Verizon, Where for Art Thou?

Let the record show I have been a happy Verizon Wireless customer for over 15 years. I can remember back in the day when cell phone bills could catch you off guard to the tune of $800 if you did not pay attention to your usage.

I have kept every cell phone I have had going all the way back to my original Motorola flip phone. You know, the blocky square phone with the big floppy plastic antenna?
Anyway, now that I have moved outside of town I seem to be having constant connection issues with Verizon. For some reason out on the farm around 10 p.m. all of my text messages will stop going out. I still get incoming messages but all the outgoing lock up. Incoming voice calls will sometimes go straight to voicemail. The only way I know that someone called me is when the voicemail icon pops up and I listen to the message.

So I called Verizon and told them about the problem. My Droid  Incredible 4G is brand new. It replaced my Droid Incredible version 2 that I got in August of 2012. I really liked my Incredible 2 but it locked up on me two weeks before I moved to Oklahoma. Still under warranty, Verizon sent me a replacement free of charge and that is how I acquired my new Droid Incredible 4G.

After calling Verizon about the issues I'm having,  it appears that the only solution (for now) is to buy an external antenna for the farmhouse. A good Wilson brand runs $250 and is sold at Walmart. As much as I like electronic gadgets, I find this is unacceptable.

In the meantime, verizon says it is working on a solution and is also attempting to determine if they have a cell phone with a better internal antenna. If they ever return my call (to tell me they have found a better phone) then I suppose I will try it . But I really don't like switching equipment very often. The more advanced the smart phones become, the longer the learning curve becomes on how to use them.

One very helpful Verizon tech researched my situation and told me the nearest cell tower is about 15 miles southeast of me. He is the one that recommended the external antenna and advised me to aim it in the southeastern direction. The odd thing is that my phone always shows that I have a good strong signal when I'm at the farm. So it is a little confusing.

Folks around town are telling me that Verizon is not very good out here. They recommend I switch to AT&T or something local. After being with Verizon for so many years I really do not want to switch companies. I am kind of a loyal customer in that respect. I feel my cell phone bill is reasonable and so is their customer service. Most of all I like the unlimited data package that I get.

So, do we have any Verizon employees or experts in the audience? Is there a fix to my problem? I'd really like to stay onboard but my job at the hospital requires me to be instantly available at any given time. I cannot risk a hospital emergency not making it through to my phone because of coverage issues.

~OJD