Verizon LG VX8360

I've gotta love the Verizon sales strategies. Since the summer I've had the Verizon LG VX8360 around the house. It is a traditional flip phone, which is quite boring by today's smartphone standards. However, not everyone wants mobile data on the move.

There is a major problem with this phone however. Even after reading reviews of it, I got stuck with one. When the phone is powered off, the battery drains. If left off overnight, the battery will go from fully charged to one or two bars.... totally unacceptable. In some other industries, they might recall the product, and make it right. Not so in the world of cellphones!

On my first trip to the Verizon store to complain, they claimed major ignorance on the issue. I told them that it was well documented on both the LG and Verizon forums. I was told they had never heard of this; it must be me. I did mange them to swap out the battery, but it did not change anything, and the problem persisted.

On another trip to the store, for the same problem, they did offer to swap out the phone... for a refurb. As mine is in pristine condition, I hesitated, and declined. Probably a mistake in retrospect, but my workaround was to keep the phone on all the time. Does this sound like the way things should work from "Big Red?"

Today, I was back at the store once again. This time they didn't disagree with me, and offered another refurb of the same lousy phone. This time I took it as even with being on, the phone went from 4 bars of battery to dead overnight. I also got a new battery out of them.

We will see if the problem persists, but all signs point to that it will. I think they just hope you get bored with the process, and get beyond the one year guarantee on a 2 year contract. I can just hear it coming next summer "You're not due for a new phone yet, but this one is not working...."

Stay tuned! I have already decided that if this how LG stands behind their products, I'm not buying their junk again.

Jonas

Great Product, Poor Customer Service

It's always frustrating for a consumer to see a great product marred by a lackluster (or even worse) customer service experience. However, this scenario is all too common as companies continue to not make customer service a priority.

From the consumer's standpoint, it's a bit of a no brainer. After all, why spend so much on advertising and promotions, and then scrimp on providing good service to your loyal customers? I'll never figure it out, but when I have a problem, day or night, I expect to be able to speak to them, and they should speak clear English. They also should be educated and empowered to handle the problem.

It's easy to see that Verizon's Fios offering is a key technology that is keeping the cable execs up at night. With fiber directly to the home, and the ability to add bandwidth faster than the competition, it's no wonder that the phone company jumped into the number 10 cable provider nationally, even though this didn't exist before 2005. While this is no small feat, I'm completely confused and dismayed how they continue to screw up the customer service end of things. This today out of Florida:

Sam Miller came so close to tossing his Verizon cable TV box to the curb outside.

After signing up in November for Verizon's $99 a month deal for FiOS cable TV, Internet and phone service, Verizon was still sending him bills for $130 or more. He called to complain each month, but eventually his bill was stacked with $265 in extra fees.

One time he called Verizon, "they told me we didn't have an account. I told them they could pick up their stuff at the curb," Miller said. By calling random phone numbers at Verizon, he eventually found a helpful marketing clerk in a branch office to untangle his bill. He still hasn't gotten the free TV for signing up — that's going to take months.

"The TV picture reception is noticeably better," Miller said. "It just seems like they grew so fast they could not keep up with customer demands."

Unfortunately for Verizon, Miller is not alone in having complaints.

Yeah, it's stuff like this that give you pause. I'm still trying to figure out why they keep advertising a $95 monthly deal for triple play (it varies by market up to $105), when it doesn't include any set top boxes so it's hardly accurate. They don't sell internet, and then rent me a modem every month, do they? This initial offer and then the jack up is a type of bait and switch that confuses less tech savvy consumers.

Customers have also been very frustrated by the limited hours that the service department are open. When the TV is out before the big game on the weekend, do you want to wait until Monday to speak to someone? At time, Verizon acts like the old phone monopoly that could get away with that type of thing, and not the major communication provider they're turning into.

Is there a solution here? I don't really think so. Just don't be so disappointed if Fios is not in your area yet, and realize that while the fiber is great, the entire experience is nothing to write home about. Hopefully Verizon will get on the ball and eliminate these kinds of complaints before they run the fiber to your neck of the woods.

Jonas

Eureka! Kind of...

There's been a continuing saga of my quest with T-Mobile to get a simple answer to the issue of why my T-Mobile phone won't roam to an area near my abode that has no coverage. I've even verified that ATT has coverage in the area. After too many 45 minute conversations that ended with no answers, I've been perpetually emailing them until some conclusion is reached. In my last email exchange, I suggested perhaps someone more technical, like an engineer could get involved here (I'm not sure why the customer has to be the one coming up with the good ideas). Oh, and by the way, I emailed them a link to TNL and showed them that this was more than just one little ol' customer at stake here (shoulda' done that sooner...). Anyway, here's the latest:

Dear Jonas,

Thank you once again for contacting T-Mobile. My name is Mike and I am very interested in addressing your inquiry today. Every issue a customer has is a concern to us, we do care. I do want to see that you always feel relaxed and at home with T-Mobile; you are important to us. I understand the importance of having your account setup to match your mobile needs and to satisfy all your network service needs. I definitely realize that this issue has been a long and arduous process of time and cost. From the emails previously reviewed and now knowing that the handsets in question are not the problem. We come back to the original problem of lack of coverage for your requested location. I regret that this has continued on so long since clear I see a problem way back in June of 2007.

I was also surprised to see that I had also corresponded with you back on February 24, 2008 with respect to the very same issue of no coverage. As I have previously stated the enhancements for the coverage area are scheduled but no date is finalized. Since scheduling is based on agreements, permits and authorization by local authorities to proceed with be it tower install or tower enhancement. The inability to roam manually since you do state ATT is covering that T-Mobile blind spot is not allowed by your handsets which is regrettable and most inconvenient.I have forward this to Technical Care for further resolution.

As a customer care agent in web correspondence I can only make one other suggestion to improve coverage for your current location.

Jonas, a new type of service which is designed to resolve your
particular problem of poor reception in your home is called the T-Mobile HotSpot@Home service. It was launched in spring of 2007.

T-Mobile HotSpot @Home service is based on Unlicensed Mobile Access
(UMA) technology and makes use of your home WiFi network or T-Mobile
HotSpot locations for voice calls and data services, in addition to
T-Mobile's robust GSM/GPRS/EDGE network. The service provides great
coverage in the home and offers unlimited nationwide calling for one lowprice for the calls placed over WiFi connections at home or at any T-Mobile HotSpot location nationwide. Jonas, you can use this T-Mobile Hotspot @Home option without the additional $19.99 per month Unlimited feature. Your usage will be deducted as per normal usage. However, the HotSpot @Home SOC does not give you unlimited international minutes when using WiFi to place calls. All international calls will be charged at the normal rate. Jonas, with one handset you can stay connected to family and friends while at home or away. No more reception problems!

Adding or removing this feature can be done through your online account management My T-Mobile. To change the features on your account, go to www.t-mobile.com and log in using your 10-digit mobile number and password. Once the web page has loaded then:

*Click the Plan & Services link.
*In Your Plan & Services, you can view the details of your current plan and the services associated with your account. Services currently active are check-marked.
*To add a service, place a checkmark beside the service you want.
*To remove a service, remove the checkmark from beside the service.
*To submit the changes click the Add or Change Services button.

If you have any further questions comments or concerns, you can reply to this email, call Customer Care 1-800-937-8997 or dial 6-1-1 from your handset and press the SEND key. Our Customer Care representatives are available 24 hours per day to provide world class customer service for all your T-Mobile needs.

Thank you for being a valued T-Mobile customer Jonas, we appreciate your business and patience.

Sincerely,

Mike XXXXXX
Customer Care Specialist
T-Mobile USA

Well, at least I have an answer as to why the phone isn't roaming. As usual, they're attempting to sell me another service, the HotSpot at Home. I thought at first that they were going to hook me up for free, but apparently not. While he does a great job of explaining the process of signing up on the account, he neglects to mention that I need a special phone that can do VoIP over WiFi so this isn't happening with my current gear. Also, there are no public WiFi hotspots in the area of no coverage, so this really wouldn't help my specific issue.

Still, to be fair, at least Mike reviewed all of my complaints, and came up with a better answer than "it's your phones" when it's not. These enhancements have been promised to be coming to my area since the summer (although I wasn't updated last month about them), so I'm not holding my breath. I think the company has to realize that if they can't deliver the goods before my contract expires in November, I'll find someone else that can, and I would only renew my contract if the coverage significantly improved.

--Jonas

PS: At least I'm not as fed up as this guy!

My Goal Is To Provide Outstanding Service...

Have you called for some tech support lately? In the last year, I've spoken to both Verizon and T-Mobile a handful of times. I can't say the reps are awful at either place, but I wasn't terribly impressed either. All too often I felt like they were reading from some script that went on and on, but were only cursorily interested in assisting me with my particular problem.

I've called T-Mobile enough times that I've got their script down. It goes something like this:

-After they get your name, they use it as often as possible.

-After they listen to the problem they try to empathize and understand how difficult experiencing a problem with the phone can be.

-Then they tell me a personal story about how they use their phone to keep in touch and how important it is to them.

-They take down the problem.

-They promise to follow up, and tell me they will call back within a few days.

-They try and sell me something else (HotSpot at Home is popular these days).

-They ask if they can help with anything else.

-They wish me a good day.

I'm sure some psychologist consultant to the company devised this script. I have some issues with it though. For starters, while it may be nice how you use your phone, and it may reinforce my need for a phone, but it just wastes time to getting my phone working again. Also, when they take down the problem, they often simplify it. Finally, I've yet to have any of them actually call me back to follow up on anything.

While these companies put tons of effort into monitoring their call centers, I wish they would put half of that into actually assisting the customer, and resolving an issue. For the record T-Mobile, after too may interactions, you still can't figure out why my phone won't roam.

Hear more about what goes on in a Verizon Customer Service Center here.

--Jonas

Mobile Spam, Part III

This is the continuing saga of trying to block the increasing spam text messages from my cell phone which uses T-Mobile for its service. If you’re just joining us, check out Part I and Part II before reading the conclusion.

After waiting for three days to get onto the T-Mobile website, I navigated over to “Communication Tools.” From there I selected “Spam and Email Filters.” Great, I was finally on the correct screen, which was no small achievement at this point!

First I selected the option that I could only receive messages from other cell phones. I figure that most text spammers are sending their stuff through the email system, and not from keying it on the tiny keyboard on their phone, so that should cut things down to size as a starter move.

Next, remember that the T-Mobile guy said that I couldn’t block all text messages? While that may be potentially true, I figured out a way to practically do it. What they intend for you to do is to generate keywords to block that if the message contains those words, it gets identified as spam. While this sounds great in theory, we all know from our email accounts that it never really works. I’ve had spam email blockers on all of my accounts for years, and yet I still receive hundreds of spam emails every week, just like many other users.

Rather than selecting keywords that then identify the email as spam, I went another route. I decided to set it up that the text message would only go through if it contains a certain phrase. That phrase is equivalent to a random twenty character string, which makes the Wargames code look easy to guess. So while I can’t block the text message service completely, this should raise the bar high enough to keep anything from getting through.

While there was an option to have the messages forwarded to an email account, I chose the discard option. I already have plenty of spam, and I don’t need any more. I hope this helps some other folks out there, as since I did this, I have received no further mobile spam messages.

--Jonas