Low signal strentgth, poor voice quality and dropped calls at home
gsgleason
Newbie

Ever since I moved into this house (Nov 2013) I have very pool voice quality, conversations cut in and out, and calls drop.

The other night I was talking to a company's fraud support around midnight and my call dropped 3 times in the course of 30 minutes.

My wife has VZW also with a different brand device and has the same issues.

In spots outside around the neighborhood there are total service holes with no signal.  I get a message about network not available.

I called in the beginning of 2014, spoke to customer service who transferred me to technical support who said they would have to send someone to the neighborhood to take measurements.

I never heard back from anyone.

I called again this morning and spoke to Ranee (sp?) in customer support, then Troy in technical support, and had the exact same conversation.  Troy said there was no history of my previous interaction for this issue, which is quite concerning.  I'm not thrilled with a company who doesn't keep track of customer interactions.

He told me the same thing as last time:  that they would have to send someone out to take measurements and whatnot.  This time I got the ticket number and verified that they are supposed to follow up with Troy, who is supposed to follow up with me directly within 3-5 days.

This time I got the ticket number, and Troy sent a text to my phone with the details:

FREE VZW MSG-DO NOT REPLY: trouble ticket # (removed) researching poor voice signal at home location at <address redacted>

Right now my phone's signal strength (Samsung Galaxy S4) fluctuates between -113 and -109 dBm and stays at one or two bars.

The coverage map shows full digital signal everywhere around me with no gaps, which I think may be technically correct, but not really correct in the useful sense.

I am at the point where I am considering switching to another major provider (who has full signal at my house when looking at family and friend's phones), and requesting a contract cancellation with no fees, and an FCC complaint if need be.

Hopefully something happens this time.

I am mostly writing this for record keeping purposes, as VZW apparently deleted the interaction from before.  I need proper documentation for my FCC complain I am likely going to have to file.

>> Edited to comply with the Verizon Wireless Terms of Service <<

Message was edited by: Verizon Moderator

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Re: Low signal strentgth, poor voice quality and dropped calls at home
sswcmw
Enthusiast - Level 1

While I can understand how frustrating it is view the coverage map and see no gaps, the truth of the matter is those coverage maps are computer generated using topo and ground cover data, and are only a good representation of what coverage would be outdoors.  They can't possibly take into account every building material in your house or every new structure that goes up between you and the cell sites serving you.

A signal strength of -109 is not good, and obviously at -113 it is worse.  Remember, that is what your phone is receiving from the cell site, which is putting out up to 100 watts, imagine what the cell site is seeing from your phone, which is only doing 200 milliwatts.  Throw in interference from all of the other electronics in your house, your neighbors house, the power lines, the jet flying over, the number of users on the cell site, and I would not hold much hope that by the time you put the phone to your ear and your head attenuates the signal further that you are going to have a good conversation all the time.

There probably is not much Verizon can do to alter the signal strength without affecting another area.  No network can be perfect everywhere, and it all depends on who has their antennas at the top of the site, and who has to live at the bottom.

I don't know if Verizon still offers the in-home range extenders.  That may be an option, but of course you are using your own Internet service to give you voice coverage.  If you have decent home Internet access, you may want to see if Verizon will work with you on an extender.

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Re: Low signal strentgth, poor voice quality and dropped calls at home
sswcmw
Enthusiast - Level 1

While I can understand how frustrating it is view the coverage map and see no gaps, the truth of the matter is those coverage maps are computer generated using topo and ground cover data, and are only a good representation of what coverage would be outdoors.  They can't possibly take into account every building material in your house or every new structure that goes up between you and the cell sites serving you.

A signal strength of -109 is not good, and obviously at -113 it is worse.  Remember, that is what your phone is receiving from the cell site, which is putting out up to 100 watts, imagine what the cell site is seeing from your phone, which is only doing 200 milliwatts.  Throw in interference from all of the other electronics in your house, your neighbors house, the power lines, the jet flying over, the number of users on the cell site, and I would not hold much hope that by the time you put the phone to your ear and your head attenuates the signal further that you are going to have a good conversation all the time.

There probably is not much Verizon can do to alter the signal strength without affecting another area.  No network can be perfect everywhere, and it all depends on who has their antennas at the top of the site, and who has to live at the bottom.

I don't know if Verizon still offers the in-home range extenders.  That may be an option, but of course you are using your own Internet service to give you voice coverage.  If you have decent home Internet access, you may want to see if Verizon will work with you on an extender.

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Re: Low signal strentgth, poor voice quality and dropped calls at home
gsgleason
Newbie

Follow up:

First, I have no signal both outside in the street and driving through the neighborhood as well as in the house.  It's not just inside.  They clearly have a coverage problem here that they're not willing to address.

I received a voice mail from tech support stating that they're not going to investigate further after all.  They said that according to their map data, my area has 'moderate' coverage, and I can buy a range extender to have service.

This wasn't acceptable, so I called back to discuss, and guess what?  My call dropped twice while trying to reach someone, and again while talking to a support rep.  While they noted in the ticket that the call dropped, it would have been nice if they had tried to call me back.

So I finally got a hold of tech support again, told them I'm not paying extra to get service that I'm already paying for, and they agreed to change my contract expiration date to today, which will allow me to port out without a fee.

I have always liked verizon, especially the people that I talk to which are generally very well trained and friendly and helpful, but there isn't much point in paying for something that I can't use.

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