The long-awaited Verizon story
So yeah, I finally got around to updating this. Here is the whole sordid tale of how I switched from Sprint to Verizon.
So, I got a Sprint cell phone probably about 5 years ago or so. Some of my friends had them, and I really wanted a specific style of phone that only Sprint offered at that time. I used them for quite some time, and never really had any issues with them. I had good to excellent reception basically everywhere I went, with the exception of a few dead spots (like at one of my friend's house). I kept renewing with them, extending my contract.
Then I moved to Cleveland.
Now, I was making a good amount of money at my job, and I was getting tired of my old phone. Monochromo display, no fancy cool features. So I decided to get my own phone. Now my old phone had been in my dad's name (since I got it before I was 18). Now I had my own phone, in my own name, yay! Then in December of '03 I extended my contract for another year for whatever reason. To get some special deal or something, I think.
Anyways, I then moved back to Columbus. Now I had to change my telephone number, because I had a 216 area code (Cleveland) and I needed a 614 one (Columbus). When I called to arrange this, they told me that they'd have to basically start a new plan, since it is a new phone number. No big deal, I figured. I'd been happy with Sprint so far, no reason to change that.
Well, as it turns out, there is a big reason to change that. Primarily, because Sprint offers no reception in this apartment building. The only way I could talk on my phone is when I was standing right next to one of the windows. And even then the reception wasn't great. So now, we have a problem. Especially since I don't have a landline phone, my cell phone is my only means of communication.
No big deal, I figure. The last time I checked online, my contract expired on December 7, 2004. Just a couple more months, then I can drop them and switch to a different provider. Hopefully, one that has better reception in my apartment. Also, at this time I'm already planning to ask Melissa to marry me, and we've discussed getting her a new cell phone anyways that isn't a prepay one. We figure that if we get a family plan of some kind, we'll both have good cell phones and can talk to each other as much as we want. Which is a good thing. Verizon seems to be the next best alternative, and one of my friends has a Verizon phone that seems to work just fine in my apartment.
Then we hit a snag. I check online, and my contract with Sprint now expires in August of '05. When they switched my number, they automatically set me up with a new one-year contract. Now I can't drop them for another year, unless I want to pay the $125 or however much it is. And I still can't get good reception on my phone.
Finally in December I get fed up with it. I decide that I'm going to call Sprint and ask them how much it will actually be to drop my service, and/or if there is any way they can revert back to my original end date of December 7. I'm just looking for information. Anyways, I get the guy on the phone and explain my situation. He goes to check on a few things, and I find out something interesting. When I switched numbers in August, they never actually asked me if I wanted to renew my contract. So since I never agreed to it, they can't legally hold me to it. So he's now got my account set up to end at the end of my next billing cycle, Jan 7. Not quite what I was expecting. I now have about a week and a half to find a new provider and service plan, or I don't have a phone.
But it is what I wanted, so I thank him. Then before he goes I ask one more question, about how do I transfer my phone number. Because all my friends now know this number, and I don't want to change it again. I know I've hear in the news about how you can now "port" your number to a different provider, and I'd like to do that. Well, he tells me the first thing to do is *NOT* cancel your service. So now he has to go back and undo everything he's done.
What the deal is, is that when I get set up with a new provider, I tell them my cell number, and they do the behind-the-scenes work of cancellling my service. If I get this done by Jan 7, then I'm finished with Sprint. If it happens after that, then I'm automatically billed as usual on the 7th, and I have to get it done before Feb 7, or I'm billed then, etc etc. This is right before I'm leaving for almost a week in North Carolina with Melissa for New Years. So we decide that we can look while we're down there, and if we find something then great, if not then we have another month.
So now it's Friday, New Year's Eve. We go out looking, at the closest Verizon Wireless store. Find a few good phones that we like. I'm gonna get a camera phone, and she's gonna get a normal flip phone that she likes. With the two-year contracts that we're planning on, her phone will be $30 after mail-in rebates, and mine will be $50. We go to the counter to buy them, and we find out that number portability can only be done from a local store. And since we want 614 numbers, and are in North Carolina, that won't work. She tells us that we should be able to do it online, from their website, and if not then we can always order over the phone. We have Internet access at her parents' house, so we decide that we can do that.
We write down the model numbers of the phones we want, so we can be sure to find them later online. She wants the LG VX4500, and I was thinking about a Samsung camera phone but I'm deciding not to get it. I don't need a camera, and it's just excess money. I'll just get another phone like hers, or decide later. So we go back to her house. When we pull up the website, the first thing we see is an advertisement for an online-only special phone. It's the LG VX 4600, and it looks very much like the VX4500 that she wanted to get for $30 (after rebates). This one is only $10, so we figure that it's a previous model or something, with some features missing. We go and look up both phones and do a side-by-side comparison.
The 4600 is superior in every way. It's smaller, but with a larger screen, longer battery life, more ringtones preinstalled, etc. All the same features. And it's $9.99, no rebates necessary. Compared to $29.99, after rebates. We both decide that we're both gonna get this phone.
So I go through online and get everything set up for buying two of these phones, and a two person family plan, with the options we want. I get all the way to the end, and I haven't yet found the option to port my number. And it doesn't look like it's there. So I go to the phone instead, and call the number I was given.
I wait on hold for like 20 minutes, and then finally get a salesperson. He says that we can get that model over the phone (I was worried because it said online-only). Now, I'm leaving on Wednesday. The phones won't be shipped from the warehouse until Monday. So we can pay an additional $10 and have them overnighted and get them Tuesday, or have them shipped regular (free shipping) and they *should* arrive sometime on Wednesday. I want to help Melissa set up her phone while I'm here, so we decide to have them overnighted. I give them my billing address and everything in Columbus, and I tell them we want it shipped this one time to her house in North Carolina.
Tuesday comes, and we're all excited about getting our new toys. She has a doctor's appointment in the morning, so we leave a note on the door. When we return, thankfully it's still there and he hasn't come yet. We're there from about 10:30 on, waiting for the phones to come. Finally, about 1:30, the truck arrives.
He drops off the package, I sign for it, and we gleefully open it. It quickly becomes apparant that there is a problem - there's only one phone there. I look at the shipping information, and only see details about this phone, which is my phone with my ported number. It seems that they didn't get the extra phone added on, or something. Time to make a little call to Verizon Wireless.
I call them up, and ask what is going on. She checks, and sees that yes, I'm supposed to have two phones. Apparantly, for some inane reason, the warehouse can't ship two phones in the same package. Don't ask me. Anyways, I ask where the second package is. She looks it up, and gives me the FedEx tracking number for it. Then she checks it on her computer, and says the notation on the file states that the package was attempted delivery at 11:45, but no one was home. Now I'm quite annoyed, because I *know* we were both here at that time, and there was no attempted delivery. I guess the driver decided to be lazy and not come here, and just pretend that there was no answer. And there's no note left or anything. I thank her, and get on the phone with FedEx.
I yell at them some, and the guy tells me that he'll send a note to the driver asking him to re-attempt delivery of the package. We're home and will stay here the rest of the day, so it won't be a problem. I leave him my phone number, and he tells me he'll call back and let me know what's up. I don't hear from him for a bit, so we decide to check online with the tracking number and see if there is any notation there. Well, when we do so, we determine exactly where the problem is: the second package was shipped to Columbus, OH.
Now it's back on the phone with FedEx, apologizing and seeing if there is any way to get the package down here to North Carolina. They are somewhat sympathetic, but there's really nothing they can do. They can't change the address, only Verizon (the shipper) can do that. And there's no way to get it there on Tuesday, and not sure when it would arrive on Wednesday. I thank them, and call up Verizon.
Apparantly there was some snafu and the primary phone was shipped to the shipping address, but that special shipping address was then lost before the second phone, which just went to the billing address. Who knows, but it's their fault. The person I talk to now doesn't know why they weren't shipped together, especially since they were both ordered at the same time. Who knows. Well, they can recall the one in Columbus, and send another one here? But it probably won't get here before I leave the next day. When they realize that we both have the same phone model, we decide that we will simply switch phones - my phone that is down in North Carolina will become her phone, and her phone that is up in Columbus will become my phone. So we do that, and when I get home I pick up my phone from FedEx, and all is well with the world.
And they're crediting our account for all the trouble we went through. So that's good. And the phones are pretty nice and fun to play with. If anyone wants but doesn't have my phone number, contact me privately and I'll give it to you. And I have unlimited calling to Verizon customers :-P
So, I got a Sprint cell phone probably about 5 years ago or so. Some of my friends had them, and I really wanted a specific style of phone that only Sprint offered at that time. I used them for quite some time, and never really had any issues with them. I had good to excellent reception basically everywhere I went, with the exception of a few dead spots (like at one of my friend's house). I kept renewing with them, extending my contract.
Then I moved to Cleveland.
Now, I was making a good amount of money at my job, and I was getting tired of my old phone. Monochromo display, no fancy cool features. So I decided to get my own phone. Now my old phone had been in my dad's name (since I got it before I was 18). Now I had my own phone, in my own name, yay! Then in December of '03 I extended my contract for another year for whatever reason. To get some special deal or something, I think.
Anyways, I then moved back to Columbus. Now I had to change my telephone number, because I had a 216 area code (Cleveland) and I needed a 614 one (Columbus). When I called to arrange this, they told me that they'd have to basically start a new plan, since it is a new phone number. No big deal, I figured. I'd been happy with Sprint so far, no reason to change that.
Well, as it turns out, there is a big reason to change that. Primarily, because Sprint offers no reception in this apartment building. The only way I could talk on my phone is when I was standing right next to one of the windows. And even then the reception wasn't great. So now, we have a problem. Especially since I don't have a landline phone, my cell phone is my only means of communication.
No big deal, I figure. The last time I checked online, my contract expired on December 7, 2004. Just a couple more months, then I can drop them and switch to a different provider. Hopefully, one that has better reception in my apartment. Also, at this time I'm already planning to ask Melissa to marry me, and we've discussed getting her a new cell phone anyways that isn't a prepay one. We figure that if we get a family plan of some kind, we'll both have good cell phones and can talk to each other as much as we want. Which is a good thing. Verizon seems to be the next best alternative, and one of my friends has a Verizon phone that seems to work just fine in my apartment.
Then we hit a snag. I check online, and my contract with Sprint now expires in August of '05. When they switched my number, they automatically set me up with a new one-year contract. Now I can't drop them for another year, unless I want to pay the $125 or however much it is. And I still can't get good reception on my phone.
Finally in December I get fed up with it. I decide that I'm going to call Sprint and ask them how much it will actually be to drop my service, and/or if there is any way they can revert back to my original end date of December 7. I'm just looking for information. Anyways, I get the guy on the phone and explain my situation. He goes to check on a few things, and I find out something interesting. When I switched numbers in August, they never actually asked me if I wanted to renew my contract. So since I never agreed to it, they can't legally hold me to it. So he's now got my account set up to end at the end of my next billing cycle, Jan 7. Not quite what I was expecting. I now have about a week and a half to find a new provider and service plan, or I don't have a phone.
But it is what I wanted, so I thank him. Then before he goes I ask one more question, about how do I transfer my phone number. Because all my friends now know this number, and I don't want to change it again. I know I've hear in the news about how you can now "port" your number to a different provider, and I'd like to do that. Well, he tells me the first thing to do is *NOT* cancel your service. So now he has to go back and undo everything he's done.
What the deal is, is that when I get set up with a new provider, I tell them my cell number, and they do the behind-the-scenes work of cancellling my service. If I get this done by Jan 7, then I'm finished with Sprint. If it happens after that, then I'm automatically billed as usual on the 7th, and I have to get it done before Feb 7, or I'm billed then, etc etc. This is right before I'm leaving for almost a week in North Carolina with Melissa for New Years. So we decide that we can look while we're down there, and if we find something then great, if not then we have another month.
So now it's Friday, New Year's Eve. We go out looking, at the closest Verizon Wireless store. Find a few good phones that we like. I'm gonna get a camera phone, and she's gonna get a normal flip phone that she likes. With the two-year contracts that we're planning on, her phone will be $30 after mail-in rebates, and mine will be $50. We go to the counter to buy them, and we find out that number portability can only be done from a local store. And since we want 614 numbers, and are in North Carolina, that won't work. She tells us that we should be able to do it online, from their website, and if not then we can always order over the phone. We have Internet access at her parents' house, so we decide that we can do that.
We write down the model numbers of the phones we want, so we can be sure to find them later online. She wants the LG VX4500, and I was thinking about a Samsung camera phone but I'm deciding not to get it. I don't need a camera, and it's just excess money. I'll just get another phone like hers, or decide later. So we go back to her house. When we pull up the website, the first thing we see is an advertisement for an online-only special phone. It's the LG VX 4600, and it looks very much like the VX4500 that she wanted to get for $30 (after rebates). This one is only $10, so we figure that it's a previous model or something, with some features missing. We go and look up both phones and do a side-by-side comparison.
The 4600 is superior in every way. It's smaller, but with a larger screen, longer battery life, more ringtones preinstalled, etc. All the same features. And it's $9.99, no rebates necessary. Compared to $29.99, after rebates. We both decide that we're both gonna get this phone.
So I go through online and get everything set up for buying two of these phones, and a two person family plan, with the options we want. I get all the way to the end, and I haven't yet found the option to port my number. And it doesn't look like it's there. So I go to the phone instead, and call the number I was given.
I wait on hold for like 20 minutes, and then finally get a salesperson. He says that we can get that model over the phone (I was worried because it said online-only). Now, I'm leaving on Wednesday. The phones won't be shipped from the warehouse until Monday. So we can pay an additional $10 and have them overnighted and get them Tuesday, or have them shipped regular (free shipping) and they *should* arrive sometime on Wednesday. I want to help Melissa set up her phone while I'm here, so we decide to have them overnighted. I give them my billing address and everything in Columbus, and I tell them we want it shipped this one time to her house in North Carolina.
Tuesday comes, and we're all excited about getting our new toys. She has a doctor's appointment in the morning, so we leave a note on the door. When we return, thankfully it's still there and he hasn't come yet. We're there from about 10:30 on, waiting for the phones to come. Finally, about 1:30, the truck arrives.
He drops off the package, I sign for it, and we gleefully open it. It quickly becomes apparant that there is a problem - there's only one phone there. I look at the shipping information, and only see details about this phone, which is my phone with my ported number. It seems that they didn't get the extra phone added on, or something. Time to make a little call to Verizon Wireless.
I call them up, and ask what is going on. She checks, and sees that yes, I'm supposed to have two phones. Apparantly, for some inane reason, the warehouse can't ship two phones in the same package. Don't ask me. Anyways, I ask where the second package is. She looks it up, and gives me the FedEx tracking number for it. Then she checks it on her computer, and says the notation on the file states that the package was attempted delivery at 11:45, but no one was home. Now I'm quite annoyed, because I *know* we were both here at that time, and there was no attempted delivery. I guess the driver decided to be lazy and not come here, and just pretend that there was no answer. And there's no note left or anything. I thank her, and get on the phone with FedEx.
I yell at them some, and the guy tells me that he'll send a note to the driver asking him to re-attempt delivery of the package. We're home and will stay here the rest of the day, so it won't be a problem. I leave him my phone number, and he tells me he'll call back and let me know what's up. I don't hear from him for a bit, so we decide to check online with the tracking number and see if there is any notation there. Well, when we do so, we determine exactly where the problem is: the second package was shipped to Columbus, OH.
Now it's back on the phone with FedEx, apologizing and seeing if there is any way to get the package down here to North Carolina. They are somewhat sympathetic, but there's really nothing they can do. They can't change the address, only Verizon (the shipper) can do that. And there's no way to get it there on Tuesday, and not sure when it would arrive on Wednesday. I thank them, and call up Verizon.
Apparantly there was some snafu and the primary phone was shipped to the shipping address, but that special shipping address was then lost before the second phone, which just went to the billing address. Who knows, but it's their fault. The person I talk to now doesn't know why they weren't shipped together, especially since they were both ordered at the same time. Who knows. Well, they can recall the one in Columbus, and send another one here? But it probably won't get here before I leave the next day. When they realize that we both have the same phone model, we decide that we will simply switch phones - my phone that is down in North Carolina will become her phone, and her phone that is up in Columbus will become my phone. So we do that, and when I get home I pick up my phone from FedEx, and all is well with the world.
And they're crediting our account for all the trouble we went through. So that's good. And the phones are pretty nice and fun to play with. If anyone wants but doesn't have my phone number, contact me privately and I'll give it to you. And I have unlimited calling to Verizon customers :-P