Suggest you try Cingular then.

I do agree with part of your post. Unfortunately, Verizon Wireless stores
have become the new Department of Motor Vehicles, but worse, except for the
wait. Imagine if the DMV employees knew as little about their jobs as the
VZW staff.

I believe that the management at VZW is fully aware that the staff in their
stores is incapable of solving the problems and answering the questions of a
certain percentage of their customers, but they have made a corporate
decision at very high levels. The choice was to educate ALL of their staff
to equal or better knowledge than ALL their customers, at great expense, OR
to target a minimal level which would satisfy 90% of their customers. I
can't really say that from a strictly business standpoint, it was a bad
decision.

Simply put; the average rep in the stores I've visited has no idea what the
PRL is or what it does. Therefore, if I go in with a PRL problem, they are
likely incapable of solving it. However, less than 10% (probably more like
5%) of their customers know or care what a PRL is. Management knows this, so
they know in advance that 5 or 10 or whatever percent of customers will not
get their problems solved in the store. They also know that the level of
knowledge they target CAN satisfy 90-95% of customers, and that's good
enough for them.

It might cost VZW hundreds of thousands (or millions) to educate the retail
staff up a level or two, and they've decided it isn't cost-effective. Again,
strictly from a business standpoint, maybe they're right. Remember the magic
formula Stores=RETAIL.

Of course, we of the 5-10% are the ones who bear the brunt of the
frustration. Oh, well. We of the minority also know that almost anyone above
the 1st level of PHONE tech support is worlds ahead of anyone in the stores.
Different kind of people completely.
Therefore, when we have a true technical problem, the store is the LAST
place we turn to.

Don't blame them in the stores, they are RETAIL staff, there to SELL. I
cringe when I listen to the questions they have to answer. How do I get a
dial tone on this thing? Sheeeeeit. If I sell my old phone to a friend, do I
lose the number with the phone? You gotta be kidding.

In recent years, I've owned Verizon phones from Moto, Audiovox, LG and
Kyocera. The Moto phones seemed to have the best signals, but recent models
(after the v60) have been buggy. I love my e815 to death, but it has quirks
that are inexcusable. On the other hand, I've owned 6 Toshiba-made
Audiovox's which were 100% bug-free, worked perfectly from out of the box
until retired. Signal performance: ok, but not "hot". My daughter had a
lower-model LG---bug-free, but poor signal. Wife's newest is a vx8300. I'm
very impressed with build quality, display, and audio. We haven't made a
trip to the boonies yet, so I'll reserve decision on the signal until we do,
but so far, so good. I didn't want to like the phone, but I do. It even has
sidetone!!!

Sorry you've had bad luck with VZW. Ours has been pretty good.

Dean

Try the Verizon kiosk in Circuit City.

Q

Go visit the cellphone kiosk inside a Costco.
Costco backs everything they sell without service contracts.

Lou

The question was asked in today's New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/28/technology/28pogue.html You can even get
one with a dial tone.

Well there's your problem. Verizon Online is for DSL. You need Verizon
Wireless.

As a Verizon Rep for a NOKIA 6256i.  It is a "combat ready" phone.
Yes, it has everything but it will make and recieve calls where no
other phone will.  It is 800 and 1900 Mhtz, CDMA and analog, what
sales staff try to call Tri MODE.

The NOKIA CDMA / analog phones will work in urban and rural areas. The
only place I have been without good coverage on an interstate east of
the Mississippi River has been a few (very few) interstate spaces in
the Appalachian mountains.  I am talking about places where even a GPS
box cannot see anything below 60 degrees elevation.

j

Stick with Verizon but do all your dealings on line or on the telephone!
I've learned the hard way that Verizon staffs all their stores with people
who are not qualified to do any more than breathe while the online personel
are very qualified.  Phone 'em or get them on line and NEVER go near the
idiots who staff the Verizon stores, you'll be amazed at the difference!

The newer Motorola phones don't have the charger connection problem that
you refer too (I have suffered from that as well, it's a real pain in
the butt).

You want to be sure that you get a tri-mode phone, and not an
"All-Digital" phone. This immediately narrows the choices.
Unfortunately, it's no longer easy to get a phone without a camera.

You never want to blindly buy a phone at a Verizon store, you want to do
your research first. Salespeople are trained to push the most profitable
handsets, with the most chance to upsell added services.

When you do buy a new phone, try to get it at Costco if you are a
member, as they have a far, far  better warranty than the Verizon
stores, or other dealers.

I never had the humidity problem, though I do have a phone that fell
into my swimming pool and I do see that red dot. I've been to very high
humidity areas (Florida in August) and have not had the dot turn red
problem.

I recently got a Motorola V325 and have been reasonably happy with it.
It has excellent reception, and the new charger plug (mini-USB) has
eliminated the problem of a bad charger connection. Motorola Phone Tools
makes it easy to manage the contact list on the computer, so you don't
have to enter numbers on the phone (though of course MPT also works with
the older Motorola phones). I did have to make some modifications to the
firmware to undo some things that Verizon made Motorola do to the phone,
such as disabling "vibrate then ring," and disabling the ability to use
MPT to upload ringtones, and download or upload photos. The voice
dialing is not very good, about half the time when you say "Name Dial"
it doesn't respond with "Say the Name" instead it redials the previous call.

The New York metro area is very problematic. Sprint and T-Mobile are at
1900 MHz-Only and should be avoided if good coverage outside urban reas,
and coverage inside big buildings is an issue.

Cingular is using the AT&T wireless network, which has capacity issues
(prior to the acquisition of AT&T, Cingular was using the T-Mobile
network in NY Metro, and T-Mobile was using the Cingular network in the
western region (California and Nevada). Also, Cingular and T-Mobile are
GSM-only, which isn't a problem until you get out into the boonies of
some states, where the only coverage is AMPS. So Verizon remains the
best choice if coverage is your primary concern, and all of the
independent surveys confirm this fact.

Look at all available phones. Goto Cnet and look at the reviews. Do
your own research. The yayhoos at the retail stores are minimum wage
morons just waiting to get off so they can score some meth.

What a moronic subject line. This troll suggests that the verizon network
is not carrying any calls because none of there phones work. Right.

Tough one. We are locked in...the others don't have the coverage VZ is
supposed to have......and I mean 'supposed to have'-as, in my job, I
travel a lot.....lots of issues with the service.
The store is one place I would not want to work....ever!

I have found problems with all the phones, excepting the ones that
were just 'phones'! They worked. However they did none of the other
non phone things. Now my 8300 does everything but eat---VZ does that
well I am certain of that.

I had to use my old Audivox 9500 for the six months prior to 'renewal'
time as it flat out had more power...then I find that the older phones
were allowed to be higher powered.......

We are victims of our own supposed needs to have and all in one
solution to whatever problem we think we have. I mean do I need to
carry around a phone that has dual speakers, can talk and listen to
me, can store up to 1 GB of data on an SD card, can store and play
lots of songs, can connect to my computer, etc?

If we want a phone we should just have a phone and at least be able to
complain about it's reception.
Now I have lots of gripes that I would not have with a plain jane
phone!
FWIW.
Tex

Not all Motos are bad.  I have been using an E815 for over a year with
no problems.  It holds a signal in fringe areas and has very good
audio.  Unfortunately, they are not offered in the stores, but you can
get one on eBay.

Ed