What is your experience with Verizon?

One of the many (unfortunately) things that make my life shorter by weeks if not years, is horrible phone service. Neither at work nor at home can I get reliable signal, both phone and data, even when I'm within feet from the wireless router in my own apartment. If this were happening in the middle of South Dakota somewhere, it would be at least understandable or even excusable. But I live and work here in Chicago, not a small rural township.

So . . . I've tried T-Mobile. Sucks. Now I'm with Sprint. Sucks as well. Judging by my girlfriend's experience with AT&T, it's no better than the first two.

That leaves Verizon (or something else?).

Are there any Verizon customers? Would you recommend it?

Or something else entirely?

Thank you.

Views: 825

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on March 20, 2013 at 9:13am

I have Verizon dumb phone service and also their wi-fi hot spot thing for internet.  Generally have no problem with signal, and their coverage around the country seems pretty good, too.  My only complaint is that sometimes the 4-G does not work inside the house with the solid brick walls, but it has been getting better as they add towers.  Don't ask me how that works--I have no idea.

Permalink Reply by daWillinChi on March 20, 2013 at 9:24am

I have always had a great experience with them.

However, they're on the expensive side and there's one location that I spend a lot of time in in my building where the signal just drops. I switched back to AT&T because of this, but my next phone will be VZW again.

Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on March 20, 2013 at 9:29am

I've been pretty happy with them for the last 6 years. Up for renewal in June and badly need a new phone.

Permalink Reply by daWillinChi on March 20, 2013 at 9:39am

Like I said, I switched to AT&T because of that one spot at work, but it sucks everywhere else.

Oh, and VZW's voice network also uses 850 mhz, and is able to penetrate walls better and it did work in that area, just data didn't work. So I was able to use my phone there for calls, just not for the data.

I definitely would recommend VZW over AT&T.

Permalink Reply by MK on March 20, 2013 at 9:44am

I like verizon for the most part. I actually receive more signal from them since upgrading to a super phone (dumb phone would drop calls constantly in my apt. – hardly ever happens anymore). The 4G/lte is really good, but when that's not there it goes to 3G which is a lot slower. Also, it's CDMA and no SIM card. If you care about that. 

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on March 20, 2013 at 9:52am

I've got a 3G smart phone from Verizon. Signal strength is pretty good most places around town - indoors or out. I get coverage most places I might travel, even way out in the country.  When I travel I'm sometimes way out in the country where many carriers have no service at all - even analog service.  I have a neighbor who likes to go fishing in the north woods and has Verizon service because he can almost always get a signal, even in remote areas around Lake Superior.

I've experienced an occasional voice mail hiccup (delay in receiving messages), but over 7 or 8 years or service, that's been fairly rare.  Reliability and call quality are generally pretty good.  They're not cheap, but I have fewer hassles than friends using some of the other carriers.

Permalink Reply by Thunder Snow on March 20, 2013 at 10:24am

I've been with Verizon since the late 1990's, when they supplanted my earlier carrier, Ameritech.  At home, in a top-floor apartment in Evanston, I get rock-solid connections with both voice and 4G.  On the Metra heading north, I ALWAYS lose 4G, then 3G, then NO SIGNAL north of Winnetka for ten miles or so.  In one client's office near Lake Bluff, on a ground floor with huge window 20 feet away, I get practically no Verizon service, while my office-mate gets good T-Mobil connections every time.  At another client site, in a windowless basement at the University of Chicago, NO ONE gets service, period.

So, what I'm saying is, service is highly variable across all carriers.  Sometimes it's just the luck of having a particular cell site across the street from where you are.  You may want to do a test with a pay-per-use cheapie phone for a month or two with Verizon, before locking into a 2-year contract.  If that doesn't work, do the same with other carriers until you find the one that's compatible with your travel movements.

Another possibility, at least for home or a regular office location, is a network extender.  Verizon sells one that runs off your WiFi.  In effect, you're setting up your own mini-cellphone tower under your roof that uses the internet to connect to the carrier.  Not as cheap as finding the carrier that happens to be strong in your particular location, but still a choice.

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/device/network-extender

I think cell phone manufacturers did us a disservice when they decided that extendable telescoping antennas were now unfashionable.

(My first phone, a Motorola MicroTAC Elite.  $960 with an Ameritech service plan for $15/month=15 minutes.  Worked fine.)

Permalink Reply by Liz on March 20, 2013 at 10:36am

I got verizon for the coverage.  It was the only one with signal in my last apartment, and since I travel to remote locations for work it always has good signal there.  

Its more expensive, but I have a discount through one of the companies I contract for.  Check with your company to see if they offer phone discounts or maybe a client does? 

Sometimes if 4G is overloaded, I just switch my data input to 3G and it works fine.  Usually I don't have a problem though.  

Permalink Reply by daWillinChi on March 20, 2013 at 10:36am

Honestly, I think whatever you decide will be so much better than Sprint if you like going out of the city or to any other rural areas.

Permalink Reply by OLB 0.1 on March 20, 2013 at 11:07am

I switched from Nextel (Sprint owned for the last few years) to Verizon about a year ago and have been very happy with the reception and quality of the service for both voice and data. My wife has had T-Mobile for years and has generally been happy, but she has had more issues in the last year than I have.

Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on March 20, 2013 at 1:02pm

Your age is showing!

Thunder Snow said:

I've been with Verizon since the late 1990's, when they supplanted my earlier carrier, Ameritech.  At home, in a top-floor apartment in Evanston, I get rock-solid connections with both voice and 4G.  On the Metra heading north, I ALWAYS lose 4G, then 3G, then NO SIGNAL north of Winnetka for ten miles or so.  In one client's office near Lake Bluff, on a ground floor with huge window 20 feet away, I get practically no Verizon service, while my office-mate gets good T-Mobil connections every time.  At another client site, in a windowless basement at the University of Chicago, NO ONE gets service, period.

So, what I'm saying is, service is highly variable across all carriers.  Sometimes it's just the luck of having a particular cell site across the street from where you are.  You may want to do a test with a pay-per-use cheapie phone for a month or two with Verizon, before locking into a 2-year contract.  If that doesn't work, do the same with other carriers until you find the one that's compatible with your travel movements.

Another possibility, at least for home or a regular office location, is a network extender.  Verizon sells one that runs off your WiFi.  In effect, you're setting up your own mini-cellphone tower under your roof that uses the internet to connect to the carrier.  Not as cheap as finding the carrier that happens to be strong in your particular location, but still a choice.

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/device/network-extender

I think cell phone manufacturers did us a disservice when they decided that extendable telescoping antennas were now unfashionable.

(My first phone, a Motorola MicroTAC Elite.  $960 with an Ameritech service plan for $15/month=15 minutes.  Worked fine.)

Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on March 20, 2013 at 1:05pm

For what it's worth, I have traveled on the Illinois and Mississippi rivers by boat and in the remote areas we still had service through Verizon.  (This is starting to sound like an advertisement for Verizon!)

RSS

Groups

© 2008-2016   The Chainlink Community, L.L.C.   Powered by

Disclaimer  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service