Federal Government Stupidity – Part 2
Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt
Federal Government Stupidity – Part 2
Part 2 of an occasional series
When Verizon wanted to merge with Alltel the feds allowed the merger but created a bizarre and weird system that disallowed most Verizon stores from servicing Verizon customers. How this increases competition eludes me.
So my son is traveling and goes to a Verizon store for service on his Verizon cell phone, and is told he cannot get Verizon service at a Verizon store because the feds will not allow it.
Huh? Excerpts from a Verizon email.
“Mr. xxxxx, when Verizon Wireless acquired Alltel and its markets, one of the stipulations from the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Comission, was that where overlap in markets existed between the two providers, Verizon Wireless would have to divest itself from these markets and sell operations to another wireless provider. You should have received a letter to this effect. You are in one of those markets.
Much as we would like to keep long-time customers such as yourself, it is not an option. This is why the store personnel no longer have access to your account information. Certainly, if you need support we will be glad to provide it. Simply send us an e-mail, or you may contact Customer Service at 800-922-0204. The store will not have your records. I do apologize for any further inconvenience this may cause.”
Duh. We still have a Verizon account, we just cannot get service at a Verizon store.
More government regulation please! It makes life easy.
I had an alltel phone, and when I moved into a verizon area, I was suddenly presented with $600 in roaming charges, even tho I had been paying an additional fee to alltel so that that wouldn’t happen. No warning whatsoever. Verizon customer service is legendary..I once spent six hours on the phone before they admitted that their equipment had the problem, not mine.
If they hadn’t been forced to divest, they would have had majority control over the cell phone market in the US–and their service hasn’t shown any sign of improvement. After the divestment, they have over a million more subscribers than AT&T, and it would have been a few millions more without it. To me, that’s a nightmare.