Help with Verizon, and my contract

[Habs Forever]

Okay, well, sorry if this is in the wrong place folks, but I looked and couldn't really find anywhere better to post it.

First off, let me say that until now, I have loved Verizon, a lot. My family has been VZW customers since around 1997, and now our home TV, Phone, and Internet is all Verizon. This home would be in northern New Jersey. Well I am now in Morgantown, West Virginia, where I will be spending the vast majority of the next decade or so, getting my degree and hopefully attending law school after. Even though far more remote parts of West Virginia have perfect 3G service (see: the area around Huntington, which I was in for the WVU vs Marshall football game...perfect service), Morgantown has none. I'm permanently on another company's tower, with no 3G, and just a bit of 1X, where my texts are constantly not sent, and calls get dropped frequently. In fact, when my Droid broke and I got my Droid 2 as an insurance replacement last month, I had to find somebody's car to drive up to Pennsylvania, the nearest 3G area, just to activate my phone. It's beyond stupid.

Against my will, I now will probably have to switch to AT&T. They're the best in terms of service in both Morgantown, WV, and my home in Hawthorne, NJ. I'm not paying good money to have a phone here in Morgantown when most of the time it's unreliable and useless, especially now that I'm at college and call home to my mom, grandparents, and dad frequently. I got my Droid last November, 2009, and that was when my last 2 year contract began. I have everything priced out and ready to go at the AT&T store, but I need to cancel VZW first, and see if I can get my cancellation fee waived. I called, but the guy on the phone, who most of the time sounded like a real smartass, basically made it sound as if it's not their fault there's no coverage here, and even though I'm paying for loads more, I should be satisfied with the 1X signal from another company's tower that hardly gets me calls and texts. He even implied that I should have considered this move when I originally got my Droid, as if I knew where I was going to college then, and even so, as if cell service would have been a factor in deciding where to go. He says I must pay the $240 fee.

Is there any possible action I can take here? I'm stuck paying like $75 or something for my phone now every month that I can hardly use. Anyone have any advice or help?

Thanks for everything, and sorry again if this is in the wrong forum.

 

[pc747]

I would see what you can sell your droid for on ebay. You could probably get at least 400 bucks. Then see how much it will cost to end your service. It will probably be 200 plus the last bill. The 400 you make off your d1 should pay the early termination fee. You can fight to see if you can get them to lower the cost but either way you will have to pay a termination fee.

 

[Habs Forever]

Well, there's a few issues there, I guess, but nothing that can't be fixed with time.

My Droid1's screen is severely cracked. I went through a bunch of garbage getting that replacement, where I called to get the insurance replacement, but "they didn't see insurance anywhere on my bill," even though I can tell you I've been paying for it. Two weeks later, they called back and said I was correct, and sent me the Droid2. That was quite a bit ago, maybe about 2 months. I'm not irresponsible with my phones, but due to a run of bad luck with wearing tight jeans and thinking my phone was in the pocket when I let go of it, my Droid 2 screen is also cracked, in a similar fashion. This time (about 2 weeks ago), I called back, and somehow, even though this issue had been "resolved" when I last called for my Droid1, they said they did not see insurance on my account again, and they would have to check their paperwork or whatever, and call me back within two weeks.

Well, it's been a little over 2 weeks and I haven't heard from them, but this BS is what prompted me to stop tolerating the terrible service here. But once I do get that replacement phone maybe I can sell that. Although what would I do from when I sold/shipped the phone until I got AT&T?

 

[Vulcan1600]

Habs...first of all, it's Asurion and not Verizon messing with you with the Insurance situation. It's a feature that you see on your bill every month. Call Asurion next and get that rep to call VZW customer service at 800-922-0204 to verify you have insurance. Now, since this would be your second insurance claim in a 12 month period, you're insurance will now end.

As for Morgantown, I understand that you might be in an area of Roaming, you're probably using USCC towers unless you're right along I-79, where you should be in native VZW coverage. You need to call VZW and ask for Tech Support. If you are in an area where there is no native VZW, they will have to let you out of contract. If the coverage map shows native VZW area and not extended, then you'll have to cancel with ETF. It's important you speak to "tech support" when you call. If they say no, then insist (politely) and escalate to a supervisor.

How long have you been in extended coverage area and why now are you finally trying to switch? Just curious. I hope the information I gave you has been helpful. I used to work for VZW in a call center. I also know the Morgantown, WV area.

 

[comk4ver]

idk if this will help but when I was on sprint I had a samsung rant and for a whole year I called after every dropped call and *****ed about my service and told them it wasn't right that I was paying for a service that I wasn't receiving. They always told me more cell towers were coming and that I should see improvement in my area soon etc and they always transferred me to tech support and they claimed to check my service area with their maps and claimed it was my phone (gsm vs cdma) even then they wouldn't let me get out of the contract however, I did manage to get them to pay for a new phone (before my two year upgrade) and give me one of those antenna boxes to improve calls inside your house for two years for free plus a new phone in order to see if that worked! If I were you I would call every time you get a dropped call or bad service everytime you get bad service so that they make it a point to improve service in your area. Also make it a point to tell them they will lose you as a ten year customer if there's nothing they can do for you. Maybe you could get them to give you a free antenna booster or something.
You could find someone in your old neighborhood and sell them the phone and the service and just change the number. If you still wanted to keep the contract in case you come back to town earlier than expected. That's what I did when I left to verizon since I had a sero plan and didn't want to lose it. Have you tried to get one of those sticker antenna boosters? Go to cellphoneshop.net they have them there they're like a dollar or something and see if that helps.

Sent from my Droid using DroidForums App

 

[Vulcan1600]

idk if this will help but when I was on sprint I had a samsung rant and for a whole year I called after every dropped call and *****ed about my service and told them it wasn't right that I was paying for a service that I wasn't receiving. They always told me more cell towers were coming and that I should see improvement in my area soon etc and they always transferred me to tech support and they claimed to check my service area with their maps and claimed it was my phone (gsm vs cdma) even then they wouldn't let me get out of the contract however, I did manage to get them to pay for a new phone (before my two year upgrade) and give me one of those antenna boxes to improve calls inside your house for two years for free plus a new phone in order to see if that worked! If I were you I would call every time you get a dropped call or bad service everytime you get bad service so that they make it a point to improve service in your area. Also make it a point to tell them they will lose you as a ten year customer if there's nothing they can do for you. Maybe you could get them to give you a free antenna booster or something.
You could find someone in your old neighborhood and sell them the phone and the service and just change the number. If you still wanted to keep the contract in case you come back to town earlier than expected. That's what I did when I left to verizon since I had a sero plan and didn't want to lose it. Have you tried to get one of those sticker antenna boosters? Go to cellphoneshop.net they have them there they're like a dollar or something and see if that helps.

Sent from my Droid using DroidForums App

Habs, read my reply before this one. What I'm telling you is the best approach and from a VZW standpoint. As for dropped calls, until you are at over 5% dropped call rate, tech support generally won't even look into it.

 

[Habs Forever]

Habs...first of all, it's Asurion and not Verizon messing with you with the Insurance situation. It's a feature that you see on your bill every month. Call Asurion next and get that rep to call VZW customer service at 800-922-0204 to verify you have insurance. Now, since this would be your second insurance claim in a 12 month period, you're insurance will now end.

As for Morgantown, I understand that you might be in an area of Roaming, you're probably using USCC towers unless you're right along I-79, where you should be in native VZW coverage. You need to call VZW and ask for Tech Support. If you are in an area where there is no native VZW, they will have to let you out of contract. If the coverage map shows native VZW area and not extended, then you'll have to cancel with ETF. It's important you speak to "tech support" when you call. If they say no, then insist (politely) and escalate to a supervisor.

How long have you been in extended coverage area and why now are you finally trying to switch? Just curious. I hope the information I gave you has been helpful. I used to work for VZW in a call center. I also know the Morgantown, WV area.

Well, as for the insurance, it is VZW, not Insurion. It's some garbage where even though I'm paying for it, it hasn't appeared on my bill, and Insurion didn't see it and had to forward the case to VZW, who I'm waiting to hear back from.

I've called Verizon twice now and both times spoke to a customer service rep. The first time, the customer service guy agreed with me 110% and gave me a bunch of stuff about how I should be able to waive the cancellation fee, but then told me I needed to speak to a tech support guy, who was kind of an a-hole and told me all these things about how it was my fault. One of the things he also said is that they can't do anything about it unless the home address on the bill is here, in Morgantown, as if I'd get my whole family's bill sent to my school PO Box instead of my mom just paying it.

The second time I spoke to a guy in customer service who also understood and really seemed nice. First he tried to, believe it or not, convince me into getting a simpler phone where it wouldn't matter if I had 3G or not, and "I could keep the Droid 2 for when I'm in WiFi range," to which I answered was ridiculous. I can still get on WiFi, yes, but I have a laptop for that, and I'm not paying my phone bill for that. He then looked into getting me a signal extender or whatever, which I immediately dismissed because if it even were an attractive option, I'm not sure if it would be allowed in a dorm. Thirdly, he simply said if I could find someone to take my number over on my account, which I can't. Every single member of my family is on this bill with Verizon. He then talked to his superiors about waiving the fee, and came back with more bad news. He mentioned needing to have the home address sent here, and a bunch of other garbage.

I have 100% extended service here, and on i-79 as well. I lost service about half way into the drive here from NJ in Southern PA and lost in well into Maryland and all the way to Morgantown.