When Verizon Stops Working For You

2/26/04

Verizon Wireless has long had a slogan of "We Never Stop Working For You". Unfortunately, that's not always true. Today, Verizon stopped working for me. No, my cellular phone didn't get turned off. Nor did my DSL or home phone(s). Rather, their customer service and policies stopped working for me. Verizon Wireless also has what they call their "Worry Free Guarantee", part of which states:

"If you ever have a problem, it becomes our problem the first time you call. No run-arounds, no hassles. If your issue can't be resolved during the course of your first call, we will take the responsibility to get back to you with an answer."

Another portion reads:

"Your satisfaction is guaranteed on any equipment you purchase from us. We provide a 15-day satisfaction guarantee on any product you buy from us. You pay only for the service you've used."

Now, I'll preface this by saying that all the sales and customer service reps I spoke to today were cheerful as could be and did at least try to help. The problem is that the are limited to Verizon's policies, which are not perfect. As the saying goes, "The devil is in the details" and its those very details that sometime don't work for customers. I have been a customer of Verizon since before Verizon even existed as a company and back when it was Airtouch Cellular. I have been a loyal customer for over 9 years. In fact, I was also upgraded to being a "Gold Premium" user because I constantly exceeded my airtime each month (a base plan of $70.00 a month, but an average bill of closer to $200.00 a month). As such, I was accustomed to getting free or extremely discounted phone upgrades, car chargers and batteries at no charge, etc. This all went away after Verizon took over.

So here's my problem: until recently, I had a Dell Latitude notebook. I purchased the AirPrime PC3220 wireless network card from Verizon, agreed to a one year contract, and started paying $80.00 a month to browse the web when traveling, at speeds roughly 2x to 3x faster than standard dial-up. Verizon's coverage was quite excellent and the wi-fi connectivity was decent. In fact, I made the purchase prior to vacationing in Hawaii and was pleased to find that Verizon was the *only* cellular ISP that covered almost all of the main island of Oahu.

Just recently, I broke down and bought a new IBM Thinkpad T41 Centrino based notebook. After getting everything installed and ready for use, I attempted to install the software for the PC3220 card. The software installed just fine, but the Mobile Connection Manager software wouldn't see the card. If I tried to connect anyway, it would ask if I wanted to "power up" the card, but would time out about 5 minutes later and not work. The Device Manager showed an "Unknown USB" adaptor, but interestingly, Windows said the device was working fine (odd since unknown devices usually don't work fine). I checked out the Verizon Wireless website and downloaded an update for the Mobile Connection Manager software, hoping it would resolve my issues. Part of the software update includes a firmware update for the card. Unfortunately, it couldn't detect the card and kept erroring out. I eventually had to hit cancel and abort the upgrade.

I had already done a few google searches and discovered that this was also an issue on an IBM Thinkpad R31 series notebook, as well as a few Dell Latitude D800's. Its worth noting that the IBM Thinkpad R31 and T41 (which I have) and the Dell Latitude D800 are Centrino-based systems with USB 2.0. The Air Prime PC3220 seems to install as a USB device, so perhaps this is part of the problem? One of the links I found while searching google mentioned a "power issue with the USB bus", so perhaps the power management features of the Centrino chipset are to blame? Considering that the Mobile Connection Manager software asked me if I wanted to "power up" my card, perhaps this is a sign.

So at this point I finally humbled myself and called Verizon support. I pushed more buttons than I can remember including entering my mobile number at least three different times, only then to finally get on the phone with Jamie, who then asked for my mobile number??? I must say, though, Jamie was so helpful that I almost had a hard time being upset. But then I remembered to be angry at Verizon policy, and not Verizon's support rep. After explaining my problem to Jamie and having her put me on hold for five minutes while she talked to a Level 2 engineer, she came back and said it was a "known issue" and that the Sierra Wireless Aircard 555 card was both comparable and known to work. She offered it to me for full retail and said she could get it right out.

Now here's where I had a big problem. The Verizon Wireless website only lists Windows 95 to XP, a Pentium CPU, and 64Mb of RAM as the minimum requirements. No where on their website do they say that the PC3220 cards don't work with some notebooks and include a list, nor do they mention anything about compatibility with Centrino-based systems. [In fact, prior to the today's issues and prior to my discovering that the card won't work with my new Thinkpad, I had called Verizon's sales department to inquire about upgrading to the newer Air Prime PC5220 card for the faster speeds. The sales guy I spoke with was more than happy to sell it to me (I chose not to due to the price), yet searches on google reveal that the newer 5220 have the same issues as the 3220. Apparently, Verizon's technical support and sales departments don't communicate too effectively.] So as far as I was concerned, I had a system that matched the requirements for the PC3220 card according to the Verizon website. Since it didn't work with my system, I should either get a full refund and allow my contract to be broken early without termination fees or be given a card that does work. Considering that VerizonWireless.com advertises the AirPrime PC3220 card and the Sierra Wireless Aircard 555 for the same price, you'd think the resolution would be obvious: send me a new, known-to-work card, and let me return the other one. Unfortunately, the only good resolution wasn't available to Jamie. In the end, she was able to send me the Sierra Wireless Aircard 555. Its been charged to me at the website price of $199.00 plus tax, but once I receive and activate it and agree to a 2 year contract, I'll get a $100 rebate in the mail 4 to 6 weeks later. She also put a $50 "early re-up" discount on there, so in the end I'll pay $49.00 plus the tax of the original $199.00 and I'll be stuck with a two year contract at $80.00 a month. No, its not the best solution, but it sure beats paying the regular, full retail price of $249.00.

My gripe is with Verizon's policies. In this day and age of technology and our continued shift to digital everything, customer service shouldn't suffer. I met all the requirements published on the Verizon website for the PC3220 card. A sales rep even offered to sell me a PC5220 card after I told him I had an IBM Thinkpad T41. Now, I don't believe that Verizon should test everything they sell on every system out there. However, it doesn't take much of a google search to realize that this wasn't an isolated incident. There appear to be many systems out there that don't work with the card that Verizon is offering. Verizon needs to either A) pull the card, B) update their site and sales staff to check for compatibility prior to purchasing, and/or C) offer an across-the-board trade for customers that are stuck in contracts with equipment they cannot use.

I'm off to put the PC3220 card into my old Dell and flash the firmware via the Mobile Connection Manager software update and see if will then play nicely with my Thinkpad.

ATTN VERIZON WIRELESS REPRESENTATIVES: should you stumble across this and realize the error of your ways, and offer to remedy this situation further by sending me the Sierra Wireless card at absolutely no charge, I will be happy to update this page to reflect your commitment to customer service.


Update 2/27/04: Last night I put my PC3220 card into my old Dell Latitude (this card used to work well with this system). I updated the Mobile Connection Manager software that included a firmware update for the card. The USB bus on the PC3220 was now seen as a Lucent USB Host within Device Manager. I then upgraded the Mobile Connection Manager software on my Thinkpad T41, but skipped the firmware update. My hope was that the newer drivers in the update combined with the newer firmware might cause the card to play nicely with my T41. Unfortunately, it did not. The card is still not usable in my T41.


Update 2/27/04: At least in this entire fiasco I have found one added benefit. The new Sierra Wireless Aircard 555 appears to play well with Linux. [article] In fact, the Sierra Wireless website even has an unsupported how-to for making the Aircard 555 work with Linux. My PC3220 card seems to be seen under Linux as a USB device, but no one has been able to make it work according to the google searches I've done. So the angel on my left shoulder realizes that paying an additional $50.00 to get a card that A) works with my new notebook, B) is known to work with certain PDA's, and C) fully supports Linux, if not officially, is worth it. Of course, the devil on my right shoulder was quick to point out that Sierra Wireless Linux How-to says it was tested on RH 7.0 and 7.3, and Mandrake 8.1 which says something about the age of the card and its underlying technology. And considering that all the newer cards being offered by Verizon are the wireless broadband cards with average speeds between 150k and 300k and bursts to 2mb, I just paid $50.00 for a card that will be out-dated in 3 months. But Verizon's wireless broadband is only available in two areas right now, my home town of San Diego being one, but I want it for traveling so it wouldn't do me much good anyway. Perhaps the newer AirCard 580 will be worth upgrading too in a few more months... after its released and after Verizon has expanded their wireless broadband to more markets. Though whether it will support Linux remains an unknown at this time.