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SHABAZZ @ 6th Nov 07:09PM:
Verizon's Buzz for Motorola's Droid Fizzles at Day's End
No matter how good the phone it’s going to take a long time and a ground braking feature to even come close to the iphone’s fan following.
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Z80 @ 6th Nov 07:41PM:
Voice Is Cable146;s Secret Weapon for Growth
Oh, you mean the annual 3X inflation price increases aren't doing it?
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Z80 @ 6th Nov 07:48PM:
Re: Verizon's Buzz for Motorola's Droid Fizzles at Day's End
Droid joins a long line of "iPhone killers" that weren't.
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Simba7 @ 6th Nov 09:18PM:
Venezuelan Government Blames Video Games For Violence
Yep. How about I go on a killing spree and blame it on a video game. Better yet, I could watch a really gory movie and mimic everything about it. "The movie made me do it!"
This is so much bullsh*t, I could puke.
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KrK @ 6th Nov 09:40PM:
Re: Venezuelan Government Blames Video Games For Violence
Chavez is a joke.
A bad joke. Signs like this are signs of desperation.
Maybe he should take the guns away from his Junta. That would do a whole lot more to end violence then anything else he could do.
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Kearnstd @ 7th Nov 08:02AM:
Re: Venezuelan Government Blames Video Games For Violence
so Militants waving AK47s around and killing people openly with said AK47s isnt a bad influence but video games are....
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bender @ 7th Nov 08:57AM:
Re: Verizon's Buzz for Motorola's Droid Fizzles at Day's End
people keep forgetting how much ground android has to make up. iphone has been around for over 2 years now. i couldn't find how many os updates they have released. But give android time it will/should mature just as much as iPhone.
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bender @ 7th Nov 08:58AM:
Re: Verizon's Buzz for Motorola's Droid Fizzles at Day's End
i blame verizon's lame marketing department for making people think droid was going to kill iphone. there is no way verizon will have the phone to kill iphone. considering that all their phones only work with verizon. amirite?
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bender @ 7th Nov 08:59AM:
Re: Venezuelan Government Blames Video Games For Violence
said by Kearnstd :
so Militants waving AK47s around and killing people openly with said AK47s isnt a bad influence but video games are....
maybe in the southern hemisphere things are different, no?
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bender @ 7th Nov 09:00AM:
Re: Voice Is Cable146;s Secret Weapon for Growth
oooo i see what you did there lol
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me1212 @ 7th Nov 09:06AM:
Re: Venezuelan Government Blames Video Games For Violence
Hehe lolz. There have been studies that show violent games can actually make you LESS likely to get uber violent. And can be used in anger management cause you can act out ur anger but not in really life so you don't hurt anyone.
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Edrick @ 7th Nov 09:36AM:
100 Million?
So over 2 years they expect to give out 100 million for projects? My highschool cost 88 Million alone to build. Is 100 million over 2 years enough?
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djrobx @ 7th Nov 11:40AM:
Re: Verizon's Buzz for Motorola's Droid Fizzles at Day's End
people keep forgetting how much ground android has to make up.
That's really not the customer's problem.
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chronoss2009 @ 7th Nov 01:18PM:
UK Gordon Browns WORLD TAX
oh here we go and just when ya thought them people spouting off about crap like this were coo koo this brown goes and starts talking about it and then i get to thinking about ACTA and how this will play out we need to start taking rights away form corporations and restore democracy in the name of those that fell in WORLD WAR 2
just goto the cbc and read up its nut bar time and time to get angry sorry angelo ....you run out of them cdrs for linux
:)
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Doctor Four @ 7th Nov 01:21PM:
Re: Venezuelan Government Blames Video Games For Violence
I'd love to see Jack Thompson get sent down there. Permanently if at all possible.
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chronoss2009 @ 7th Nov 01:31PM:
Re: Venezuelan Government Blames Video Games For Violence
couldnt be the USA down there stirring stuff up and maybe the fact everyone walks around with guns?
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chronoss2009 @ 7th Nov 02:09PM:
Re: Venezuelan Government Blames Video Games For Violence
ill say the phrase
stress relief
as in i get all angry and upset like a poster PMED me here, go off blow up a galaxy and come back much nicer
get the agression and bad feelings out in a way that HARMS NO HUMANS
like why isn't people saying about that talking about that angle cause i see that angle a heck of a lot more then i do some psycho path that kills people regardless of video games ( think what happened before video games to get my picture )
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Rogue Wolf @ 7th Nov 03:09PM:
Re: Venezuelan Government Blames Video Games For Violence
But, you know, that takes things like "initiative" and "effort" and "getting the police force out of the back pocket of the crime lords". It's so much easier to just point at something innocuous like video games, decry it as "American propaganda" (since America is obviously dead-set on destroying Venezuela) and ban it so that Chavez can appear to be doing something about the issue.
Action saves lives, but rhetoric saves political careers.
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bender @ 7th Nov 06:55PM:
Re: Verizon's Buzz for Motorola's Droid Fizzles at Day's End
well unlike iphone, the customer can actually contribute to the development of the OS. therefore making the customer not have the right to complain about it.
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Simba7 @ 7th Nov 07:12PM:
Re: UK Gordon Browns WORLD TAX
Anyone thinks this is Boomhower from King of the Hill?
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Z80 @ 7th Nov 07:33PM:
Re: Verizon's Buzz for Motorola's Droid Fizzles at Day's End
said by bender :
therefore making the customer not have the right to complain about it.
Sure, 'cause every customer just happens to be a developer. :uhh:
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cob_ @ 7th Nov 09:36PM:
Re: Verizon's Buzz for Motorola's Droid Fizzles at Day's End
I think the problem was the marketing. I walked into a VzW store on D-Day, and played with it, then stood back and listened/watched as others took to it.
Most of them had never heard of the Droid. They don't know what Android is, what it's capable of, that Google Maps will call out navigation to you for free, that the web browser's fast...
Instead, I heard comments like, "Ohh it's a touch. I dunno, it feels too light," and "I don't like the keypad thing." I'm not trying to sound above these people, but I think the marketeers failed to reach non-techy middle America, the people who ask other people what's wrong with their computers.
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"No matter how hard you push and no matter what the priority, you can't increase the speed of light."
- RFC 1925
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amigo_boy @ 7th Nov 10:18PM:
Re: Verizon's Buzz for Motorola's Droid Fizzles at Day's End
said by cob_ :
I'm not trying to sound above these people, but I think the marketeers failed to reach non-techy middle America, the people who ask other people what's wrong with their computers.
I agree. The Droid commercial is a perfect example:
»www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9fXYQjwR0w
It's a cool commercial. But, not one mention of "Droid," "smartphone," "Motorola," etc. When I saw it, I had no idea what it was about.
What a complete waste of money to buy prime-time advertising; produce an edgy commercial, and not even mention your name, the product's name, etc. They were advertising to those who already knew what the Droid was. The 1-second closing was the only thing the drooling technocracy would have associated to a product. Everyone else was scratching their heads.
What a waste of money.
Mark
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bender @ 7th Nov 10:43PM:
Re: Verizon's Buzz for Motorola's Droid Fizzles at Day's End
said by Z80 :said by bender :
therefore making the customer not have the right to complain about it.
Sure, 'cause every customer just happens to be a developer. :uhh:
no. you just actually have the opportunity to be one. nobody but you can make that decision.
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bender @ 7th Nov 10:45PM:
Re: Verizon's Buzz for Motorola's Droid Fizzles at Day's End
agreed
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KrK @ 8th Nov 02:54AM:
Re: Venezuelan Government Blames Video Games For Violence
I don't believe the USA is "stirring things up." The fact he claims the USA is behind everything proves it's false.
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Z80 @ 8th Nov 06:25AM:
Re: Verizon's Buzz for Motorola's Droid Fizzles at Day's End
And you could be a developer for the iPhone too. But most consumers aren't going to be either.
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Z80 @ 8th Nov 08:09AM:
Re: UK Gordon Browns WORLD TAX
whatchatalkinboutmah
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TKJunkMail @ 8th Nov 09:37AM:
Re: Venezuelan Government Blames Video Games For Violence
said by KrK :
I don't believe the USA is "stirring things up." The fact he claims the USA is behind everything proves it's false.
Yes. Chavez is the typical dictator and can not survive when all aspects of a citizen's life isn't totally controlled by the state. He will continue to eat away at all freedoms his people have until his country is as oppressive as that in Cuba.
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TKJunkMail @ 8th Nov 09:42AM:
Re: Verizon's Buzz for Motorola's Droid Fizzles at Day's End
said by Z80 :
Droid joins a long line of "iPhone killers" that weren't.
But taken all together, all these new iPhone killers will join together to start stealing market share from Apple. And 1 Android phone won't do it, but the dozens of Android phones from various vendors will start to overwhelm the iPhone. Apple has finally run up against someone with more marketing clout and more ruthlessness than Microsoft - and that is Google.
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TKJunkMail @ 8th Nov 09:48AM:
Re: UK Gordon Browns WORLD TAX
said by chronoss2009 :
oh here we go and just when ya thought them people spouting off about crap like this were coo koo this brown goes and starts talking about it and then i get to thinking about ACTA and how this will play out we need to start taking rights away form corporations and restore democracy in the name of those that fell in WORLD WAR 2
»www.training-classes.com/program···h-up.php
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TKJunkMail @ 8th Nov 10:03AM:
Re: 100 Million?
said by Edrick :
So over 2 years they expect to give out 100 million for projects? My highschool cost 88 Million alone to build. Is 100 million over 2 years enough?
I think $2m/state is more than enough to create maps from readily available data. Some national map making companies said the whole job for all 50 states could have been done for $3 or $4 million tops. »$350 Million For Broadband Mapping: Too Much?
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FastiBook @ 8th Nov 12:30PM:
Re: Verizon's Buzz for Motorola's Droid Fizzles at Day's End
No slider is going to beat the iPhone.
All of the droid ads were aimed at building hype, nothing substantive. The pre ads have that freaky cultish makeup commercial looking wacko... Only the iPhone ads show what the device its advertising actually does.
In any case, no amount of marketing is to blame for the Droid's laughable launch. It just isn't that good of a phone.
- A
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bender @ 8th Nov 12:37PM:
Re: Verizon's Buzz for Motorola's Droid Fizzles at Day's End
said by FastiBook :
No slider is going to beat the iPhone.
All of the droid ads were aimed at building hype, nothing substantive. The pre ads have that freaky cultish makeup commercial looking wacko... Only the iPhone ads show what the device its advertising actually does.
In any case, no amount of marketing is to blame for the Droid's laughable launch. It just isn't that good of a phone.
- A
hate the player(droid) not the game(android)
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Z80 @ 8th Nov 01:50PM:
Re: Verizon's Buzz for Motorola's Droid Fizzles at Day's End
Or they can just take market share from each other as one android phone battles for market share with another android phone which is what happens to Windows Mobile.
Google has no "marketing clout" in the handset arena because their name isn't synonymous with hardware and unlike the iPhone was for Apple or Up was for Pixar, the Droid or anything *droid isn't the "next sure fire hit" for Google. No one is looking for Google to make a phone (phone OS). There is no anticipation. They are Suzuki building their first car. It doesn't matter how respected they are in the browser space it doesn't translate to handsets and Microsoft is an example of this. No one cares.
Google, like Microsoft, must rely on handset makers to make compelling hardware, seamlessly integrate the software and not charge an arm and a leg for it. And then they must rely on the handset makers to aggressively market their Android handsets. Motorola isn't up to spending the money Apple and RIM spend on marketing and after this first wave of iDonts (which did nothing to build hype) Motorola marketing will go the way of Pre marketing and Google will be left with no one pushing the OS once again...until the next 2 week marketing blitz by the next "iPhone Killer" handset maker comes out.
Meanwhile hardly a day goes by that you don't see an iPhone and Crackberry commercial and/or crap loads of Apple product placement. No one markets hardware better or more aggressively than Apple.
Lastly you have The Cult willing to buy anything they sell and media more than willing to hype it as if Teh Steve is releasing The Holy Grail.
All of this makes seriously eroding iPhone market share impossible unless Apple turns into a terrorist group and uses the iPhone to blow up day care centers.
Android is Linux on the desktop, possibly technically superior but no one cares.
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amigo_boy @ 8th Nov 02:22PM:
Re: Verizon's Buzz for Motorola's Droid Fizzles at Day's End
said by FastiBook :
In any case, no amount of marketing is to blame for the Droid's laughable launch. It just isn't that good of a phone.
The problem is that nobody can ever know whether it's a good phone when 60 perfectly good (and costly) seconds are squandered on Hollywood special effects having nothing to do with telephones -- let alone a specific telephone.
It could be a good phone. But, nobody will know what makes it good when a commercial doesn't even mention that the phone exists! I don't know if that was Verizon's or Motorola's fault, but if I were a shareholder of either I'd be pretty upset by this kind of squandered advertising money.
This reminds me of back in the mid-90s. OS/2 (particularly, "Warp") had a fairly good shot at competing with Windows 95. IBM spent money on ads like the Droid ad. Artsy, attention getting, memorable. But, nothing about what Warp could do, differentiated it, etc.
Someone will say Warp didn't have a chance even then. But, it had a lot better chance than anything does today. And, if someone wasn't willing to use advertising $ to really pursue the battle, why the heck were they even in the market to begin with?
That's the feeling I get watching the Droid commercial. I see OS/2 Warp written all over this phone. They're not even trying!
Mark
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bender @ 8th Nov 03:21PM:
Re: Verizon's Buzz for Motorola's Droid Fizzles at Day's End
most consumers can't afford the SDK that is out for iphone, unlike the android sdk which is free.
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Z80 @ 8th Nov 04:04PM:
Re: Verizon's Buzz for Motorola's Droid Fizzles at Day's End
The iPhone SDK is free as well so people can play around building an simulating apps. The $99 dev connection subscription is required to install the app on a real device and sell the app in iTS where you get 70% of the revenue. But learning Objective-C is by FAR the bigger hurdle than the hundred bucks.
Consumers of these products aren't going to learn Cocoa to write their own code whether the Dev Connection is free or not. XCode comes with EVERY copy of OS X and lite versions of MS Visual Studio environments are free too but we don't see "consumers" writing their own stuff. They buy apps. "Consumers" don't give two squirts of piss about developer tools, especially for their mobile phone.
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TKJunkMail @ 8th Nov 06:01PM:
Verizon takes a shot at AT&T & iPhone in new ads
»www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JgrBtn8···embedded
»www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw9oNBrm···embedded
»www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRIqIWxh···embedded
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Z80 @ 8th Nov 06:18PM:
Re: Verizon takes a shot at AT&T & iPhone in new ads
They've been touting service area for years and people simply don't care, particularly if they are in even a minor metro area because they'll get coverage from any of the major carriers. IOW, the only people they are marketing to in these types of ads are people in 'the sticks' of which there are few relatively speaking.
Instead of wasting time with maps they should be DEMOING Droid. I'm watching the Charger game and saw one of the absolutely pointless droid commercials where some stealth fighters drop some black balls all over the place and the commercial ends with "droid is here" or other some such pointless crap.
There are no stealth fighters or magic balls. Nothing shown in the commercial is something I can buy and there is no product shown to even generate a desire to buy. They could have been selling cars or beer or a new Star Warz toy. It reminds me of the huge AT&T mLife mess aired during the Super Bowl that had people thinking it was a commercial for Met-Life. VZW is flushing ad $$$ down the toilet Gates/Seinfeld style with this.
SHOW US DROID IN ACTION CHUMPS!
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anon @ 8th Nov 08:48PM:
Re: Verizon's Buzz for Motorola's Droid Fizzles at Day's End
Costs a bit more than $99. You also have to have a Mac to do the developing on.
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cob_ @ 8th Nov 09:03PM:
Re: Verizon takes a shot at AT&T & iPhone in new ads
said by Z80 :
SHOW US DROID IN ACTION CHUMPS!
Really! I think Apple does it right; they show the actual iPhone in action, and what you see in the commercial isn't pre-rendered, the phone actually runs that well. They should show the Droid browsing around in Google Maps, show it stuck to a windshield calling out directions, show how fast the browser is, etc. They need to expound on its real abilities.
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- RFC 1925
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Z80 @ 8th Nov 09:23PM:
Re: Verizon's Buzz for Motorola's Droid Fizzles at Day's End
Same could be said of Android SDK. You have to have a Pee Cee or Mac to run it. A used Intel Mac (eg early Intel CS or CD Mini) that runs Leopard is a couple of hundred bucks ($399 refurbished with full warranty from TAS when they're in stock »store.apple.com/us/product/FB138LL/A), the same as a Pee Cee. And if you know Objective-C, you already have one.
Again, the dev box is the least of the challenges of developing for anything. Price isn't what is stopping "consumers" for writing software for their handsets. You could hand out brand new iMacs with pre-installed SDK for Android and iPhone and people aren't going to bother just as they don't bother with XCode or Visual Studio Express despite being free. Hell, it's rare to find a 'consumer' writing their own AppleScript and that is about as easy as it gets.
IOW, "consumers" couldn't care less about the SDK. If anything it will just make it easier for crap or malicious apps to find their way onto Android handsets. Even ITS with it's overbearing vetting process has apps leeching phone numbers and stuff. Imagine if no one was checking »[iPhone] First iPhone worm discovered - Rickrolls jailbroken pho
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bender @ 8th Nov 11:39PM:
Re: Verizon takes a shot at AT&T & iPhone in new ads
said by TKJunkMail :
(youtube clip)
yea verizons known for being douchy.
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FastiBook @ 9th Nov 07:55AM:
Re: Verizon's Buzz for Motorola's Droid Fizzles at Day's End
I don't hate, as in not have the capability to hate. Plus, uh it's just a phone.
I've read all the specs and the "oh em gee *orgasm* anyone can contribute to android development", at the end of the day a 1979 sony style VCR with brown buttons isn't worth the time to charge the battery. Sliders will always be a niche segment of the market, none of them are very solid, they can/will get very dirty where user can't reach, and require to be slid open for certain things. I mean, it may seem fringe-ish, but if i'm partially crushed in a car, or having some kind of issue health wise, i want to be able to only need one finger to dial 911, not 2 and good luck on top of that. Till the iPhone i've stayed away from bar or "slate" or whatever you wish to call them phones, because the buttons would be exposed all the time. iPhone has one often used button, and it doesn't stick out and unlocking it doesn't requite some combination of button pushing, just a tap and a slide.
And you know what's sad? I'm not even comparing the droid or the pre to the 3Gs, i'm comparing it to the 3G, which is more dated.
- A
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FastiBook @ 9th Nov 08:00AM:
Re: Verizon takes a shot at AT&T & iPhone in new ads
You have no idea. My mom & my sister had vzw back in the day, they ran screaming from their customer service to (cingular) att and have had them since. I mean complain about coverage all you want, no one's experience even in the same house with the same model device is going to be the same, what keeps us with att is customer service and roll over minutes, not the phones, and not how much 3G coverage they have.
- A
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Z80 @ 9th Nov 08:22AM:
Re: Verizon takes a shot at AT&T & iPhone in new ads
But Apple wrote the book on being douchy with their Macs.
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Z80 @ 9th Nov 08:24AM:
Re: Verizon takes a shot at AT&T & iPhone in new ads
Same here. I had VZW and the service was okay but the billing was ALWAYS messed up and of course in VZWs favor. Every month I would have to call and every month I was told it was fixed. The next month not only would it not be fixed, there would be more billing errors and a LATE FEE for me not paying the last billing error. I went to Cingular and not a problem since. I travel all over on business and never have a problem with connectivity.
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bender @ 9th Nov 10:52AM:
Re: Verizon's Buzz for Motorola's Droid Fizzles at Day's End
seriously. you choose your cell phone based on that 0.0001% chance that you are going to only have 1 hand available to call 911 in the event of a car accident? and who cares about the unlock screen. i push 1 button to get passed that. no reason to slide.
lets both just admit it. we are both fanboys.
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bender @ 9th Nov 10:54AM:
Re: Verizon takes a shot at AT&T & iPhone in new ads
the only billing errors I have ever had were because I was too lazy to read the fine print. i'm obviously not saying that you did this.
and anytime that there was a repeating billing error i would go one step higher in the customer service ring. I never suggest talking on the phone with the billing department. instead go to a store where you can be face to face with them (in case you need to choke a b*tch).
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sbcglobal.net speedtest result 11/5/09 - 5256kbps
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Z80 @ 9th Nov 11:13AM:
Re: Verizon takes a shot at AT&T & iPhone in new ads
This was billing for services I didn't have or more often being double billed. I went a 6 month stretch of VZ charging a single phone number on a single bill for 2 different minute plans as a result of them botching a plan change. After the 6th month of having to call and get it fixed, I just paid the ETF and ported. VZ reps and management were always nice and apologetic but it didn't prevent me from having to call every month, sometimes twice a month (as I would get letters threatening disconnection for not having paid the bill in full). There were a number of months where to avoid disconnection I would have to pay for the plan I didn't have plus the late fees with the promise that it would be credited on the next bill. But of course the credit would never happen and I would get the same screwed up double-plan bill the next month. Verizon billing is a total disaster.
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bender @ 9th Nov 11:15AM:
Re: Verizon takes a shot at AT&T & iPhone in new ads
dont know what to say other than that sucks.
situations like this are why i absolutely believe in the YMMV philosophy when it comes to customer service. its the only way to give services a chance.
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tmodns.net speedtest result 11/5/09 - 2996kbps
sbcglobal.net speedtest result 11/5/09 - 5256kbps
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Z80 @ 9th Nov 11:52AM:
Re: Verizon takes a shot at AT&T & iPhone in new ads
Billing issues to see to happen more often than 'normal' with Verizon. I've read a number of similar nightmare stories about FiOS even though it's a completely different division. Perhaps they use the same billing software platform that is prone to errors.
If I didn't have the billing problems I would have certainly stayed with VZW. Thus far AT&T hasn't given me any problems but if they gave me the same coverage problems as I read about I would bail in a second, particularly next year when VZW supposedly gets a new smaller iPhone. »www.usatoday.com/tech/wireless/p···ne_N.htm
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