<p>I’ve never had problems with Verizon sales people at the store, but I have had charges to my bill that I’ve disputed.</p>
<p>They have always removed them and also changed the plan so that it would be impossible for them to recur.</p>
<p>So I encourage you to call and complain – don’t get off the phone until you get some satisfaction!</p>
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<p>Probably you paid implicitly a lot more than $5 for that card in that ridiculous package VZ ghost-sold you.</p>
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<p>There are rumors of 2010 but for now, there is no CDMA iPhone. VZ Wireless is CDMA, not AT&T’s GSM/W-CDMA.</p>
<p>Rumors that I’ve seen are that Verizon gets the business on Apple’s Tablet Computer.</p>
<p>NYMom, I suspect that the salesman’s adding services that you did not authorize was not only unethical but also criminal. PLEASE complain to Verizon. That salesman should be fired.</p>
<p>We have an AT&T family plan, coverage is ok but I think Verizon coverage around here is better. D has the newest phone of the 3 of us, and her 2 years is up on 9/1. I was going to switch to Verizon but I don’t think I can get a comparable plan for the same price (3 phones, 850 shared minutes with rollover, unlimited nights/weekends/member to member, unlimited texting, nationwide long distance - base price (without taxes) of $109/month). Even AT&T doesn’t offer this plan any more, although they continue to renew it for me - it was originally a special deal years ago with Cingular because we belonged to AAA. Plus my kids don’t want to replace their SIM cards because they have so many contacts on them, and they’d have to get new SIM cards if we switch to verizon. </p>
<p>I tried to order new phones online and nearly went nuts. The prices online are cheaper than in the AT&T store, but they insist that I sign up for a “new” service to qualify. They say I can cancel the new service at any time. But the only “new” service that costs enough to qualify conflicts with my old service (unlimited family texting for $30/month), so I’d have to remove that and then put it back. When I was in the store last week they told me my old service qualifies for the minimum for the new phones, but the online site won’t allow it. ARGH. </p>
<p>I guess I’ll go into the store and get the phones. But WHY do they have to make it all so complicated?</p>
<p>^^ The next to last AT&T phone I upgraded I got at Costco (the last one was an iPhone through the real AT&T store as opposed to a mall kiosk - AT&T could handle it better than the Apple store). The price was decent (I think $10 for an LG slider phone) for a 2 year extension on that line of the family plan. There were no ‘connection fees’ or anything and a couple of freebie things since it was Costco. It was pretty quick and painless. </p>
<p>I’ve also upgraded before by purchasing online through Amazon. It was a very good deal as well. </p>
<p>The main thing, as in anything, is to read and understand the fine print and don’t ever trust a salesperson.</p>
<p>Complain to the store manager, and call Verizon if that doesn’t work. Just to balance things out, I actually have a very good Verizon customer service story. A few years ago my brother died unexpectedly, and I ended up at my parent’s house using my cell phone for hours at a time to call relatives, friends, make arrangements, etc. The battery on their mobile phone wasn’t up to the task, and I had the only cell (small town…). My plan at the time was very limited (I just used the phone for emergency calls, so it was something like 30 minutes a month).</p>
<p>I figured I would have a big phone bill, but when I opened the bill a month later, it was $1,200!!! I immediately called Verizon and explained the situation. They backdated me to a new plan that dropped the cost to about $60 for that month, and worked with me to figure out what plan I should switch over to (all without extending my contract commitment to them). I was still making a lot of calls to settle the estate, so stayed with the higher priced plan.</p>
<p>About 3 months later someone from Verizon called me and said they had been tracking since my last call, and noticed my usage had now dropped, and wondered if I wanted to downgrade now to a plan with fewer minutes (again, without extending my contract).</p>
<p>I thought it was spectacular customer service, and it definitely increased my loyalty to them (also noticed that my cell coverage was WAY better in all the out of the way places I had to travel to settle the estate compared to my family members on other plans).</p>
<p>As to canceling your service - I remember hearing about a lawsuit in the last year or so that would allow us to cancel our cell phone service without the cancellation fees. Does anyone have any information about that???</p>
<p>AT & T told my sister when her daughter went out of state a few years ago, she needed a seperate line (not on family plan) because she would be charged being “out of their field”. My sister found out later that wasn’t the case but spend $$$ with a seperate service when she could have been 9.99 on her plan.
She complained but got silence or “I’m sorry” from everyone…probably a way to get more commision but pretty swarmy…and he said he checked the maps, etc.</p>
<p>We had to cancel our Verizon contract early this year and ended up paying the early termination fee. I want to say it was over $200, but not sure. The worst part was that since I called towards the end of the month the rep said it would not be able to take affect until another month and a half. That turned out to be okay as my parents use trak phones and when my Dad went into the hospital, I was able to give him my verizon phone to use until the contract expired. If they could have afforded the monthly payments, I would have just turned the contract over to them.</p>
<p>I had an unexpectedly good experience with Verizon a few years ago. After about four years of standard phone service my wife and I both purchased smart phones with their associated high monthly fees. After about two months of trying to integrate the smarts and paying the higher monthly fees we took our issue to the Verizon store we purchased these from, and the manager there let us change both our phones and terms of the contract!! Oh yeah we actually got refunded some $!</p>
<p>I’m also hoping Verizon carries I-phones one of these days but chances of that happening seem slimmer than for the DC Metro system phone service operating smoothly…</p>
<p>OK, question - if I’m going to switch from AT&T to Verizon, how would I do that online? I see that their website is quite easy to use, but I want to keep the same phone numbers. When would they get activated on the new phones? When I put in the order? When I get the phones? The possibility of going a few days without phones would absolutely put my 17 year old daughter into hysteria, and I don’t want to be out of contact with DS at college for that long.</p>
<p>Here’s the link for complaining to the FCC. It’s pretty painless:</p>
<p>[FCC</a> Consumer Complaints](<a href=“http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm]FCC”>http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm)</p>
<p>NYMomof2, Page Plus Cellular is a prepaid cell phone company. I used to have the Verizon Family Plan for myself, my husband, and my two teenage sons. For a number of reasons I was very unhappy with Verizon’s customer service, so once our contract was up, I switched all of us to Page Plus. I’ve been very happy with that decision.</p>
<p>Was this a private company that sold Verizon or was it an actual Verizon company store? I ask because we’re with AT&T and I don’t find the hard sell at the company store in the mall. The little kiosk booths are pretty hard sell though.</p>
<p>Did you see this LAfalum? [Answers</a> to FAQs](<a href=“http://support.vzw.com/faqs/Switch%20To%20Verizon%20Wireless/faq_local_number_portability.html]Answers”>http://support.vzw.com/faqs/Switch%20To%20Verizon%20Wireless/faq_local_number_portability.html)</p>
<p>Should I cancel my existing service before porting?
No. Your number must remain active. Canceling your service prior to porting will prevent you from keeping your number. Please note: You may be responsible to your old service provider for any contractual requirements and applicable charges, including an early termination fee, on your old account.</p>
<p>You’ll have to go to a VZ store. They can get it done and activated the same day.</p>
<p>The problem is that now S is at college, 5 hours away. I can order the phones online and request that the numbers be “ported,” I assume that actual process does not begin until we have the new phones in hand and enter a certain code. According to Verizon’s website we would be able to make outgoing calls with the new phones but not receive incoming calls until “porting” is complete, probably 4 - 24 hours. But I don’t know if I can have S’s phone delivered directly to him, or if I have to do all the porting here and then overnight the phone to him. He’d be phoneless for 24 - 48 hours.</p>
<p>Sorry for the way verizon sold you a bill of goods. But I have always researched my verizon options online before I get to store so that there are no surprises or deceptions. I have always have been pleased with their customer service.</p>
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From our recent experience in switching to Verizon and keeping our existing phone numbers, the LAST place you should go is to a VZ store. H did everything online, and it worked like a charm. PLUS, in researching all the options, carriers, etc., he realized that if he ordered online, he’d save the activation fee ($35 each, I believe) on all 5 of our family plan phones. (Back in June when we switched, VZ had a banner ad on AOL every weekend offering this.) The store wouldn’t match the online offers of free phones, free activation, etc. In spite of what we expected in terms of downtime without phones, I don’t recall that we were actually without service. The new phones arrived with our old phone #'s, we activated them easily, and voila, we were up and running. All the phones were sent to the same address, though.</p>