Some Verizon customers in Cheyenne report they’re receiving credits to their accounts after complaining about the company’s 5G network for weeks while others say the company continues to give them the runaround.
Verizon users began posting on local social media a few weeks ago that they weren’t receiving 5G coverage.
Cheyenne resident Devin Mazzone posted April 4 in the Facebook group Cheyenne Community Connections that he wasn’t getting answers to his questions from Verizon about when his 5G service would return.
Several people responded to the post saying they were experiencing the same problem. Some had switched to AT&T or were T-Mobile customers and said they weren’t having 5G problems.
A person answering the phone at the AT&T Store in Cheyenne said the provider has its own 5G network separate from the infrastructure used by Verizon and haven’t been receiving any complaints from customers about it.
Refund
After Mazzone requested a refund, he was given a $20 credit to his bill April 10.
“I think it’s nice to not have to pay for a service I’m not receiving. However, I’d gladly pay for a faster and more reliable service,” Mazzone told Cowboy State Daily.
Mazzone posted in the Facebook group that day about the credit, including texts he received from Verizon saying the credit was posted to his account. He encouraged anyone who isn’t receiving service to contact the company.
Sammie Bryson, who also lives in Cheyenne, had posted in the group April 8 that she hadn’t had 5G service since the beginning of March and included a screenshot from her phone from a Verizon agent saying there was a network service disruption that would be fixed that afternoon.
She replied to Mazzone’s April 10 post that she still had no 5G service.
Troubleshooting
Verizon didn’t respond to Cowboy State Daily requests for comment about which customers would be offered the credits, but a few people have posted in the Cheyenne Facebook group that they were given them.
In an email last week, Karen Schulz, a Verizon spokesperson, said the company was in the process of upgrading its 5G Ultra Wideband network and that there would be “growing pains” during the process.
Cheyenne resident Rhianna Herrera tried to get the company to give her a refund, but said she was denied the $20 credit.
“I was told they could only give me $10. It took me an hour to even get the $10,” Herrera said.
Before finally agreeing to credit her account $10, Herrera said the customer service representative took her through a troubleshooting process, which was the third time she’d done it. She said it’s never worked.
“I feel like they know exactly what’s going on, but they don’t want to say it. Why make everyone do troubleshooting if they know it won’t work? I can’t stand Verizon, honestly,” Herrera said.
Loyalty Discount
Another Cheyenne resident, Jeremy Brannon, on Tuesday posted in Cheyenne Community Connections a chat he said he had with a Verizon customer service representative offering him a “loyalty discount of up to $25.”
“I can see here that there’s still an ongoing issue on the service,” the representative told Brannon. “What I’m going to [do] here is to escalate this matter to our support teams to fix the 5G issue since it’s being taken care of at the moment by our engineers.”
Celina Langston was among those who replied to Brannon’s post. She said that she contacted Verizon, was told there is no 5G outage in the area and was refused any discount or credits.
Candice Osborn said the company refused to help her and told her she’d need to enroll in a more expensive plan.
Appreciate The Patience
The 5G network, which refers to it being the fifth generation of wireless digital communications, was an upgrade in latency times, which is the speed that a network responds to devices. That decreased latency can improve download and upload speeds.
Verizon began rolling out its 5G upgrade in March 2021 to an initial 46 markets, which covered 100 million people, according to a 2021 press release. By the end of this year, the company is expected to offer the service to 175 million people, and by 2024 will reach 250 million.
Schultz said last week that when the upgrades in Cheyenne were complete, customers would see improvements in video chats, video conferencing and high-definition audio.
“We appreciate our customers’ patience and understanding as we continue these dynamic changes and upgrades throughout Wyoming to provide the best possible network to visitors and residents in the area,” Schultz said.
