Yesterday we looked at the motives and math behind the new early upgrade programs from AT&T and T-Mobile and said that Verizon would likely be unveiling its own version of something similar. Well that day has come, with Verizon Wireless announcing its Edge program that let’s you upgrade as early as 6 months after getting your new phone, if you’re willing to pay a bit extra. [More]
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Verizon’s Test Of Landline-Less Service Leaves Some Customers Out In Cold
By 7.10.13
Last fall, Hurricane Sandy devastated parts of the New York and New Jersey coastline and damaged some copper wire landline networks so badly that Verizon figures it makes more sense to try out a new system that doesn’t rely on landlines rather than repair lines that many people don’t use anyway. But for some who depended on that older system, Verizon’s test isn’t making the grade. [More]
Is Verizon Deliberately Slowing Down Netflix Streaming To Customers?
By 6.18.13
One of the companies that provides bandwidth to Netflix claims that Verizon is allowing a traffic jam of data to build up at its connection points to the huge telecom company, resulting in a degraded connection for customers. [More]
Class-Action Suit Filed Over NSA Phone-Snooping
By 6.11.13
Days after it was revealed that the National Security Agency had quietly been granted access to phone records of Verizon customers, a couple in Philadelphia has filed against everyone involved, from the NSA to Verizon to Attorney General Eric Holder to President Obama. [More]
AT&T Customers Will Have To Wait Out Full Term Of Two-Year Contract To Upgrade Phones
By 6.10.13
AT&T, where customer loyalty means nothing, has decided that wireless subscribers no longer deserve the 20-month upgrade period they’ve been expecting, and instead will have to wait out the full two years of their contracts before they can get a newer device at a discount. [More]
White House Official Defends Collection Of Verizon Customer Data As Critical To Fighting Terrorism
By 6.6.13
Following reports that the National Security Agency has been using a secret court order to collect phone records for millions of Verizon customers, the Obama administration has had to come out in defense of the controversial practice, while the Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee says this practice has actually been going on since 2006. [More]
Verizon And Asurion Cast Me Into Smartphone Replacement Purgatory
By 5.28.13
Smartphone replacement purgatory is a dreary and tragic state. When the tiny and fragile creatures called smartphones are defective, people who have come to depend on the pocket-sized computers and who are trapped in data plans are stuck. Their warranty or phone insurance plan might provide them with a replacement, and sometimes that replacement works fine. Other times, that replacement is just as their original phone, throwing the customer into a cycle of replacements that never ends. This is what happened to reader B. when she got a Motorola Droid less than two years ago. [More]
Graphic: Which Internet Biggies Are Even Slightly Concerned About Your Privacy?
By 5.20.13
When it comes to online privacy, many consumers assume that their service provider, or the websites they are browsing, have the users’ best interest in mind and that these companies won’t simply hand over your information to authorities. These people are mistaken, as are those who believe that no online companies make user privacy a priority. The truth, as usual, is a bit from column A and a bit from column B. [More]
Verizon Accidentally Gives Customer’s Number To Someone Else, Charges Her $50/Month For Its Mistake
By 5.13.13
One day, a Verizon landline customer in New Jersey found that her phone was no longer working because the number she’d had for 35 years had somehow been given to someone else. To make things worse, even after it was obvious that Verizon was responsible for the mistake, the company said the customer now had to pay an additional $50/month for its screw-up. [More]
BitTorrent Users Try, Unsuccessfully, To Trigger Copyright Alert System
By 4.29.13
The recently launched Copyright Alert System — a joint venture between big-time content creators and the major Internet service providers — is supposed to trigger a series of alerts and warnings when a subscriber of a participating ISP appears to be illegally sharing copyrighted content. But some who put CAS to the test say they were able to share several items without being flagged. [More]
The $30 SIM Replacement Fee: When A Verizon Store Isn’t A Verizon Store
By 4.2.13
It was a really exciting time for reader Poochie’s wife. She was getting an iPhone 5. Yaaay! Once everything was set up in her brand-new phone, though, the SIM card failed. No problem: Poochie pulled out his own phone and asked his trusty friend Siri where to find the nearest Verizon store. That store wanted $30 to replace the SIM of a phone that was just out of the box and under warranty. If that seems unreasonable, that’s because… it is. [More]
Worst Company In America Round 1: AT&T Vs. Verizon
March 27, 2013
It’s the final day of Round One play in the Worst Company In America Thunderdome, so why not start it off with a showdown between the two largest — and most-hated — telecom titans around! [More]
Verizon FiOS Wants The Fees It Pays Tied To How Many People Actually Watch A Channel
By 3.18.13
Seems like ever since Cablevision sued Viacom over its process of bundling less popular channels in with the ones people actually want, things have heating up in the pay-TV world. But instead of suing anyone, Verizon says it’s working on an entirely new model of TV programming: It wants to pay fees to media companies for their TV channels depending on how many people actually watch them. [More]
Verizon Thinks My Wife Spent 10-Hour Roaming Call Talking To Co-Worker’s Voice Mail
By 3.15.13
RL isn’t arguing that his wife made a roaming call to a co-worker from a hotel in Venice, Italy. His dispute with Verizon wireless is regarding how long that call was. His wife says that it was ten minutes long. Verizon counters that it was ten hours and nine minutes. Considering that the call was to a voice mail box, that must have been an epic, almost close to the the actual meaning of the word “epic,” voicemail. [More]
Lost Your Verizon Remote? Order A New One With Your Remote
By 3.14.13
Reader Fred sent us this photo using our Tipster App, and we can imagine him scratching his head from here. “So to order a new remote to replace your lost or broken one,” he writes, “you have to use the remote!” [More]
After Much Delay, The Anti-Piracy “Six Strikes” Program Is Nearing Launch
By 2.25.13
A program intended to fight online piracy without resorting to prosecution was supposed to go live last year but was repeatedly delayed, most recently by Hurricane Sandy. But the folks running the Copyright Alert System (better known as Six Strikes) say it’s ready to go. [More]
Which ISPs Are Providing The Speeds They Advertise?
By 2.15.13
Once again, the FCC has put a wide range of Internet service providers to the test to see whether or not they are delivering on the speeds they advertise to customers. And while it the majority of ISPs are not far off, with a few actually over-delivering, some still have a way to go. [More]
3 Months After Sandy, Verizon Still Hasn’t Canceled Account Of Customer With Uninhabitable Home
By 2.12.13
In November, we told you about Roy, one of many people whose home on the coast was rendered uninhabitable by Hurricane Sandy. Roy’s displeasure with Verizon’s decision to repeatedly charge, and then re-credit, a monthly service suspension fee to storm-affected customers led him to cancel his service. Or so he thought. [More]
