Warning: Snail Mail and the Mifi 4510L

[ajbaird68]

I recently chose to come back to Verizon because of the Mifi 4510L 4G LTE.  It's my first Verizon product in over five years. It really is a top notch product and the speeds are indeed fantastic.  However, I cannot say the same thing about Verizon customer service.  When I went to register my new Verizon Wireless product and create an online account, the Verizon wireless site said it would have to send me a temporary password via a text message.  The only problem is that the Mifi 4510L 4G LTE does not receive texts and does not support VZaccess.  So they said they had to mail me a password via snail mail.  THE DEVICE CANNOT RECIEVE TEXTS.  THEY PLANNED FOR THEIR CUSTOMERS WHO BUY ONE OF THEIR MOST ADVANCED PIECES OF TECHNOLOGY TO GET A PASSWORD VIA THE U.S. MAIL.   Come on Verizon, don't you think you could plan this a little better?  Everyone complains about AT&T, but the sheer lack of planning by Verizon in this case is truly shocking.  I bought their best piece of technology and I have to get my online password via snail mail.  There is one word for that in this day and age: Ridiculous

And the problem just continued.  Not only did I have to get my password in the mail, they actually end up never sending it to me.  Three weeks later, no password, but I got multiple emails telling me I could track my usage online and look at my first bill.  So I try again to log on to the Verizon website thinking the issue was resolved but no, the online account still had not been activated.  So I call Verizon customer service to try and resolve this.  They inform me that I had to ask for the password to be mailed when I tried to register the account the first time.   The only problem is that their web site told me they would mail it and it never asked me whether my device could receive texts.  So here I am, more than a month after I activated the Mifi, and I still cannot access my online account to see my usage or pay my bill.  

Nice work Verizon.  When this contract expires, I will not be returning. 

[John_Getzke]

Hello,

There is a similar thread that addressed this issue:

http://community.vzw.com/t5/4G-Discussion/VZAccess-Manager-for-MiFi4510L/m-p/537912#M2845

I discovered the same results as you did.  It seems that the only convenient service that Verizon offers with this device is the 1(800) number.  Its definitly not as slick as signing into a website, but the information it provides is relyable.

Part of the problem here is that Verizon treats all of thier devices the same.  When you talk to thier support they assume that all the normal features and services are available.  With the MiFi 4510, most of them simply are not.

Post back and let us know if you ever recieve your password through the mail.  It would be good to know if the My Verizon account is worth the hassle or not.

[ClarDold]

I had a similar experience with the MiFi 2200.

I bought it to replace a cellular card from AT&T that had no Win7 drivers.

By going MiFi, I could avoid installing drivers.

Except that the "password" is sent via SMS to the phone number assigned to the MiFi 2200.

Did you accept that, and send the password to your MiFi 4510?  You would have no way to read it, nor did I, but if a password isn't used in three days, they automatically send it to you via USMail.  I received my letter.

In my discussions with Customer Service, I asked if they didn't think this policy was ludicrous, but since most people think that you have to install VZAccess in order to activate a 2200, no one noticed that the only way to read the SMS text is via VZAccess, which I didn't want to install.

My bank, and every other web site I can think of, including Google Business, offer other alternatives, like calling the known phone number attached to the account and speaking a code, or asking you to touchtone some code on that identified phone.

Someone at Verizon thought this was a handy thing to do on a cell phone once, and they just love it.  No consideration for moving forward.

Other than that, I love my MiFi.  It does all that I expected (with a little downside on battery life, and no WiFi while USB-charging).  It is better than Starbucks WiFi for me.

--

clarence

[John_Getzke]

ClarDold,

Take a look at this thread when you have a chance:

http://community.vzw.com/t5/Broadband-Netbook-Devices/4G-LTE-Mobile-Hotspot-MiFi-4510L-Can-t-Charge-...

I cant speak for the 2200, but for the MiFi 4510 you can purchase a $8.00 dongle from Boxwave.com to work around the charge and use limitation.  It's possible that such an adapter would work for your device too.

[ClarDold]

---

John_Getzke wrote:

ClarDold,

Take a look at this thread when you have a chance:

http://community.vzw.com/t5/Broadband-Netbook-Devices/4G-LTE-Mobile-Hotspot-MiFi-4510L-Can-t-Charge-...

I cant speak for the 2200, but for the MiFi 4510 you can purchase a $8.00 dongle from Boxwave.com to work around the charge and use limitation.  It's possible that such an adapter would work for your device too.

---

I had pondered purchasing a charge only cable, or making one for my car adapter, which would never need the data anyway.

Several handy notes in that posting, including "Plug the MIFI into my car's Belkin 12VDC car charger with the USB charge only cable and the MIFI swtches off."

I have a car adapter that I bought at the Verizon Store: QMadix QM-3000-MICROV2  that is supposed to provide 1Amp output.

This intermittently charges the MiFi, but it never disables the Wifi.  I haven't decided about the intermittent charging.  I think it might be car on verses off (outlet stays alive).  It has two ports, but it won't charge a Droid and a Blackberry simultaneously.

The advice on http://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/show/2146 doesn't show the green/white shorted, but your noted page says to short them.

My laptop has one port that remains on while the laptop is off, for charging, and the BIOS asks you to identify which device you will be charging when you enable that facility.  I wonder if that port (with yellow inside instead of white, might also be higher power.

--

clarence

[ajbaird68]

One week later.  No password via Snail Mail.  Unbelievable.