Future of Verizon/Alltel Combined Company?

well i wish them the best, but ill miss thier silly comericals.

 

I think I have have hit most of the levels of mourning - anger/loss/acceptance

I would love to be able to stomp my foot and declare that I will never let myself be forced into going back to a company that I left years ago for CS that was subpar in comparison to the gold star people I deal with at Alltel.

Being in a completely rural area I don't have any dillusions about going to At&t or T-moble. So I will pray that my contract will be grandfathered in as painlessly as possible. I have a couple of spare phones that I hope will be accepted on Verizon's network if something happens to my new one so I don't have to go onto one of their higher rate plans too quickly.

I have many friends at Alltel in sales and am hoping for the most part that they can continue in their capacity at the local Verizon stores and show them what true CS is.

Hopefully they see the customers and employees that they are inheriting in this business deal and can find a way to SERVE them in a manner that can be beneficial to all involved.

Sorry - I guess I'm in the sad and melancholy stage of acceptance. :O

 

I still think My Circle and other Alltel features will be grandfathered.
T-Mobile decided to keep UnPlan for SunCom customers.
(and nevermind that SunCom commercials are still on the air and UnPlan is still offered here).

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

Right but the speculation at first was that they were going to hold onto Alltel for roughly five years, generate cash to buy spectrum and build Alltel into a much larger carrier and then sell them off for huge profits.

TPG ended up making a bunch of money without having to put out for spectrum or wait for the networks to be built out, as long as the sale goes through.

The rumor is that Alltel made three separate offers to buy Sprint and all three were rejected.

 

My circle may be grand fathered but I don't see Verizon letting you keep Mobile to Mobile as well.

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

Exactly. Alltel's service agreement is also online and can be viewed from their website

 

Well I thought all / most of Verizon's plans include M2M aka "IN" calling....
So IMO, if My Circle could stay, then so can all other Alltel features.

 

Ok we all know that Verizon bought Alltel...

My concern is that are we going to loose the my circle numbers... nights starting at 7pm.. data service... and all the other things that Allte offers....

I really do not think that this is far... we are going to be forced to go to Verizon reather we like it or not... if we drop are service becaise of Verzon taking over.. do we still have to pay the cost to shut are service off... i have a friend who has Verizon and his service sucks... Verizon doesn't even offer service in much of West Virginia... is this going to change... will they start using Alltel cell towers or what... I think that us (Alltel Customers) derserve a answer from Alltel and yes also Verizon..... Is Verizon trying to take over all the cell phone companys...????

I would love to hear you feedback on this....

 

The deal is not official yet, still pending FCC approval.

Customers will be grandfathered, or else almost 13 million people will be mad at Verizon and leave.
Some people will stay, but most will not.
So if Verizon wants to keep most Alltel customers, Verizon will honor Alltels plans & features.

No, Verizon is not trying to take over the industry, but they are greedy .

I think if customers want out, then they could get out without paying ETF,
but only if the carrier violates the contract and/or service terms.

Not honoring Alltel's features is a violation of service terms, therefore you can get out without ETF.
But I think we can all complain to customer service enough if they try to take it all away, or just threaten to leave.
In my area, Alltel and Verizon are both offered, and are both very good overall.
Lets just hope that the spectrum doesn't get divested.

 

Verizon will, most likely, grandfather in all of Alltel's features but will not offer them in the future. The contract will not change, therefore if you cancel service while still under contract you will be billed an ETF. The Alltel contracts will carry over to Verizon and they will be leagally binding.

There is a clause in the Alltel terms and conditions that says:

"Assignment

We may assign this Agreement to another entity without any advance consent from or notice to you. You may not assign this Agreement without our consent."

 

You're probably right that they'll grandfather the plans. Had Airtouch before it was VZW and they grandfathered the plan and continue to do so.

But there is an out for Alltel if necessary. When "My Circle" originally rolled out I remember seeing somewhere on my paperwork there was a fine print disclaimer that said Alltel reserved the right to discontinue the program "My Circle" at anytime.

 

English please?

Alltel employees have no answers for you yet, and NO, Verizon has NOT bought Alltel...yet. It is all preliminary at the moment and nobody knows anymore that you have already heard in the news. When there is more to know, you WILL be notified via mailings and bill inserts, so watch your bills.

 

There is also a notice in it that states they can change the agreement at any point as long as they give you notice, but does not absolve you of having to pay any termination fees due to that. Oh, you could take them to court.......................oh wait, no you can't. You also agreed to BINDING ARBITRATION should you have any disputes.

Read those agreements closely, folks.

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

Moto when Alltel got sold the the investment group the end was near. Some of the most recent incentives were there for gaining customers to make the deal more lucrative. I agree we (the Alltel customers) were sold out.

 

Thank you for the cheerful news. As far as the sale of Alltel, it is a foregone conclusion. There may be some divestiture but the sale will go through.

 

So if alltel customers leave where are they going to go? Honestly for the technology and what the users are used to using Alltel and Verizon are about as close as any to carriers could be. (I am talking about the technology, frequency, phone processors, not phone ui, plans and things like that).

 

Such cheerful Alltel customer service!

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

Yeah... I still had hope they'd own the 700MHz auction but I should have known better. I thought Alltel really could have shaken up the industry if they had come out of that auction with a lot of major metro areas.

Oh well. I suppose when they sold to private capital firms I should have known this was inevitable.

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

yes thats agreeable.

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

Sure they are in it to make money and if it does not go to calculation they will cut it off.

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

I think the biggest thing that made it inevitable is the credit crunch. I doubt the investment groups could have gotten the financing to get even a decent amount of spectrum in the 700mhz auction.

We'd all be better off if the FCC used the 700mhz auction to implement a few national licenses and some spectrum ownership restrictions. We could have been guaranteed at least four national competitors. Now we're probably going to be stuck with two.

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

I think Sprint and T-Mobile will stay around. Both of them have nationwide licenses--Sprint has the PCS G block, T-Mobile has 1700 AWS. Not the same as 700, but they have access to every market.

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

I was primarily looking at it from a more rural perspective. Sprint and Tmobile are never going to have coverage up at my family's cabin. It is just too far from town. 700mhz and 800mhz gear would reach but that's going to be tied up in the two biggest companies.

 

Re: Future of Verizon?

I think that has to do more with the buildout requirements on cellular 850. 850 is better because it penetrates common construction materials, not because it travels farther.

Getting off-topic, but I think that's another reason to re-align ESMR as a cellular C-side. 14 MHz of ESMR (plus 2 MHz guard band for CDMA deployments) would give Sprint the superior 800 MHz properties. It's right below the A-band and it shouldn't be hard for radio manufactures to add "C-side" to their 850 chipsets. SouthernLINC, iPCS ,etc would still be able to use iDEN, but it would give ESMR all the same regulations as on cellular and promote some advancement.

 

What does my post have to do with Alltel CS? NOTHING. All I was doing was pointing out errors people have expressed. Errors I DO hear every day on the phone.

I am very nice on the phones, and extremely patient. I get screamed out and cursed out day after day, and just smile and take it even when I'm right and the customer is wrong. I HAVE to be nice there. Here I can state the simple facts and pull no punches. My post in no way is representative of Alltel CS.

 

This is the first I've heard of Verizon buying Alltel. I guess after my contract is up I'll be looking for another carrier. Verizon sucks and so does their customer service.

 

i agree with you 100% , but don't complain to much here
are you will be chewed up and spit out bad, take my word
for it, or just read some response's to my post about this sell.

 

Let'em chew and spit! I'm just going by experience. I hated Verizon the whole time I was with them. When I called about wanting to end my contract because I couldn't use my phone where I needed to they just said oh well or pay the $175 for early termination.

 

Did you consider the fact that VZW is probably buying Alltel because they want the coverage? So, when VZW buys your contract, you'll probably have the same or better coverage. The customer service will probably be absorbed too.

You, like so many others, didn't put your location in your profile. What other carriers are in your area?

So they did exactly what they said they would do on the contract you signed? Just like every other carrier. How is that bad customer service? Did they take away coverage that was there during your trial period?

I really think that's the worst argument for "bad customer service". Bad customer service is rude people, agents who tell you things you know are wrong, calling back gets you a different agent that will do different things, etc. Executing company policy according to a binding contract hardly counts.

Chomp, chomp.

 

I'm not bashing one company or another about coverage and the like, I just know that I hate going into our local Verizon store. I have to get batteries and such for my boss' phone and I've had root canals take less time than the wait I have to buy a simple battery. And they have yet to get it right the first time after giving them the Phone make / Model and account number. My guys are on the road so I don't have their phone in hand. So I make special trips just for this simple thing and get passed from rep to rep.

Alltel I walk in am greeted, browse a minute and waved to by the next available rep before I can sit down. Verizon I walk in, punch my name onto a computer, find an empty seat and pull something out to keep myself occupied as the cobwebs form while I watch the empty employee stations in hopes someone appears. The thought of paying 20-30 dollars more a month for this pleasure is just icing on the cake.