Friday Evening Links > Verizon's Buzz for Motorola's Droid Fizzles at Day's End

reply to FBGuy

Verizon takes a shot at AT&T & iPhone in new ads

They've been touting service area for years and people simply don't care, particularly if they are in even a minor metro area because they'll get coverage from any of the major carriers. IOW, the only people they are marketing to in these types of ads are people in 'the sticks' of which there are few relatively speaking.

Instead of wasting time with maps they should be DEMOING Droid. I'm watching the Charger game and saw one of the absolutely pointless droid commercials where some stealth fighters drop some black balls all over the place and the commercial ends with "droid is here" or other some such pointless crap.

There are no stealth fighters or magic balls. Nothing shown in the commercial is something I can buy and there is no product shown to even generate a desire to buy. They could have been selling cars or beer or a new Star Warz toy. It reminds me of the huge AT&T mLife mess aired during the Super Bowl that had people thinking it was a commercial for Met-Life. VZW is flushing ad $$$ down the toilet Gates/Seinfeld style with this.

SHOW US DROID IN ACTION CHUMPS!

reply to fAcEtIOUs

You have no idea. My mom & my sister had vzw back in the day, they ran screaming from their customer service to (cingular) att and have had them since. I mean complain about coverage all you want, no one's experience even in the same house with the same model device is going to be the same, what keeps us with att is customer service and roll over minutes, not the phones, and not how much 3G coverage they have.

- A
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LETS GO METS!

reply to FBGuy
But Apple wrote the book on being douchy with their Macs.

reply to FastiBook
Same here. I had VZW and the service was okay but the billing was ALWAYS messed up and of course in VZWs favor. Every month I would have to call and every month I was told it was fixed. The next month not only would it not be fixed, there would be more billing errors and a LATE FEE for me not paying the last billing error. I went to Cingular and not a problem since. I travel all over on business and never have a problem with connectivity.

the only billing errors I have ever had were because I was too lazy to read the fine print. i'm obviously not saying that you did this.

and anytime that there was a repeating billing error i would go one step higher in the customer service ring. I never suggest talking on the phone with the billing department. instead go to a store where you can be face to face with them (in case you need to choke a b*tch).
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tmodns.net speedtest result 11/5/09 - 2996kbps
sbcglobal.net speedtest result 11/5/09 - 5256kbps

This was billing for services I didn't have or more often being double billed. I went a 6 month stretch of VZ charging a single phone number on a single bill for 2 different minute plans as a result of them botching a plan change. After the 6th month of having to call and get it fixed, I just paid the ETF and ported. VZ reps and management were always nice and apologetic but it didn't prevent me from having to call every month, sometimes twice a month (as I would get letters threatening disconnection for not having paid the bill in full). There were a number of months where to avoid disconnection I would have to pay for the plan I didn't have plus the late fees with the promise that it would be credited on the next bill. But of course the credit would never happen and I would get the same screwed up double-plan bill the next month. Verizon billing is a total disaster.

dont know what to say other than that sucks.

situations like this are why i absolutely believe in the YMMV philosophy when it comes to customer service. its the only way to give services a chance.
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tmodns.net speedtest result 11/5/09 - 2996kbps
sbcglobal.net speedtest result 11/5/09 - 5256kbps

Billing issues to see to happen more often than 'normal' with Verizon. I've read a number of similar nightmare stories about FiOS even though it's a completely different division. Perhaps they use the same billing software platform that is prone to errors.

If I didn't have the billing problems I would have certainly stayed with VZW. Thus far AT&T hasn't given me any problems but if they gave me the same coverage problems as I read about I would bail in a second, particularly next year when VZW supposedly gets a new smaller iPhone. »www.usatoday.com/tech/wireless/p···ne_N.htm