Verizon Wireless grills exiting customers about the iPhone
Verizon Wireless must be feeling the sting of losing customers to AT&T due the popularity of the iPhone. A reader just alerted us to a survey peppered with iPhone references that was presented to him upon cancellation of his Verizon account. The coup d’etat was the question that posed, “What could Verizon Wireless have offered to keep you as a customer?” Among the optional answers, iPhone. This is not fodder to spurn yet another resurgence in the “Verizon is getting the iPhone” rumor but it does suggest that Verizon is not turning a blind eye to the iPhone and is trying to gauge the negative effect, if any, the iPhone is having on its churn rate. Needless to say, we would love to peruse both Verizon’s and AT&T’s data to see how many of 4.3 million iPhone 3G activations in 2008 were former VZW customers. Anyone care to confess to leaving Big Red and going to AT&T to get your iPhone fix? Hit the jump for a few more pages from the survey.
Thanks, DN!
That’s kinda funny seeing Verizon had first crack at getting the iPhone but passed feeling the terms of the deal were too much.
Hindsight is 20/20.
Well I convinced my girlfiebd to leave verizon and come to AT
I just ordered 2 iPhones this morning, breaking my Verizon contract about a year early. I had been a Verizon customer for 5 years.
Verizon was offered the parnership with Apple the wanted to be in controll for Apple left and went to AT&T and so did I.
I love my iPhone and I am not that bothered by AT&T’s coverage they are places I can’t get verizon and the same can be said for for Verizon. However the reception is better with Verizon in more places.
i dragged my whole family from vzw to at&t for the iphone. we ended up buying three 3gs after getting the original as a gift.
i might be jumping to sprint to join that pre bandwagon
Is this really surprising?
No doubt Big Red looses customers for a number of reasons (crappy phone selection, crippled features within the available crappy phones, desire for the Iphone, etc.). I would hope they would be just as equally concerned about “ANY & ALL” of the reasons why customers might leave and not just for the “Iphone Itch”. I personally love the network coverage and general reliability but even I have to admit that AT&T’s great phone selection is killing Verizon despite AT&T’s problematic network.
I’ve stuck to verizon. primarily because AT&T’s service is WAY less than par around where I live.
I jumped ship from Verizon to AT&T the day the original iPhone was announced and couldn’t be happier with it. I then tried to persuade my wife to do the same and after two months convinced her, now I can’t get the iPhone away from her.
i decided to leave vzw/storm, after 3 months of playing with my coworker’s iphone. Now i’m a happy iphone user.
Though I have to pay 150 to cancel my contract on vzw. But I’d rather be a happy iphone user than a miserable – another 2 ursers of storm.
Screw the evil empire and the network with the least bars. I’ll be getting a Palm Pre on Sprint like Eric…
the iphone is certainly no blackberry its for kids and ppl who generally arent business oriented. So if you want an overpriced music player go for it and att’s coverage sucks so why would you want it.
Miss VZW coverage in the mountains (I live in Denver) and paid a huge ransom to drop VZW. But I do love this iPhone a great deal. It is one heck of a device.
Hey VZW I’m using a STORM on ATT… Instead of taking survey why don’t you make a offer to those of us who want to leave ATT.
I had the iPhone 3G for about a month, in addition to an Alltel Blackberry 8330 and was amazed at how many shortcoming people were willing to overlook just to say they have they iPhone. I remember using the iPhone while I was in Southern California and it would literally drop 3g while sitting stationary on a table. And the messaging capabilities were just so subpar that I honestly couldn’t see keeping the phone. Although the iPhone has a great wow factor after actually using it on a daily basis, I’m glad I have the curve.
I LEFT VERIZONS AMAZINGLY FAST AND BROAD 3G NETWORK JUST TO GET MY IPHONE FIX, ATT HAS DONE FINE FOR NOW, BUT ID DROP THEM IN A HEART BEAT IF VERIZON GOT THE IPHONE.
That’s why my wife and I left Verizon!!
I currently have Verizon and live in Chicago. I think VZW’s coverage is subpar here. Most of the time, my Blackberry Curve shows that I have 1x and not EVDO.
I too will be switching to Sprint when the Pre is released.
this story is the exact opposite of what i did. i am an ex-iphone user and i got rid of within months of having it. the iphone is a cute feature phone and that’s about it.
before the iphone i previously owned the HTC Touch (winmo phone) and it was a descent phone (besides the lack of memory) and i switched to the iphone and suddenly realized how much i missed the little things that i took for granted (for example, video capture, mms capabilities, excel, pdf viewer and so on).
i decided to go with the blackberry storm (first time BB user). now, i can’t see myself using another phone. sure, it has it’s faults but what phone doesn’t? once i got used to the surepress screen (took about a week), i fell in love.
the iphone is cute but i wouldn’t leave verizon to get it.
I had the iPhone for about four months or so and after going to an e71 & Bold (I have to use two phones), it certainly is amazing the stuff I, and others I’m sure, ignore just to have the phone.
Now that I have these other devices, there is not a chance that I would go back to an iPhone until the necessities for me are added.
The grass always looks greener on the other side I guess.
On an off note, I’m a frequent changer of phones and my heart sits pretty much in Nokia’s lap so, GSM ftw in my book. Wouldn’t ever go with Verizon/CDMA carrier due to the reasons listed by Dark Corbra.
Maybe this is a good thing if a major American network realizes Americans want a better selection of more advanced phones, but really the iPhone isn’t all that advanced and so Verizon will just continue to try and match it with another phone full of “wow factor” and very little utility that can catch on amongst the younger crowd.
Would it kill at least one American network to try and get first dibs on a real powerful upcoming phone and not a year late?
Something like the upcoming Omnia HD, the N97, LG Arena?
What is simply wrong about this poll is that it only allows one selection per question. If Verizon -really- wanted to determine the cause of lost customers, they would allow a ‘Top-3 Reasons’ [or similar] in order to scale this more properly.
Also, it doesn’t sound as if the Blackberry Storm earned any notice in Verizon’s line of questions. That’s interesting …
My bold drops 3G all the time. Our network is clogged with iphone customers. I wish winmo was faster or I would rock a touch pro all day!
Well i left verizon 1 1/2 year ago and yes honestly it was cause of the iphone, never had a problem with verizon and haven’t had a problem with AT&T ether, as a matter fact i’ll tell you am loving roll over minutes and cause of it i have never gone over my minutes and i do have the cheapest plan. AT&T is not the same as 10 years ago they have gotten a lot better so i can’t complain about ether company. The one thing i wish verizon could change is to give customers a break for once, damn it’s like it’s always about the money with them, AT&T got roll over, T mobile got my fave, Sprint has calling plans with free incoming and has really good plans, Verizon? the only thing you will get from them is a higher monthly tax than everyone else.