Verizon’s Visible customers are missing calls, texts, and data after ‘upgrades’

Image: Visible

New plans that use an entirely different network infrastructure were introduced by Visible last week. If customers upgrade to the Visible Plus plan, they will get better roaming coverage and additional features.

The reviews of those who have upgraded or signed up seem to be mostly positive. Some people don't notice any difference between the old plan and the new one. The switch has been difficult for many other customers.

Some people complain about a lack of service after they upgrade. Some people said they didn't have any service after they signed up. One user joked, "I paid $0 for that month ofVisible Plus, so I can safely say I got what I paid for." There are more reports of semi- working service. Several users say they can text and make calls but can't use data, while others say they have data but no calls. A surprising number of people say they can send texts, make calls, and use data, but they aren't getting calls.

A comment on the issues customers are facing was not provided by the company.

Some people haven't been able to get to the point where they'd know if they were having service issues as they've run into issues trying to get their phones activated after popping in the new sim card. After the issue was fixed, one person said their phone wouldn't work.

People have different upgrade experiences.

Several people have said they have had to spend hours talking to or waiting on support staff, sometimes to no avail. Many people say they got a good support experience, but it seems like Visible's struggled with consistent communication during the launch. On the day the new plans were announced, someone posted a message from customer support that said Visible was going to force everyone onto the new plans. Others said they had been told the same thing. As long as the underlying infrastructure remains available, people will be able to stay on the legacy Visible unlimited plan, according to Visible.

This could be where the budget carrier role comes into play. The mainline carrier's customers can walk into a store and hand a tech their phone. If you want to talk to someone on the phone, you need to reach out via chat. Budget carriers don't usually have physical locations, but people have been waiting for hours or days for help that would only take a few minutes in person.

It is easy to understand how this mess happened. It isn't just changing the pricing structure of its plans. The new plans use a completely different network experience. The cloud core is what the old Visible unlimited plan used to route traffic through. The new plans are part of a larger network evolution. The change seems to give users access to roaming and premium data if they pay for it, and it also makes the network less laggy.

The fact that not every device that worked on the old plan will work on the new ones is one of the reasons that Visible is making some big changes here. Big changes are usually accompanied by some kind of glitch, especially with things like cell networks. It is hoped that Visible will get things figured out soon or at least improve its support for those who run into issues.

I will be sticking with my legacy plan until it happens. It is not difficult to make a decision since it is cheaper and comes with many of the same benefits.