Issues with 4G LTE Network Extender and Verizon Support

[cdeveringham]

We have been having ongoing issues with our 4G LTE Network Extender, and I've spent over 30 hours with Verizon support!!!

We are a business customer with 8 IPhone 11's and we've had 3 issues affecting ALL of our devices over the last 3 months.

• Calling Over Wifi Fails - Keep getting error "No Network Connection - Connect to a Wi-Fi network or disable airplane mode to place a call" (Intermittent but happens very often)
• Calls Dropping - Even with a new 4G LTE Network Extender!
• Voicemails 1/5 Do Not Show Up Visual Voicemail - have to call *86 to access missing voicemail's

I have spent way too many hours working with Verizon Business Support to resolve these issues. Every time I call the techs follow the exact same template of answers without understanding what the previous techs have done. Because of this, I began documenting all the steps they took to avoid future techs doing the same thing over and over... This didn't help as techs would re-apply "fixes" that I already explained have not solved our issues.

What has been done so far (According to Verizon Support)
- Applied Network Element Changes
- Enabled Inegrated Calling Feature
- Enabled WiFi Calling Features (Doesn't make sense to me as WiFi calling would occasionally work)
- Stabilization of Network
- Enabled Visual Voicemail Feature (Doesn't make sense to me as we already had the feature)
- Re-Sync Network on our phones
- Refreshed the Network on our Phones
- Checked Provisioning

What's most frustrating of all is Verizon's lack of care on supporting our issues. I have spoken with 3 technical managers about our concerns and on 3 separate occasions I was promised a scheduled follow up call. Verzion missed EVERY call, forcing me to start back from scratch with a new tech. I have been given several Reference Numbers, but when I share these with the new techs, they say nothing's been documented on them!?

After speaking with another tech, I found that (at least with Business support) Teir 1 support is handled by a different company and Teir 2 support is handled by an international Verizon support team. Teir 2 support is awful, I found a tech on the tier 1 support line that has been far more helpful than any Teir 2 tech. That said, they also have not been able to resolve our issues. Here's what I've done with the Teir 1 tech.

• Factory Reset Network Extender
• Turned off Wifi and Wifi-Calling on all Phones
• Reset all Network Settings on all Phones

We are in the same exact boat we have been in for the last 3 months... This is beyond exhausting. 

VERIZON, Do not attempt to send me a private message. I think it's very important that if you are interested in supporting this issue that we do it via this forum as other Verizon members should have access to any troubleshooting information you may want to share. I would be willing to share account information via PM but any troubleshooting steps should be shared here.

[vzw_customer_support]

I am shocked to hear about what you have gone through. I truly want to make sure we help you as much as we can. We truly want to help. Just to clarify is this for a Business account? 

-Amber

[cdeveringham]

Thank you for the prompt response. Yes, this is for a business account.

I've posted this using my personal Verizon account. If you would like information about the business account, or if you would like the reference numbers mentioned in my post feel free to PM me. But as stated in my original post, I would like to keep all troubleshooting in this forum.

[cdeveringham]

@vzw_customer_support

I have received no updates on this...

[cdeveringham]

@vzw_customer_support

"I truly want to make sure we help you as much as we can. We truly want to help"

I feel as if Verizon really wanted to help, I would have heard back by now...

[vzw_customer_support]

We know how important this is for you, cdeveringham. This is a peer to peer forum where our customers can help each other out. This forum is designed for personal consumer accounts. For assistance with your business account and the Network Extender for your business, you will need to call in to us at 800-922-0204 in order to be connected to our business support team. There, they will be able to access your account and assist you further. 

-Christopher

[Poorjackie]

My wife and I each have iphone 11 and have been having the same issues you are having with our network extender. We have spent a lot of time with tech support but nobody seems to know how to fix the problem. Our calls are occasionally first muted and then dropped only when we are calling using the network extender. We have been advised to change settings, reset extender, etc., but nobody can fix this problem. Promised call backs from technicians never occur. If there was another cell phone service available to us we would anxiously "drop Verizon Wireless".

[vzw_customer_support]

@Poorjackie ,

We're sorry to hear that you're having so much trouble, but there's a lot of info on this to still uncover. Your call is muted at first because your phone is connecting to the call through the extender. Have you checked to see if the phone is connected even when not on a call? There would be a house icon on the phone when you are. What is your overall internet speed of the home service the extender is connected to? It would be a lower amount with more devices connected at the same time, but would be a good start to determine.

-Russell

[Poorjackie]

Our calls are muted after we have been talking for awhile, not at the beginning of the call. And this doesn't happen all the time. There is no pattern as to when it happens. Neither one of us have ever had a house icon on our phone but we can tell we appear to be connected because the signal strength shows 5 bars when connected. Also, I frequently do #48 and the phone tells me I am connected. Strangely enough, when I check the network extender screen it shows that 0 devices are connected even though #48 tells me I am connected.
Finally, our internet speed is typically 75-85 mbs download speeds and 5.25 - 6.0 upload speeds. I do check our internet service speeds frequently throughout the day.

[swieder711]

My new Network Extender has been acting up the last week.  Many times my phone shows "!" and wont make calls unless I unplug the Net Ext.  In the last day, it has been rebooting itself.

What is going on?