My Verizon Mobile App on Motorola Xoom--no text message to complete registration

[michaelk]

Ed- thanks for the reply- but please pass on to our management that it is idiotic. I have a business account with 8 lines of service but there's no way to get the stupid account created for my xoom since it can't get the text. there doesn't even seem to be a snailmail option online- do i need to call a CSR and spend 20 minutes explaining this mess so that they will me the password? thanks

[lchute1158]

I finally got my password today but it didn't work. Tried on a computer, on my xoom. And finally it locked my account and told me the only way to get it reset is to request another password. Very frustrating. I am very disappointed in verizon with this. And this is my first experience with verizon and I wouldn't recommend them to anyone right now. Needs to be fixed quick.

[kcrudup]

I got my PW in the mail today, and was able to finish setting up my account, so there's hope- but they REALLY do  need to fix this system for non-SMS-capable devices.

[leecason]

I have had a Verizon Wireless Family Plan for years, and that apparently made a big diffirence in my initial Xoom experience.  Everything pretty much worked out of the box. I downloaded the Verizon Wireless Data Usage app, entered my existing Verizon Wireless user name and password, and it appeared to work as expected, at least the first time I used it, on my first day at work where there is no WiFi available. The data usage appeared a bit low, but I think that was a point-in-time number rather than cumulative usage.  However, I when I finally got it to update again, the number got lower, so something appears to be wrong with the counter, or my understanding of how it is supposed to work.

I tried to get an update several times yesterday and kept getting a message that the service wasn't available, to try again later.

"? Cannot process your request at this moment. We apologize for this inconvenience. Please try later. Thank you. "

I got the same message from morning to night all day yesterday.

This morning I tried the data usage app again, to see if anything had changed. This time I got a message that the app is not supported over WiFi and that I need to turn off WiFi in order for it to work. Well, that is disappointing but perhaps understandable, so I turned off WiFi and tried again. Same result. Tried again, same result. Being a software and systems engineer, I suspected that the app wasn't updating its status check, so I rebooted the Xoom, and tried again. This time the application worked over the 3G network, and I was able to get an update on usage.

Sadly, the app has gotten stupid again and doesn't know that I have turned WiFi back on, so now it has gone back to only saying 

"? Cannot process your request at this moment. We apologize for this inconvenience. Please try later. Thank you. "  I suspect that the message will not change until some event boundary is crossed (change of date, software update check, whatever happened yesterday to cause the change in behavior).

So, the good news is that the app will actually connect out of the box if you already have an existing Verizon Wireless account, user name and password, and are not connected to WiFi. The bad news is that the application is buggy and can't tell if WiFi is enabled or not.  Hopefully this will be fixed soon, because nobody wants to be running a metered data service plan in the blind.

Now for some disturbing news. Once I was finally able to look at my usage data, I saw a line that was cause for concern:

" Message Details

The following reflects current usage since your last statement Cycle ends: 4/2/11

703-***-****    2/Per Use

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Estimate as of 03/03/2011  20.34"

Yikes!! What the heck is this!  Whatever is considered a "message" on the Xoom is rediculously expensive if only 2 of them cost $20.34.  I signed up for a 3GB/month DATA plan, and expect to be billed not a penny more than the $35/month fee as long as I'm under the 3GB quota. Since this device doesn't even have a SIM yet, how can I be charged for anything other than DATA?  I have posted a request for an explanation with Verizon Wireless online.

[Pianoman]

I'm pretty frustrated with how Verizon has handled the registration process with the launch of the Xoom. It's as if it didn't even phase them that it cannot receive SMS texts. They just assume everyone can receive text messages. Granted, up until this point, it was pretty much impossible to have a Verizon Wireless account without an SMS-enabled device, but come on. They've known about the Xoom for months and did not prepare for it.

I had already spoken on the phone with a Verizon Wireless customer service rep. who said they would mail me a temporary password. I haven't touched anything on the website since that point, knowing if I were to attempt registration again (or use the Forgot Password tool) that it would change my temporary password.

Sure enough, I received my temporary password in the mail today, and it did not work. I called Verizon again, and their plan of attack was to have me wait again for another mailing of a temporary password.

Really? This is the best Verizon can do about this? I felt bad for the person I talked to on the phone, because she was very polite and I understood she couldn't do anything about it (I've worked at a helpdesk, myself).

Is it going to take an act of congress to get my account activated? What do I have to do? I'm stuck here.

I apologize for the rant, had to blow some steam. 😃

[jasnmar]

Completely understandable.

I can understand why they don't allow tech's to have access to your password, but they really should have prepared better for this.

Sorry. There's nothing I can do but sympathize.

Jason

[kcrudup]

I can't wait 'till the onslaught of iPeople start signing up ....!

[acathrow]

So a week has passed since the first temporary password was received (but didn't work) and I still haven't received the second password.

Customer service are both unhelpful and uninformed.

It's pathetic that they don't have their systems (or people) in place to handle this flagship launch.

[Kim2002]

Yet another unhappy experience trying to get the My Verizon account set up (I only have the Xoom and not a phone accout).  All the prior posts state exactly the same situation I have been through.

Today I received the snail mail letter with temporary password and now I am locked out because the system didn't like my user name and password.  I tried my device phone number with the password, then tried my gmail account with the password.  Didn't like either one.  Tried again since I figured I must've had a typo, but nope - it just doesn't work.  Now I am completely locked out and according to the error message it will require yet another password retrieval to get back in.  It's like a vicious circle.

This is the most stupid situation I have ever encountered with Verizon.  They give a phone number to a device without a phone built in, they require you to use a gmail account but don't even use it to send passwords, and then the password they do send doesn't work.  How archaic is this?!

Not happy. 

[jayb63]

I have spent the last two nights on hold and talking to various Verizon customer service reps and the absolute best they can for me is to give me a phone number to call and check my data usage. In the meantime I have to wait for my password in the mail. Thankfully I did not buy this on contract, so by this time next week I will have cancelled my data plan and told Verizon to kiss my curvy yellow butt.

Good luck with the worlds worst customer service.