CSR convo re: unlimited, VZW and upgrading...

[Steven58]

Please hold for a Support Representative to assist you.
Thank you for contacting Verizon Wireless.

Your Chat Session ID is RT27435290085.

My name is Jason, how may I assist you?
Steven: ty jason
Jason: Hi Steven
Steven: can you tell me, please, what is the penalty for my leaving verizon with my family plan?
Jason: I'm sorry to hear you're looking at canceling your service. Is there a specific reason why that we can discuss and address?
Steven: firstly, do you mind telling me the cost then I'll go into my problems.
Jason: Sure. Right now only one of the 4 lines on your account has a contract. That's the line ending in 9677 and that has a termination fee of $190.00
Steven: sorry jason.. i'm in an appt and forgot i had a window open
Steven: lol
Steven: woudln't it be a percentage of that or is it the full 190?
Jason: That's the current amount. Since that started as a smartphone discount on the contract that started at $350.00 for the ETF and it decreases by $10.00 per month you complete
Steven: ok
Jason: The contract ends on 7/1/2014
Steven: here's why I'm looking around.
Steven: in order for me to upgrade my phones, vzw wants me to 1) give up my unlimited data for 6 gb and 2) either pay for my phone in a year or two or get a subisidized price over a full two year period.... and these are unnacceptable to me.
Steven: I know there's nothing you cna do for me but you asked. thank you.
Jason: I can understand being reluctant to change from the unlimited data plan. One thing to always consider with that is the amount of data you're actually using, and what the "unlimited" options are with other carriers.
Jason: Sprint and T-Mobile's unlimited plans come with some pretty big asterisks, so it's important to do your homework on that
Steven: I did
Steven: tmo is indeed throttled
Steven: sprint is not.
Jason: Sprint's unlimited data is only while on the Sprint network, which has a relatively small footprint, When you're roaming on their extended network you're limited to 150 MB before they are allowed to terminate your service.
Steven: that's not a problem in my area, jason.
Jason: Actually, I apologize, that's a 100 MB limi
Steven: no prob
Steven: ty
Steven: I've been with with VZW and whereas I like the people and the service, I'm very tired of their taking away my perks year by year.
Steven: I used to get an upgrade every year.
Steven: no more
Jason: I certainly understand and if keeping that plan were an option for you with the upgrade I would. You can still keep the Unlimited plan like you mentioned. If you choose not to, you do have some choices.
Steven: I used to be able to call mexico and canada no more.
Steven: blah blah blah...
Steven: I used to be able to upgrade every 18 months.
Steven: no more
Steven: there's so much of that. I feel as if they feel as if they are the best so they can pinch us for more and more each year.
Steven: I'm pretty sick of it.
Jason: Well we certainly do still have calling plans that allow Mexico and Canada, and texting to Canada is included in all of our current plans. As part of the increase in phone pricing we have ended the early upgrades like you mentioned to allow the same phone subsidies.
Steven: i'm not the only one. I was a moderator of androidforums.com and you guys need to hear that's the word out there about verizon.. I was the biggest verizon supporter, because I love the service and the people, but it's getting harder and harder.
Steven: i see your point ty. I don't see how the phones are cheaper though... there;s more profit in extending the upgrade time, that's what "I" see. The prices don't seem any lower
Steven: for subsidized phones.. don't forget: I've been here for 10 years
Jason: That all depends on the phone Steven, the subsidy on a smartphone even 4 years ago isn't the same as it is now. A free smartphone was unheard of not that long ago, and now phones like the motoX, S3 and others are free with that upgrade.
Steven: jason.. .that's not true, I don't want to argue with you, but they ALWAYS subsidized phones for free on or near EOL. (end of life). S3? MotoX? sigh. They're older phones
Steven: whean you talk to me it is like you are talking to 1000 people because of my position in the android community... This convo will be discussed in Android forums... as an example of the plight of the unlimited data grandfathered user (there are a lot of us.) and we will understand and discuss vzw's position. We know vzw wants us off.

 

[Steven58]

This is the end of of the convo:

Jason: I certainly don't want to lose you as a customer Steven. That's specifically why we do have options. You can keep the Unlimited data by skipping the subsidy and you can also change to the Verizon Maxx plan like you mentioned with 6 GB per line. Now I know that's not unlimited but 6 GB is more than you've used on any of your lines recently. I understand that's not the option you want and you do have other carrier options. I just want to make sure you know about the options we do have for you
Steven: I know that and want to thank you for hanging in there with me....while I vent....
Steven: If you want to see what people have to say about this topic, our convo will be discussed here: http://androidforums.com/verizon/79...pgrading-shows-vzws-position.html#post6269380
Steven: Thank you and take care!

 

[Steven58]

So, why did I put this convo up? We can discuss it and understand what VZW csr's are being told to tell us, because frankly, this is my convo about this with them and both said the same thing.

I was able to express my being fed up with perks being taken away... frankly, I really don't think VZW cares. They want us off our unlimited even if it means we leave. They'd like to see us stay, but are really boxing us in.

 

[Crude]

Its more then stirpping customers of their unlimited plans, its a complete disregard for customer service. When I reuped 2 years ago I got a gnex for me and my wife. Online pricing was better then in stores AND new customer pricing was way better then for existing customers. Just because I was with verizon already I got to pay an extra $50 per phone. I talked a CSR into giving me a $50 credit on one phone and after getting my first bill it was not applied and could not be retro actively applied.
Then my first, second and third gnex had terrible screen problems. I had to fight to get one that was close to problem free ( after all I did just drop a small fortune on phones, additionally a year later I sent out the phone to be refurbished I finally got a defect free screen). Then I was slapped with a $350 phone charge because I supposedly hadn't returned one of the defective phones ( even though I had a signed confirmation of delivery) for three months I was assessed fees for not paying the $350 until I threatened a small claims suit.
A few months later my phones where disconnected because I refused to pay a $5 late fee on a check that was cashed the day the bill was due. I literally called verizon at least once a month for the first 12 months of my new contract. For sake of brevity let's not talk about the google wallet fiasco or the late updates.

Would you want to stay with a service if this is how you were treated? Stripping us of unlimited was the icing on the cake. I understand that unlimited is not sustainable BUT, I'm already paying a small fortune for cellular service and now they want $10 per GB to offset their costs?
I'm switching to local affiliate of T-Mobile. For the time being I will save more then $1000 a year in the first two years and I won't be charged $.25 per text message. The best coverage in the world isn't worth $1000 a year for the crap I had to put up with, and for that matter the new service has 3 to 5 times the access speeds that verizon has AND they have coverage in %99 of the areas I frequent. Additionally when I visit my parents in Germany I will be able to use MY phone as well as while I'm on vacation in mexico.


The whole experience has left me bitter and resentful, me, and over 300 coworkers, friends and family that depend on me for advice on mobile service.

 

[bob52r]

they got me to stay with "the customer loyalty plan"
i gave up unlimited data and now have a two year contract at $60 per month for unlimited talk and text[including roaming] and 2 gig of data fast lte and $10 fo each extra gig. my bill with the full insuance, warantee extention and tech coach+ all taxes and fees was approx'ly $75 two months ago. they gave me an upgrade to note 3 and kept the same plan. a few times each yea i got to almost 3gigs of data. generally i use about 1 gig as i'm on wifi. the only time i go over 2 giugs is on long car trips with steaming and google maps.........................

i am ok with this. as i will use more data in the futue--it's coming--i'm sure of that; i may regret it. i have a nexus 4 i use only really for intenational tavel. i hooked up to t mobile and i was ok to vey good in the uban areas. when i left the uban center, t mobile was just too spotty to count on for calls, texts and forget about data.

 

[jova33]

I'm just with VZW because the service area. They have underground relays here and no one else does. My wife works underground.
So as soon as that's done, T-Mobile here I come.

 

[AntimonyER]

Got to remember one thing, unlimited IS sustainable. Verizon switched to tiered data, saying it was the only way to guarantee good service, but also said that 95% of customers would not be affected. I guarantee another 4.5% uses around 6GB on average. And the remaining 0.5% are still holding on to unlimited as well, so in reality nothing has changed as far as their network is concerned. They just have the ability to charge more.

But Verizon execs aren't stupid. They roll out changes which reduce our value, and see what happens. So far these changes improve profit margin and profit amount, so any loss of customers is being far outweighed by improved income. Unfortunately their best competitor (AT&T) has taken a similar approach, and both copy the other when something new rolls out. It's going to take a rather large exodus for them to reconsider some of the things they have done, but as Sprint and T-Mobile continue to improve their networks, I hope eventually a critical mass of people leaving causes Verizon to have to roll back some of the changes to stay competitive.

 

[jhawkkw]

The mass exodus might have started as far as AT&T is concerned based on stats that T-Mobile outgrew Sprint and AT&T and was basically even with Verizon in terms of customer gained in Q3. Though the GSM ability makes it easier for customers to leave AT&T for T-Mobile. I suspect once VoLTE starts rolling out, and we have multi-band VoLTE phones that are compatible on all 4 major networks, more people will start bouncing around because they can take their device with them. Right now it's too expensive to bounce around except between AT&T and T-Mobile because Verizon and Sprint devices lack the hardware to make it a clean translation. Plus bouncing between Verizon and Sprint itself is all but impossible.

 

[drhill]

Switched from Verizon to AT&T and got unlimited data on AT&T. Couldn't be happier. Service is much better then what I had on Verizon and I love my N5. My only problem is now I need to try to sell my unlimited Verizon lines to recoup the AT&T lines I purchased.

Anywho, carriers are going about this all wrong. They dumped unlimited for data caps at the same price or higher when they should have went at it like cable/dsl companies. Either no or very high caps (Comcast doesn't cap anymore, but they used to at 250GB which sucks for home use but would be fine for mobile) and you pay based on your transfer rate. You want 15mbps? $15 a phone per month. 30mpbs? $30/month, and so on.

I like LTE for the ping. If I could get that latency and only 15mpbs and save a bit of cash I would be fine with it. Plus they would be charging their customers the same way they are getting charged for bandwidth. Throughput.

 

[AntimonyER]

Verizon COO announcing the "reinvention of wireless customer experience". Wonder what that means...

 

[jhawkkw]

Verizon COO announcing the "reinvention of wireless customer experience". Wonder what that means...

Probably following T-Mobile lead with eliminating device subsidies, except they won't lower their service costs. Can't think of anything else at this point.

 

[Steven58]

Probably following T-Mobile lead with eliminating device subsidies, except they won't lower their service costs. Can't think of anything else at this point.

Thaaat would be copying not reinventing?

 

[jhawkkw]

Thaaat would be copying not reinventing?

Almost Apple like, eh?

But yeah, that's a pretty interesting convo you had with the rep. Can't say I'm surprised though. It's always fun to listen to them try to rationalize paying more for less.

 

[Crude]

The last time I threatened to leave vzw the rep said, "that's fine, you'll be back. People that leave come back within 6 months". Excellent customer service there, nothing like a double dog dare to motivate me.

 

[AntimonyER]

On Verizon's site the byline is "The tech experience of the future is here".

Based on some rumors, it may have something to do with their physical stores (new design, etc). But recently they filed for a bunch of trademarks for devices with Verizon branding, like the Ellipsis, so maybe it's to announce this new line.

I suppose that is the last frontier for them in the quest to reduce value without increasing price... Doing away with name brand devices and selling only Verizon branded phones (for similar prices as the name brand ones of course!)

 

[jova33]

"Google won't let us plaster VZW logo all over the nexus 7, fine. We'll block it from our network and build a less than nexus, sell it for the same price, plaster our logo all over it, and put VZW navigator on it"

 

[hilmar2k]

"Google won't let us plaster VZW logo all over the nexus 7, fine. We'll block it from our network and build a less than nexus, sell it for the same price, plaster our logo all over it, and put VZW navigator on it"

I'll take 2....

 

[quiksilver169]

The last time I threatened to leave vzw the rep said, "that's fine, you'll be back. People that leave come back within 6 months". Excellent customer service there, nothing like a double dog dare to motivate me.

This made me laugh.....then I got

 

[bberryhill0]

I'm hoping AT&T will get the fiber to my nearest tower. They started in May. Not sure I want to switch but someday I will want a new phone.

 

[Steven58]

As you can read in above text, the csr criticizes tmo and sprint for not being being true unlimited. (Tmo throttles, true... and Sprint may cancel your account if you roam over 150 mb of data per month.) Fear tactics. He was the second one to tell me that.

 

[jamjr74]

I am a Verizon customer and have left 2 times for t-mobile and go right back to Verizon! Why because of the service and customer service. T-Mobile network is terrible compared to Verizon's. I have never tried AT&T however. I don't need unlimited data so Verizon is fine for me. Hopefully with all the people leaving it will force Verizon to shake things up a bit.

 

[copestag]

all what people leaving? they arent hurting for customers

 

[jhawkkw]

As you can read in above text, the csr criticizes tmo and sprint for not being being true unlimited. (Tmo throttles, true... and Sprint may cancel your account if you roam over 150 mb of data per month.) Fear tactics. He was the second one to tell me that.

Except T-Mobile does have a truly unlimited plan without throttling, so the rep is misinformed.

 

[jfriend33]

The fact of the matter is cell phones, smartphones particularly, are becoming a bigger part of our lives. We depend on them for business, navigation, entertainment, the list goes on.

I do think that verizon has a right to introduce new plans. But I do feel sorry for those without multiple lines who can't transfer upgrades to keep the package they want. It's really unfair. I think it's bad PR. But I have to admit the 6 gigs for $30 was a step in the right direction, although laughable.

Technology is changing fast. I think in ten years we'll look back at this and laugh. As consumers we need to continue speaking up like this. We need to let the manufacturers and carriers know what we need, what we want, and how much we're willing to pay. Let them sort it out.

Martin Cooper, the inventor of the mobile phone (Motorola dyna-tac) was on a 60 minutes rerun last night. The early models were $10,000. The battery lasted 20 minutes. I'm just saying this because I hope this is just a bump in the road. I think fairly soon mobile data will be unlimited, faster, and cheaper. I'll certainly sleep better at night.

 

[GandalfTehGray]

If the phone manufacturers start competing with each other on off contract prices I see the light at the end of the tunnel for those of us still hanging on to our $30 a month unlimited.