Author Topic: Business Cell Phone Service Suggestions (and Verizon rant)  (Read 3154 times)

abovethewaves

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Business Cell Phone Service Suggestions (and Verizon rant)
« on: February 27, 2024, 06:35:03 PM »
I know there are lot of threads on here about different low cost cell phone service providers (although the search function isn't super helpful in finding them), but I'm looking for opinions on a good Business plan.

I have been a customer of Verizon for 20 years - the last 12 under a business account. I started a new business this year and moved my 3 lines to the new Verizon business account. Their customer service has always been face melting terrible. The way they treat customers should be illegal, but it's rare that they need to be contacted and they supposedly have the best network, so I've always sucked it up.

While optimizing/reducing expenses is great, my priority for my business needs to be a super reliable service with all the bells and whistles. Good network, fast data, unlimited minutes, hot spot, etc. I'm on the phone all day and many days in the field. This is not a place for me to cut corners, so I've never considered the low cost options (although I could be wrong in that their services are any different).

Today may have been the last straw. I was a victim of checkwashing earlier this month and my checking was closed as a result. I logged into my VZ account, deleted my old account for AutoPay, added my new account info. and confirmed I was still on Autopay. 10 days later they push the Autopay through and I get an email the payment is returned. Turns out they billed the closed account which was deleted from my Payment Methods 10 days earlier instead of the new account which is now the only account listed in my profile. Then they charge me a $30 returned check fee and now I cannot participate in Autopay for 6 months which increases my bill by $15 per month.

I called CS and spent 90 minutes on the phone. Instead of just making it right..seems easy right...they pass me around to different people and finally a supervisor keeps telling me I'm dropped from Autopay because of the returned payment. Yes, a payment that should have never been drafted from a closed account! No one cares! Then after starting to speak to another supervisor my call is dropped. I do not blame CS people for this - I know it's not their fault so I try to be as reasonable and kind as possible, but that got me nowhere. After reading up on VZ CS online it seems like it's become a total dumpster fire where it just used to be a trash can fire.

Where do I go from here? I'm ready to pay whatever penalties I need to to drop Verizon for life! It's just too upsetting and as a small business owner I don't have hours and hours to spend on simple customer service issues. Is AT&T or Tmobile any better? Does an option exist that has great cell service and also some level of reasonable customer service? Bonus if it's a good value, but this is one area where I'm not looking for the lowest price.
« Last Edit: February 27, 2024, 06:44:27 PM by abovethewaves »

Daley

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Re: Business Cell Phone Service Suggestions (and Verizon rant)
« Reply #1 on: February 27, 2024, 09:10:52 PM »
It's hard to make decent recommendations when you don't really detail the nuts and bolts of your usage needs. You don't talk about how many minutes of airtime you use per month, or the best network for coverage in your area, or whether you need post-paid billing, or how much data you need, do you need domestic calling only or both domestic and international, or whether you need off-network roaming either domestically or internationally, and what sort of handset you own and whether it's carrier unlocked and/or actually supported and compatible on other networks here in the post 4G VoLTE world, as switching might require a different handset. You also don't mention whether you actually need true mobility with your phone service or not.... like, are you stationary in an office 90% of the time, or are you constantly out in the field traveling?

The thing is, with business plans, especially business plans with heavy phone minute usage, you typically gotta actually pay for what you need. There really aren't any MVNOs (mobile VIRTUAL network operators) that're going to truly deliver on their promise of "unlimited" minutes, as most of them have details in their terms of service agreement that defines "unlimited" as some nebulous non-number that's around the "average".

If reliability is also important, it's worth noting that there's at least 3-4 tiers of network tower priority with service. MNO (mobile network operator) postpaid (which is what you have) is top tower priority, and prepaid pseudo-MVNO MNO brands like Visible (Verizon), Cricket (AT&T), and Metro (T-Mobile) are second tier, and some larger postpaid MVNOs sometimes get second tier priority, but not all. Most prepaid third party MVNOs (RedPocket and US Mobile for example) get third tier priority or lower. This means, the more congested the tower, and the cheaper and more removed from the MNO the MVNO is, the lower the priority of service you'll get on what is likely already oversaturated towers. Most of the time, this isn't a big deal since overall mobile network service is crappy at best, and you won't run into problems, but times of natural disaster or massive network load from massive concentrated population events can cause problems on local infrastructure leading to dodgier service. It's also worth noting that most MVNOs have data speeds capped out at slower than the network as well, usually under 10Mb/s, and there'll be massive throttling on data overages down to around 100kb/s as most all of them promise "unlimited" data with high speed data packages up to a certain size. You'll also lose stuff like account comping for network outages like what AT&T had a few days ago with MVNOs. Lastly, it's better to go with bigger, more well known MVNOs over smaller outfits, as sometimes MVNOs can just... shut down without warning. So, higher risk, but not common. Still should be worth being aware of if you're deeply risk adverse.

Many MVNOs can have better customer service than the MNOs, but most do not. One of the ongoing problems within the industry is the fact that people are just willing to tolerate lousy to zero customer service. When paying big money for a business account with Verizon gets you treated like a meth-addled hobo, there's not much to say. Dealing with AT&T or T-Mobile directly with a business account isn't gonna be much of an upgrade, if we're being honest, and AT&T's customer service has gotten so bad, that if I have to use their network or infrastructure, I'll go out of my way to pay for someone else to be a middle man between me and them, even if it potentially costs more. Line must go up for the investors living off of their stock portfolio so they don't have to work and the C-suite demands their golden paycheck lifestyle, so the employees and customers suffer with cheap and lousy tools, poor service, and a gross undervaluing of labor. Enter enshittification, which isn't just for online platforms.

But, yeah. Hard to make a reasonable recommendation without knowing more. Unfortunately, there's really not any realistic suggestions for better/cheaper without knowing more. If you're mostly stationary, it's worth noting that "wired" services will be inherently more robust and reliable than wireless, and a lot of VoIP options now have call hunting where you can have the number forward and ring your cellphone as well. It's nearly a slam dunk to use VoIP if you're mostly in one place, especially if you have solid and reliable internet, doubly so if it's FTTP (fiber to the premises).

As for advice without knowing more? Read the terms of service agreements and fine print with whomever you're looking to switch to. Again, READ THE TERMS OF SERVICE AGREEMENTS AND FINE PRINT WITH WHOMEVER YOU'RE LOOKING TO SWITCH TO! When it comes to fine print and weasel words like "unlimited", less is more. Learn what your actual average and worst case usage is month to month, and talk with sales and support with whomever you switch to and ask pointed questions about what the best plans would be for that, and compare your notes and their suggestions with their legal boilerplate. It's worth noting that not all MVNOs have the same policies with payment issues like what you have, so it's important to check that, because some providers you'll lose your number within days of payment failure, where others will give you weeks. Accept the irrational reality that different data plans may provide different definitions of "unlimited" voice calling, and you might potentially have to pay for more data than you'd otherwise use to offset that issue. Nobody really offers "business tier" services anymore either, outside of the major carriers and ISPs.

Ultimately, don't be afraid to pay for what you need. Again, don't be cheap, pay for what you NEED. Prioritize your needs, and be willing to pay for what's the most important.

(Most MVNOs mentioned from this point technically qualify as postpaid MVNOs or MVNOs that offer postpaid plans, which are less likely to have boilerplate terminating your account for heavy voice services in the terms, outside of heavy roaming on partner networks, if they offer roaming at all. You're likely to have higher network priority than most other MVNOs, and they'll have plans that'll probably dovetail into more of what you're wanting.)

Anyway, outside of that and not knowing more, look into postpaid MVNOs like Consumer Cellular. They're AT&T/T-Mobile based, but don't provide international roaming. Their customer service is domestic, and good enough to keep the AARP blue-hairs happy. They don't really do business accounts, though.

If you want international roaming, the only alternative to the major carriers will be Ting (T-Mobile/Verizon) and Google Fi (T-Mobile). Dish owns Ting now, and customer service is but a shadow of the Tucows days. As for Google? Customer service? What customer service? Google doesn't pay humans for such things. That said, there's less to screw up with their billing and plans. Neither of these technically provide business tier services, either.

Beyond that, the only large MVNO I know of that specifically specializes in business plans only is Clearway (AT&T, Verizon), a subdivision of Tracfone, which is a subdivision of Verizon Wireless. Tracfone customer service? Yeah, so the usual problems with billing and support that somehow makes Verizon look saintly in comparison. It's prepaid. There's no frills, no roaming, bottom tier tower priority, but the only way you can exceed their per month voice minute cap is to make calls 24/7 with other calls on hold with call waiting during that 30 day limit. Their terms clearly cap 30-day period usage at 60GB of data, calling for over 43,200 minutes, or sending over 30,000 text messages (or 3,000 over a 24-hour period)... which realistically is one of the least bastardly terms you'll find with any of the Verizon/Tracfone sub-brands.

Hope this helps.
« Last Edit: February 27, 2024, 09:37:03 PM by Daley »

JLee

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Re: Business Cell Phone Service Suggestions (and Verizon rant)
« Reply #2 on: February 28, 2024, 04:59:08 PM »
FWIW I have had reasonably good luck with T-Mobile Business - I have accounts for several different companies and have a business account manager.  It's a lot nicer to email my business guy than it is to deal with the general customer service system.

If you want to PM me an email, I'd be happy to introduce you to my rep and have him point you to whoever you should work with in your area.

Daley

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Re: Business Cell Phone Service Suggestions (and Verizon rant)
« Reply #3 on: February 28, 2024, 06:39:38 PM »
FWIW I have had reasonably good luck with T-Mobile Business - I have accounts for several different companies and have a business account manager.  It's a lot nicer to email my business guy than it is to deal with the general customer service system.

If you want to PM me an email, I'd be happy to introduce you to my rep and have him point you to whoever you should work with in your area.

@abovethewaves I'd consider taking @JLee here up on that offer. If T-Mo's B2B hasn't fallen apart at the seams under the new leadership like the rest of their support has, it's seriously worth considering. (Though, it's also worth viewing your Verizon experience and the current consumer end of T-Mo as a cautionary tale of what is eventually waiting down the road.) Granted, it's also worth making sure T-Mo reception works for you, and your phone is actually compatible with their low-frequency 5G spectrum to fill in all the LTE service holes in the nation if you travel a lot, but if those two are a go? I've always said pay for what you need, and I've always recognized that some businesses live and die by reliable mobile phone service, and there's a reason why there really aren't a lot of business-centric MVNOs. 'Tis a different beast. If T-Mo can actually reliably work for you (and that can be a big IF given their massive Band 12 LTE spectrum holding holes this country, which is the backbone of their voice network), it's a better option than anything I can recommend if your usage legitimately needs a business account on a postpaid account direct with a mobile network operator.

Yes, there's a lot of caveats with my endorsement of this idea, and they're reasonable caveats worth understanding, but not what I'd call dealbreakers for anyone but people who live or frequent Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, or Wisconsin.
« Last Edit: February 28, 2024, 06:41:25 PM by Daley »

travel2020

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Re: Business Cell Phone Service Suggestions (and Verizon rant)
« Reply #4 on: March 01, 2024, 09:01:19 PM »
FWIW I have had reasonably good luck with T-Mobile Business - I have accounts for several different companies and have a business account manager.  It's a lot nicer to email my business guy than it is to deal with the general customer service system.

If you want to PM me an email, I'd be happy to introduce you to my rep and have him point you to whoever you should work with in your area.

Another vote for T-Mobile. I’ve been a business customer for about nine years and overall happy with their service. Have dealt with multiple business managers as well as their regular business support line (most recently last week) and they’ve always been fairly responsive in addressing the needs.

JLee

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Re: Business Cell Phone Service Suggestions (and Verizon rant)
« Reply #5 on: March 18, 2024, 09:17:14 AM »
ugh I think someone messaged me somewhere about this but I was traveling all last week and now I don't remember who, where / how, or if it was even about this thread. :(

If you did reach out to me and I didn't respond, please try again...

GilesMM

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Re: Business Cell Phone Service Suggestions (and Verizon rant)
« Reply #6 on: March 18, 2024, 11:02:33 AM »
As you say, Verizon has the best network and signal, so worth the aggravation.