Posted on 04/22/2017 7:05:47 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
For the first time, the nation's largest wireless provider is losing customers faster than it can replace them.
It's a major milestone for Verizon, which on Thursday reported a net decline of 289,000 cellphone subscribers over the past four months.
Even though Verizon usually loses some cellular customers every quarter, it has historically lured enough back to be able to report growth in that part of its business. But recent months have seen hundreds of thousands of customers defect to competitors such as T-Mobile and Sprint, analysts say.
Things could have been even worse if Verizon hadn't suddenly reintroduced unlimited data plans in February, according to Verizon's earnings numbers. In the first six weeks of the year, Verizon lost nearly 400,000 wireless customers, according to its latest earnings report. But once the new plans became available, they helped blunt those losses by bringing in about 110,000 new subscribers, Verizon said.
Verizon's reluctance to bring back unlimited data and its sudden about-face this year reflect rising competition in the cellular industry that is forcing large incumbents to adapt. The telecom giant has long argued that consumers are willing to pay a premium for a quality wireless experience, in contrast to budget carriers such as Sprint.
But aggressive moves by smaller carriers to build out their networks are paying off, said Roger Entner, an industry analyst with Recon Analytics, meaning that such companies as T-Mobile are chipping away at Verizon's network advantage. In a recent federal auction of wireless airwaves, T-Mobile emerged as a major beneficiary, spending $8 billion to acquire rights to radio spectrum it will use to expand its mobile Internet capacity.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
“We’re The Phone Company. We Don’t Care. We Don’t Have To.”
~ Lily Tomlin as ‘Ernestine’
Evolve Much? Nope. We. Don’t. Have. To.
Cellphone reception is sketchy where we live in the Santa Cruz mountains, no matter what carrier you use — but Verizon has usually sucked the least. Their reintroduction of “unlimited data” helped convince us to stay with them.
No kidding!
Verizon has the best coverage area so they can charge a premium. If customers hated that, they would use tin cans. Milton Freidman said people vote with their feet. And there is not a rush to buy out tin cans.
Bell Atlantic and Nynex merged and became Verizon. Verizon then bought out GTE, giving Verizon a nationwide footprint.
Try Patriot Mobile.
They are about to lose my family. They cut my data and tripled fee to get it back.
I’ll never ever do business with them. After a vicious ice storm in 2008 the old phone line was hanging down. We had gone VOIP a few years earlier. They came and cut the line down. There must be a law about that.
Other than that I use a Verizon hotspot with my laptop computer and a Samsung Galaxy smartphone a lot.
For the forseeable future, I'll stick with Verizon.
Other than that I use a Verizon hotspot with my laptop computer and a Samsung Galaxy smartphone a lot.
For the forseeable future, I'll stick with Verizon.
Lol! Thank you, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. I hope your voyage on the Good Ship Lollipop goes splendidly.
I had Alltel for yrs and never had a problem. Get the bill every month, pay bill.
Then Verzion bought Alltel out and trouble began.
Seems every month they’d tack on a charge, I’d go down to the store, wait to see someone, sometimes an hour, get it straight and end up doing the same thing the next month or so.
They snookered me into a contract when I wanted to get a new phone ,dumped my grandfathered service I had been using. Continued the same terrible customer service.
Finally had enough, broke the contract, paid the fee and walked away.
Never again will I use Verizon.
Got Consumer Cellular, pay $40/ mo. for both of us. Plenty of minutes, data, texts. Customer Service with AMERICAN reps. First class.
Consumer Cellular uses ATT towers.
I’ve had Verizon for about 10 years. Maybe longer, I don’t remember.
My experience is different from some who have posted here.
Their customer service is superb — by far the best I’ve experienced with any other tech company. Not even close.
The signal is consistently excellent and it never drops. And it’s plenty fast.
But, geez louise, you pay for that quality. It’s priced as a premium product and I’m not surprised customers are beginning to bail.
Has anyone asked if cell companies are all losing customers as cable has been?
We have Verizon because they have coverage where others do not. We pay $76.31/month for unlimited minutes, text, and 6GB data, which we don’t fully use, for two phones. No one beats that price or service coverage.
He plays for the other team in more ways than one.
That is why I have Verizon. It always makes me feel good when I’m out at some half-way remote site and my client has to borrow my phone to make a call.
Funny though - at my home the reception is now crap. About four years ago they did a bunch of improvements at an electrical substation a couple of blocks away and the whole area is lousy for any cell phone reception now.
Try Consumer Cellular (ATT system)
Any company that can force their customers into “plans” - cable tv, cellular phone service, ISP - is going to abuse their customers by including features, services and hidden fees in their plans that their customers don’t want and don’t want to pay for. At least there’s some competition in the cellular world - cable companies and ISPs (and often they are one and the same) are effective monopolies in the US, stifling innovation and competition and charging exorbitant rates for services which are inferior to the world’s best.
I absolutely hate Verizon. I've never experienced such rotten customer service in my life. Ask 10 different Verizombies the same question and you'll get 15 different answers.
And ask the same question again the next day and you'll get 20 new ones. They are the worst liars and two-bit con men on earth. You can't believe anything they tell you.
I worked at a wireless carrier call center for 2 years, several years ago. Cingular then AT&T.
The zombies, liars, and con men you are talking about are teenagers and single mothers making about $8 an hour doing a ridiculously stressful and complex job.
They take dozens of calls a day from A holes screaming and cursing at them, personally, over cell phone service that they have no control over.
Just giving you some perspective.
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