The Verizon iPhone is turning into the telecom equivalent of a Jen Aniston baby, as rumors continue to abound regarding when — or even if — Big V will be the first U.S. mobile carrier to break AT&T’s stronghold on the popular smartphone. The latest rumor to be put through the mill comes from BusinessWeek, who say that Verizon customers will have a very iPhone New Year. [More]
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Verizon: Die Fighting In Afghanistan, Pay $350 Early Termination Fee
By 6.25.10
After a woman’s husband died in Afghanistan, a marine felled by an IED, she moved back to her home town to be closer to her family and grieve. In the smaller town, she couldn’t get any reception from Verizon, so she called them up to cancel. Despite being a widow and Verizon not living up to its contractual obligations to provide actual cellphone coverage, they slapped her with a $350 early termination fee. UPDATE: Verizon Retreats From Charging Marine Widow $350 Early Termination Fee [More]
Is Verizon Wireless Going To Just Be Plain Old Verizon?
By 6.25.10
There are rumors going around that a big meeting planned Sunday will be to announce that Verizon Wireless is changing its name to just plain old Verizon. [More]
Verizon Blames Improper Billing Of Non-Verizon Customers On Human Error
By 6.23.10
Yesterday, we reported on the Attorney General of Wisconsin filing a lawsuit against Verizon for sending bills to people who had never subscribed to any Verizon services. Today, a rep for Big V contacted Consumerist to give the telecom titan’s side of the story. [More]
Billshrink: iPhone 4 Is Best Value Among Latest Smartphones, If You Watch Data Usage
By 6.23.10
BillShrink compared the new iPhone 4 to the Droid Incredible, the Evo 4G, and the Nexus One to see which one is the cheapest in total cost of ownership, and the results were somewhat surprising given the iPhone’s reputation as a money gobbler. If you opt for the cheapest data plan AT&T offers, the TCO for the iPhone 4 is the only one of the four devices that comes in under the $2,000 mark. But beware! That “cheapest data plan” conditional is a pretty tricky one. [More]
Verizon Sued By Wisconsin AG For Billing Non-Verizon Customers
By 6.22.10
The Attorney General of Wisconsin has had it up to here (I’m holding my hand somewhere slightly over my head) with Verizon and has filed a lawsuit against the telecom giant alleging that Verizon was not only sending bills to people who didn’t order Verizon services, but then sent some customers to collection agencies after they refused to pay. [More]
Save On Cellphone Bills When Traveling To Mexico And Canada
By 6.22.10
Rather than futz with local SIM cards or Skype, a NYT reporter found that when going south of the border, you can just temporarily switch your coverage plan to a “Nationwide plus Mexico” plan. It’s only about $30 more, so, compared to the $.99 per minute you would otherwise pay, it’s worth it if you make more than a half-hour of phonecalls to the states. [More]
Verizon Offering Trials Of FiOS With No Cancellation Fee, Cheaper No-Term Contract Bundles
By 6.21.10
Even though Verizon might have throttled back on expanding its FiOS network to new areas, the company still needs to make sure the networks it’s spent millions installing start making money. That’s why the telecom biggie has made two moves to attract reluctant consumers. [More]
Verizon To Reprimand, Fire Employees Who Try To Save Customers Money
By 6.19.10
Internal Verizon memos reveal that the wireless ogre is eager to reprimand or fire customer service representatives who proactively recommend blocking access to the company’s overpriced data services. The company is also going to be stingier about issuing back credits to customers who spot unnecessary and unwanted services littering their monthly bills. The New York Times asked Verizon to explain itself, and the answer wasn’t all that surprising. [More]
Verizon Bill Collector Threatens To Blow Up Man's House
By 5.25.10
A man in New Mexico is suing Verizon Wireless over a series of harassing phone calls made by Verizon bill collectors last year. The man, Al Burrows, says the calls were concerning a relative’s unpaid cellphone bill. When he hung up on one of them, the disconnected Verizon rep called back, said she knew where Burrows lived, and added, “I am gonna blow your mother fucking house up.” [More]
Verizon Rep Doesn't Know Why The Website Is Broken Either
By 5.19.10
Reader G sends in a screen shot of a chat he had with a Verizon rep who elegantly expressed her own frustration with Verizon’s website. Hooray for her. [More]
Verizon Buries Bags Of Rocks In Woman's Yard
By 5.19.10
A woman in Albany, NY was gardening in her front yard and uncovered a white plastic bag filled with rocks. Then she found more, over a dozen in all, which turned out to have been placed there by Verizon workers who had removed an old utility pole last month and had run out of sand. [More]
Apple: 10 Million CDMA iPhones On Order – For Verizon, Perchance?
By 5.14.10
This minute’s latest rumor is that the can you hear me now guy could be put to work testing iPhones soon. DigiTimes reports that Apple has placed an order with Taiwan-based Pegatron for CDMA iPhone that could reach up to 10 million units. CDMA devices don’t work on AT&T’s GSM network. Verizon’s network is CDMA. [More]
Sorry, You May Have To Wait Two More Years For A Verizon iPhone
By 5.12.10
Despite rumors that Apple’s iPhone would soon be available on carriers other than AT&T, recently unearthed documents paint a different picture: they apparently confirm that AT&T and Apple signed a five-year exclusive deal in 2007, which means no Verizon version until at least 2012. [More]
Do We Need The White Pages Anymore?
By 5.8.10
It could be the end of the line for your favorite doorstop: Verizon, the dominant phone company in New York, is asking to stop automatic delivery of the residential White Pages to doorsteps across the state later this year. [More]
Top 7 Legalized Ripoffs
By 5.7.10
We busted the trusts! Oil! Rail! Coal! Kapow! You just got Tafted! Yeah, but that was a century ago. Industries have had more than enough time to mutate and adapt, especially when it comes to technology, and figure out new anti-consumer ways to develop and maintain hegemony. You get higher prices, lower product quality, and fewer rights. They get more yachts to waterski behind. In no particular order, here are some of the top 7 legalized ripoffs consumers face today: [More]
Verizon, My New Smartphone Has An Incredible Amount Of Bloatware
By 5.5.10
Timothy copied Consumerist on his EECB to Verizon. While he likes his new HTC Droid Incredible a lot, he’s deeply disappointed in how many applications the phone shipped to him with. “Effectively, we are paying you for the privilege of having to repeatedly be harassed by your adware,” he writes. Do you agree, or is Timothy overreacting? [More]
4 Years Later, Family Still Fighting Verizon On $18k Bill
By 4.30.10
Four years ago Bob and Mary’s and their son used their Verizon Family Share plan to send 33 text messages, talk for 184 free minutes, and to download 1.13 gigabytes of data. The bill? $17,984.02. [More]
