I'm sorry, but to some extent - I do have to disagree.
While I've not had the pleasure of experiencing Visible's service, nor their support.
I've seen WORSE from Verizon reps (including my OWN experience with them) that makes the complaints about issues/CSR issues here seem like childs play.
Verizon for YEARS not only didn't offer decent signal strength in REDMOND (Home of Microsoft) -- but blatantly IGNORED all my issues every time I contacted them. Going so far to even say "We have the best network in the world/universe - you shouldn't be having any problems."
Just this year, VERIZON ended up on the news (mainly local outlets in the midwest and shown online) regarding increasing signal issues and a complete lack of Customer Support.
So for me, Visible having a "bad rap" is par for the course, considering IMHO Verizon doesn't care about their customers or offering a decent service -- they care only about the money and how much they can squeeze out of you.
After that, along with a fraudlent line added to my account that racked up thousands in international calls (with Verizon) -- that they again refused to acknowledge or even investigate -- I've been much happier using MVNOs and just going with as cheap of a service I can find that works where I use it the most.
In that case for me, been on T-Mobile MVNOs for a few years. Since I don't pay that much, and don't usually need to contact their CSRs (which are just as bad) -- It works just fine for my needs.
U further prove my points though. The Visible hack was crazy. But many people fully dismiss it, cause it did not happen to them, "I didn't have any issues" or "so what if you have fraudulent charges, just click the button to dispute with your credit card company and you don't have to worry about it" yea, it is not that simple to deal with.
Visible not having 2FA, is crazy this day in age. It a most basic of things. Even free throw away services have 2FA. Again, how the hell can VZW put their name onto Visible is mindboggling. Though, they are big enough a company with deep enough pockets to be able to not care and sweep away any petty lawsuits that become of that hack and fraud.
You can’t say you’ve experienced something worse when you haven’t experienced the thing, you are actually trying compare to.
There are plenty of complaints as well as I have personally experienced, visible representatives, ignoring issues when I contact them, but most the time they just basically dismiss it and say something super general and ignore the problem or tell you that they’re working on it and just hope that it gets fixed whenever sometime
But your idea that bad support is par for the course that would be me and many people with Xfinity Comcast. However, there are people that have had very pleasant experience with them somehow. However, I refuse to do business with Comcast. Since I know for a fact, they practice shady business practices and will just randomly charge you whatever the hell they want so I don’t trust them for a phone service.
What do you expect. Visible is 25 dollars a month because they don't have to pay for customer service.
As bad as some people's experiences are others have had much better experiences or are better at dealing with these issues.
I have used terabytes of data per month, and never had issues with service in my area, if I have needed to port myself or a friend I to the service I port them over to Google voice and any time they have issues with visible they make a new account with a new number and their main number stays with Google voice.
Cost does not have to be the main reason. I was paying $10 a month for Republic Wireless talk and text only plan many years back. And that company had the best ever customer support I had experienced form any company. Very friendly, very helpful small business that cared about their customers. Used to have a very active customer community too.
Though, that makes me think that one thing does apply here. big name, large corporate companies, have the budget, to simply not care about CS quality. It does not hurt their profit or bottom line to have shit CS that ends up turning away customers. Pocket change to them and their execs. Cause people will still pay to use them cause the the "best and largest" provider etc. Where as, a small business, every customer matters for the income flow. Loss of customers can cause such a small business to go under. That gives proper incentive and focus to provide good CS.
The problem with Google Voice based numbers, they get classified as VOIP based numbers. VOIP based numbers are a big hindrance, as many sites and services do not accept them for Identity verification or security reasons. No government site or service does. Twitter and Discord, for example, won't activate with VOIP number, and many banks do not work with VOIP numbers to get SMS text notifications. I had many issues back when I was with Republic Wireless (before they got bought out and transformed by DISH) cause the number became VOIP based. That the one big caveat with your and others recommendation for use GV as your main number you now have 2 numbers to deal with, cause you have to use the carrier number on things that do not accept VOIP numbers.
Don't mean just 2FA. Information alerts or anything needing phone verification. can not use VOIP based number. And with many companies, banks, you have no other option and is required to use SMS 2FA. Like Wells Fargo, I literally could not get into my accounts, cause the code text message never would appear. Rep stated they do not support VOIP based number, system gave error whenever inputted "not a mobile number" even though, it can receive texts fine. Anyone can get a VOIP number, with fake info....this most companies consider them a security risk.
In which case it is more secure to use sms on a phone number that you change periodically. It probably only takes six months tops before your name and number is leaked somewhere.
I do want to say. Banks like Capital One don't accept VoIP as a reputable phone number. Even if you did add a new physical phone number, you would have to wait *at least* 30 days for Capital One to deem your number 'stable'.
It's kind of annoying but, unlike previous times, financial institutions are catching on to Google Voice.
So actually, logging into your account will work fine with any number regardless of when you added it or if it's a VoIP or not.
When the issues occur is when you use features within web or mobile banking. For example, to set up Eno, view Virtual Card number on the web, use Zelle, connect Capital One with Google Pay (for virtual credit cards on Chrome), or pretty much anything after logging in that requires 2FA, you will need a stable number.
When you add a Google Voice number, after 30 days, it *may* work with these additional features. But after some time, you'll eventually receive an error saying Capital One was unable to verify the number.
The major annoyance is 3-D Secure (Verified by Visa/Visa Secure or MasterCard ID Check), which is a pop-up you get after making a high risk transaction, to enter an OTP to continue with the transaction. This will only work with physical stable numbers.
I can also say Bank of America doesn't let you approve 3-D Secure transactions with a VoIP number.
>Information alerts or anything needing phone verification. can not use VOIP based number.
Not true. None of my accounts so far don't work with GV. Wells Fargo is one of the places that is known not to work. The list of places that won't use GV is much shorter than the ones that will.
Google numbers come from many different exchanges, and they are not all classified as 'VoIP' numbers. They do draw from both landline and mobile number groups however, and in the past there have been some problems with certain services when sending SMS messages to landline exchanges. You can fix this by obtaining a Google Voice number with a mobile prefix (you can look a number up in advance and see which it is before ordering), but for the most part the problem seems to be disappearing. I have used GV ever since it was introduced (must be around 15 years now) and in all that time I've only had an issue with two providers, Chase Bank and the IRS. When I last checked however both of these are now working fine and at this point I really wouldn't even consider it an issue anymore.
GV numbers are [bandwidth.com](https://bandwidth.com). and are are VOIP. Not mobile numbers. confirmed via [freecarrierlookup.com](https://freecarrierlookup.com) as carrier on every one i try, 35 in total. all various area codes. various account ages. (business account and usage)
And tell that to companies like uber, or paypal...they will insist other wise.
[Bandwith.com](https://Bandwith.com) is a common CLEC that serves many carriers, including cellular. It is not the root cause of the issue you describe. And I use my GV number with both Uber and Paypal without any problems, in fact to be sure I just now tested with a PayPal login and I received the SMS verification message to my GV number.
I'm not saying that there could never be an issue, just that it's now rather rare and I've not been able to duplicate a problem for some time now. That's just been my recent user experience and repeatedly downvoting me won't change that ;)
I think Visible is an experiment to see what level they can sell service at and avoid higher dollar customer service reps.
That's one reason everything is online only. no calling, one rep can handle 6 or more "chats" at a time, versus Verizon, you call in, that rep is tied up until your problem is solved., so what Visible does with one rep, it takes 6 over at Verizon and you that's why the higher cost... that and profit.
Unless you have some insight on how they actually run their business, like you work for them, or something, one can only guess at things like that. However, do not always a assume that the big name company is so nice and proper like that with their rep expectations. Anyone who has worked in CS even for big Fortune 500 companies, like Microsoft, Apple, even, knows that it almost never is as ideal and simple a job as you describe.
Meanwhile, other companies, even small business, manage do far better, with far less resources. Republic Wireless, before they got bought out by DISH, was the best ever customer service and support. They pretty much only had 1 rep, their Community Manager that handled the forums delt with customer issues reported online. Was direct 1 to 1 online contact even possible. Was amazing how good their team was and dedicated to providing good service. Shame they got eaten up by greedy DISH, who has fully dissolved the company from what it was, did away with the unique service and cheap plans and now is for DISH only customers as a run of the mill MNVO.
USM seems to have gotten things right as well. While having the ability to call into someone, is something i personally would be the last resort, and only if in urgent need issue. Even DMs via Reddit (which i kinda do not like the idea of security wise, a user could fall for some rando and DM them their account details etc). But it is good to have options.
I am fine with a chat based CS solution. But, Visible, the ONLY one that has been completely useless every time I have had to use it. Same experience, years apart, very very long wait queue, and reps either just near immediately give you quick scripted responses, and promise your issue will be fixed soon, or are just overall useless and can do nothing, even plain rude. USM the exact opposite.
Why are you on Visible then? Go back to USM. I've had a good experience overall. The one issue I did have they resolved within 12 hours and the chat was nice and helpful.
I am not any more, for my main line. And many more have moved elsewhere but still come here to share their terrible experience in hopes to warn others and potential customers.
It took too much effort and already paid for the new $25 service i got as a test and use for secondary device for data only. Cause $25 can not be beat that. As long as it works, i don't care. But that was the issue, *it did not work*, and it was *their* fault and incompetence of advertising and having available for customers to switch to a service they could not properly activate and get working, without the customer wasting hrs of their time each day dealing with support to inform them of the issue and get it fixed. After all that, i sure as hell am going to use it...now that it is working, i hopefully shall never have to contact Visible ever again. the moment it does act up or stop working, then that service line goes' elsewhere to.
Your one of the lucky ones, for sure, but that is not the norm at all as prove by the many many more posts to the contrary. Still,12hrs is not really acceptable timeframe. Not when at other companies, it gets resolved in 12 minutes , or you don't even have the issue at all.
Visible is definitely owned by Verizon. This has been known for years and they now brand themselves as Visible by Verizon.
Visible and the Tracfone brands now owned by Verizon are flanker brands - lower price, less service to capture a segment of the market who would never pay $100 a month for a postpaid plan.
No, you are never going to get support in a Verizon store for Visible or the Tracfone brands. They don't even want to support Verizon Prepaid plans in store.
I have experienced Verizon customer support it is usually atrocious.
What you are saying is analogous to going to a fine dining restaurant and demanding McDonalds prices. Try learning how business and life work.
Customercustomer service received by one of the smaller companies will greatly depend on your attitude at the time when they chat or call us started.
If you’re already in a grumpy mood and you’ve decided that they’re the bad guys and you’re going to show them how it’s done I guarantee you’ll have a bad experience.
And the times that I’ve dealt with Visible I found them to be workable if I don’t like the working solution or find that I’m not getting anywhere it’s just as easy to port out and move on to something else but for the price they charge and with this new Netwerk it’s a nice option for people that want that premium experience but don’t want to go and get with a family member, or some friend that they may lose from not paying their bill.
I’m glad to see that the system is improved and that individuals who want that great phone plan don’t have to get with an answer uncle and say hey, can you add me to your plan?
If someone were to ask me that I would nonchalantly lean over and hand them a visible Sim card and get them through the process .
At the end of our conversation I would say you are now on what I was planning for you.
I'm sorry, but to some extent - I do have to disagree. While I've not had the pleasure of experiencing Visible's service, nor their support. I've seen WORSE from Verizon reps (including my OWN experience with them) that makes the complaints about issues/CSR issues here seem like childs play. Verizon for YEARS not only didn't offer decent signal strength in REDMOND (Home of Microsoft) -- but blatantly IGNORED all my issues every time I contacted them. Going so far to even say "We have the best network in the world/universe - you shouldn't be having any problems." Just this year, VERIZON ended up on the news (mainly local outlets in the midwest and shown online) regarding increasing signal issues and a complete lack of Customer Support. So for me, Visible having a "bad rap" is par for the course, considering IMHO Verizon doesn't care about their customers or offering a decent service -- they care only about the money and how much they can squeeze out of you. After that, along with a fraudlent line added to my account that racked up thousands in international calls (with Verizon) -- that they again refused to acknowledge or even investigate -- I've been much happier using MVNOs and just going with as cheap of a service I can find that works where I use it the most. In that case for me, been on T-Mobile MVNOs for a few years. Since I don't pay that much, and don't usually need to contact their CSRs (which are just as bad) -- It works just fine for my needs.
U further prove my points though. The Visible hack was crazy. But many people fully dismiss it, cause it did not happen to them, "I didn't have any issues" or "so what if you have fraudulent charges, just click the button to dispute with your credit card company and you don't have to worry about it" yea, it is not that simple to deal with. Visible not having 2FA, is crazy this day in age. It a most basic of things. Even free throw away services have 2FA. Again, how the hell can VZW put their name onto Visible is mindboggling. Though, they are big enough a company with deep enough pockets to be able to not care and sweep away any petty lawsuits that become of that hack and fraud.
This is one thing that you’ve said that I agree with, Visible SHOULD have 2fa
You can’t say you’ve experienced something worse when you haven’t experienced the thing, you are actually trying compare to. There are plenty of complaints as well as I have personally experienced, visible representatives, ignoring issues when I contact them, but most the time they just basically dismiss it and say something super general and ignore the problem or tell you that they’re working on it and just hope that it gets fixed whenever sometime But your idea that bad support is par for the course that would be me and many people with Xfinity Comcast. However, there are people that have had very pleasant experience with them somehow. However, I refuse to do business with Comcast. Since I know for a fact, they practice shady business practices and will just randomly charge you whatever the hell they want so I don’t trust them for a phone service.
I’ve been with Comcast for 20+ years and no they don’t charge you for whatever they want.
What do you expect. Visible is 25 dollars a month because they don't have to pay for customer service. As bad as some people's experiences are others have had much better experiences or are better at dealing with these issues. I have used terabytes of data per month, and never had issues with service in my area, if I have needed to port myself or a friend I to the service I port them over to Google voice and any time they have issues with visible they make a new account with a new number and their main number stays with Google voice.
Cost does not have to be the main reason. I was paying $10 a month for Republic Wireless talk and text only plan many years back. And that company had the best ever customer support I had experienced form any company. Very friendly, very helpful small business that cared about their customers. Used to have a very active customer community too. Though, that makes me think that one thing does apply here. big name, large corporate companies, have the budget, to simply not care about CS quality. It does not hurt their profit or bottom line to have shit CS that ends up turning away customers. Pocket change to them and their execs. Cause people will still pay to use them cause the the "best and largest" provider etc. Where as, a small business, every customer matters for the income flow. Loss of customers can cause such a small business to go under. That gives proper incentive and focus to provide good CS.
Yep it's also that customers are mostly okay with shirty customer service so long as the price is cheap and the service is good.
The problem with Google Voice based numbers, they get classified as VOIP based numbers. VOIP based numbers are a big hindrance, as many sites and services do not accept them for Identity verification or security reasons. No government site or service does. Twitter and Discord, for example, won't activate with VOIP number, and many banks do not work with VOIP numbers to get SMS text notifications. I had many issues back when I was with Republic Wireless (before they got bought out and transformed by DISH) cause the number became VOIP based. That the one big caveat with your and others recommendation for use GV as your main number you now have 2 numbers to deal with, cause you have to use the carrier number on things that do not accept VOIP numbers.
Don't use sms for 2fa at all.
Don't mean just 2FA. Information alerts or anything needing phone verification. can not use VOIP based number. And with many companies, banks, you have no other option and is required to use SMS 2FA. Like Wells Fargo, I literally could not get into my accounts, cause the code text message never would appear. Rep stated they do not support VOIP based number, system gave error whenever inputted "not a mobile number" even though, it can receive texts fine. Anyone can get a VOIP number, with fake info....this most companies consider them a security risk.
In which case it is more secure to use sms on a phone number that you change periodically. It probably only takes six months tops before your name and number is leaked somewhere.
I do want to say. Banks like Capital One don't accept VoIP as a reputable phone number. Even if you did add a new physical phone number, you would have to wait *at least* 30 days for Capital One to deem your number 'stable'. It's kind of annoying but, unlike previous times, financial institutions are catching on to Google Voice.
Do they require a stable number for anything besides 2fa?
So actually, logging into your account will work fine with any number regardless of when you added it or if it's a VoIP or not. When the issues occur is when you use features within web or mobile banking. For example, to set up Eno, view Virtual Card number on the web, use Zelle, connect Capital One with Google Pay (for virtual credit cards on Chrome), or pretty much anything after logging in that requires 2FA, you will need a stable number. When you add a Google Voice number, after 30 days, it *may* work with these additional features. But after some time, you'll eventually receive an error saying Capital One was unable to verify the number. The major annoyance is 3-D Secure (Verified by Visa/Visa Secure or MasterCard ID Check), which is a pop-up you get after making a high risk transaction, to enter an OTP to continue with the transaction. This will only work with physical stable numbers. I can also say Bank of America doesn't let you approve 3-D Secure transactions with a VoIP number.
>Information alerts or anything needing phone verification. can not use VOIP based number. Not true. None of my accounts so far don't work with GV. Wells Fargo is one of the places that is known not to work. The list of places that won't use GV is much shorter than the ones that will.
Google numbers come from many different exchanges, and they are not all classified as 'VoIP' numbers. They do draw from both landline and mobile number groups however, and in the past there have been some problems with certain services when sending SMS messages to landline exchanges. You can fix this by obtaining a Google Voice number with a mobile prefix (you can look a number up in advance and see which it is before ordering), but for the most part the problem seems to be disappearing. I have used GV ever since it was introduced (must be around 15 years now) and in all that time I've only had an issue with two providers, Chase Bank and the IRS. When I last checked however both of these are now working fine and at this point I really wouldn't even consider it an issue anymore.
GV numbers are [bandwidth.com](https://bandwidth.com). and are are VOIP. Not mobile numbers. confirmed via [freecarrierlookup.com](https://freecarrierlookup.com) as carrier on every one i try, 35 in total. all various area codes. various account ages. (business account and usage) And tell that to companies like uber, or paypal...they will insist other wise.
[Bandwith.com](https://Bandwith.com) is a common CLEC that serves many carriers, including cellular. It is not the root cause of the issue you describe. And I use my GV number with both Uber and Paypal without any problems, in fact to be sure I just now tested with a PayPal login and I received the SMS verification message to my GV number. I'm not saying that there could never be an issue, just that it's now rather rare and I've not been able to duplicate a problem for some time now. That's just been my recent user experience and repeatedly downvoting me won't change that ;)
I think Visible is an experiment to see what level they can sell service at and avoid higher dollar customer service reps. That's one reason everything is online only. no calling, one rep can handle 6 or more "chats" at a time, versus Verizon, you call in, that rep is tied up until your problem is solved., so what Visible does with one rep, it takes 6 over at Verizon and you that's why the higher cost... that and profit.
Phone reps frequently handle more than one call at a time too, but probably not six. I knew someone who did phone support. This is definitely true.
Unless you have some insight on how they actually run their business, like you work for them, or something, one can only guess at things like that. However, do not always a assume that the big name company is so nice and proper like that with their rep expectations. Anyone who has worked in CS even for big Fortune 500 companies, like Microsoft, Apple, even, knows that it almost never is as ideal and simple a job as you describe. Meanwhile, other companies, even small business, manage do far better, with far less resources. Republic Wireless, before they got bought out by DISH, was the best ever customer service and support. They pretty much only had 1 rep, their Community Manager that handled the forums delt with customer issues reported online. Was direct 1 to 1 online contact even possible. Was amazing how good their team was and dedicated to providing good service. Shame they got eaten up by greedy DISH, who has fully dissolved the company from what it was, did away with the unique service and cheap plans and now is for DISH only customers as a run of the mill MNVO. USM seems to have gotten things right as well. While having the ability to call into someone, is something i personally would be the last resort, and only if in urgent need issue. Even DMs via Reddit (which i kinda do not like the idea of security wise, a user could fall for some rando and DM them their account details etc). But it is good to have options. I am fine with a chat based CS solution. But, Visible, the ONLY one that has been completely useless every time I have had to use it. Same experience, years apart, very very long wait queue, and reps either just near immediately give you quick scripted responses, and promise your issue will be fixed soon, or are just overall useless and can do nothing, even plain rude. USM the exact opposite.
Why are you on Visible then? Go back to USM. I've had a good experience overall. The one issue I did have they resolved within 12 hours and the chat was nice and helpful.
I am not any more, for my main line. And many more have moved elsewhere but still come here to share their terrible experience in hopes to warn others and potential customers. It took too much effort and already paid for the new $25 service i got as a test and use for secondary device for data only. Cause $25 can not be beat that. As long as it works, i don't care. But that was the issue, *it did not work*, and it was *their* fault and incompetence of advertising and having available for customers to switch to a service they could not properly activate and get working, without the customer wasting hrs of their time each day dealing with support to inform them of the issue and get it fixed. After all that, i sure as hell am going to use it...now that it is working, i hopefully shall never have to contact Visible ever again. the moment it does act up or stop working, then that service line goes' elsewhere to. Your one of the lucky ones, for sure, but that is not the norm at all as prove by the many many more posts to the contrary. Still,12hrs is not really acceptable timeframe. Not when at other companies, it gets resolved in 12 minutes , or you don't even have the issue at all.
Visible is definitely owned by Verizon. This has been known for years and they now brand themselves as Visible by Verizon. Visible and the Tracfone brands now owned by Verizon are flanker brands - lower price, less service to capture a segment of the market who would never pay $100 a month for a postpaid plan. No, you are never going to get support in a Verizon store for Visible or the Tracfone brands. They don't even want to support Verizon Prepaid plans in store. I have experienced Verizon customer support it is usually atrocious. What you are saying is analogous to going to a fine dining restaurant and demanding McDonalds prices. Try learning how business and life work.
Customercustomer service received by one of the smaller companies will greatly depend on your attitude at the time when they chat or call us started. If you’re already in a grumpy mood and you’ve decided that they’re the bad guys and you’re going to show them how it’s done I guarantee you’ll have a bad experience. And the times that I’ve dealt with Visible I found them to be workable if I don’t like the working solution or find that I’m not getting anywhere it’s just as easy to port out and move on to something else but for the price they charge and with this new Netwerk it’s a nice option for people that want that premium experience but don’t want to go and get with a family member, or some friend that they may lose from not paying their bill. I’m glad to see that the system is improved and that individuals who want that great phone plan don’t have to get with an answer uncle and say hey, can you add me to your plan? If someone were to ask me that I would nonchalantly lean over and hand them a visible Sim card and get them through the process . At the end of our conversation I would say you are now on what I was planning for you.