No coverage - Can I break a contract?
3DArtwork
Enthusiast - Level 2

Over the past 8 weeks, my phone coverage has completely gone.  Every call I make or receive is immediately dropped with "Call Lost".

I am unable to use my phone at this point.  After 4 contacts with customer service, I am told that U.S. Cellular is the company who provides the coverage in my area, and they are awful.

I don't see how Verizon can legally keep me under contract.  The contract swings both ways.  They are require to provide the coverage that I was promised upon agreeing to the coverage.  Is there somewhere in the fine line that says Verizon can at any time, lower the quality of coverage in my area without penalty on their end?

I agreed to a contract that provided coverage that was sufficient.  That is no longer the case.  I am being forced to pay for a contract that is not providing the product they promised.

Have any other customers faced this and were able to get out of their contract without the horrendous fee?  Do I have any options?  I am giving them free money for nothing at this point for another year of service.

Labels (1)
Re: No coverage - Can I break a contract?
rcschnoor
Legend

Verizon didn't necessarily lower the quality of coverage. There are outside factors which affect coverage, such as buildings and foliage. New buildings go up, coverage can suffer. Trees get taller, coverage can suffer. That is just the nature of cellular service.

Additionally, you didn't agree to a contract that provided coverage that was sufficient. You agreed to a contract which provided coverage which was not guaranteed in all locations.

Finally, you can always break the contract. You will just be billed for the ETF.

0 Likes
Re: No coverage - Can I break a contract?
3DArtwork
Enthusiast - Level 2

Excellent.  I will continue to pay for a service/product that is worthless and not available to use.  Thank you Verizon.  I refuse to believe that buildings and trees are the reason for a drop in coverage for a specific 3 mile *radius*, not diameter.  I have never in 13 years of having a cell phone ever experienced something like that.  The city I live in have zero high rises, is all flat, and very few trees (and those that do exist have been there for decades already).

Can't wait to get out of this contract.  Verizon did NOT tell me that they were using U.S. Cellular instead in my area when they sold me the phone and service.  They just said it was Extended Digital Coverage.

I can understand not every spot can be covered, but I have to drive 4 miles from work to my house to get coverage.  No other place in town has a good signal.  It's absolutely ridiculous how it gradually occurred since June, and Verizon chooses not to do jack squat about it.

I would even pay EXTRA to them to get better coverage here!  Piece of junk.  Hate Verizon.  AT&T had NO problems here.  If it wasn't for the insane ETF, I would drop VZW immediately.  But unfortunately they have me like a slave for another year year.  So fed up with them.

Re: No coverage - Can I break a contract?
HappyHelper
Specialist - Level 1

Lack of coverage can be sufficient reason to be let out of your contract without a fee. You'd have to call in and do proper troubleshooting through customer care and tech support and if they can't fix it they'd submit a trouble ticket to have a technician verify coverage in your area. If it comes back where you have marginal coverage and this is the same address that you originally signed up service at, you can be let out of your contract. You do need to go through all the steps though.

Re: No coverage - Can I break a contract?
budone
Legend

Do you have a 3G or 4g device?

0 Likes
Re: No coverage - Can I break a contract?
3DArtwork
Enthusiast - Level 2

I have a Nexus 7 4G.  My town has 4G coverage, too.  But they outsource to U.S.Cellular, which provides some of the worst coverage despite them "saying" the area is covered.  Getting 2 bars and having EVERY SINGLE CALL incoming and outgoing automatically failing does not strike me as covered.  I am thinking along the lines of HappyHelper.  The area was just fine for 10 of the first 12 months.  But over the course of June and July, the calls progressively have gotten more and more frequent on dropped calls upon pick up.  It's never dropped after talking for a bit.  It's always immediately after pickup.

At first, I could call them back and after 2 or 3 tries, the call would stick.  This was back in June.  Since July, every time I pick up, the call drops.  For the fact that I was given coverage for almost the first year and suddenly I don't have any strikes me as enough reason to waive the ETF.  I am no longer getting the product/service I got when I first signed up.

0 Likes
Re: No coverage - Can I break a contract?
HappyHelper
Specialist - Level 1

And you're right on that. If you had good coverage and suddenly you don't, it is one of the very few reasons they will waive an ETF. Again though, you do need to go through the appropriate steps. Go through troubleshooting with customer service, tech support and wait for the trouble ticket to come back saying you are in a marginal coverage area. After that trouble ticket comes back saying marginal coverage, you're free to disconnect. Refusing to troubleshoot or giving push back will just lengthen the process though. Best of luck!

0 Likes
Re: No coverage - Can I break a contract?
3DArtwork
Enthusiast - Level 2

So far, they have come back and said basically I'm crazy and that U.S. Cellular is telling them my coverage is "just fine".  It's their word against mine.  I have proof; they are going on U.S. Cellular's word without really verifying it themselves from what they have said.  But I will give your suggestion a try.  I have contacted tech support 4 times in the past month, submitted that many tickets, and had it escalate up to NYC where the tech even called me to compare my home address with dead zone address to compare.

I am doubtful on getting it waived, but I just have no other choice.

Thank you for your help.

0 Likes
Re: No coverage - Can I break a contract?
ToniaTNC
Newbie

>> Duplicate post removed to comply with Verizon Wireless Terms of Service.  See <<


Message was edited by: Verizon Moderator

0 Likes
Re: No coverage - Can I break a contract?
nettieo
Newbie

I have had Verizon for years and in the last few months I have had a tremendous increase in dropped calls. The service is not outsourced and the is generally pretty good in my area. I called into Verizon and they sent out two replacement phones (iPhone 4) to try. The rep could see exactly how many calls were being dropped and did not doubt there was a problem. When I still had a lot of dropped calls with the second replacement, the problem was escalated. I got a call back saying that they verified I was in an area with a poor signal, they did not have a plan to improve it, and I could get out of my contract if I wanted. Unfortunately, Verizon has the best service in town, so I'm stuck, but the reps were all able to see that it was a real problem, look at the actual data on number of dropped calls, and continued to try to solve the problem. It may be different with outsourced service, but they should be able to access your data, too. Also, if you tweet or otherwise use social media to discuss your problem and try to identify other people in your town who have the same issue, almost all of these big carriers become much more responsive.

0 Likes