Beatweek Doesn't Get It--WHY I WILL BUY A VERIZON iPhone

http://www.beatweek.com/news/7807-when-verizon-iphone-doubles-marketshare-analysts-will-choke-on-words/


I must say that your characterization of AT&T and the "haters" is wholly misguided. 


I'm a current AT&T (which is actually SBC) customer who has allowed his phone upgrade eligibility to come and go in June in order to wait out the Verizon iPhone. I've had two iPhones, and had ordered the fourth generation product reluctantly amidst a year of billing issues with the company I like to refer to as SBC&T.


I only considered remaining a customer because of the hype over the new iPhone. I was hooked, and had preordered my phone on my first day of phone upgrade eligibility. My 3Gs had died and I was back to using a crappy LG non-smart phone in the interim. I had waited six months using that phone (which has now lapsed to 12 months without iPhone) because I wanted to get the best apple product possible when I finally upgraded again.


I was also aware of AT&T's illogical pricing structure. They are so tone-deaf to customer concerns that I knew that there would not be a discounted rate for the 3Gs when the new phone came out, and AT&T had just announced the eradication of unlimited data plans in favor of further attempts to monetize their services.


Well, when I heard about the technical issues with the iPhone, and the AT&T driven signal indicator issue (that's so typical of AT&T to mislead their customers), I canceled my order for the phone.


All the while I was working on hour 48 of a standoff with AT&T about billing practices and errors with my DSL, bundling, and phone. I'd been given bad information at every level, charged fees because of what a store manager told me, which contradicted what a tech told me on the phone, which was not comprehended by a customer service rep, and so on. This ordeal has stretched for 14 months now.


I've resigned myself to strip down my bill to bare minimum services (which I am still being overcharged for) and wait it out. I've been looking at Sprint and the EVO, but have mostly been waiting to shift to the Verizon iPhone when it arrives. I'm even willing to pay the bloated termination fee which AT&T has instituted to coincide with Jan1, 2011, in an attempt to harm folks who intend to shift away from their horrific business model.


And as for AT&T and complaints. First, this is NOT AT&T. That company died when SBC bought the name during a merger with the company. AT&T wireless and Cingular were consolidated, as were their POTS services. SBC then did the Texas thing and pushed out the vast majority of the AT&T workforce to early retirement. They carried their aggressive business plan out to the fullest, buying the name AT&T without maintaining the quality inherent within.


They were trying to rehab their horrible image as a company, and they were willing to pay anything to accomplish that.


At the time they did have the biggest network of cell towers and service in the country, post-merge. That was not a lie then, but it is now. They've dumped towers throughout USA in the couple of years to follow, after they gained market share. They got us in the door that way.


But when the service became compromised as they shut down AT&T's previous assets, and pushed out all that Telecordia had represented as an industry standard, the customers began to suffer. I have now had enough.


That said, I used to work as a contractor for AT&T, SBC, Ameritech, Verizon, US Cellular, T-Mobile and other service providers. I built a lot of their equipment, and was a liaison and quality auditor for SBC and AT&T separately. AT&T and Verizon were always the best two companies to do work for.


SBC was trying to model their quality program after AT&T for years pre-merge, but failed miserably. Their people just couldn't get past their own incompetence. Then, once they bought the name, it no longer mattered. They could drag AT&T down to their level, where it resides today as the worst-rated company of any sector of the U.S. economy.


So don't try to obfuscate. I'm a former insider, and soon to be a former SBC&T customer. I've been saving up for over a year, suffering with a non-smart phone, and overpaying AT&T while biding my time. I'm done being abused by this company. I'm more than willing to give Verizon a shot.