Covid-19

[Ashleigh2103]

I hope Verizon will be working out a plan for families in need of help during this national time of crisis. Sprint has already developed a way to help its customers, so I hope our carrier will consider helping it’s customers out as well. Some families are going to be struggling due to having to stay home with children, Or extra costs in daycare, or not even being able to work. So, income will be lower and times will be more difficult until the ban is lifted. That being said, God bless everyone and stay strong! 

[Ann154]

Perhaps you can check the Verizon news releases for their response to the situation. 

https://www.verizon.com/about/news/verizon-help-customers-and-small-businesses

https://www.verizon.com/about/news/verizons-networks-stand-ready-increases-data-traffic

[Natsu07]

@Ann154 

This is for Verizon residential and small business customers not wireless customers

[Ann154]

Both the landline and the wireless side of Verizon use the same news release page. Unless they specifically mention the news release is for one business or the other, one could logical assume is applies to all sides of the Verizon company. If they do post a clarification, it will be on the same website. 

https://www.verizon.com/about/news/update-verizon-serve-customers-covid-19

[Ashleigh2103]

Well it’s be mobile. I see all other mobile carriers jumping on the wagon to help people out during this time, except Verizon. But, that does not surprise me.

[vzw_customer_support]

Hello, it breaks our heart to see you feel this way, the last thing we want is for you to have a negative impression of us. We know the importance of getting the support you need, especially during these difficult times. We want to provide a solution tailored to your needs. Please tell us more, what exactly is going on with your service? How can we be of assistance?

GilbertoL_VZW

[ybell1927]

I applaud Verizon for providing unlimited calling through 4/30/20, and increasing data by 15GB however text should also be included. At $.10 a text with all the COVID19 alerts states, cities and communities are sending out to their residents each day this adds up. 

[Ann154]

Have you considered adding a small text message package to your line for these messages? Or switch to a plan that includes unlimited calls and text messages? 

[Kaleyanne]

The form to file on the Verizon covid19 response page does not work. I have been trying to file for relief since the end of March. I really could've used the help until my stimulus check came. I am unemployed at the moment and have not been approved for unemployment yet. I'm currently seeking a new job. However, I cannot contact them or vice versa. I was told if I couldn't pay my bill for the month if April and may that I'd be able to fill out this form and have instant relief. I repeat this link does not work. Could someone please figure this out 

[AnthonyKeith]

Well , that did not happen for me ! My phone was turned off today for bill being behind . I had to pay a past due amount to have my phone turned back on . I run a small online business that has been hit hard and now with ZERO income . I'm a single father just trying to survive and pay for basics in this time of crisis . So Verizon you really needed my money so bad right now and gave me no choice but to pay the bill ! You got the money but will lose a 20 year customer for life ! All while I'm sure you will take another $1.5 billion bail-out of our tax money like last time. Thank you

[suzmbow]

I urge Verizon to give unlimited service to customers during this time so that those students who do not have wireless in their homes are able to participate in online learning via their hot spot. 

[atatro]

I agree, Verizon needs to take the lead and do what's right.  School K-12 and college are starting to go all online.

[Ann154]

See the community announcement for additional information about their response. 

https://community.verizonwireless.com/t5/Community-Announcements/Verizon-is-prepared-to-serve-custom...

[Ashleigh2103]

• Customers with metered data plans will receive unlimited data per month for 60 days (a minimum of two bill cycles) at no extra cost.
• We will provide customers with an additional 20GB of mobile hotspot data per month for 60 days (a minimum of two bill cycles) at no extra cost.
  
  Wonder why Verizon can’t jump on this? Att, T-Mobile and sprint all are offering something close to this. Verizon always the last and selfish one, at least they’ll give us time without penalty to pay our bills no “late fee” charges...

[vzw_customer_support]

This is certainly a time the country is banning together to get  through this tough time. While we don't compare us to any other company, we offer a service that is the best. Let's look at your account to make sure you're on the plan that fits your needs. How does that sound? VanetrisC_VZW

[vzw_customer_support]

Here is a link that will provide you some information on what we are doing to prepare for this crisis https://www.verizon.com/about/news/our-response-coronavirus

EdwardL_VZW

[Tigerstep]

Thinking Verizon cares is kind of cute. If an employee for one of their partners has a fever, they get sent home 2 weeks without pay.

[Nicos875]

Just in case anyone needs convincing that we must all be vigilant and not take any of this lightly. I care and don't want to sacrifice the lives of the elderly and others by going out and about, and hope you are doing the same. Hopefully Verizon Wireless makes the right decision to close their doors, for the time being, and do their part to keep people safe.

"We can now read the report on COVID-19 that so terrified every public health manager and head of state from Boris Johnson to Donald Trump to the dictator of El Salvador that they ordered people to stay in their houses. I read it yesterday afternoon and haven't been the same since. I urge everyone to read it, but maybe have a drink first, or have your family around you. It is absolutely terrifying. The New York TImes confirms that the CDC and global leaders are treating it as factual. The COVID-19 response team at Imperial College in London obtained what appears to be the first accurate dataset of infection and death rates from China, Korea, and Italy. They plugged those numbers into widely available epidemic modeling software and ran a simulation: what would happen if the United States did absolutely nothing—if we treated COVID-19 like the flu, went about business as usual, and let the virus take its course?
Here's what would happen: 80% of Americans would get the disease. 0.9% of them would die. Between 4 and 8 percent of all Americans over the age of 70 would die. 2.2 million Americans would die from the virus itself. It gets worse. Most people who are in danger of dying from COVID-19 need to be put on ventilators. 50% of those put on ventilators still die, but the other 50% live. But in an unmitigated epidemic, the need for ventilators would be 30 times the number of ventilators in the United States. Virtually no one who needed a ventilator would get one. 100% of patients who need ventilators would die if they didn't get one. So the actual death toll from the virus would be closer to 4 million Americans—in a span of 3 months. 8-15% of all Americans over 70 would die. How many people is 4 million Americans? It's more Americans than have died all at once from anything, ever. It's the population of Los Angeles. It's four times the number of Americans who died in the Civil War...on both sides combined. It's two-thirds as many people as died in the Holocaust. Americans make up 4.4% of the world's population. So if we simply extrapolate these numbers to the rest of the world—now we're getting into really fuzzy estimates, so the margin of error is pretty great here—this gives us 90 million deaths globally from COVID-19. That's 15 Holocausts. That's 1.5 times as many people as died in World War II, over 12 years. This would take 3-6 months.
Now, it's unrealistic to assume that countries wouldn't do ANYTHING to fight the virus once people started dying. So the Imperial College team ran the numbers again, this time assuming a 'mitigation' strategy. A mitigation strategy is pretty much what common sense would tell us to do: America places all symptomatic cases of the disease in isolation. It quarantines their families for 14 days. It orders all Americans over 70 to practice social distancing. This is what you've seen a lot of people talking about when they say we should 'flatten the curve': try to slow the spread of the disease to the people most likely to die from it, to avoid overwhelming hospitals. And it does flatten the curve—but not nearly enough. The death rate from the disease is cut in half, but it still kills 1.1 million Americans all by itself. The peak need for ventilators falls by two-thirds, but it still exceeds the number of ventilators in the US by eight times, meaning most people who need ventilators still don't get them. That leaves the actual death toll in the US at right around 2 million deaths. The population of Houston. Two civil wars. One-third of the Holocaust. Globally, 45 million people die: 7.5 Holocausts, 3/4 of World War II. That's what happens if we use common sense: the worst death toll from a single cause since the Middle Ages.
Finally, the Imperial College team ran the numbers a third time, this time assuming a 'suppression' strategy. In addition to isolating symptomatic cases and quarantining their family members, they also simulated social distancing for the entire population. All public gatherings and most workplaces shut down. Schools and universities close. (Note that these simulations assumed a realistic rate of adherence to these requirements, around 70-75% adherence, not that everyone follows them perfectly.) This is basically what we are seeing happen in the United States today. This time it works! The death rate in the US peaks three weeks from now at a few thousand deaths, then goes down. We hit, but don't exceed (at least not by very much), the number of available ventilators. The nightmarish death tolls from the rest of the study disappear; COVID-19 goes down in the books as a bad flu instead of the Black Death.
But here's the catch: if we EVER relax these requirements before a vaccine is administered to the entire population, COVID-19 comes right back and kills millions of Americans in a few months, the same as before. The simulation does indicate that, after the first suppression period (lasting from now until July), we could probably lift restrictions for a month, followed by two more months of suppression, in a repeating pattern without triggering an outbreak or overwhelming the ventilator supply. If we staggered these suppression breaks based on local conditions, we might be able to do a bit better. But we simply cannot ever allow the virus to spread throughout the entire population in the way other viruses do, because it is just too deadly. If lots of people we know end up getting COVID-19, it means millions of Americans are dying. It simply can't be allowed to happen.
How quickly will a vaccine be here? Already, medical ethics have been pushed to the limit to deliver one. COVID-19 was first discovered a few months ago. Last week, three separate research teams announced they had developed vaccines. Yesterday, one of them (with FDA approval) injected its vaccine into a live person, without waiting for animal testing. Now, though, they have to monitor the test subject for fourteen months to make sure the vaccine is safe. This is the part of the testing that can't be rushed: the plan is to inoculate the entire human population, so if the vaccine itself turned out to be lethal for some reason, it could potentially kill all humans, which is a lot worse than 90 million deaths. Assuming the vaccine is safe and effective, it will still take several months to produce enough to inoculate the global population. For this reason, the Imperial College team estimated it will be about 18 months until the vaccine is available. During those 18 months, things are going to be very difficult and very scary. Our economy and our society will be disrupted in profound ways. Worst of all, if the suppression policies actually work, it will feel like we are doing all this for nothing, because the infection and death rates will be very low. It's easy to get people to come together in common sacrifice in the middle of a war. It's very hard to get them to do so in a pandemic that looks invisible precisely because suppression methods are working. But that's exactly what we're going to have to do."

[ThisBlows]

I waited on hold over an hour, about 1 hour 15 minutes.

When i got a rep, she had no help for me.   Kids are losing home schooling, web-based.   The district said our internet is no sufficient and contact our isp.   Our home isp is verizon dsl, 3.0 mbps is the max offered and we have had it for years.   Their is no competition, so no upgrades are even considered.   We aren't far from respectable internet, but this doesn't help us.   

I have a 4gb plan that I barely afford, they are only interested in me upgrading my plan for more money.   What a greedy bunch.   The rep rather then help me just switch me to financial services while I was talking.   The guy listened a few moments then said he was unable to do anything with plans only accept payments. He said he’d transfer me and when he did it restarted the entire call back to entering my mobile number.   

I wish that the government would stop these greedy people.

[vzw_customer_support]

Hello. We are very sorry to hear about the experience that you had when seeking support from us. We definitely want to help with making sure that you are on the right path to getting the data access that meets your needs. Do you happen to have service with a Verizon Wireless account or a Verizon Residential account that you are seeking assistance about? BrettA_VZW

[DrBubba72]

I've read the FAQ about Covid, but it's *very* unclear about the specifics.

I work in a Farmer's Market and my job is basically GONE until June, maybe even July.  With the way the info is worded, it sounds like you're just not going to cut off my cell service or charge me late fees, but you're still going to charge me monthly fees?  So when/if I get my job back, are you saying I'll still have a multi-hundred dollar bill I have to pay off?