Verizon is getting dumber by the day.
I posted before about why we switched from Sprint to Verizon. Now Verizon is trying to hard to convince us we made a mistake.
Last weekend we went to the beach. I figured I had three shots at internet access, since our condo didn’t technically have it:
1 – Pick up a stray wi-fi signal.
2 – Use the free dial-up account from Bellsouth that we got with our DSL.
3 – Use my cell phone as a modem and connect that way.
We ended up using option 1, picking up a faint open hotspot if we went out on our porch. It was pitiful, but it was the only choice. Bellsouth didn’t have a local dial-up number, so they weren’t an option. Verizon’s tale gets more interesting.
I had purchased Verizon’s rip-off “music kit” a while back. Basically a USB cable to connect your phone to your PC, and a CD that tries to convert your MP3s to some other format since the phone can’t play normal MP3 files (stuuuuupid). The good news is that this meant I had the cable I needed to be able to use the phone as a modem and wouldn’t have to pay $50 more for that kit.
So, I called Verizon, the guy walked me through configuring Windows dial-up networking to connect and it wouldn’t work. We were roaming at the time, and chalked it up to that.
Now we’re up in Tennessee for the weekend. This time there’s no wi-fi nearby. However, I have good cell reception so I figured I’d try the Verizon thing again. It’s about $60/month, but I’ll just cancel after the weekend anyhow.
So, I call Verizon and simply ask them to enable that feature for me, since I already have the phone connected and Windows configured. “Uh, we can’t do that”. “You need to buy a special card for your computer”. I insisted that I didn’t, but he insisted that I did. I said something like “I just need the $60/month plan so I can use my phone as a modem”. Nope. I asked for a supervisor and was offered technical support. Ok.
The tech support guy comes on and says “So you want the $59.99/month plan so you can use your phone as a modem? No problem”. Strange, considering what the last guy had said, but good.
However, he told me I’d have to go online and download their fancy connection manager software. (note: I couldn’t GET online – that’s the whole problem!) I explained that I didn’t want to buy it, and I’ll simply use Windows dial-up networking instead. He was quite adamant that it wouldn’t work without their fancy software, but I was quite adamant that he just turn the stupid thing on.
He did and I fired it up. No dice. I asked if there was someone I could talk to about it. “Nope”. “How about tomorrow?”, I replied. “Nope. No one here can help you with that.”. He insisted that no one anywhere at Verizon could help me with this kind of set-up. I told him I wished I had the name of the guy from last weekend, as he was quite helpful.
I hung up with him and then tried again. I guess it just took a minute for the update to go into affect on my account, because it worked and I’m using it now. It’s slow, but it works.
I’ve never been a big Cingular fan (excuse me, I mean “the new new really-new-this-time A T & T”), but between their iPhone and Verizon’s foolishness, I might have to give them a shot later this summer.
Dude, all you need is one of these:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&sspagename=STRK%3AMERFB%3AIID&viewitem=&item=110114749150&rd=1&rd=1
I bought this for my Treo a while back and it works great. Of course you need to have a Blue Tooth enabled cell phone, but once you do, you use the software that comes with this dongle, connect to your phone and you are online.
I have Cingular now, and there’s good and bad here too. I remember the days when someone was on hand to walk you through using regular old Windows Networking as well. Pain in the ass? Sure. But eventually it worked.
With Cngular, I changed over to the plan where you can use either a special modem for high speed OR use your phone as a modem. At the time their service was just okay, and I am a business client, not household. After they became AT&T (again), service dramatically got better.
With a wifi option, the option I have is $60 a month. I’m told their coverage used to suck, but when I was in Vegas, there wasn’t a time where I couldn’t get online at all. Either I would have to go through some issues configuring my phone to work as a modem (which a rep at Cingular would walk me through on the phone), or, most of the time, I’d use the combo of their card and software to get online.
I have a MacBook pro now, one of the brand new ones that’s about 2 months old. Right after it came out, a new card for the Express slot became available. I called, and even though the card wasn’t in stock, the rep at the store offered to configure it in the store for me if I bought it directly from the Manufacturer. It was fairly easy to configure though and I did it on my own.
So they’ll still make you buy the card if you switch, unless you want to use an internet ready phone like the RAZR (what I’ve used as a modem), which will only get you a bit better than dial-up access. Sometimes the wireless won’t work for a few hours at a time but that’s the biggest problem I’ve had. Could partly be because I live in Vegas, rather than a larger metro area.
The iPhone should still be ready in June, says TechCrunch, so though I have thought that I would switch to Sprint before, I must have the iPhone. Over time though, that wasn’t the only reason I stayed with them. Hope this helps you decide.