Our article about Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg Dissing Verizon Wireless Customers: “The Customer Has Come to Expect So Much” has generated a lot of reader feedback, and continues to do so. Here are some of the things you’ve had to say:
It would seem to me that Mr. Seidenberg is the one that has come to expect a bit too much from his customers. Considering the expense of using a cell phone, it damn well better work in my home, and for that matter, just about anyywhere I am inclined to take it. I have my cell phone so as to be reached at any time and in any place I happen to be. Granted, no company can assure my reception to be better than perhaps 90% of the locations I would expect to be reached, but if I didn’t get at least that much, I would certainly go without. Another cheap shot by Corporate America in my eyes. There are no more Businessmen in charge of Corporate America and we can only expect to be used and abused until such a time as Accountants and Book-keepers are no longer running the show. I may be wrong, but Mr. Seidenberg’s middle name might be “Greed,” or perhaps “Stupid” – M J Mitchell
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I’m reminded of a comment that Ken Olsen, the founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, made when presented with plans to market a desktop computer to consumers that was developed a few years before IBM came out with the PC: “Why would anyone want a computer in their house?” Digital Equipment, a multi-billion-dollar company with over 100,000 employees at one time, is no longer in business. – Anonymous
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I had both Verizon Homeline/DSL and have Verizon Cell Service. After having major surgery and being totally disabled, I had some serious choices to make. I chose to go with Verizon cell and to a local wireless for my internet service. I was able to save approximatley $60.00 a month. I fully expect sound good service from Verizon cell as this is now my primary phone service. The rest of my family also uses Verizon cell service so the cost reduction in long distant calls is a godsend to me. This is a good example of what is wrong with corporate America today. Get them hooked into a multi-year contract and then to heck with the customer. I wonder what his golden parachute/buyout will be when Verizon gets fed up with him and tells him to hit the streets? – W Johnson
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I was one of the few people that claimed great customer service from Verizon on all fronts, but this makes me more than uneasy. Now I understand the corporate climate around how well they’ve adopted Bluetooth, and why naked DSL looks like a longshot at best. – Todd
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I live in a Verizon area and I have Verizon wireless. It barely works on my property let alone in the house. The service is very poor here. In fact even the Verizon landline that we have is also poor. We don’t even have caller ID let alone a DSL or passable landline connection. (Good connection speed is 26000 for us) There comment is we don’t have the ability to provide that right now. We ask if they are there are any improvements on the way and they say no. In both cases it is a case of using Lily Tomlin’s line “We don’t care. We don’t have to. We are the phone company” “Can You Hear Me Now? What? I ca”t here you.Oh Crap It dropped off again” -RJ
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This is an example of how corporate America has taken on this new attitude that they dont need to do anything for the customer. The customer should be damn happy with what they have (and grateful at that!) More specifically it demonstrates how the Telco industry has lost touch and why so many telcos now and in the coming years will continue to loose market share and company value. – Scott
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I’m an E.E. and I work with radio frequencies and I KNOW why you shouldn’t EXPECT a cell phone to work in your house (or almost any building). Cell phones are tiny in size and tiny in power (consumers WANT tiny). The older, larger BUT much higher power cell phones (except for “in car” models they have largely gone the way of the dodo) are gone. They have the simplest of antennas (called a “quarter wave whip”) and can’t use diversity (a little farm of antennas and instantly picking the best one). The bases have minimal power (for a number of reasons). Finally, houses and buildings are nightmares for receiving radio – which is what cell phones use – transmissions. Here in the Southwest, the most popular construction technique is “stucco on stick” – chickenwire over studs and then stucco on top. It is sometimes hard to get a full size RADIO with a good antenna to work in this environment, let alone a little tiny radio that you use while walking around. Elevators are tiny metal boxes inside ANOTHER metal box (the steel girder bulding). That Verizon’s CEO is greedy wouldn’t astound me. That if he wasn’t greedy, somehow the laws of physics would change, would amaze me. The intial intended purpose of the cell phone was that they would work in a tiny, high-priced service area – sort of – and in cars (Wow) using an outside antenna. That was a daunting task which the industry, for an amazingly small price, has achieved. That users now expect them to work flawlessly, I don’t know, under water, never need charging and work directly into their brains isn’t surprising, I guess. I just find Mr. Seidenberg’s comments artless but surprisingly accurate. Users aren’t stupid (although some are) but they are largely ignorant of how crushing reliable radio communication can be to establish and maintain. – F von Blume
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Those negative comments drive a negative organization with negative directives. If that’s their approach and other telecom companies can provide what Verizon cannot what’s to keep them on top of the business. Time to start shopping! – V De Rosa
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When I go out to anywhere now, every person that signed up for a 2 year agreement, has a cell phone. If the cell phones had stopped at being just that, a cell phone, we would be in much better shape. Email-text messaging-photo capable,these are not only a toy, but eat up the network with frivilous noise sent mostly by teenagers. I am one who could not live without the cell phone, once it ended up being a neccesity to business, with the ability to talk to customers when they needed me ( good luck with that from Verison). The cell phone business has boomed from the advent, that all parents are getting tired of their kids tying up the home phone, or not being able to call home from where they are (like they would anyway). It would be nice if cell phones were just phones again, the use by people that have no phone morals, ie.. in the grocery line next to you when you are trying to listen to someone. I dont what to go there, but it appals me that the same person who cant afford food for the family is standing in line yapping for hours about nothing. Enough good day. – Thomas Henneberry
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I live in Europe. My cell phone works in houses, works in basements, works in the subway, works in cars without an outside antenna, is tiny, needs charging about once a week if I don’t use it too much – maybe we have different laws of nature here? I am with you though about people not able to afford food for their kids but yapping next to you for hours ;-)) – Brigitte
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Verizon lost me as a cell phone customer when all of a sudden my cell quit working at home. First they blamed me (!?), then the phone (OK, tried a new one), weather conditions & crops, and they even tried ‘tweaking’it numerous times… all to no avail. After FOUR months of this & many calls up the ladder, it turned out they had sold the tower closest to me so service was no longer available in my home area. Oh, Good Grief!! (I did end up getting refunded for all those months & the new phone.) I live out in the boonies where DSL is a dream & I have to depend on a decent landline for my Internet connection. Also, out here everything is LD, so my cell phone saves major $$. I darn well better work at home!! My new company has great customer service & I’ve had no problems since switching. Does “Direct Connect” ring a bell? ;-) Verizon, can you hear me now? – eileen
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I have had nothing but GOOD things to say about Verizon…until last week. My DSL connection is great, my land line is great, as well as long distance service. That WAS, until I signed on to Verizon Wireless. I experienced multiple problems in activating my phone, and actually getting Verizon to activate it in my own area code! Now, they have lost two months worth of payments that were not posted to my account, but the checks were posted to my bank account in three days! Verizon says it is up to ME to ‘Prove’ I paid my bills, and can ONLY do that by…..FAX!!! NO E-mail or snail mail allowed! And this Seidenberg has the nerve to say WE expect too much???As John Stossle says, “Give Me A Break”! – PM
And that’s it for this batch, dear readers! You certainly have plenty to say to Mr. Seidenberg! We wonder, though, can he hear you now?
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This is how verizon is treating us!!!
Its been over two weeks and still no update for the xv-6600 with camera, unlike customer service said months ago.
WHEN IS VERIZON GOING TO GET IT TOGETHER????
hopefully before i have to return this phone? and or drop verizon…
here are the issues once again:
#1:
The Blue tooth connections need to support MS voice command 1.5 over the BT headsets.
#2:
And when incoming calls come into the unit from the “sleep” or “off” mode the Blue Tooth is WAAAAY too slow to respond. It takes 3 to 5 rings before the Blue tooth connects to the headset.
#3:
If the headset is more than 3 feet away there is major static over the headset. Can’t go more than 5 feet from phone or it is very very bad reception. What happened to the 30 foot range of blue tooth?
And it is not the headsets as everyone has been using different headsets on the web forums with the same results!
#4:
A fix for earpiece volume, CANNOT use the phone without earpiece!
#5:
When the phone and bt headset are paired, the unit turns on for no reason
#6
Bluetooth(version 1.0)in phone is older than any bluetooth(version 1.1 or 1.2)earpiece available
Check any pocket pc forums and see just how bad this phone makes verizon look, well you have to give a little credit to audiovox.
Its sad… 14 plus years of service and now your company seems to be falling apart, I cant say verizon is the best anymore.
Send this letter to your supervisor and keep this letter going up the management chain until it reaches management who can do something about this problem!!!
and understand
~that it is bad customer service to release a product (xv 6600 with camera) that is defective~
compared to any other verizon phone or any other pocket pc
they need to send out the update or recall it
I was one of those customers that expected too much. Verizon never tried to give it to me. So I took my three phone numbers to Sprint where I get too mush. I’ve now recruited several friends and neighbors to Sprint and continue to recruit Verizon customers. Its an easy recruit after calling them from my Sprint phone and having to tell them I’m on a cell phone and not a wired phone. Then I ask them about dropped calls on their Verizon phone and they ask where to sign. It will only get easiler when Nextel and Sprint merge. The two best will be the giant killer!!!