I was quite happy to see that Verizon has a sub-reddit that has posts from a user named VZReddit and I thought this would be a good time to express a decade long frustration I’ve had with the service I experience in our rural community that is positioned a few miles rom a large regional hospital and an Ivy League college. I commented on a post where Verizon’s official account was talking up their ‘nationwide’ 5G network.
My comment:
Here’s a photo of the service at my house in Lebanon NH. I just want 3G. When are we getting that? I just want to be able to listen to music when I’m walking the dog or get a phone call. iPhone 11 Pro here https://i.imgur.com/0m1umLJ.jpg
I have two large findings. First, Verizon Wireless’ official account is purely present for marketing. It does not engage with customers and is an account the PR team uses to post news. There is also a rampant issue on this board where some of the thousands of VZW employees spend their downtime policing the board. When I posted, it was -2 score in just 30 seconds meaning 2 employees already downvoted my comment. This continued throughout the conversation I engaged in. Then, employees (purely based on their post history where they only post on Verizon’s sub-reddit) who did not identify as employees provided no solutions, only excuses and blamed my choice of where to live as the problem. I’m taking their responses as company responses. At no point did they indicate they were employees or that their views are their own and not representative of the company paying their salary.
These individuals who almost certainly are employed by Verizon would be:
They are not moderators on the sub-Reddit or have a user-flair indicating they’re employees but almost all of their post history is in this community and they are not kind or helpful. They use this forum to vent anonymously and readers of this blog know how seriously I take anonymity online as something no one is entitled to.
I live in Lebanon NH on an NH State Highway where 1 vehicle passes by my house very 15 seconds or roughly 240 vehicles per hour on a 5 mile stretch of road that has never had cell phone service from any of the carriers. I don’t know why. I’m not a wireless expert. That’s not my job. What I do know is the thousand people who live on this stretch and the 6,000 cars that occupy this road each day do not have cell phone service on this stretch of road in addition to many other areas in our part of New Hampshire where two interstate highways converge, a large regional hospital exists, an Ivy League College sits and where 70,000 people that live OR come here to work every day. This is not ‘the sticks’ This is an economic hub for this region and an area millions of people pass through each year on their way to go skiing, hike and check out fall foliage as well as a direct route to three Canadian border crossings.
I even highlighted a daily occurrence where people stop on the side of the road at Exit 17 on Interstate 89 to finish taking phone calls because as soon as they pull off the interstate, their coverage stops and they lose their calls. It’s not unusual to see at least 1 car and sometimes 4 parked on the side of the road on the grass on their phone wrapping up a call. I usually just have to say “I’m going to lose you soon, sorry if we get disconnected” when I’m on a call and am about to get off the interstate.
I encourage you dear-reader to read the entire post. I never intended to blog about this and I honestly thought a post where I show the service at my house would be either seen by a Verizon Employee who cares OR other customers would see this and share their experiences. Verizon Wireless does indeed have the largest coverage. I’ve used their other competitors up here and their coverage is indeed better and I’d say these maps are fairly accurate but once you zoom in to their interactive coverage map, the area by my house is incorrect.
Anyway, here’s the exchange – https://www.reddit.com/r/verizon/comments/jai4un/say_hello_to_the_5g_americas_been_waiting_for/g8q84zv/?context=3
I am pretty disappointed with how 3 employees brigaded a downvote festival and then blamed me the customer for not living in a city and suggesting that I take advantage of Verizon Wi-Fi calling as a solution to my issues.
I’m in no position to switch carriers because Verizon Wireless is still the strongest game in town for signal but I’m sharing this today because Verizon Wireless should take the reigns on this ‘official community’, suppress their employees from treating customers like garbage and work to resolve customer issues rather than ignore them.
Our household is paying thousands of dollars a year during COVID using Verizon Wi-Fi Calling but when we leave the house, it’s 5-8 minutes before we get service again at a time when Verizon is spending billions to roll out next-generation wireless spectrum and retire at the end of 2020, 1X and 3G spectrum which would mean I lose connectivity completely at the area surrounding my home. I’m not even doing data-speed benchmarks in-town. I’m not looking for fast speeds. I’m just looking to make phone calls and have text messages go through. This issue has persisted through 6 iPhone upgrades so it’s not a hardware issue.
To wrap up with a 1st world problem, the HomeKit technology that turns on the heat or air conditioner when I get near my house doesn’t work. The geo-fence that triggers based on my proximity to home doesn’t work because at that geo-fence’s set parameter (which I can’t configure on iOS), I don’t have service so I get home to a cold house. I’ve adapted and just give my Siri HomeKit Scene to unlock my door and turn on my heat before I lose service. I’ve adjusted to this reality. It does not mean I should sit on my hands and deal with it.
This post’s intention is to raise awareness to Verizon’s corporate team that they have employees treating customers like shit on an official sub-reddit and they really should get that under control.
PS: This post is entirely my personal opinion. I don’t know if my employer has any agreements with Verizon but I’m representing myself. I pay my phone bills out of pocket and the are my views on the matter as an individual.