Lol
Really?
Just by swearing at a customer service rep?
Can you swear at them, have them cancel your service, then be out of contract and go elsewhere?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
VZW won't let me unlock my out-of-contract iPhone
- Thread starter SHNXX
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Can you swear at them, have them cancel your service, then be out of contract and go elsewhere?
Can you swear at them, have them cancel your service, then be out of contract and go elsewhere?
That would be too easy#
Can you swear at them, have them cancel your service, then be out of contract and go elsewhere?
No. They just shut your phone off without notice. Mainly an inconvenience I believe. Both people I know it happened to just called back, talked to the loyalty department, and they turned the service right back on.
If you read the Verizon user contract, it's in there. I still think it's ridiculous that they think doing this benefits them in any way.
Well I guess I know which carrier I won't be signing up for when I get back to the US.
Almost sounds like your best bet is to just buy new phones in China since they're different from most of the rest of the world? I know the 6 isn't available over there yet, but it sounds like it will be soon. You can sell the 5 in the U.S. and get around $200 for it. No need to worry about getting it unlocked either since it already is for AT&T and T-Mobile.
I think what our esteemed colleague is trying to say is that the Verizon iPhone 5 wasn't revised for AWS compatibility, which will not allow it to connect to T-Mobile's HSPA areas that have not been "refarmed" to the PCS band.
Of course Verizon will tell you this. I got the same bs speech from those fools. I had a 5 I tried to use on T-Mobile last year and got 4g and not LTE speeds. They will tell you any lies to get you to stay. I cancelled lines yesterday and wasn't asked why. They don't care if customers leave because they get new ones almost everyday.
T- mobile works good where we live so we switched because they are much cheaper than Verizon. I don't miss Verizon at all. The 5s does can do wifi calling on T-mobile and gets LTE.
That's pretty crappy to straight up lie to people in order to make them feel like they have no option than to stay with them.
The thing is in the days of strictly CDMA phones, it was true that you can't use Verizon phones on other carriers. Quite likely, people are still stuck on that mentality. I don't really blame employees if Verizon corporate doesn't train or purposely misinform their employees.
I have been with VZW for quite a while and have had nothing but good customer service encounters. My friends and family are the same.
Perhaps you and your friends should try harder to be something different than you are, as who you are and what you're doing doesn't seem to be working out so well. Just a thought.
Wow, so because you got good customer service before it means it's not possible for anyone else to get bad customer support?
They should change who they are and what they're doing?
Unreal
Obviously they ARE trying to be and do something different because it's not working out so well.
I suppose if you don't question what they tell you, have changing needs that coincide with what they offer, and pay what they want when they want it, it would be a good relationship.
Wow, so because you got good customer service before it means it's not possible for anyone else to get bad customer support?
They should change who they are and what they're doing?
Unreal
Wow, so because they got poor customer service it means it's not possible for anyone else to get good customer support?
I've seen you railing against Big Red before, but just the same, what I've seen over and over again is that when folks repeatedly receive poor customer service, there's a common denominator, and it's generally not the service.
The premise of the post I was replying to was that when being rude, disrespectful, etc., the poster allegedly suffered retribution. To begin with, I doubt the facts and plausibility of the story, but if anyone can't see that acting like a jerk gets him/her nowhere fast, then I'm not sure there's much helping them.
I'm not one to defend a corporation, especially such deep-pocketed ones that are certainly capable of wrong-doing, but there are incomprehensible levels of rudeness, self-entitlement, and half-truths on these forums (see "Bendgate), so I always take comments like these with a grain of salt.
Lol#
I never had bad service from Verizon cause I never had them as a carrier.
But just like with any company you will get good and bad customer support reps.
How hard is that to comprehend?
I never had bad service from Verizon cause I never had them as a carrier.
But just like with any company you will get good and bad customer support reps.
How hard is that to comprehend?
Apologies for misremembering.
Not hard to comprehend at all; having several claims of people's lines/accounts being cancelled because of curse words, however, is hard to comprehend (read: believe).
Last edited:
One....if you were actually reading you would have realized this never happened to me, but to two people I know.
Two....they swore. According to them, they were just frustrated at Verizon's service. So in your mind they should change because an overbearing company feels like they can control you?
Third.....no one gives a flying **** about Verizon; including me. If they ever cancelled my service, even shortly, for something so stupid, I would leave them that day. Therefore, they would lose 2 years of potential profit because someone swore on the phone. God forbid. Great policy.
Not to mention, people post comments ALL THE TIME about how dissatisfied they are with Verizon's customer service. I have heard various horror stories for years about their service.
Like the other poster stated, some people kiss ass, fork over tons of extra funds without question, and never stand up. Those are the people who think they are getting good service.
I called Verizon yesterday to simply ask how their "surcharges and fees" are calculated and was transferred back and forth between 2 departments 6 times over the course of an hour. No one could answer the question and they were all rude and arrogant. I got a little aggravated after about 45 minutes and they got even more rude. They didn't care that they wasted an hour of my time. Not even an apology. **** them!
I can see how that would be frustrating.
You sound either really angry or like one of those internet hard-asses, maybe both.
I can't speak for others, only for myself and what I've experienced in these forums.
Also, I love how being satisfied w/service equals being a kiss-ass sheep. Some people I know were recently really pissed about receiving a free U2 album as well.
Apologies for misremembering.
Not hard to comprehend at all; having several claims of people's lines/accounts being cancelled because of curse words, however, is hard to comprehend (read: believe).
I don't know about that rule though.
Yes the tech support doesn't have to take any verbal abuse by anyone and can end the call at any time and deny any help unless spoken respectfully.
But to shut off the line completely?
I don't think I heard of any other company doing that to their customers.
Here are the contract terms quoted:
WHAT ARE VERIZON WIRELESS' RIGHTS TO LIMIT OR END SERVICE OR END THIS AGREEMENT?
We can, without notice, limit, suspend or end your Service or any agreement with you for any good cause, including, but not limited to: (1) if you: (a) breach this agreement; (b) resell your Service; (c) use your Service for any illegal purpose, including use that violates trade and economic sanctions and prohibitions promulgated by any US governmental agency; (d) install, deploy or use any regeneration equipment or similar mechanism (for example, a repeater) to originate, amplify, enhance, retransmit or regenerate an RF signal without our permission; (e) steal from or lie to us; or, if you're a Postpay customer; (f) do not pay your bill on time; (g) incur charges larger than a required deposit or billing limit, or materially in excess of your monthly access charges (even if we haven't yet billed the charges); (h) provide credit information we can't verify; or (i) are unable to pay us or go bankrupt; or (2) if you, any user of your device or any line of service on your account, or any account manager on your account: (a) threaten, harass, or use vulgar and/or inappropriate language toward our representatives; (b) interfere with our operations; (c) "spam," or engage in other abusive messaging or calling; (d) modify your device from its manufacturer's specifications; or (e) use your Service in a way that negatively affects our network or other customers. We can also temporarily limit your Service for any operational or governmental reason.
WHAT ARE VERIZON WIRELESS' RIGHTS TO LIMIT OR END SERVICE OR END THIS AGREEMENT?
We can, without notice, limit, suspend or end your Service or any agreement with you for any good cause, including, but not limited to: (1) if you: (a) breach this agreement; (b) resell your Service; (c) use your Service for any illegal purpose, including use that violates trade and economic sanctions and prohibitions promulgated by any US governmental agency; (d) install, deploy or use any regeneration equipment or similar mechanism (for example, a repeater) to originate, amplify, enhance, retransmit or regenerate an RF signal without our permission; (e) steal from or lie to us; or, if you're a Postpay customer; (f) do not pay your bill on time; (g) incur charges larger than a required deposit or billing limit, or materially in excess of your monthly access charges (even if we haven't yet billed the charges); (h) provide credit information we can't verify; or (i) are unable to pay us or go bankrupt; or (2) if you, any user of your device or any line of service on your account, or any account manager on your account: (a) threaten, harass, or use vulgar and/or inappropriate language toward our representatives; (b) interfere with our operations; (c) "spam," or engage in other abusive messaging or calling; (d) modify your device from its manufacturer's specifications; or (e) use your Service in a way that negatively affects our network or other customers. We can also temporarily limit your Service for any operational or governmental reason.
How about we try to get back to the subject at hand? OP has a Verizon iPhone 5 that he or she wants to use in China. Easily done if they can find a GSM carrier over there that sells SIM cards separately. However, the major carriers over there seem to mostly support CDMA which is locked to Verizon for OP, and Verizon supposedly won't unlock it. So what does OP do? Escalate the call until they get it unlocked? Sell the 5 in the US and just buy 5s's or 6's when they become available in China?
Actually there is nothing that needs to be unlocked with CDMA devices.
Its only if the particular carrier allows the ESN number to be registered in their database and for the device to be activated on their network.
Again, the OP doesn't need anything from Verizon.
He just has the limitation of specific bands and frequencies and also has to deal with chinese cdma carriers that will or will not allow the specific device on their network.
Or he can try sticking to gsm networks only if possible there and hope he gets decent service.
Thanks for helping out!
(I hate Verizon as much as anyone here btw).
I guess I have no idea about CDMA band and ESN etc.
As you know, cell phone booth employees are not going to know about this kind of stuff whether you are in the US or China.
I may try with both CDMA (China mobile, I believe) and GSM carrier (China unicorn, I think) and see what happens.
I don't know if I can try without signing up though.
Perhaps the sales people have experience with people bringing iPhones from america so it won't be so difficult.
Last time when my lady brought her AT&T locked 5S, she couldn't use it on any network, although I don't know if she tried CDMA.
Good information is awfully hard to find around here.
A locked AT&T iphone will not work on any carrier at all besides AT&T.
That's the whole point of the lock
But an unlocked one will work on any gsm carrier.
I'd stop by the carriers store and I'm sure they have active sims available there where you can pop in and check them out for a little bit without having to sign up.
Also many people buy and bring unlocked phones from the US to china so they should know more details on what will work and will not.
Good luck and let us know how it went.