beandawg]

Just because someone is in extended coverage now does not mean they will ever see full coverage.The only way that will happen is if they turn up the signal cause i'm only seeing about 2 mile's out then lose 4g that's not going to cut it.Verizon I think want's mobile lte to not work out past 2mile's so they can push homefusion.

[John_Getzke]

Dave,

dbw77 wrote:

You are saying it is on me to make a coverage map of my area and determine for myself that the service us gone?

You may have misunderstood me.  Its not your job to plot out the coverage in your area, but it can be rewarding and helpful for troubleshooting if you do.  Doing a little footwork yourself can aid your case for working with VZW and provide evidence to your claim.  If you dont want to do it you dont have to, but it doesnt seem like anyone else is willing to give you a better explanation as to what is going on.

[jrwilk01]

I'm in an "Extended" area as well. My LTE reception disappeared completely in mid-May, after having rock-solid service for 8 months.  Lots of people are reporting similar issues. Hopefully Verizon will explain what change caused this.

[beandawg]

There is a whole zipcode near me they say is full coverage but there is not even a hint of lte,and it's been a whole month now.

[#12]

beandawg wrote:

There is a whole zipcode near me they say is full coverage but there is not even a hint of lte,and it's been a whole month now.

That could mean they are working on those towers. Towers being worked on are not going to be active.

[beandawg]

If it is not active it should not be listed on the map as live,hand not knowing what foot is doing.Said tower/zip does not even have LTE equipment on it.

[dbw77]

Did the signal ever come back? Did Verizon ever acknowledge the changes in the signal?

[jrwilk01]

You are paying for HomeFusion and you can't even get support. I don't think I stand a chance to get an acknowledgement from VZW.

Isn't it weird how VZW reps pop in and offer help on some threads but not others?

[John_Getzke]

This forum is for User to User communication.  VZW has no obligation to respond to anything we post here.  Thier main job is to keep the peace and make sure we are following the rules of the forum as we discuss amongst ourselves. The best way to get a response from VZW is to contact them directly either via email, phone, submitting a support request or in person at a store.

[dbw77]

No signal-- into second month.

Finally got people in Tech support who esculated it, they say it does not seem right that the signal would disappear, but the "network group" where the ticket is open does not respond (ticket has been open since 7/15)

So we wait. At least they acknowledged they will not make me pay or credit me back (this is after they took my $120 for the month of service that wasn't there...

I continue to wait to see...

[evdotech]

Another Theory:  It could be that a cell-tech was working on the tower and moved the panel by a degree or 2 and that knocked out your coverage.

I have seen it happen in the past, however next to an act of God you won't get them to fix it.

[dbw77]

Seems to me like they did something, sounds like you are right, because they are not very eager to check into it or do anything about it.

All I want is an answer, they will fix it, or it will never come back and I should just cancel the service.

But they will not even tell me one of those 2 things.

[dbw77]

Finally, they fixed it!!!

I was fortunate enough to get a support rep who was willing to own the issue, and escalated to her supervisor who talked with contacts in the network group where the trouble ticket was opened.

After a lot of waiting, (a month and a half) the ticket came back and they said, "We changed a setting at your tower"

Amazingly, and magically, the LTE signal came back, as it was before. On the Home Fusion, and the iPad.

Working as it was before July 5th.

I hope it doesn't happen again,and if so, they know what to do faster then almost 2 months.

Bottom line:

Be persistent, ask for a person's email or have them track the issue and call you with status, don't keep calling over and over and get a different person

Ask for an issue to be esculated if you have done everything and you believe it is their issue not yours.

Before the found and reset the "setting" they:

1. Told me there was no problem, and I should reboot my equioment (FALSE)

2. Tole me there were no problems on their network, and I was in extended area and I should not even have service (FALSE)

3. Told me I needed a service call to have my equipment repaired/replaced (at a cost to me) ( FALSE)

This went on for about  a month.

Then I talked to a great person who was willing to own the problem, gave me their email and called me back, checked on the ticket and followed up with her suprvisor, and they all finally realized it was wrong that this would happen and they (Verizon ) needed to check into it further.

Then, the "setting" was found, set and service/signal restored.

Hope my experience helps with anyone who mysteriously looses the 4G LTE signal.

[John_Getzke]

Glad to hear your persistence has paid off : )