Inability to set up a personal hotspot
daveclay
Enthusiast - Level 2

When I initially purchased an Iphone 5 with Verizon several months ago, I attempted to set up a personal hotspot using the phone. I got this message:"To enable Personal Hotspot on this account, contact Verizon at 611 or visit http://..." I contacted customer support concerning the message and they verified that since I pay for the Share Everything Plan, the personal hotspot should be available to use. The technician worked with me as we did several things in attempts to get the hotspot working. All attempts failed, I lost interest and did not concern myself with it until week before last.

On October 18th, with the new IOS 7 loaded on my phone, I thought I might attempt to create a personal hotspot. Much to my suprise, I got the same message I had received several months earlier. I called the help desk and they tried several things, including resetting the network settings and reprovisioning the account, none of which was successful. But, they did some additional troubleshooting, and told me they discovered that some programming changes needed to be done before I could set up the hotspot. I was told it would take 48 hours to complete and they would notifiy me when it was done. Seventy-two hours later, I received a message that the work was complete and I could set up the hotspot. I attempted to set it up, and I again got the same message. I called up the help desk and asked to speak to a manager. I was connected to a manager named Lydia. We jumped through the same hoops again, and Lydia decided that this must be a hardware issue She connected me with a senior technician from Apple and told me that she would monitor the situation until it was resolved. I've not heard from her.

After a number of resets and no hotspot, the Apple rep told me I needed to go to the Apple store and have my phone returned to factory settings. An appointment was made for the next day, which I kept. The Apple store rep returned my phone to factory settings, with no success. Then they took my SIM card and placed it in a brand-new Verizon Iphone 5. When we tried to set up the hotspot, we got the same error message. They recommended that I go to a Verizon store and get my SIM card replaced. The next afternoon, I spent two hours in the Verizon store where the sales people replaced the SIM card and tried everything they knew to overcome the error. The majority of the time was spent with helpdesk personnel in attempting to resolve the issue. They ordered a new phone (not really new, but new to me), to be delivered to my home, and created trouble ticket  >>removed<<. On arrival, I swapped out my new SIM card into the replacement phone. I got the same message. I called the helpdesk back and after extensive stops and starts, it was determined that the trouble was not in the hardware or provisioning of the account, but in a programming issue that would have to be resolved (see October 18th, above). Trouble ticket >>removed<<. was created and I was told by the technician that she would continue to monitor the repair to completion, then contact me. After three days, I sent an email >>removed<<. yesterday asking for a status update. I am still waiting for a response. I contacted customer support again today. The rep did some checking and found the the trouble ticket sent to IT was closed and said there was no issue on their end. She told me she would try to find out what's going on and call me back before close of business today. I'm not holding my breath.

IS ANYBODY OUT THERE? THIS HAS BEEN ALMOST THREE WEEKS. WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO GET AN ISSUE RESOLVED AT VERIZON? Maybe I should just not pay my bill until this is resolved. Do you think that would get their attention?

>> Edited to comply with the <<


Message was edited by: Verizon Moderator

Labels (1)
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Re: Inability to set up a personal hotspot
travlarry
Newbie

Like you, I wanted to make my Apple 5 phone a hotspot and called Verizon.  I was told that I have the 2gb data plan and need to have the 4gb plan in order to activate the hotspot feature.  What plan do you have? (I just searched verizon site and could not find verify this restriction)

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Re: Inability to set up a personal hotspot
daveclay
Enthusiast - Level 2

I pay for 6gb/month, but typically only use 1 - 2.

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Re: Inability to set up a personal hotspot
rcschnoor
Legend

Are you on the Share Everything Plan? If so, maybe you should change your monthly allowance.

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Re: Inability to set up a personal hotspot
daveclay
Enthusiast - Level 2

Yes, I'm on the Share Everything Plan. It appears now that our usage is climbing. We're about halfway through the billing cycle and have used just a little over 3gb. If usage continues to grow, I may have to jump up to 8gb/month (only $10/month more). Oh, and I did hear back from the customer service rep late yesterday afternoon, and I got a call from the Verizon escalation team this afternoon assuring me that they will stay on top of this issue until it is resolved and will continue to communicate status updates until resolution. YIPEE!!