I’ve been a loyal Verizon customer since 2005. Not just loyal, outspoken. Evangelical, even. And there was good reason for that: in my early military days, when Verizon was still focused on business customers, it was the only carrier that consistently and reliably worked in the middle of nowhere.
I remember remote field ops where nobody in the unit had signal (which, to be fair, was the norm back then)…except for the one or two guys who happened to be on Verizon. We’d literally pass their phones around at night, paying them per minute in cash, just to get to call home. Once, we even stumbled across a lone cell tower in the middle of the woods, and there it was: a “VERIZON” sign on the fence surrounding it. That’s all it took. I was sold.
Even as recently as 6 or 8 years ago, my Verizon phone would be the last one standing with signal on long road trips and national park hikes, while everyone else scrambled for bars. I happily paid the premium, because the service was premium.
But that Verizon is long gone.
On a recent trip, I was stunned to plainly see that it was the phones on Verizon in our group that were dead to the world. Meanwhile, friends on bargain carriers had full bars and fast data. That was the moment I realized that the network I used to trust had become a bad joke.
Then came the letter.
A hollow, PR-polished email from the CEO promising customer service improvements. And like everything else lately, it led to nothing. If anything, customer service got worse. Outsourced agents following scripts with zero ability to understand or solve any actual problems… but plenty of time to upsell me on features I didn’t ask for, regardless of how many times I’d said “No, thank you” in the past.
And the final insult? Price hikes. Again. Surprise fees with no recourse until maybe the next bill cycle, but only if you call and complain again. Despite the degraded service, despite the dropped calls, despite the complete collapse of support, I’m now expected to pay even more for service that struggles to even work in the vicinity of the major city where I live.
Meanwhile, my 20 years of loyalty? Not even acknowledged. Verizon’s system doesn’t even register it anymore. Thanks to plan changes and account migrations, I’m regularly told: “Thanks for being a loyal customer for five years!” Five. Years. You can’t make this shit up.
Verizon used to be a premium brand. Now it’s just expensive.
So after nearly 20 years, I’m done. I’m taking all 9 lines on my family plan and walking away. Not here to promote the next carrier (they all suck in different ways), but because the Verizon I believed in is long gone.
RIP to the carrier that used to mean something. You had a good run.
Can you hear me now?
