d) poor choices in lobbyists

gameshowhost: Private industry acts in society's best interests.

Remember, folks, there's nothing inherently wrong with corporations or capitalism, and they certainly don't legitimize corruption and sociopathy.

This is an isolated incident.

sweet comments below article - they give iPhones to handicapped folk now?

Sounds like a great business model to adopt.

Not like the victims had 880 credit scores to begin with. Who else but losers go to third-party sellers for their cell phones and plans and not directly to the service provider itself?

No worries. The victims Rent-a-Center accounts are still good so they can rebuild their credit with those.

/ghetto slashies

gameshowhost: Private industry acts in society's best interests.

This is why the Republicans scream "Socialism" every time someone mentions single payer health care.

and this is different than most companies how?

Using PhotoShop
Large companies with many lines of service don't get scrutinized as much so they too are open tatgets for these people.
on the behalf of verizon wireless
State employees recieve
illegal and illigitimate activity
it a second time anyways, specially not without your consent. Do not allow a company to take money from you without recieving
the company has purchased re-manufactured devices and have instructed their managers

I'm not usually a grammar Nazi, but this article blows my mind.

I'm a bit surprised to read this happening out of Irvine to the average Joe. However, from what a young woman who worked for mobil service provider her in OC told me - this sort of gouging and farudulant asshattery is VERY common in the hispanic comunities; people don't understand 90% of what they are signing-up for. They just want a mobil phone and are getting slammed in the process.


Sucks.

Can you cheat me now?

I hope people realize this is an authorized agent store and not verizon wireless.

Also who goes to a authorized agent anymore? I thought everyone knows those guys are crooks and people who will do everything to rip you off.

I don't know anything about 4G or the alleged practices, but this article sure looks like a big, steaming pile of libel. No sources or citations...just sayin'...

I would likely be modestly outraged at the asshattery described in the article if a human wrote it. Since it was clearly typed by monkeys I am more perplexed than pissed.

Blog post written by a ninth-grader?

ProfessorOhki: Using PhotoShop
Large companies with many lines of service don't get scrutinized as much so they too are open tatgets for these people.
on the behalf of verizon wireless
State employees recieve
illegal and illigitimate activity
it a second time anyways, specially not without your consent. Do not allow a company to take money from you without recieving
the company has purchased re-manufactured devices and have instructed their managers

I'm not usually a grammar Nazi, but this article blows my mind.



"What is this shiat? 'Investigative journalism' my ass"

What's a little bit of fraud every now and again?

Most isps don't provide the bandwidth that you pay for. It's a dirty secret; and every time they (an isp) gets caught shortchanging people they just say oops, our bad.

Just a little bit of fraud?

\ fraud

James F. Campbell: Remember, folks, there's nothing inherently wrong with corporations or capitalism, and they certainly don't legitimize corruption and sociopathy.

This is an isolated incident.

Government as a whole doesn't really have a very good track record there, either. I mean, the US's government (and even our industry, to an extent) actually runs pretty clean, but jump a country or two south or across either ocean and you're going to run into a lot worse in both the public and the private context.

It also makes essentially no difference whether the local economy is capitalist, socialist, or outright Communist. In fact, the latter cases have historically been some of the worst, corruption-wise, since the bosses of industry were also the governmental overseers.

Basically, the US's limited corporations and regulated capitalist environment is the worst kind of economy, except for all the other economies anyone's ever tried. What're ya gonna do?

Fraud in the 949? What else are you going to tell me--that wealthy people in nice clothes may be criminals?

Echoing all of the above. Irvine, the OC, home of "prosperity gospel" and the GOP of california. A major shiat sandwich, where anything goes, as long as you're pretty or white

Urmuf Hamer: Echoing all of the above. Irvine, the OC, home of "prosperity gospel" and the GOP of california. A major shiat sandwich, where anything goes, as long as you're pretty or white

Yes - the "prosperity gospel," and tons of jobs (and great wealth) dependent on government contracts - keep moving, no contradiction here

ProfessorOhki: Using PhotoShop
Large companies with many lines of service don't get scrutinized as much so they too are open tatgets for these people.
on the behalf of verizon wireless
State employees recieve
illegal and illigitimate activity
it a second time anyways, specially not without your consent. Do not allow a company to take money from you without recieving
the company has purchased re-manufactured devices and have instructed their managers

I'm not usually a grammar Nazi, but this article blows my mind.

This. That "article" reads like it was penned by a 4th grader.

beezeltown: I don't know anything about 4G or the alleged practices, but this article sure looks like a big, steaming pile of libel. No sources or citations...just sayin'...

THIS.

It might be true. But where is the proof? For that matter, where is there anything even resembling proof in that post? It's a lot of rambling with no sources to back up its claims.

Since we have a cell phone thread, I have a question for any nerds here. I have a choice between keeping my droid 2 and getting a samsung fascinate. The only thing keeping this from being a no-brainer is that the fascinate doesn't have a physical kb. What do you farkers think I should do?

Dr J Zoidberg: Since we have a cell phone thread, I have a question for any nerds here. I have a choice between keeping my droid 2 and getting a samsung fascinate. The only thing keeping this from being a no-brainer is that the fascinate doesn't have a physical kb. What do you farkers think I should do?

Pray on it.

Urmuf Hamer: Echoing all of the above. Irvine, the OC, home of "prosperity gospel" and the GOP of california. A major shiat sandwich, where anything goes, as long as you're pretty or white

True; as an Irvine 949'er I'm really getting a kick out of these replies.

/white but not pretty

//you can be asian and get away with things in Irvine as well, if not more so

///it's those 909'ers you have to keep your eye on

timujin: TheGhostofFarkPast: I hope people realize this is an authorized agent store and not verizon wireless.

Also who goes to a authorized agent anymore? I thought everyone knows those guys are crooks and people who will do everything to rip you off.

I wonder if it's that some people can't tell. The signs on the stores have "Verizon Wireless" in big letters with "4G Wireless" in much smaller letters underneath, like this one

/I just buy online, why would I want to go deal with a sales person?

Aw hell, when your basic sign out front is designed for so much wool-pulling, who can blame the peons behind the counter from just following corporate scofflaw example.

Dr J Zoidberg: Since we have a cell phone thread, I have a question for any nerds here. I have a choice between keeping my droid 2 and getting a samsung fascinate. The only thing keeping this from being a no-brainer is that the fascinate doesn't have a physical kb. What do you farkers think I should do?

why would you get a fascinate? The Bionic or Droid Charge are far better devices not to mention they are 4g. I test pretty much anything verizon and most cell phone providers in the US put out for work and both of those devices are the best Verizon has to offer right now. Hell you could probably get the Charge relatively cheap online through reputable dealers like Amazon or Walmart. The Charge has an amazing screen not to mention you can load it up with high end HD files like mkv and play them either on the phone or out put it through HDMI to a monitor or TV and it work beautifully. I just got the Bionic a few days ago and overall I am impressed. I think Moto just took their design they were going to use for the X3 and renamed it Bionic since the original Bionic design was such a failure.

@ghostoffarkpast: I am not looking to upgrade because of verizons new data packages. what happened is that my brothers droid went tits up so I am looking for a used 1 with a clean esn on craigslist that we can just activate. the fascinate is in our price range. and I have the droid 2. so I am considering deactivating my droid 2, giving it to my brother and taking the fascinate. though I will see, messages like this which I am typing on my physical keyboard are why I am hesitant to give up the droid 2

though I will say*

Bad grammar & no sources cited... is this an actual news site or just creative writing?

Dr J Zoidberg: Since we have a cell phone thread, I have a question for any nerds here. I have a choice between keeping my droid 2 and getting a samsung fascinate. The only thing keeping this from being a no-brainer is that the fascinate doesn't have a physical kb. What do you farkers think I should do?

Well.. I would keep the D2 as the Fascinate is a steaming pile of crap (unless you plan on rooting it and installing CyanogenMod7). The phone has gotten so bad that they aren't even replacing defective Fascinates with Fascinates anymore. They are just straight up going to a different phone. Is this an upgrade situation? Or are you having issues with the D2 and can get a replacement?

If it's warranty replacement:
Droid2 Global, or DroidX/X2. I believe those are the current good replacement options for the D2.

If it's upgrade time:
First of all, shop around... Amazon, Wirefly, VZWOnline... find the best price for what you want.

If 4G is important to you:
The Droid Bionic(Motorola), Droid Charge(Samsung), or LG Revolution are all spectacular phones... even though the screen on the Bionic could be better.

If 4G isn't as important:
Droid3(Motorola) if you want the physical keyboard (same screen issues as the Bionic, but it is still nice.)
The Droid Incredible 2 (HTC) and the Droid X2 (Motorola) make great phones, and I personally think the X2 has the best screen of the whole bunch.
The Sony-Ericsson Xperia Play is a great choice if you want to do a bit of gaming on the device, as it has a built in controller.

Hope that helps.

Dr J Zoidberg: @ghostoffarkpast: I am not looking to upgrade because of verizons new data packages. what happened is that my brothers droid went tits up so I am looking for a used 1 with a clean esn on craigslist that we can just activate. the fascinate is in our price range. and I have the droid 2. so I am considering deactivating my droid 2, giving it to my brother and taking the fascinate. though I will see, messages like this which I am typing on my physical keyboard are why I am hesitant to give up the droid 2

If you currently have unlimited data, you WILL keep it with an upgrade... so that should help ease some worry.

like I said, not going back to verizon. we have cox and sprint here and I don't see the point in paying $80 for 6GB of data when I can pay $30 for unlimited data on a different carrier

the issue is that I am just getting out of college and my parents told me that once this contracts up I am on my own. so I would have to get a new contract

Dr J Zoidberg: the issue is that I am just getting out of college and my parents told me that once this contracts up I am on my own. so I would have to get a new contract

Ahh... I'm not sure if you taking ownership of the number and splitting off of their contract would break the upgrade path and cause you to lose your unlimited data. Let me do a little research and find out.

Read TFA, pretty easy to reduce to a three-word sentence: Kill 'em all.

Dr J Zoidberg: the issue is that I am just getting out of college and my parents told me that once this contracts up I am on my own. so I would have to get a new contract

After conferring with a buddy of mine that works for VZW, you can keep everything, number, features, etc, including unlimited date, but you have to do a rarely used option called Assumption of Liability, and choose a solo plan.

How the hell do you get a "negative" credit rating?

leftoverbacon: How the hell do you get a "negative" credit rating?

Happened to me. All I did was charge to my Amex the trip your mom and I took to Hometown Buffet.

pxlboy: Azlefty: Welcome to the Cellular sales world!
Employees are on a Quota system for both activations and "features
Employees and the Company (if a independent) get paid more per activation if they hit certain numbers or plateaus
Yes that "free" phone you get may be a refurb, why do you think it is "free"
Yes employees will do things to make their numbers, it is called Capitalism, they like money
One company whom I will not name used to have quotas on their Customer service reps also, they would add features or even renew your contract when you called with a issue. They have stopped this.
Buying a Cell phone and plan is like buying a car the better the salesman can screw you the more he makes!

this. i worked for a large t-mobile master agent. one of our customers was a young dude about 24 who made, it seemed, impossible numbers and had the mercedes to prove it. there was talk that he was gaming the system somehow. the article and some of the comments in this thread have shed light on that.

Happened to a friend of mine. She cancelled a wireless plan, but instead of cancelling it, someone (who was probably making commission from it) just changed the billing address. My friend found out when the fraudulent account eventually was sold to a series of debt collectors and appeared on her credit report.