Verizon carriers outraged over local service issues

Lenah Allen, Thomasville Times-Enterprise, Ga.
·2 min read

Sep. 19—THOMASVILLE — Verizon is under fire after Thomasville residents have been complaining about issues with service connection in the downtown area.

Customers reported not being able to send text messages, make phone calls or even use social media sites without being on Wi-Fi around areas like Governor Square.

"It's been an absolute inability to utilize my phone anywhere in the Downton area out by Broad Street," James Deese, a Verizon customer said. "The closer you get to Broad Street, the worse it gets."

Deese took to Facebook on September 15 to share his frustrations of two years' worth of issues he's had with the carrier and received several responses from other residents with the same problem.

"The Totally Thomasville post, which is linked to the post I made on the Verizon page, has 136 replies with only two, I believe, saying they've had no issues compared to the other 100-plus," he said.

Numerous Verizon representatives have advised Deese to stay connected to Wi-Fi, among other suggestions he said haven't been helpful.

"They told me I was in an area that was not slated to be looked at in any extreme capacity," he said, "that they had network engineers that come out and check areas and ours was not anywhere high on the list, so they could not give me an estimated time that these issues could be resolved."

Diana Alvear, Verizon communications manager, said Verizon is currently working to enhance service in the area with a new cell site in progress.

"As with every network endeavor, we are working closely with the city to ensure we're meeting all of their requirements and getting approvals which will take some time," she said. "Due to unforeseen circumstances out of our control, we are experiencing some delays. We expect once these enhancements are in place, our network performance will improve."

Deese has since switched to another carrier and said anyone still experiencing issues with Verizon should do the same.

"It's already been two years; that means it could be another two years and I don't know about anybody else, but I'm not going to pay over $100 a month for something I can't use," he said. "The generic responses they provided and the overall lack of concern that Verizon has continued to display shows they don't care about us, so just hit them where it hurts."