The Veridiots Strike Again

The BBQ Pit
1

Background: we have three Verizon phones. Two are grandfathered under the unlimited data plans, the third is on a capped data plan. If we use a Verizon upgrade for either unlimited phone, the unlimited data goes away forever.

Typo Knig got a new phone last fall. We used our son’s upgrade for that so we could keep the unlimited data. I ordered the equipment insurance, at 9.99 a month, and I have an email order confirmation to prove it.

Fast forward to last night. Typo Knig was riding the Metro home, and his phone was literally snatched out of his hands.

It’s reported stolen, we’ve bricked it as best we can, and the fun with the Veridiots begins.

They deny the phone ever had coverage.

As it happens, we’ve never been billed - turns out I never stopped coverage on my older phone. So, the amounts were the same and I never noticed.

I’ve got the email, but they will not provide me with any way of sending that to them - no email or fax or anything. At least five different Verizon representatives in the phone, two in the store (who saw the email but were powerless); a very long call with customer service from a phone in the store, which got me shuttled to two different people at Asurion, one of whom though they could help me, and the other who basically said tough luck.

The right thing would be for them to retroactively charge for the insurance, and honor the contract. Instead, they are refusing to even accept evidence, and trying to shuttle me to a plan that would cost within a few dollars of what we’re paying now, at the expense of losing unlimited data.

At the very least, let me forward the effin’ e-mail to them.

2

Threaten to take them to small claims court where the email can be used as evidence.

3

Switch to AT&T, they suck just as much but they now have roll over data with unlimited phone and text. If you go with 10 GB data, you will have plenty of data rolling over month to month and will probably save you money over your current plan.

4

Verizon’s user agreement almost certainly requires arbitration in NYC or someplace.

5

OP confirms that nearly every rant about a cellular carrier involves trying to hang on to “grandfathered” services.

6

With the caveat that unused data actually only rolls over once, and expires at the end of the following month. So unlike rollover minutes, it’s not possible to accumulate a huge stockpile of data.

7

Which has fuck-all to do with her complaint, but please, do go on. I’m sure we’re all fascinated to hear your point of view on grandfathered services.

8

How does a single rant confirm what (nearly) all the other rants are about?

9

Sorry, “OP confirms my chain of data and resulting impression that…”

I read between the lines that Big V is doing what it does with all grandfathered accounts that are still getting unlimited data: make it so impossible for the user to do anything but limp along on their old phone, with no improvements or added service features, that they give up and change to a new plan.

The only thing the carriers hate more than grandfathered “unlimited” plans is the users who expect them to give a shit about them.

10

Verizon actually was helpful enough with what we did initially - both the chat representative (when we placed the order) and the customer service rep (when I called to activate the phone) were familiar with it and knew exactly what we were trying to do. In fact, the rep when we activated was glad I’d called first - if I’d simply turned the new phone on, it would have made the whole process trickier.

And really, they ought to love us. We’ve been with them for 20+ years. We almost never use more than 75% of our minutes or message allowances. The unlimited phones rarely use more than 2 gig in a month; the capped phone has never even broken 1 gig. All in all, we’re paying for more services than we use and I suspect they are NOT losing money on us.

My beef is that a) we signed up for a service, and they never bothered to implement it, and b) they are refusing to allow me to provide that proof. Had the phone actually been for my son, and then stolen, we’d be in the same boat without doing the grandfathered-data thing.

I actually have been looking at their web page dealing with arbitration. I could go with either the American Arbitration Association or with the Better Business Bureau. Or, apparently, I could go to small claims court. Cite (warning, pdf). I may have nothing to lose by trying the nonbinding resolution; going to arbitration may involve enough fees that it’s truly not worth it.

For what it’s worth, a replacement phone would be about 650, full price. The back insurance fees would be about 70 dollars, and deductible for an insured replacement would be 169, so we’re looking at about 240 dollars out of pocket if we had insurance. For 410 dollars, anything more than a nominal fee is probably not worth it (and I’m quite sure the Veridiots are counting on that as a general principal).

Verizon’s attitude toward making their services more cost-effective is summed up nicely here and here (articles are pretty well identical). Basically they’re saying “we don’t have to look out for our customers because we’re insanely profitable”.

As an amusing side note: We looked at activating my husband’s older iPhone, for my daughter. It was literally cheaper to activate it as a prepaid phone (45/month) than to add it to our current plan (30 for 2 gig data, 10 for texting, 10 line access, possibly a bump in shared minutes).

11

Maybe it’s worth changing your plan, unlimited data and all. Since you make a point of how little data you use, what good is maintaining an older, more costly plan?

I’m looking at switching our 2-line plan (250MB data, $105/month) to a 4-line plan. With four smartphone lines and 6GB of data (plus $5 for the “Family Manager” tool that lets you set quotas and track usage), we’re looking at about $130/month - unlimited talk and text and far more data than we ever use. (I’d go with a lower data plan, but at 4GB it’s $20/line; at 6GB it’s $10/line - may as well throw the money at data than ‘service’.)

That’s $33 a line or so with 1.5GB data each - and effectively, it’s two accounts with a generous 250MB or so allowed and two with 2.5GB or so each.

ETA: Two paid-up smartphones from the prior plan, plus two $125 Galaxys for the kids.

12

It actually is worth considering going with a lower-volume plan, though I don’t know that it would save all that much. Doing so without getting new phones: no point, we’d be giving up the unlimited data and getting nothing in return. Doing so with getting new phones = tied to the Veridiots for 2 more years, which for some reason doesn’t thrill me right now ;).

One line is under contract for another 17 months because of the upgrade, so that line at least is stuck there. We might be able to move the other 3 (the two unlimited-plan ones, plus the one we’ve got on a prepaid plan for my daughter) to a shared plan on another network but that would also entail all new phones and being locked in there for 2 years.

We’re still weighing the options. What I think will happen is we’ll get a new phone for my husband in a week or so, one way or another (refurbished older model or whatever), and tough it out for the 17 months when we can move en masse if we still feel it best.

I filed a formal request for mediation with the Veridiots today, we’ll see what happens with that. I actually asked for them to either retroactively implement the insurance (at my cost), or repay the difference between the insurance+deductible we’d have otherwise paid, and the cost of the phone. I’m sure someone in Basking Ridge, NJ is having a dandy laugh.

13

Well, of course. If they weren’t trying to maintain the deal as originally negotiated they’d just switch carriers, nothing to talk about there.

14

Not 100% identical as it was with AT&T (& a few years ago), but I took them to arbitration. Had to notify them in advance, then write a $150 check & send it in with the arbitration application. They would have had to pay the remaining $850 & ultimately reimburse me my $150, plus (possible) costs when lost; & they would have lost. I was only asking for about $350 worth of equipment. Once I mailed in the paperwork, it was amazing how quick they suddenly became responsive & gave me what I wanted. I eventually got my original check returned to me, uncashed since there was no arbitration case.

I suggest you try this route. At least suggest it to them & remind them that it will cost them less to straighten out their own mess.

15

I like it. They bluff, because they’re a 1000-pound gorilla. MZ bluffs back and it might cost them money. They fold.

And I thought poker was dead. :smiley:

16

I thought the telecom companies (and all other big companies that insist on arbitration) had the arbitration boards in their pockets. You mean to tell me that arbitration, in these kinds of circumstances, is actually for reals and not just a sham?

17

I was just looking at my notes from my latest phone call, the one where they were really urging me to take advantage of the “dads and grads” promo to get my husband a “free” replacement phone and get rid of our unlimited data (at a net cost identical to our current cost. now that I’ve dropped the coverage on my 2 year old phone).

For a phone under contract, the fee is 40 dollars a month. For a phone NOT under contract, it’s 15 a month.

So, for his “free” phone, I’d be paying 25 extra a month for 2 years. That’s 600 dollars.

Full retail for his phone would be 650 dollars.

So, to save 50 dollars, we give up our freedom and our unlimited data plan. Anyone think that’s worth it?

If they didn’t have the “dads and grads” promo, we’d have to pay 200 for the phone, on top of the extra 600 dollars over the 2 year contract. Nice.

Interestingly, I looked at AT&T pricing - and for anything remotely similar we’d be paying more (we’d all need new phones, I gather). Their plan where you’re basically renting the phone actually costs less (but then you don’t own the phone at the end unless you pay extra cash).

We could certainly go cheaper with T-Mobile - a plan that gives four of us 2.5G a month (plus some rollover data) is 100 a month. 220 a month gets us all unlimited data. But then there’d be all new phones, which adds about 120 to the monthly cost.

18

Well you did tout that you have been with them for 20+ years and hardly use any data so aside from “the principle of the thing” I don’t see why leaving or taking some other deal would be the right way to go. Inertia is on Verizon’s side here.

19

There is no such thing as a"free" phone. There is a subsidized phone, and there was the ‘pay us extra for nothing’ rate. T-Mobile helped change the latter. Now there is the informed consumer rate and the uninformed consumer rate.

20

You can usually get an inexpensive, used smartphone on Ebay. Just make sure that the phone has a clean ESN. You can get a free SIM card from Verizon, activate the phone, and keep your unlimited plan.