Help signal strength issue in my house.

[artcwolf]

both my note 3's one rooted on kitkat the other stock on lollipop
in my townhouse we drop calls like it's going out of style. We will start a call with 4 or 5 bars and as soon as we get into the call drop to 1 or no bars. We can't stay on a call for more than 8 minutes. We've gone to different spots in the house, closer to windows and still no go. I can step outside in the front 5 feet away from where we usually try and make calls and have no issues at all.

I called verizon and they want me to spend $200 for the signal extender for a cell tower that is at most a mile away. The Motorola Maxx and LG Lucid 2 have no issues in the house.

Anyone have any tips? Thanks in advance.

 

[Crashdamage]

Verizon's coverage is not always as good as they would like you to believe. It's ridiculous that they want to charge you $200 to fix their problem, especially with the high rates they charge.

If possible you might consider a different service provider. Another carrier might have better coverage and not need a signal extender. Even if they do, they will probably provide one for free. I know T-Mobile does, we've had one for years, and I think Sprint and AT&T will now too.

If you're not willing to divorce Verizon, you may just have to pay their ridiculous fee.

 

[Frogbone]

I am almost sure that you can fight early termination fees due to lack of coverage at your place of residence.
I had the same thing with Sprint. They wanted to charge me for the wifi / cellular device. Eventually I got them to the point were I threatened to cancel my contract with the understanding that they can't charge me ETF and they caved and gave me the device for free.
I had to to talk to multiple reps to get this done. If the first one doesn't get you ehat you want, hang up and call again until you find one that will.

YMWV

 

[artcwolf]

if it was all 4 phones i'd be bitching hard, but it's just the notes. While on the phone with support we managed to stay on the call for 20 minutes, but as soon as we get off the phone it all goes to shit again. I can't tell you how many times we've hit ### for them to track shit. I'm wondering if there is a firewall between the units, but it doesn't matter if i'm by the window facing the tower or in the middle of the house. i step outside the doors and it works fine.

 

[Methos1979]

It's not (necessarily) Verizon's fault. Since your other two phones that are not Samsungs work fine it's almost surely those phones. I had the same problem at my house. Had Motorola's and iPhone's for years with no issues and then when to the Note 3 and suddenly really crappy signal. Unfortunately, Samsung is known for their REALLY crappy radios with poor signal strength. Honestly, I really can't believe that they have not fixed it yet. If I didn't really love my Note 3 I would have found something else a long time ago.

The good news is if you're a good customer and have been with them (Verizon) for a while, and work at it they will often times give you a network extender for free or at the very least a very reduced price. Call them up and keep asking for higher and higher managers making your claim. Don't say anything about the other phones working well and you should eventually get an extender from them for free or at least very cheap. I got mine for $50 from them and I know if I had tried harder they would have give it to me for free but then again I have 5 phones through them and have been with them for a very long time.

 

[artcwolf]

Methos, i'll have to try that, they offered us "upgrades" to the S5 I'm working on just getting a land line so i dont' have to worry about it. I'll call them they said the extender was $250 to my wife the other day, but one told me a week ago they'd take $75 off. I'll push it up the chain i've been with them since they bought alltel.

 

[artcwolf]

got the network extender in the other day for the house, so far no dropped calls. I still forked out $175 for it, but they knocked me off a killer discount on my monthly bill.