Smart phones and services

[Dusty Britches]

I've about had it with customer service at Verizon. Long story, but the facts are - I have to use them because they are the only ones who have service at my house. I like the cell service, its the sales reps that drive me nuts.

Could I get a smart phone from another place and have Verizon provide the service to it? How would I go about doing it?

[BTGuard]

Verizon makes it tough because they use different Radios then many carriers. Motorola is probably your easiest bet, you can buy the phone from the website and then if you already have a Sim card from am old phone should be able to put it in your new phone. Motorola has some good phones, including the pure series. Any phone you look at should say Verizon compatible somewhere.
Here is the moto x pure edition.

http://www.motorola.com/us/products/moto-x-pure-edition

Potential downside is 5.7" screen, which is fairly large. Let me know If you have any questions.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[bboswell]

Make sure you are dealing with an actual Verizon store as many of the stores with a big Verizon sign are actually just authorized distributors.

And if that doesn't help how you feel about dealing with Verizon then deal with AT&T tech support one time and you will once again love Verizon

[LWR2]

And if that doesn't help how you feel about dealing with Verizon then deal with AT&T tech support one time and you will once again love Verizon

Could not have said it better!

[175gr7.62]

Just curious, but why are you having to deal with anyone at Verizon? I have been in the store 3 times. Once to get each of my phones. Took about 20min each time and have no other reason to deal with them. You have problems with your service?

[hpdrifter]

I've about had it with customer service at Verizon. Long story, but the facts are - I have to use them because they are the only ones who have service at my house. I like the cell service, its the sales reps that drive me nuts.

Could I get a smart phone from another place and have Verizon provide the service to it? How would I go about doing it?

yeah, but you'd hate it even worse.

Tracfone.

[Dusty Britches]

Just curious, but why are you having to deal with anyone at Verizon? I have been in the store 3 times. Once to get each of my phones. Took about 20min each time and have no other reason to deal with them. You have problems with your service?

Every time I go into the stores it is a minimum of 1 hour, not including the wait. Last time I went, it was 2 hours. It's not the cell phone service, it's the customer service.

Here's my most recent experience. I had a virus on my phone and I didn't want to wipe it because I didn't know how to save or back up my phone, wipe it, or restore it. My contacts list wasn't visible, but I could search for them. The guy at the store said he could wipe it, but it still wouldn't work so even though my phone was less than 18 months old I really needed a new phone. He talked me into the Moto-X. When I finally got back to a computer, I Googled how to back up my phone and remove the virus. It worked perfectly. Less than 24 hours later I was back in the store to return the phone I just bought.

That was another 1.25 hours. The guy forgot to put the phone in the box after he transferred my text messages and dropped the box in the "secured return area, behind a locked door". He commented that phone did not have any scratches on it, but the next day he called and said the processing center noted a "significant" scratch on the screen and they were charging him $70 to replace the screen. He called me to ask me to pay for it! I absolutely refused and told him that phone didn't have any scratches on it when I left the store and I don't know what happened to it after I left.

Since I now know how to back up my phone, wipe it, and restore it, I don't care to deal with the salesmen. I guess I could just buy from Verizon on-line.

FWIW - I called the 800 number to complain and they seemed indifferent, especially when I said it appears there is excessive pressure on the sales staff to sell rather than have happy customers.

All was not lost - I learned how to back up my phone, wipe it, and restore it. I now know that if there is a software problem it can most likely be fixed. The phones should last a very long time, unless the hardware is broken.

[cm12setx]

There is truth to the sales pitch. How fast have iphones been upgraded once a year. And you don't want the new next best thing? I had a old Motorola bag phone for ten years. Great connection and signal.

[Death from Above]

It's a racquet...all they do is push me phones.

I am almost to the point of going back to a flip phone...cell phone service with Verizon is. Ridiculous $$$$$

[Dusty Britches]

I like the cell service, Death. It's the only one that works at my house. Plus I get a pretty good discount as a state employee.

[Curtis32]

I have been with ATT since 2000 and no problems.

[tgil]

I just switched to Verizon after 20+ years as an ATT customer. I could no longer get a reliable signal at work.
My first experience with Verizon CS was with someone that sounded like she was a 12 year old girl. After a long time spent on the phone with her (probably close to an hour) she read her canned line "have I taken care of blah, blah, blah"? I laughed and said, "no, no where close!" Her response was "well, I did try though?" Its been comically frustrating each time I've called!