Formerly Unbeatable Customer Service
Written: Feb 26 '05 (Updated Apr 18 '06)
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Pros: Had fast response time, good at resolving issues, friendly, customer-first attitude.
Cons: Not Anymore!
The Bottom Line: Very good service, very good coverage almost everywhere I've traveled, amazing network quality/reliability
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| americanbear's Full Review: General Reviews of Verizon Customer Service |
A Second Update
Downhill the Verizon game goes... I'm having to drop them to two stars and here's my review of Alltel: Alltel
An Update
This is one of those updates I hate to make. Verizon Wireless is going down the drain, and the customer service is right there with it. With this update I am taking Verizon Wireless' customer service rating all the way down from five stars to three. And I have an unfortunate feeling that it may be slipping further in the near future.
Recently, hold times have been far longer - 10 minutes at least ranging up to an hour one (yes, AN HOUR!). Obviously a sign of the increasing number of calls as the network continues to worsen. New subscribers are being added and new buildings are going up (creating dead area shadows) - but are new towers being added to compensate? Nada. Not even repeaters in Best Buy and Costco - two new stores selling Verizon service with no Verizon signal inside! (Extended Network roaming on CellularONE/Alltel).
The employees you finally do get to talk to have a far different attitude from before. They JUST DON'T CARE like they used to - some are still great, but there's more bad apples on the tree than ever before.
People in the store aren't much better - where they'd used to do whatever it took to help you, they too have a far less concerned attitude than previously.
Not only are the customer service and network going down the drain, but the new handsets are heavily modified by Verizon - they all have a HIDEOUS standard user interface, and most Bluetooth functions are removed so you must use their Get It Now! service. Text messaging rates (inbound) have quintupled, holiday minutes are no longer free, and substantial new fees have been added.
I can no longer recommend Verizon unless you're in an area with no other reasonable choice. Myself, I'm looking at Alltel (was Cell One, and is my only other choice) for when my contract is up.
Welcome to Montana...
When you live in Montana, you don't have many choices for cellular phone service. At the time I first bough a cell phone, I had a choice of Verizon Wireless, Blackfoot Communications, and Western Wireless (CellularOne). Now there's also Airtel, which I know almost nothing about. Blackfoot was the cheapest and Verizon the most expensive. Western Wireless was famous for customer service issues, and both Blackfoot and Verizon were known for their very poor coverage. So I chose Blackfoot - at least it was cheap (yes, this does have a point to my Verizon service).
The coverage didn't include towns I needed service in, and "System Busy" messages were common even in full signal areas. In-building service was quite poor but the system busies and dropped calls in good areas were worse. But the real kicker was when I called Blackfoot and complained about it, noting that I use it as my only phone. They then said to me something very similar to (I don't remember the exact words) "people like you are the reason for your problems, you're putting too much load on the network". That was the kicker. Oh, and when I sent my phone in for repair I was stuck with a poor, old, Kyocera for 3 weeks...
Time for a New Wireless Provider
Last March, having had Blackfoot for under a year, I'd had it with them. The network was poor, and apart from vague promises of a new tower (which eventually got built) customer service didn't much care. So much for "local service". With my usage, $39 for unlimited calls wasn't as appealing as I thought it would be. Meanwhile, I'd heard more good things about Verizon's customer service as time went on. A friend of mine got a job at the new Verizon Wireless store in town, and while the coverage may not have been perfect yet, I didn't feel comfortable choosing Western Wireless. So I went down and bought a cheap Nokia 3589i from my friend at Verizon Wireless
Within an hour, my first customer service experience
That phone went back, it didn't have great reception at my house - turns out Verizon wasn't that good. I was going to just stick with Blackfoot, but I was asked if I was willing to try another phone - I did (an LG VX4400) and it worked great at my house. Or good enough, it worked as well as my old Nokia on Blackfoot did anyways. Additionally, I was told Verizon had great plans for new towers in early 2005 - they actually got up last October. Coverage at my house here is much improved, but there's still in-building issues in the new developments north of Kalispell on US-93 (ironically where the Verizon store is located). But the network quality is much better than Blackfoot, if the phone has good signal, calls work, without "system busies" or anything like that.
Still, customer service met their promises for when there would be new towers. I also added another line, with a Kyocera Slider...
The phone from the dark side, and excellent CS
Turns out the Kyocera Slider is, perhaps, the worst phone ever made. I went through too many of them to count with issues outside the return period. Dropping calls (without even saying "call was lost"), crashing, going to "no service" when "SEND" was pressed, etc.). Verizon Customer Service happily replaced them each time I had problems. They weren't willing to give me a different phone (understandable), but were great about doing everything they could with the one I bought - I consider that excellent customer service.
But enough was enough, so I used a well-known feedback website to send a letter higher up in the Verizon company. Within two days I got a phone call from a lady in executive relations who offered me a free early upgrade to an LG VX-4500 - my choice out of several phones priced at less than I paid for the Slider (which was fair in my opinion). This has been a great phone and a big thank you to Verizon Customer Service!
Other encounters
I've had some little issues (a roaming charge in an Extended (free roaming) area; a few credits for Get It Now! downloads that didn't work properly or were replacements for Get It Now! downloads on replaced Kyocera Sliders) which Verizon Customer Service has always promptly dealt with with minimal or no hold time.
Conclusion
I don't think you could find a better wireless telephone company to deal with regarding customer service issues, or overall network quality. And with the new no-roaming AC plans, their pricing is quite competitive. Highly recommended. Locally, their network quality is quite good, but they could definitely use another tower immediately north of Kalispell (near the community college); and a few towers between Arlee and Missoula to fill in a rather large dead zone around Evaro. But overall, very good indeed.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 0.00
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Epinions.com ID:
americanbear
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Member: Mark Uhde
Location: Montana, USA
Reviews written: 67
Trusted by: 13 members
About Me:
Thanks for reading my reviews! Learn more in my profile or at markuhde.com
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