May of last summer (Summer 2000) I came down from LA to work in Austin and having signed up for the Verizon SingleRate plan in LA, I decided to make an "easymove" and change to a local (512) number. This simply required me to give a call and seemed to go smoothly, but because of the multiple billing systems (because of the recent Verizon merger), first involved cancelling my LA account and opening a new one in Austin before then dropping by a Verizon Kiosk to get my phone reprogrammed. I later discovered that my LA account had not been cancelled (which was fixed, but involved spending some time speaking with customer service), and that my phone had apparently been programmed improperly. ..

I found this out when several weeks later, I was in Las Vegas for a company summit. Upon landing and trying to make a call, I was greeted by an unpleasant message requesting my credit card number and incurring roaming charges. This struck me as very odd, as I was paying for the Verizon SingleRate plan, which gave me national access with no roaming or long distance charges.

The next day, I called for service, and was transferred to a PrimeCo representative. After a 20 minute hold, I was able to reach someone who could (ostensibly) help me. I related my problem to him, and he matter of factly replied that the reasons for my problem was because I did not have the PrimeTravel roaming package. Only after several minutes was I even able to convince him to recheck that because of the Verizon package I was on. After being put on hold yet again, he confirmed that I was correct, but was unable to fix my problem. He told me that he would look into it, and when I asked him for a time frame on when my problem might be handled, he told me to simply keep trying. I was not very happy with how I had been handled and asked him if there was anyone that I could complain to. He said *he* was that person. He also promised that he would look fixing this problem as soon as possible and that it might be something that would simply clear up.

In the afternoon of the next day, after my phone was still not fixed,
I called for service again. I was transferred to PrimeCo service again, and I encountered the same problem of having to explain to the representative the workings of the SingleRate plan that I was on. After many minutes spent on hold, and having to press multiple times to have the service representative re-confirm, I was finally able to have her listen to my problem. She then told me that I would need to use the phone and then when asked for roaming, and to simply enter my credit card number. I was very skeptical, and I asked her if she was sure I would not get charged, and she told me that this was most definitely the solution. If there are any problems I should just call back (and waste another half an hour of my time, presumably).

So, I place a call, and entered my credit card information. Luckily for me, the automated authorization does not work and I am sent to the roaming operator, who inform
s me that I my credit card will absolutely be billed, at $1.95 per minute.

So, I place another service call, and this time, beg the Las Vegas representative not to transfer me to PrimeCo support. Can you blame me? After explaining my situation he told me he would look into it, after a few minutes he told me that my phone was improperly programmed and got it working (remotely) 10 minutes later.

I stayed in Austin until the end of the summer, and was never happier than when I "easymoved" back to Verizon LA.

The coverage was decent in downtown Austin, although very spotty (0-1 bar) where I was living, in southeast Austin (74789, around the RT290 and RT1).

Other problems:

Over the whole summer, my voicemail was never functioning properly. I both called and emailed customer service multiple times but never got a response/resolution, confirming my earlier horrible customer service experiences.

Also, as far as billing was concerned, I had more problems: after I "easymoved" back to Verizon LA, it appeared again, that that my Austin account had not been not cancelled. Verizon Ausin kept sending bills to my Austin address that was eventually forwarded to my LA address. I eventually got it sorted out, but was left with an extra bill for the month that I had "easymoved" back to Verizon LA. Hopefully, you can see why I've been using the "easymove" term in quotes.

Suffice to say that I was extremely angry, but after getting nowhere with the customer support for months I eventually paid the extra month's bill. In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have done that, but should have rather contacted the Better Business Bureau or sought escalation at a higher level.

In any case, my 1 year service agreement has since run out, and I am cancelling my service with Verizon and have switched to Sprint. Although I've been relatively happy with my Verizon LA service, after my experiences this past year, I think it will be a cold day in hell before I ever do business with Verizon again.

Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 60