Re: Bad coverage at home
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

Thank you for sharing your concerns and allowing us the opportunity to find a solution. Based on the information you've provided here, it is concluded that service works outdoors but not when you're at home. While we understand the importance of being able to use voice,text and data while indoors, we (along with any wireless provider) can not guarantee coverage inside of buildings or homes. This is due to many factors outside of our control including: building materials and structure, electrical lines in the area, construction, climate, foliage, etc. With that being said, purchasing a 4G Network Extender would be a great benefit by improving indoor service. If you have home internet service, then this is an accessory you'd want to consider. Here is a link with more details: http://vz.to/2uOc5vD. With regard to others who may also be experiencing indoor service issues, we would make the same recommendation for the reasons mentioned above. We hope this helps.

 

 

 

 

SheritaH_VZW

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If my response answered your question please click the "Correct Answer" button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

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Re: Bad coverage at home
jfriend00
Enthusiast - Level 3

Verizon Wireless Customer Support wrote:

With that being said, purchasing a 4G Network Extender would be a great benefit by improving indoor service. If you have home internet service, then this is an accessory you'd want to consider. Here is a link with more details: http://vz.to/2uOc5vD.

OK, I guess I'm not surprised it would come to this.  Your network is not strong enough where I live to function adequately inside a regular wood construction home (it used to work better than it does now).  So, you're asking me to spend $250 of my own money to hook up a microcell to my own internet connection to serve as a mobile connection in place of your network.  That's not really what I want.  Besides having to spend my own money to address your weak coverage in my area (remember, cellular data doesn't even work reliably in my own front yard), that also means my cell phone will not serve as an adequate back-up for either internet access or phone calls when my internet service or power is out.  No thanks.  Time to find another solution which will also involve investigating other networks for our 5 mobile lines.

Oh, and by the way, your 4G network extender is it currently out of stock.

--John

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Re: Bad coverage at home
sprmankalel
Champion - Level 3

As stated in previous responses, you are not guaranteed of connectivity inside of ANY structure. You don't like the WiFi calling feature and you seem to not like the network extender feature.

Regardless of how well it worked inside your home in the past, something may have changed in between your home and the tower that blocks signal. A tree grew taller, a new building was constructed or any number of other possibilities.

You will be hard pressed to find a carrier that will tell you that you will receive connectivity inside your home.

Good luck with whatever decision you make.

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Re: Bad coverage at home
PAMKRA34
Enthusiast - Level 2

I came across your post while searching for information on how to provide feedback to Verizon. There is no coherent system, and the responses I've seen from Verizon for all kinds of queries for providing feedback (positive or negative) suggests pretty strongly that feedback has no place in its customer service philosophy or practice.

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Re: Bad coverage at home
sprmankalel
Champion - Level 3

You can provide feedback directly to Verizon Wireless by calling 1-800-922-0204 or clicking on the Contact Us link, putting your concerns in writing and sending a letter to address provided.

This forum is not a direct link to Verizon Wireless and, though there are reps on the forum, most questions are answered by other customers. We are usually more accurate and quick.

Re: Bad coverage at home
PAMKRA34
Enthusiast - Level 2

Thank you for the info -- and as with other companies, having customer communities is great for tips and trouble-shooting. Thank you to you and others who support this community! But you're right, it's not a good vehicle for providing feedback. Which sort of underscores the point of Verizon not being interested in customer feedback. The contact page (screenshot below) offers lots of options for questions, including chat; it also offers phone numbers (which leave customers with no record of what was said, and no sense that any feedback -- positive or negative -- was registered beyond the individual service agent). I didn't see a USPS mailing address; but that wouldn't be convenient, anyway. Most companies go out of their way to seek customer feedback. I'm guessing that Verizon will get the feedback anyway, in the form of customers going to competitors that demonstrate that they DO care about the customer experience. AT&T has GREAT deals right now that include DirecTV discounts and free HBO. Verizon's "reward" to customers was asking us to give up our privacy so that Verizon Up could reward us with things that actually interest us -- but then it didn't provide much in the way of choices, and actually took away the initial credit that kicked off the program.

Anyway, thank you again for being supportive in the consumer community; that really does help customers!

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Re: Bad coverage at home
jfriend00
Enthusiast - Level 3

sprmankalel wrote:

As stated in previous responses, you are not guaranteed of connectivity inside of ANY structure. You don't like the WiFi calling feature and you seem to not like the network extender feature.

Regardless of how well it worked inside your home in the past, something may have changed in between your home and the tower that blocks signal. A tree grew taller, a new building was constructed or any number of other possibilities.

You will be hard pressed to find a carrier that will tell you that you will receive connectivity inside your home.

Good luck with whatever decision you make.

As far as I can tell you aren't guaranteed ANYTHING with regards to coverage or performance.  It's not just inside the home, but outside too.  So, I don't know why people keep responding with there's no guarantee.  Duh. Never has been, never will be. I never thought there was a guarantee.

However, if Verizon expects to retain customers, then cell phones darn well need to work both in the home and probably at work too.  If not, people will pick a different carrier.  It's not like just because we're at home, we don't need to be able to receive calls on our mobile.

If Verizon doesn't provide any means of providing feedback on their network and people just bleed off when coverage has deteriorated in a particular area, then that's what will happen. 

I started this thread because I asked for a way to provide feedback to Verizon about poor coverage in and out of my home with the (probably misguided) view that if I don't at least attempt to tell them about the problem, there's little chance they will ever make it better.  Coverage used to be better than it is now so now we need a solution.  If Verizon won't provide a solution, then we may have to try out other carriers and move our 5 phones to another carrier.  Since I live in a neighborhood and there are probably other Verizon customers with similar frustrations, I thought maybe we could get several of us to all let them know.  But, it appears that Verizon does not make it easy to provide crowd-sourced coverage feedback.  All I've heard so far is that we have to use 1970s technology to provide such feedback (make a phone call through a big phone tree and speak to someone in a call center somewhere).  Maybe I will carve out the 30 minutes that will probably take, but I'm certainly not looking forward to it and I have zero expectations that an feedback I will provide will actually go anywhere.

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Re: Bad coverage at home
lukevinyl
Specialist - Level 2

The phone call IS the way to provide feedback, but as was stated this is something that VZW is likely aware of and can't do anything about. Not that they don't want to, but because they are being blocked from doing so by an environmental (or other, which there are hundreds of) group.

You can, once get connected (it is an exaggeration to state this is going to take 30 minutes) ask to submit a network ticket which provides direct feedback to the network team where they will look at the area (and in some instances even send a technician out to the cell/switching site) and give a resolution/determination. This will probably state that you are indeed in an area that IS a marginal or variable coverage area and that they recommend obtaining a network extender...

Have fun! Smiley Happy

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Re: Bad coverage at home
sprmankalel
Champion - Level 3

You are completely missing the point.

Verizon cannot control the trees, building and other obstacles that block your signal. Nor can they just go and put a tower on every street corner in the country. If they could, they would have. Something changed in your area that blocks your signal. I have advised you to talk to your local government about working with Verizon to allow them to come in and increase the coverage as a lot of that lack of coverage is due to the local governments blocking approval for it. Verizon knows the areas where their coverage is in need of a boost but if your town doesn't help them then you don't get covered.

They have highly sophisticated computers that monitor the network. How do you think they know when your phone is connected to a particular tower or how many messages you send or how much data to bill to your account? It is all monitored 24 hours a day.

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Re: Bad coverage at home
sprmankalel
Champion - Level 3

PAMKRA34 wrote:

The contact page (screenshot below) offers lots of options for questions, including chat; it also offers phone numbers (which leave customers with no record of what was said, and no sense that any feedback -- positive or negative -- was registered beyond the individual service agent). I didn't see a USPS mailing address; but that wouldn't be convenient, anyway.

Anyway, thank you again for being supportive in the consumer community; that really does help customers!

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You're welcome for my contributions to the community. I am glad that you can find solutions in the information that I share.

Please scroll down on the Contact Us page to find mailing addresses.

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