My experience buying + using the mifi wireless card.

Recently, say six months ago, I signed up for the touted mifi wireless card via Verizon, which I’d heard many good things about.

A month ago, I found that the counter that measures how much you’ve used of your allotted service was being measured differently than how they measure how much your allowed to use—when I called in the customer service lady herself had to ask me to hold while she got out a calculator and figured out where I was at in my monthly allotted service. (Note: I’d paid hundreds of dollars for the card itself, and paid about 100 a month for wireless that, while wonderfully independent of a wireless connection, was so slow you couldn’t watch a video without it bumping along).

She came back on the phone, and reported that I’d used $250 dollars’ worth more than I was allowed. After talking the situation over for a few minutes, it became clear she didn’t really care and/or wasn’t empowered to give me a pass for this pricey one-time mistake.

Did I say one-time? She reported that I’d gone over before. I never received any notification. I was paying through the ear for a slow service that didn’t let me know what my limit was in the same way they measured my allotted service. She transferred me to a manager, at her suggestion, despite refusing to answer my question: can the manager help me any more than you?

The manager asked me my story, wasted another half hour of my life, and refused/declined to do anything.

I could have stayed with the service, and called in every couple weeks. Or I could have paid for a more expensive allotment. Given that I was already paying a healthy amount more than I’d pay for a blazing fast wifi service from Comcast in my home, I declined that ridiculous option. I said I’d have to leave unless they could help me. Sorry, they said once again.

So I paid the $250 overage fine, on top of a $350 card, a $75/month service…

…and a $150 cancellation contract.

Thanks, Verizon!

Finally, I checked in with some friends re their Verizon customer service experience.

The absolute worst, my accountant—who’s worked with them all for her various clients—enthusiastically reported.

So my question is, Verizon, if you care what we think, why don’t you prove it? Until then, it’s bad press, bad tweets, bad facebook posts, bad word on the street, and…sayonara.

I guess I’ll go back to Comcast for my wireless internet.