Huricane Ida - Verizon Offers No Applicable Solution only More Cost

[afcajjjun]

Hello,

I am a Verizon customer for over 15 years if I remember correctly, and some years before that before switching carriers and then carriers becoming Verizon again in time due to buy-outs.  My home community was hit hard by Hurricane Ida.  My immediate neighborhood is suffering greatly due to Verizon's lack of solution for our immediate neighborhood.  The issue is that there is no tower with Verizon service for 1.5 miles of us, the next closest is over 2 miles.  Under "normal" circumstances we do not have reliable celluar data coverage inside or outside of our houses.  We also do not have reliable celluar voice coverage inside our homes or buildings.  The only thing that kept me as a customer is the advent of WIFI calling, and my home WIFI network, backed by my internet service provider.  Myself and the customers in our area that I have spoken to have all made Verizon aware of this in the past at various times. 

Now fast forward to the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, internet service providers infastructure is devestated, no hard line internet to feed our home WIFI networks, and thus very limited phone and almost nonexistant data service, for about a month and a half now.  In this day and age everything relies on data - insurance claims, supplement claims, ordering necessary recovery supplies not available in local area such as cleaning products, repair parts for generators and other machinery needed to survive and recover, tracking delayed shipments, submitting official disputes to delivery companies, and ordering products 2 or 3 times to get successful delivery....this all takes data network access.  (AND RELIABLE VOICE SERVICE)...I'm not even going to mention essential medical supplies, and other life saving / supporting items. 

It's easy to say just drive to an area that has better service, but when you are spending every day trying to save what's left of your home every hour counts, and traffic in our area is very often at a standstill due to the utility work, debris clearing, and support services.  It can take hours to drive a mile, not kidding, depending on the day and what's going on.

This all being said, myself and my neighbors have repeaditly been contacting Verizon, trying everything to improve the situation to no avial.  I upgraded to the highest "Unlimited Plan" because the Verizon rep said it should give me higher priority on the wireless network, that plan is expensive, and in the end I got charged $50 per line on top of the new monthly charges!  Being that I don't have data service still I think I should be credited for this, on top of that it turns out to be a 5g plan and I don't even have a 5g phone on any line.

Verizon also offered to send me a "Network Extender", I very clearly communicated that we have no internet connection and this was the reason I  needed a solution.  I was very excited, and waited in utmost anticipation to receive the package, when I opened it, loe and behold, the quick start instructions say that it requires a hard line internet connection, WHICH WE DON'T HAVE.  I immediatly called Verizon, if you've done this recently you know how long that takes, try doing it with poor celluar coverage and dropping the calls a few times, only to be put through the same procedural questions and checks, why can't Verizon reps pull up your history right off the bat and go from where you last left off???  Anyways I ended up an hour and a half on phone with rep and with technical support only to be told there is no hope, "you need a hard line internet connection, thanks for being a Verizon customer, Goodbye!"

So in desperation I called and waited again jsut a couple days ago after I saw my bill, I requested a credit due to not having service at my home.  I also asked the Verizon rep if there was any way a Technicain could be sent to my address, (I even gave her my GPS coordinates) to test the signal in my home and outside of my home and see if any adjustments could be made.  I also asked if Verizon could park one of those mobile emergency mini tower trailers in our neighborhood for the many verizon customers suffering right now, I have seen them other places, we sure would DESPERATLY love to have one, at least, at minimum, until our internet service provider restores the infrastructure to our neighborhood.  That is what led me to this forum, I'm not sure if it's the right place, but the rep said my best bet was to provide feedback to Verizon Corporate, I have no clue where that is, so if any corporate Verizon people are reading, or if you know one, are related to one, or have a link or contact to one, please, please let me know or let them know.  I drove to a free WIFI hotspot set up at our ISP main office today just google Verizon Corporate, land on this page, and send this message.

Lastly I just want to close on this note, it is absolutly beyond all reason that my friends with AT&T Wireless service have a full 4 bars at my house, same exact location, same exact phones, night and day difference in coverage.  So that tells me there is a tower close enough to provide reliable service, it does not seem very hard for Verizon to permanently or at minimum temporarly fix this poor service coverage for my neighborhood, it's all about caring for their customers, OVER 15 years loyal costomer!

Can you hear me now?  GOOD...fix it, or loose a customer, for LIFE.  

[vzw_customer_support]

Oh, my! I hope you and your loved ones are safe, afcajjjun. The last thing we want is for you to have trouble staying connected, especially during this difficult time. We value your longstanding loyalty, & wouldn't want to see you go. Our goal is for you to remain connected & sincerely apologize for the trouble you've encountered trying to get support. I value your time & appreciate the details you've shared. We're here to investigate further into your billing and service concerns. I've sent you a Private Note, please reply at your earliest convenience.-Kia

[afcajjjun]

We are safe, we are just disconnected...I tried the link you sent me but it didn't work, I also replied but have received no response to my private replies.  Please see my PM, better if someone simply called my phone number I sent, after all, I explained above that data service is not reliable currently.

[vzw_customer_support]

We definitely want to make sure your concerns are addressed and resolved. I'm not showing we received a Private Note from you yet. I will initiate a Private Note to you now. -Jordan

[afcajjjun]

So far typical Verizon response, quick reply to save face and no real effort to followup.  I PM'ed Kia back to resend the link that did not work when I tried it, I replied with my phone number in a subsequent PM reply, since data sercice is not good here as I stated.  I have literally been standing outside hitting the refresh button in hopes to get a new link and it not expire before I see it.  The mosquitos are getting too bad since sun is setting to stay outside any longer, and HOTSPOT through the house wall does not work.  Again pleading with Verizon to contact me directly and help us out with this situation.  #hurricaneida #verizonwireless #verizonunlimited #verizonhurricaneida #verizonlouisiana #verizonpoorcustomerservice #verizoncorporate #verizonlafourche #verizonlafourcheparish #lafourcheparish #lafourcheparishrepresentatives #lafourcheparishemergencyprepardness

Not sure how this hashtag stuff works but just FYI I see the email option and I'm going to start emailing this topic to our applicable government representatives should I not be contacted by tomorrow morning. 

[afcajjjun]

Still anxiously awaiting a reply, a PM, or a phone call from Verizon about this.  It seemed very nice when Kia immediatly responded yesterday but I'm sorry to report that's where it ended.  I am replying to bump this message to the top of the list (if this forum works like others) and give Verizon another shot to reach out to me and offer help.  After today I am going to pursue other options:

#att #starlink #dishnet #hughesnet 

Anyone out there have any other ideas?  I am open to suggestions, whatever is quickest and decent value, right now value isn't really the biggest factor at all, just needed reliable connection.

[afcajjjun]

Well I'm sorry to report that the entire day has passed and no further attempt to help us here in our neighborhood during our time of need.  Just shows that big corporations like Verizon could care less about indiviudal customers, no matter how long the loyality.  I have officially put in the request to have my work phone number ported over to AT&T (I work for a BIG corporation also).  If this works out, as I'm sure it will, I will follow suite with my personal phone lines in short order.

Verizon you had every opportunity to fix this, or at minimum make a real attemp to reach out to me, not like I didn't call you mulitple times and beg, plead, etc, as already explained. 

I have learned today from neighbors (I haven't personally validated it yet) that a tower was damaged way back during Hurricane Rita, and never rebuilt the same afterwards as before.  Apparantly visable from Google Earth if you look at the map pre and post Huricane Rita, when I find it I will link in a reply. 

I guess this neighborhood just isn't important enough to Verizon, thankfully AT&T still cares, and thus will receive all of this neighborhoods business in due time.  

[vzw_customer_support]

We're here to help, and it is truly important to us that you stay connected. We're not seeing a reply to our Private Note. Are you able to view the Private Note that we sent?

*Ellisandra

[afcajjjun]

I sent 3 private replies to the original note received from Kia, see below, I do not see any other private replies.  I supplied my phone number because as stated the entire issues is not having reliable data connection in and around my house.  Let me know if there is another way to get in touch with you directly, you can send another PM for that please.

See below:

 

[Idaila]

We're not in the same dire situation as you with the Hurricane, altho immediately afterward, we thought we might be. That being said, your signal situation sounds just like ours. We've been in this house 5 years this month, and have struggled with the lack of signal, while our next door neighbor has AT&T with a good signal. We telework and depend on our phones to communicate with our employer, and if our internet is having issues, we're just sh*t out of luck.

After Hurricane Ida, we had no power for a week, and no internet for longer. During this time, we had no phones because we had no signal. When Verizon did get the signal back up, we still weren't able to use our very expensive service with our very expensive phones. My husband reached out and asked for a cell signal booster, and was told outright that it wasn't going to happen because we had 'a signal'.

I can absolutely sympathize with you about your cell service situation. I'm sorry it's made so much worse by Hurricanes and extremely poor customer service.

[vzw_customer_support]

We are here to help with any concerns you have about your Verizon Wireless service. To better assist please send us a Private Note at your earliest convenience. ~Vic

[afcajjjun]

Jordan, Vic, Ellisandra, Kia, I hope all of you are ok!  Did you all get fired?  How unfortunate if anything should have happened to you, I don't think any of you are real people, as I have clearly stated on other thread topics.  This is a cruel game Verizon is playing with it's customers, using AI (artificial inteligence) to make up a reply that seems to understand, seems to sympthise, gives people false hope.  That was me a few days ago, but it's nothing more than a design to get you to contact customer service, same as you would by dialing 611 or the 1-800 number.

I am apalled, and I am leaving, but not without makeing a point to all the honest hard working Verizon customers out there.  We are in a natural disaster here, and don't have any other means of cummunication, there are towers down, yet we are being told there are no problems, we can see it clearly from our homes that this is not the case.  I have access to tower locators and which ones provide coverage for Verizon.   I also have a background in wireless communication, 1 year technical training and 5 years experience in the field before moving on to pursue other carrer path.  So let me get my info and photos together, alone with Lat and Long and tower official names and I'll be posting it here for all to see and then Verizon can come in and deny there is a problem then.

We just want to get our lives back together here, and unfortunatly there is no getting around the need to communicate digitally, if only we could turn back time to a simpler age, but we can't.  So again, Verizon, please contact me, a real person, I have called the service line too many times already and wasted too much time on hold only to spin my wheels once more when I reached someone who could not help and could not affect a change we need, and would not transfer us to anyone who could.

I'll be back to post the details of the down / damaged towers

A simple temporary mobile tower trailer in our immediate neighborhood could do wonders for us if Verizon cared, doesn't have to be here forever, just until ISP infrastructure is restored, or until towers that provide Verizon coverage are repaired, rebuilt.  Plain and simple.  Help us vzw....and here comes the sympathetic customer service reply, wonder what their name will be this time?

[afcajjjun]

Idaila,

I hear you loud and clear, I'm also trying to telework through this ordeal, which is additional stress on top of the necessary items I mentioned above when the very expensive phones with very expensive service plans don't work.

Jordan,

I have seent like 12 PM's back to vzw customer service, I just replied directly to youy also, I hate to admit it but I'm over it, if you can't see it then I don't know what to tell you, it's like your forum works as well as your wireless service in and around my house right now...not very well.