I’ve tried quite a few and Verizon is the worst.
Written: Mar 27 '01
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Pros: Pricing of regional plans
Cons: Dropped calls, many dead zones (no connectivity), incorrect billing
The Bottom Line: The WorldComm back-end is considerably flawed from a billing, customer service and connection perspective.
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| matochak's Full Review: Verizon Mobile Phone Service in New York |
(Numbers in parentheses refer to end notes.)
According to my calculations (1), approximately 36% of the success of my relationship with my life partner can be attributed to mobile communication. The other 67% is driven by our dishwasher, the Miele 848SC. (2)
The Importance of Cell Phones
Prior to cell phones, Peaches and I would get in fights whenever one of us was late (3) in meeting the other at some restaurant/bar/function/street corner. Before I could send email to my his phone, I would often interrupt him at work to provide him with some kind of critical data (4). This was especially relevant during recent negotiations on a real estate purchase. Before he could email my Palm, he couldn’t send me news or updates or communicate with me while I was in a meeting or venue where mobile phone rings and talking were not welcome.
There are additional reasons (job, family, safety, etc.) why mobile communication is so important, but let’s just assume it’s critical in my world and go from there.
I have had mobile voice service from Sprint, AT&T and from Verizon thus far in my cellular life, and I must say that none of them were great, but I am the most disappointed with Verizon. Fortunately, my contract ends in May, and you bet your sweet bippy that I will be ending it as soon as I possibly can without paying a penalty.
How it all Started.
It was May of 2000, and I was coming off my AT&T contract. I was disappointed because I didn’t always get voicemails in a timely fashion and the free Ericsson phone that I received with the contract kept breaking (5).
I decided to try “Bell Atlantic” service, because I would get a free phone (a Nokia 5180), and the deal was $29.99 a month for 200 minutes of anytime minutes in my regional calling area (NYC) and free nights (after 9 p.m.) and weekends for an extra $5. I thought this was a pretty good deal, so I signed up for a year.
It wasn’t until after I started using the service (which took several days to start up), that I realized that “Bell Atlantic” (which became Verizon) was just a front. The provider of the cellular service, customer service and billing was WorldComm. I would not have signed up for the service had I known. The MCI/WorldComm complex was nothing but a problem when they were my long-distance service provider. As a recipient of their cellular service, my experience was even worse.
The Horror
You should be able to leave the cell phone store with your new, working phone, or at least that’s what I came to expect after my experience with AT&T. It took days of set up to get my new “Verizon” phone working. Calling customer service was of no help, because every one of the six numbers I was given by the vendor was busy at all hours of operation (which are not 24 hours, mind you). A colleague of mine got the same phone and service on the same day as me. During a particularly slow time in the office, we continued to hit speed dial, betting on who would get past the busy signal first. After many hours of this, we just decided to quit after getting nowhere.
Eventually, the phone was set up, and I thought it would be smooth sailing form there. I don’t mean to spoil the suspense, but choppier waters were ahead. My bill should have been $34.99 plus taxes and other charges, which are admittedly steep, but usually not four to five times as much as the service itself. I was charged over $150 for the first month, and I didn’t even use up all my allotted minutes!
Apparently, there was some type of mistake. It took days of just trying to get through to customer service to report the mistake. Fortunately, since then, they have freed up some service lines, because I have had to call to straighten out my bill every single month since. It was only ridiculously expensive the first month or two, but after that, there were a variety of mistakes, mostly due to them not getting the prior payment (though it was paid and posted over a week before the new invoice was printed).
So all of that was bad, but where’s the horror you ask? The horror came in the form of a Motorola flip-phone brick, circa 1983, that only lasted for about 5 hours on standby after a full charge, was sent to me as a “replacement” phone when mine “broke.”
Now, there are a lot of quotations here because first of all, the heavy, thick, ugly, power-inefficient replacement was akin to lending you a Metallic Pea Wagon Queen Family Truckster (6) when your slick, silver Lexus breaks down. Secondly, my phone was not broken. That’s just the explanation the crack technical support team came up with to explain consistently dropped phone calls and black holes of service all over Manhattan (7).
Wrap Up
All in all, I would strongly recommend against signing up for Verizon cellular service in Manhattan. The WorldComm back-end is considerably flawed from a billing, customer service and connection perspective, and you’ll spend a good deal of time fixing WorldComm’s billing mistakes and redialing and apologizing for dropped calls.
Thank goodness my dishwasher still works, or I’d be single again.
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NOTES
(1) Using multivariate regression and a 95% confidence level
(2) Without excellent mobile communication and a kick-a$$ dishwasher, I’d either be a sad, lonely shell of a woman, honing my spinsterish chic, or a dating maniac, bent on subjecting unsuspecting potential partners through the rigor of dealing with the most bizarre and challenging version of matochak to date. This being a tactic (albeit a poor one) to weed out the weak, obtuse and easily shaken from the strong of mind and soul that have a chance at winning my heart. I clearly don’t do “single” well.
(3) This happened quite often.
(4) Hey, that’s what happens when your partner often works 20-30 hours in a row.
(5) I must say, though that even though that Ericsson phone from AT&T kept breaking, the store would just replace it with a new one as long as I was able to show them initial contract.
(6) Yes, the Metallic Pea Wagon Queen Family Truckster was Clark Griswold’s vehicle.
(7) Actually, the coverage used to be quite good. I noticed a dramatic shift in December 2000/January 2001.
Please Stop the Madness
I am now using this mass communication vehicle to further my unrelated, ulterior agenda, so while I have your attention: please do not use the word “draw” when you mean “drawer.” The two are not interchangeable. I am particularly upset by this, because “draw” as “drawer” is beginning to work it’s way into incorrect, but acceptable and/or popular language. For example, it is actually printed incorrectly on the dryers in my building’s laundry room. Please stop the madness.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 54
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Epinions.com ID:
matochak
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Member: The Chak
Location: NYC
Reviews written: 28
Trusted by: 41 members
About Me:
There is a lot of variation between brands of cottage cheese.
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