Verizon Rant!

widgeon13 · 06-17-2011, 06:14 AM

My 90 Y.O. MIL fell a week ago and broke her pelvis in two places, so has been in the hospital, two and half hours away from us. We have been up on four occasions to make sure things are going well in the hospital stay as well as in rehab. Things have not gone well but I think we are moving in the right direction as of today.

At her age she is not good with technology so a cell phone for calling is probably not a good introduction at this time, enter the Verizon services to the rehab facilities. She was moved to a rehad that is just short of concentration camp environment. This happened w/o my wife's knowledge and we are having her transferred to a much better facility today. The interesting thing is that it takes 3 days to get the phone connected according to Verizon but it only takes less that 12 hours to have it turned off as evidenced by my wife's effort to transfer the service yesterday from the concentration camp to the new facility. They told my wife the service could not be activated in her mother's room until next Monday. My wife tried to call her mother this morning and the service had been turned off. Oh yeah, and they bill you in monthly increments, not expensive but it's the shltty service that really pisses me off.

If you can terminate the service in twelve hours WTF can't you turn it on in twelve hours.

I am truly beginning to understand why people go POSTAL when they feel they have no alternative.

Anyway, sorry to waste your valuable time but thanks for reading.

Groesbeck Hurricane · 06-17-2011, 10:43 AM

My 87 yo mother has a cell phone. It is a very basic one with nothing but large numbers on it. You HAVE to request these style phones because they are not always displayed. Hers is a samsung and it has worked well for several years.

Might this be an option? We did hers as an add on to our service, family plan type thing, and it is less than $10.00 per month on our corporate discounted plan.

I wish your MIL the best! That sounds worse than painful!!!!! Prayers to you and yours!

widgeon13 · 06-17-2011, 10:56 AM

Thanks very much, we're going to try a cell phone. Only option we have at this time. Just frustrating when it takes such a short time to turn the service off and 3 1/2 days to turn it on, doesn't make any sense to me but what the heck, I'm only the customer.

Appreciate the feedback.

jyl · jyl's Garage

There are phones for little kids that just have presets - you program in mom, dad, 911, etc. That might work, no hunting through the menu and squinting at teeny font. Verizon Migo I think.

Radioactive · 06-17-2011, 08:31 PM

This is what we got the MIL

Jitterbug Cell Phone for Seniors | Jitterbug Phone Reviews

widgeon13 · 06-18-2011, 02:38 AM

All good options, we're making it through the weekend. She has a cell someone loaned her and seems to be doing OK with it.

Fortunately, she had her medic alert pendant when she went down. Just like the TV commercial. "Help I've fallen and can't get up"

Give me patience!

Thanks for the recommendations.