I have big-time beef with Verizon Wireless. So bear with me here.

I live in a pretty rural area, and my family has a hard time getting cellular companies whose areas reach out to my house without roaming or static. So this is something I was interested in when I went out to get my own cell-phone. Through the reference of a friend, I ended up at Verizon Wireless. I thought, okay, this seems good. The representative I worked with through the sign-up was very friendly and personable. I absolutely loved her. Although they did not have the minutes plan I was looking for at the time, they did have a decent and inexpensive plan that suited me. And it still does to this day. The representative was familiar with the area, and assured me that Verizon had other customers in my area who had no problems with their service. This is where the friendliness stops, both online and off.

For starters, my phone does not work by my house. Plain and simple. It goes into roaming. Verizon did agree to not make me pay for this roaming, but I still can't talk on my cell phone by my house. Which is important. I have an old car and I needed my phone to work on the long highway I have to drive to and from my house on. It does not.

I had a Nokia 5185i phone that I bought from Verizon. A few weeks after I bought it, the phone started inexplicably shutting down on me in the middle of conversations. I took it to a Verizon location, where a representative took the phone, said "This happens with all Nokias," and proceeded to violently jam the battery back and forth until the phone shut off. "There. That's the problem," he said, and recommended I jam a piece of paper between the phone and battery. I was furious. They refused to help me any more. This was ridiculous. It was a brand new phone, and I certainly was not jamming the battery back and forth when I talked. But I let this go.

Awhile after this, I dropped my phone and the inside face shattered so that I could no longer see the display. The phone still worked. I took it to a Verizon store to see what I could do. Well, when I was signing up the rep downplayed insurance, telling me I did not NEED it. So I didn't get insurance, being naive and stupid as I was. So now Verizon refused to do a damn thing about my phone. They told me that the lowest price they would sell me a new phone for was $250. It was not until I had decided to simply pay the lesser fee to back out of my contract that they retracted and told me they would sell me a Kyocera 2035a for $100. Why did they not say this until I threatened to leave?

I could have handled my stupidity at not having insurance. But the sales people at 2 different locations that I went to were simply and totally rude and stand-offish. I wanted to cancel my contract right off because of that. Their customer service is awful.

Also, they tell you that through the Verizon Wireless website you can pay your bill online. Quick and easy. I have tried to do this repeatedly. I have not yet been able to access the area where I can quickly and easily pay my bill online. Their website is almost as bad as their service.

I am biding my time, waiting until August when my contract is up and I can switch to a different cellular company. I recommend Verizon to NO ONE.

Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 42.00