What reaction, if any, can we expect from Verizon in regards to the T-Mobile program to pay early cancellations fees? (This is sort of a 2-part question)

[D-Dub]

A brief rundown here...over the last 7 or 8 years, I've had 2 carriers, T-Mobile, with whom I was pretty happy and then Verizon for the majority of that time, due to a friend of mine working there. He is no longer with the company, however. Here's the dilemma. Today, I managed to slam my Samsung Brightside in a car door (jacket pocket, jacket not all the way out) and the sole redeeming feature of that otherwise useless phone is that it took repeated drops to the floor really well. I have probably dropped that thing more than my previous 4 phones combined and maybe squared.

Anyway, the long and short of it is that the Brightside is no longer under the 12 month warranty and it doesn't look like I really have any good options here, aside from trying to hunt down a used one and suffering through another year of a phone I increasingly detest. If I have to get a smartphone, I may as well look at making a move to whoever is going to charge me less for services fees, etc. and right now that is T-Mobile. The basic questions here are: is Verizon going to get to be price competitive and for my particular situation, what can Verizon do for me specifically?

I will be in a Verizon store tomorrow, but a few of the deals that are attractive seem to also be internet only. I am looking to be back in order tomorrow, one way or the other, as my phone is not really functional at all, so if anyone at Verizon has some answers or solutions to keep me in the house of Big Red, I'd love to hear them...quick.

Feel free to email me directly if you want, but don't bother calling...for the reason mentioned. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

I believe Verizon is dishonest and purposely unfair regarding billing and service policies.

I am looking to move to T-Mobile.

[#3]

Verizon_Lacks_Integrity wrote:

I believe Verizon is dishonest and purposely unfair regarding billing and service policies.

I am looking to move to T-Mobile.

Care to elaborate?

[PK71]

Same here. I hate Verizon's customer service. I have been a customer since 2004, and recently my Stratosphere simply stopped working. I attempted to switch over to my LG Chocolate by doing the online process. However, this didn't work. After spending a day and a half in the mall with Verizon workers, and after they deleted all of my pictures and contacts in order to do a master reset, still no working phone. While at the mall, I used their phone to call Verizon. They were not helpful. I can't even find a way to contact Verizon customer service from their site. I have no phone, only online capability. Yet, I pay over $300.00 per month for a family plan. I think T Mobile will be my next provider. Anything has to be better than this.

[vzw_customer_support]

Hello PK71,

Help is right here, front & center! There's no need to consider another provider. It will be my pleasure to address all of your equipment concerns and win your trust and loyalty back. If you haven't activated the device yet then please send me a private message so we can get this taken care of. I took the liberty of following you to make the process easier. I'm looking forward to your reply.

Thank you...

ArnettH_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

[#6]

Firstly 35% of Verizon customers can't even get T-Mobile service because that is how lousy T-Mobile's coverage is. Seems like you're not interested in using much data even if you had a smartphone. If that's the case you can get a smartphone Share Everything plan for a single line with unlimited talk and text and 250 MB data for $45 a month plus/taxes/fess so maybe around $50 total.

[PK71]

Well, I hear that Walmart has a plan that offers really good coverage and online capability. Verizon has very poor customer service and are over priced compared to other options.

[#8]

PK71 wrote:

Well, I hear that Walmart has a plan that offers really good coverage and online capability. Verizon has very poor customer service and are over priced compared to other options.

If you're talking about Straight Talk they use either At&t or Sprint or Verizon networks. Only the Straight Talk phones on At&t networks even have 4G capability otherwise you're on 3G. Also you have to pay full price for the phones. Also they say they have unlimited data but it's actually limited to 2.5 GB. They also say you're not allowed to tether and you are not supposed watch streaming video or stream music. Also whichever network they are using if there an issue with congestion Straight Talk's data gets deprioritized first. Yeah sounds great.

[vzw_customer_support]

I can provide you with the service you deserve, PK71! Do you have any specific concerns you need addressed? Which plan do you have? How many lines are on your account?


ChaunceyM_VZW

Follow us on twitter @VZWSupport

[#10]

Well first off unless you had the supplement insurance verizon will not replace a phone broke in a car door. That is physical damage and is not covered.

At present you can use if qualified the device payment plan which is full price spread out over 12 months with so much down and the rest paid over the year. There is a $2 fee per month for this plan. However if you have unlimited data etc on the plan now you keep it. That is a plus for many customers.

You can use the edge plan, you pay so much and after a certain time frame after paying half the phone cost you can trade in the phone and get a new super doper phone, again you pay so much down and can do this over and over. However if you have unlimited data you lose it. The cost of data is very expensive and read the posts here about problems with actual usage versus what was never used before.

Or you can pay full price for the device or get another device from a friend or buy a cheap device from a place off the net.

Good Luck

[D-Dub]

As I mentioned earlier, I'm aware that the phone acting as a door stop thing is not covered, nor would I expect it to be. However, if T-Mobile is willing to cover cancellation and are overall much less expensive, it begins to be a struggle to see if Verizon values my loyalty enough to come up with something to keep me around. I like the call any other Verizon feature, but even when I was traveling extensively, I never had a coverage issue with T-Mobile. Verizon doesn't have any better phones. If anything, T-Mobile has more attractive devices. Smartphones and data plans are excessively priced as-is, which is why I'm not looking especially at Sprint and AT & T, who are also high, but rather I had a good experience with T-Mobile before and a lot of signs point to them. Perhaps Verizon could very quickly come up with some sort of loyalty program or even a custom one so I can both replace my device (wife needs another also) and continue on with them. I'm not interested in the Edge program, as that basically just drives an already expensive monthly phone bill higher pointlessly.

[Tidbits]

Loyalty is a marketing tool in a free market... Said this for a long time. Talk with your money more than your mouth if people want things to change.

Someone will probably say i am defending XYZ company soon enough for saying this(happened every other time).

[ttipgem]

There's nothing that they "are going to do for you".  You are under contract so they don't need to do anything to "value your loyal".  If you cancel, they will get their money.  Period.  If you stay, they will get their money. 

Verizon currently does not have a "loyalty program".  And even if they did, it likely would not apply unless you were out of contract.  And typically Verizon's incentives have mainly applied to the service contract and not to the purchase of devices.

So, your options to get a new phone without paying full price are likely to have to come from somewhere other than Verizon directly.

[D-Dub]

All of these things are likely true.They will get their money if they break the contract, though in this scenario, it will ultimately come from T-Mobile and not from me.

I am, however, willing to give Verizon the benefit of the doubt, though given that an actual Verizon rep has not responded yet perhaps indicates that they do not care enough to take advantage of the opportunity. If not, aside from the momentary inconvenience, I have no real issues with switching to T-Mobile. It's fine for them to just sit and collect money, but this is their chance to not be fragile when needed, especially given how many people I switched over when my friend was working there. I think Verizon will need to respond to this in some way, though, at a corporate level...

[D-Dub]

Meant to say they will get their money if I break the contract, not if they do. I suppose they would, after a fashion, if they broke it also, though...

[#16]

D-Dub wrote:

Meant to say they will get their money if I break the contract, not if they do. I suppose they would, after a fashion, if they broke it also, though...

Except Verizon doesn't break the terms of the contacts. If they did people would riot. The same people that bash Verizon for not letting them break the terms of the contracts without penalty.

<< Comment removed to comply with >>

Message was edited by: Verizon Moderator

[D-Dub]

I sort of would rather stay with Verizon, if for no other reason that I can use my backup phone from them...well, I will be able to once I go buy one at Radio Shack, I guess. I have had no real issues with their service, other than connectivity with T-Mobile has historically been slightly better, just rather with Verizon being more expensive without commensurate value.

That will probably be the course I take...go buy a backup basic phone to get things operational and then take a hard look at things. Definitely the providers are doing their best to railroad subscribers into smartphones and one of them should be coming up with a cohesive and hopefully much better plan soon. Hopefully the delay on this will be enough for Verizon to respond in one way or another.

[D-Dub]

After my visit to a few stores, it is clear Verizon does not value my time and given their lack of response to this, evidently they don't value my business, either...looks like it may be the end when my contract is up...I managed to find a used phone, so back in order for now, but I had to waste nearly an entire day doing it...in my book, Verizon has to do better than this.

[ttipgem]

I fail to see why "Verizon has to do better" to accommodate someone who has a broken phone through no fault of Verizon.

Them "not doing anything" for you is not in any way a failure on their part. It seems more like a pervasive entitlement mindset being rampant.

[#20]

D-Dub wrote:

After my visit to a few stores, it is clear Verizon does not value my time and given their lack of response to this, evidently they don't value my business, either...looks like it may be the end when my contract is up...I managed to find a used phone, so back in order for now, but I had to waste nearly an entire day doing it...in my book, Verizon has to do better than this.

You do realize that Verizon stores even corporate ones nor a CS rep has the power to change the rates of which Verizon charges for services. So I'm not sure why you expect that. Can you walk into McDonald's and demand the cashier charge you less than the stated price for a value meal? Also you expect Verizon to make an except for YOU. Well why are you more special than any of us? Why should YOU pay less and not ME? So that means Verizon has to make an exception for EVERYONE. Well that's not going to work.

[D-Dub]

Anon: Frankly, stores and corporate have a lot more latitude than you seem to think. It becomes a matter if they are willing to extend it. I know this as a matter of personal experience but no longer have anyone on the inside to help facilitate this. The purpose of this thread was not solely for my own sake, but also to see if they intend on coming up with new pricing programs to compete with T-Mobile, for all subscribers, not just me. If not, then not, but unless they know this is desired, I don't know that their altruistic sense is really going to move them to change things.

ttipgem: So far I have not been able to have anyone across 4 different stores help me with options, nor anyone on the website via chat nor on this thread, in terms of actual Verizon reps. If a phone breaks like that and it is as pressing as this particular case is, I don't see why would not be able to discount any of the phones at that respective level. By their inflated pricing, they are making piles and piles of money and have historically from me and all of the bills are paid on time. I currently have 3 lines with them and I should think they would not want to lose that kind of customer base, so whether it is their fault or not, if I'm asking them for some assistance and telling them I need them to stand and deliver or risk losing me, there should be someone there interested enough in customer retention to make some sort of allowance or even roll it into a mini-upgrade and plan change. Again, if not, then not. All I'm saying is that is what it will take and if they don't value me enough, T-Mobile does.