What are we paying for ????

[Chuck and Carol]

We have had no service since the 24th. How in the heck were they able to send us a message saying $xxx was coming out of my checking account for the month of September.

[Dustytuu]

Carol, could it be the phone? We have had some spotty coverage with the free phones that phone companies offer. We paid quite a bit for the phones we now have and they work great.
I believe there is a difference in phones. The phone companies will say there isn't but have seen this myself.

[Chuck and Carol]

I just may have to find a Verizon store here in Salisbury, NC. The campers next door have Verizon (in fact our old model phone) and have no problem with their service. They are even able to use mobile office. I can't do a thing. This whole thing doesn't make sense to us.

[borfaloo]

Hmm ..if your neighbors have the same service provider and can use their equipment then I would suspect your phones are faulty. From your previous posts it sounds like you have exhausted the potential for coverage being an issue. It is possible that it is a software issue/ Of course with my luck I would find a store and it would work perfectly there.

Sean

[Chuck and Carol]

After days and days of only being able to *611 on the phone, I decided to cancel my contract with Verizon. They have checked out the phones ---- no problems there.

But ---- big but ---- it would cost us $425. $175 per line. I was so po'd I hung up on them. It has been since August 24th with no phone or air card. I have talked to 8-10 different people. Taken the phones apart, run systems tests, you name it, it's been done. Yesterday they said it was showing up I had service. Nope no service. Now they are saying, it "might" be fixed by the 10th. Everyone I talked to had a different reason why we have no
service.
Oh, they are going to credit my account for $25.00 for the inconvience.
I had to contact my Dr. today. Difficult to do with no phone. That didn't seem to phase them I had a medical problem and was without a phone.
We don't want our credit ruined so we will pay them this month and fight it out when we get back to New York.

[Glenn and Lorraine]

We got our 1st Verizon cell phone back in August of 03. We got the 1st Verizon Aircard in September of 03. Since than both have been replaced with new units as the contracts had to be renewed. This past fall I also got a Verison cell phone. In 4 years with Verison we have NEVER had a problem with customer service. In 4 tears with Verison we have rarely NOT had a signal and in those locations where we didn't have a signal neither did AT&T, Sprint or any other provider.
Just a month ago friends of ours using AT&T didn't have a signal. We were standing right next to them and our Verison phone had 3 bars.
Until someone comes out with a better mouse trap Verison has a customer for life.

[Chuck and Carol]

Since it's going to cost me a fortune to get out of our contract, I'm stuck.
I've had a verizon phone for 6 years. This is the first time I've had this kind of trouble. First time for everything I guess.

[Glenn and Lorraine]

As you say "I've had a verizon phone for 6 years. This is the first time I've had this kind of trouble. First time for everything I guess."
And as I said "rarely NOT had a signal"
And if I gave up on Verizon on those "rare" occasions I wouldn't be online to post this reply. Nor would I have been able to call my daughters every Saturday night for the past 4 years of full timing. Don't give up on Verizon because of a temporary inconvience.

[Chuck and Carol]

Well, I am lucky my daughter is a Dr. With no phone in the campground we were at, last week, I was unable to call my Dr to have a script sent to my other daughter in Charlottesville. She is going to get a Dr. in her hospital to write one. I didn't notice my Dr. hadn't written the prescription for enough to cover this trip. Could have been serious.
My last resort was the emergency room.
Thats why I needed the phone so bad.

[dsprik]

Another suggestion - don't buy phones/aircards on a contract. Both of our phones and our aircard have been bought outright from Alltel. If you have been following prices on cell phones these past three years, you would have noticed a dramatic drop in retail pricing. Many phones are just over $100 now WITHOUT a contract. We have our aircard turned on and off at will if the CG offers free WiFi, or - in the case of our FL RV park - if we can hook up to 5 meg hi speed cable for $29/month. Alltel does not charge us a $30 reconnect fee.

Also, EvDO being turned on at a record pace right now, apparently - in both our winter and summer RV parks. My take on this rapid expansion of EvDO is that there are several cell companies partnering up on this project. I specifically heard an Alltel store mgr mention that Alltel and Verizon had an agreement sharing EvDO towers in several areas of the US.

[DONnANNIE]

Chuck & Carol I'm sorry you are having so much trouble with your Verizon phones. I've had Verizon for probably the last 10 years without any problems at all. I hope you get it resolved soon.

In preparation for selling & moving out of our stick house, I canceled Comcast Internet cable. We were going to move into our Monty until the new stick house was built. So I got the Verizon PC5750 EVDO Rev A Aircard & Linksys Broadband Wireless Router. So far, I have been pleased with the Aircard. I get 2-3 bars for signal strength with the little built-in antenna. I just checked Broadband Reports Speed Test and I got 1725 Kbs download and 155 Kbs upload. It definitely isn't as fast as Comcast but it works fine for me.

[thoun]

We have been using Verizon and their mobile web program for several years. We occasionally hit a dead spot but seldom have problems along any of the interstate or major highways. We do update *228 monthly to keep abreast of tower updates. We need to trade in our phone for a newer model and I am told that the pull up antennas get better reception. Does anyone know if there is truth to this?
Tom and Christine

[thoun]

Oh and we have no complaints about Verizon service. Several times while traveling we have stopped at Verizon stores and they have been great. Last week we stopped in Duluth because the phone would't hold a charge. The nice young man stayed after closing and replaced our battery that had gotten wet somehow with another used battery. It saved us buying a battery as we need to exchange this phone soon. Another time in Duluth a rep helped me work a bug out of my program so I could get back on line. I had messed it up. Can't ask for better than that.