Why Verizon is going to lose me as a customer

Posted: 2007-04-05

(Originally written June 14, 2006)

1. Shady customer service practices, such as charging an existing customer upwards of twenty dollars for switching to a Customer Owned and Maintained piece of equipment. However, should the customer perform this procedure online (known as a ESN registration or the Verizon equivalent of switching SIM cards), they are charged nothing. This in and of itself is not completely unusual, except with a fairly small amount of bitching, the customer can usually get the service rep. to change their mind and waive the fee. Why have a rule if you're not going to enforce it? I'll tell you why: to chisel a few measly bucks out of the lazier population as a parting shot for not getting to extend their contract through the purchase of a subsidized piece of equipment.

2. Charging 1.99 to send a ringtone or background to the phone via their network despite there being a much cheaper and more flexible alternative as detailed in point four below.

3. Mobile number portability is much harder to accomplish than other networks as SIM cards aren't used. International roaming is thus accomplished with a very expensive and impractical abroad plan. This makes traveling to other countries much costlier than using an unlocked GSM phone. Unlocking services can be offered by other carriers as well as third parties, however this can't be done on a CDMA-centric service such as Verizon. I realize this is a limitation of the technology, however it is a valid reason as I want to travel with my device and would much rather pop in a prepaid 15 Euro SIM as opposed to paying ludicrous "travel" rates to my provider back home.

4. Ignoring requests for restored bluetooth capability on multiple phone models over the course of the past few years, even after a class-action lawsuit involving such an issue with the Motorola V710. Instead of rectifying the mistake (there were two opportunities with the Motorola E815 and Razr V3C/M), Verizon instead chose to modify the FAQ on its web page in order to dodge the question of which bluetooth profiles were present on these models. The Razr V3c was also released at one point with a firmware version which allowed OBEX transfers. Verizon already had the opportunity to turn this situation to their favor and win back the loyalty of its customers, however it chose to eschew functionality once again for profits from Get It Now and released a firmware update that disabled this functionality. Once again to reiterate: Verizon disabled pre-existing functionality everyone wanted on a telephone with a software update in order to further their own money-grubbing agenda. This is not a conspiracy theory; there are many sites where information can be found not only on the suit, but on the issue as well. Verizon has not, as of January 2007, fixed this glaring error in their thinking.

5. Removing the individuality and style from different phone manufacturers in favor of the Verizon UI, which places unnecessary and obtrusive bars on the top and bottom of the screen, as well as grey bars AND information bars, which end up covering OVER 25% of the background.

Epilogue: After all was said and done, I quit using Verizon from July 2006-January 2007. I threw my phone into a drawer, switched to Cingular on a prepaid plan and bought an unlocked phone at a small mobile shop in NYC (the Razr V3i a few months before it came out here, which for all its flaws, was still a damned fine phone). It was an eye-opening experience to say the least. Despite the lack of service in my places of work and other areas, as well as not having free service to call the people I care about, I still found my experience with cingular to be more pleasant than that with Verizon.

What I've come to understand is this: your cell phone experience is really only as good as your phone. Since you interact with your service via your wireless device, it's of the utmost importance that you be comfortable with your phone. Unfortunately, since many mobile carriers are in the business of locking users into their contracts for years without the possibility of buying a new piece of equipment (unless the user either extends their contract or buys a phone somewhere else), consumers don't really get the chance to find the best deal. They just stick with what's been forced on them. I however, am not one of those consumers.