4G LTE in Ventura/Oxnard?

[boobdole]

I bought my 4G Droid Charge phone last July, told that 4g would be in the area by the end of summer.  It is now MARCH, coming up on one year without having 4G in the area.  Can we please get some transparency as to when we can expect it?  After having phone dates pushed back further and further with minimal updates, having the same shifting dates and lack of transparency is extremely frustrating, especially when trying to make an informed decision. 

If I can't get some sort of estimated date soon, I'm switching from Verizon at the end of my contract.  And I'm taking as many people with me as I can. 

Ball's in your court, Verizon. 

[Ann154]

Who told you that the 4G LTE network was coming?

Is your location on the network coverage map listed as having 4G LTE available?

[boobdole]

The employees at multiple Verizon stores in the area.  Where is the 4G LTE coverage map?  I've gone to a few links that supposedly show this but none of them have lead anywhere (such as network4g.­verizonwireless.­com, all of which say something along the lines of "page not available" and I've tried in multiple browsers).  The only direct answer I've been able to get from anyone is from Verizon people who were pretty confident it would be in our area by the end of Summer.  Even having it by Christmas would be understandable but if I bought a 4G phone (that was WAY overpriced and not anywhere NEAR as reliable) just so I can have a technology they're not even rolling out in our area, that's not acceptable. 

[Ann154]

http://www.verizonwireless.com/wireless-coverage-area-map.shtmmap.shtml

That is the link to the coverage map.

[boobdole]

Both internet explorer and google chrome give me:

"Error

The requested URL could not be retrieved from the server."

If you have access to Verizon servers, those links aren't going to work for me as I'm not an employee of the company and haven't been given rights (which seems to be the issue with every link someone gives me that supposedly gives 4G coverage).

Does that link work for you?  And does it give me any indication as to when I can expect 4G coverage?

It's starting to sound like the Verizon people were full of c**p and were just trying to sell phones at any cost when they said we'd have 4G coverage by summer.  Which shouldn't surprise me, really.  But that kind of dishonesty is going to cost them customers. 

[boobdole]

<Content deleted per the TOS>

Message was edited by: Verizon Moderator

Note:  For anyone reading this, this was my conversation with Verizon Online Customer Support but it's been deleted due to TOS (apparently, this information belongs to them, despite the fact it's proof of my experience with their customer service reps).  To summarize it, they told me 4G would be released by the end of 2013 (despite the fact I was lead to believe it would be released by the end of summer, 2011), meaning that I probably wouldn't get 4G until my 2 year contract was up.  They apologized for any misinformation, offered no help, no explanations, and no solutions.  Basically, it was a giant waste of time and they decided they would rather do nothing than try and find a solution to this customer service issue. 

[Ann154]

I was retyping on my phone from the link that was displayed on my computer screen.

Go to the Verizon Wireless Homepage, scroll down to the bottom and there is a column for Service & Support. The link for the Verizon Wireless Coverage Map is there.

Once in the map you need to switch the view to the 4G Data Coverage.

[Ann154]

I am not an employee of Verizon Wireless nor have I ever been one.

That coverage map link is the same one for the 3G and voice and has been available for many years. The option for 4G LTE network is new of course.

[Ann154]

I had no guarantee of when I would see 4G LTE in my area when I purchased a Thunderbolt in April of last year. All I knew was that 4G LTE network was coming by the end of the year to one city that I work in. This information was from an official press release. I was anticipating going for most of the year before seeing any 4G LTE network. In the end, it was September when the network was available for me.

Kansas City wasn't even on the planned list for last year and it now has 4G LTE network. They only announced it about a month to a few weeks before it was officially live.

In short, go by the official press releases. Rumors and heresay only give people grief.

[boobdole]

Understandable, but their press releases are occasionally wrong as well.  But store reps still represent and are employed by Verizon wireless and are an extension of Verizon.  How am I to make informed decisions if they don't really make anything public til the last minute and the few people you can interact with are often misinformed or lying?

The end result is still the same for me though, I'm in a contract for something that I signed up for, whether the information is accurate or not.  I can accept that.  But Verizon has a chance to show the quality of their customer service and fix the situation or they can opt not to at whatever cost that is.  If they really want to be known for having good customer service, these things should at least be looked into and explained rather than brushed under the carpet. 

Do you work for Verizon or are you moderating this forum?  I'd still like to see a Verizon rep respond to this, either with a message, a phone call, or directly here.