For all of you saying you are going to upgrade to a different phone

Question

You need to realize that you are doing exactly what Verizon wants you to do. They want you to buy new phones and sign new contracts as often as possible. I see people in many of theise threads saying they are waiting for their upgrade or asking for an early upgrade from Verizon to buy an iPhone or an HTC or a phone from any non-Samsung manufacturer. That's what Verizon is hoping you will do. That is why they are not providing you with the service they owe you. They make money every time you do this. 
While Samsung is certainly at fault here, the even bigger fault has been done by Verizon, whom we all pay large amounts of money monthly for service. Even if you paid full retail price for your Fascinate (which most have not) that is just a fraction of the money you are paying to Verizon. Stop rewarding Verizon by continuing to pay them for service they have not provided. Stop buying new phones and signing new contracts and continuing to let them get rich off of you when they despise you. 
There are other carriers out there (and all of them are cheaper than Verizon by the way). Verizon has treated it's customers like dirt (and that's the nicest thing I can say). I personally have been treated by Verizon like I am not even a human being and have been repeatedly insulted, lied to, and abused by multiple Verizon employees, not to mention robbed of the services I have paid for. I have been incredibly patient and accomodating and given them every opportunity to do the right thing and at every turn they choose to be the worst they possibly can. This is a company with no conscience - both corporately and as individuals. I have never been treated so badly in my entire life and I have not done a thing wrong here. As a result, I am switching to a different carrier in 3 weeks so that Verizon will never get anymore of my hard-earned money. All of you experiencing these same problems should do the same. 
Just this week, I have talked 5 people out of getting Verizon service. I consider this a public service and plan to do this every chance I get for the rest of my life. I am not the only person doing this either. Each of the FedEx employees who have delivered my refurbished phones have all told me they would never get Verizon service and advise everyone they know against this. This is because they see Verizon send out broken phone after broken phone after broken phone to the same customers who are without functioning phone service for several months. Also they say that the Verizon customers are always unhappy when they get the delivery but when they deliver for other phone companies, people are usually happy to be getting their phone. 
Verizon needs to start paying attention. Their own delivery service talks bad about them. Their customers talk bad about them. Their once good reputation had done a 180 in a short period of time. If they don't wake up, they will go the way of other companies that people don't even remember anymore. But they are not going to change a thing as long as you all keep paying them all this money. You're making it profitable for them to screw you over. Only if customers leave them or don't sign up with them in the first place, will they have any incentive to change for the better. Buying a new phone, signing a new contract, or continuing service with them without a contract is just asking for them to treat you and others badly and steal your money.

Answer 1

I was at a holiday picnic yesterday, and every person there with Verizon phones were having problems and complaining about Verizon. This started when one person was trying to reach his daughter and his phone kept rebooting when placing a call. He asked to borrow someone else's phone and several people in a row told him their phone was useless and to try someone else's. It turned out each one was a Verizon customer and we all started talking. Each one had their own horror stories about Verizon customer service. Several had been with Verizon for over a decade. We are all leaving Verizon. It's not that we think some other carrier is going to be perfect or that phones won't have problems - it's that Verizon has treated each of us in a despicable, inexcusable way and we just can't continue paying them for it.
Then this morning I was at a coffeeshop and there was a large family sitting at the tables next to me. One of the adult brothers was telling one of the others how his pregnant wife had been having pain yesterday and tried to call him while she waited for the ambulance. She kept getting his voicemail (he had a Fascinate and was missing calls but did not know it until this happened). It was early in the pregnancy and he did not have a pager. He finally got the voicemail after he had to reboot his phone for some other problem. After his wife was found to have a treatable, non-pregnancy-related issue and taken care of, he called Verizon to tell them what happened and to ask for a working phone. The customer service rep said there was no problem with his phone, refused his request, and was heartless and cruel to this man who was worried about his ill pregant wife. Both the brothers and another family member decided right then to go next door to Radioshack and switch to different carriers. Two went with Sprint and the other got a Virgin Mobile phone. The one with the wife is still under contract but said the safety of his family is more important than the fee to cancel his Verizon contract and that he plans to fight that fee based on what he experienced. The rest of the family is going to do the same when their contracts are up and most are going to try to get out of their contract early.
I keep running into people every day now that are being treated just horribly by Verizon. I used to recommend Verizon to everyone. They used to pride themselves on good customer service. The change in behavior is giving me whiplash. They seem to pride themselves on treating customers as badly as humanly (or inhuman-ly) possible. There is a company-wide policy to lie. They have been instructed to not provide service to customers and not to keep their end of the contract. They have been instructed to milk every cent they can out of every customer no matter the circumstances. They have been given reign to openly abuse customers, not only without consequence, but evidently are encouraged to do so and are backed up by supervisors who pile on their own abuse. I'm in disbelief. For myself, I am just  about 2 1/2 weeks away from freedom, but I still feel deeply for others who feel trapped in this situation and are being mistreated.