Network Connectivity Issues and Poor Customer Service Interactions

[frustratedanddisappointed]

This isn't a question, I just want to share my recent experiences with the community. It will take a number of posts to complete.

I have been a loyal Verizon customer for over 20 years. I have a job that often requires very urgent communication and I was always willing to pay for what I thought was the most reliable network. Currently, I have a Samsung s22+ and the Get More unlimited plan for my device with 3 other active devices on my account. Until the last 3 months I never had any major complaints with the service and the few times I had a customer service need I always ended the experience feeling positively about my choice of provider.

Sometime after Christmas though, I began to have people occasionally tell me that they had been unsuccessfully trying to call or text me. That was a big deal in regards to work, but I thought at first that it was a rare issue and wrongly thought it was probably not on my end anyway because of what I thought of the quality of my phone and network so it took me a bit before I began to pursue the issue.

[frustratedanddisappointed]

By shortly after the new year though, it was clear that I was having intermittent network connectivity issues. Initially it seemed rare, but was progressive. Sometimes it would say that I had a good signal but things wouldn’t work reliably- phone calls would not connect or when they did sometimes the person on the other couldn’t hear me at all; texts wouldn’t go thru or would be delivered after a 15 or 20 minute delay; data connection would be profoundly slow or oftentimes I would have no internet connection at all. Sometimes it would say that I had zero bars. Sometimes it would go back and forth between saying there was no service, saying it had a 4G signal but not actually having service and working slowly. This is regardless of location, time or circumstance. I have no way of knowing when it might work. I have been unable to ever get a 5G signal even tho I pay for a 5G plan and phone. The other devices on my account can be working beautifully in the exact same location as me while I have the x of death on my network service indicator- even in places where I have had reliable service for 2 decades. And then sometimes I might briefly have service, but it is never very good and it is completely impossible to predict when it will happen.

I did online, text and automated phone troubleshooting numerous times but again it was somewhat an intermittent issue so it was hard to tell if it worked or didn’t and on wifi it mostly works ok so in order to get reliable service I kept on wifi as much as possible and just tried to check once in a while to see if the issue came back which it always did. I was told by the local store that they don’t do service appointments any more so the other options were all that was available and I did them repeatedly and then started to get connected to a succession of customer service representatives. Each time I began with them, we had to go back thru the entire troubleshooting plan I had done previously before they would try something new. And each time they would think they got to the point where it was fixed and tell me to call back if it happened again which it always did. And each time I called back I had to start again.

[frustratedanddisappointed]

After a few of those calls I began to get bumped up to tier 2 support, but every time I had to start with the basic troubleshooting first. And the last couple times, I have supposedly been escalated to the supervisor people above Tier 2, but the problem has begun to happen more and more frequently to the point where it is now essentially a wifi only device, but I still have to pay for a very expensive service plan. It doesn’t notify me if I miss a call or text when I am not on the network and it doesn’t tell me if anybody left a voicemail. 

I have called the phone support repeatedly and spent countless hours in discussion and on hold. Every time I am told that it can’t be a hardware issue with the device and it isn’t an issue with the Verizon network or my account and every time the person insists that they will fix it. And every time we eventually spend enough time on it that we get to one of those moments when it kind of works for a few minutes so they feel it is ok, but every time the issue remains unchanged. And then I started to have agents tell me that every troubleshooting thing that could be tried on the phone or with the account has been done at least once and in most cases several times. 

Back in the middle of February, somebody had told me they were escalating the issue and starting a support ticket for engineering to look into which apparently never happened but this was opened on 3/1 and I was told that I would hear back with a resolution within 5-7 days. I did not hear anything so I was called back and said they would escalate it and that I would hear back in 5-7 days. After another week I had not heard anything so I called back again and the support ticket still had no updates but was told again that it would be escalated and I was promised that I would hear back in 5-7 days. That agent did call me back after a week to tell me that the ticket remained open without any new information but that she would continue to try and let me know. But I never heard back from her again so I called last Tuesday and went thru the entire process yet again and was escalated twice to somebody who I thought had developed a new plan.

[frustratedanddisappointed]

My supposition all along had been that if it was not a network or account issue (which Verizon insisted it wasn’t and admittedly all the other devices on my account are all working fine) and it is not a software issue (since resetting everything and doing all the possible troubleshooting things did not help) then it must be an issue with my device in particular. The first half dozen or so times that I reached out to support, my device was still covered under warranty, but when I suggested that maybe a new device would be indicated I was assured that couldn’t possibly be the problem but they were sure they knew what it was and would fix it for me which has obviously proven to not be the case. And the last several times I was told that the warranty had expired and I only pay for the loss/theft coverage so it would no longer be replaceable without me buying a new device but they would happily sell me additional insurance coverage that wouldn’t cover this problem, but would help in the future.

So I admit I was getting very irritated, but this agent I spoke to on Tuesday was very kind and said she would look into things and call me back the next day with another option. I tried to remain patient, but 3 days went by without any followup and so I called back again today. And it was exceedingly frustrating to get bounced around between 3 separate agents and twice having to go thru the automated assistant menu only to be told that somebody had tried to call me over the last couple days, but couldn’t reach me since my phone doesn’t work. And that at some point in the last 3 days, all the support requests and the engineering ticket from 3/1 that had never been followed up on have all been marked as resolved. Nothing is fixed and my phone didn’t work this morning, but somebody behind the scenes I guess decided that it was fine. So I was informed that I will have to open a new request and start everything all over again.

I am livid. I understand that things don’t always work right and I believe in patients and kindness and cooperation and I hate that I have been motivated to post such a ridiculous rant as this, but I think it is very important to give other consumers some awareness, even if just posting to some online forums and hoping some people notice is all that I can do beyond telling all my friends and family.

[vzw_customer_support]

Help is here! Please send us a Private Note for further support.

*Anna

[vzw_customer_support]

Thank you for reaching out to us here at Verizon.. Please private message us for further assistance.

*Mabell