Why’d You Leave Verizon?

Verizon reported their Q1 2023 earnings today and the numbers on the consumer wireless side aren’t great. Basically, Verizon lost a bunch of customers once again and we’ve been discussing back and forth what we think the reasoning is. We now turn to you to tell us.

Their Q1 2023 numbers show postpaid phone net losses at 127,000, which isn’t a massive number when you consider how many customers they have, but it’s a bad sign when competitors like AT&T and T-Mobile can’t help but continue to add them. AT&T, for comparison, reported earnings last week with 424,000 net adds. T-Mobile has not yet reported their Q1 2023 numbers, but I’m guessing they didn’t lose customers. In fact, I couldn’t tell you the last time they did – they certainly haven’t for at least 2 years.

Verizon, on the other hand, has had a rough couple of years when trying to add customers on the wireless side. Their struggles have even led to a couple of executive team shakeups, the most recent of which happened earlier this year.

So what’s the deal, why does Verizon keep losing customers? Again, Tim and I have been talking about it and it’s hard to pin down.

We all know that Verizon isn’t known as being the most affordable of the carriers, but most seemed willing to pay a higher cost for the network Verizon has that has always ranked so highly. But something seems to have changed there in recent years. While we have been pointing out all of the “major” upgrades that Verizon has made throughout cities, you can’t open a comment thread or a reddit post about Verizon without finding network-related complaints. T-Mobile keeps winning network-related awards too.

But has the network really gotten that bad that customers are willing to deal with the painful process of switching carriers? T-Mobile is certainly doing its best to try and entice folks to switch over without much work. Just this week they announced new programs to help switchers. As for AT&T, I get the feeling that they are moving about their business in a quieter manner while still finding ways to add new customers. That’s not to say that Verizon isn’t also making offers with high trade-in values, free phones, etc. Why aren’t people choosing them, though?

Just speaking from my own personal view, if someone were to ask me which carrier to choose, I’d probably lean towards recommending T-Mobile if they lived anywhere near a city. I think the value is there in the plans with all of the freebies they offer, plus I’ve had good experience on their network. But I also spend time in the summer back in Montana and without a doubt would only recommend Verizon to folks living there. In fact, the phone I bring back with me is the phone I have a Verizon SIM active in.

Maybe that’s the basic idea, is that T-Mobile is winning the populated area battle by crushing it in cities with a wide 5G expansion, good value in plans, and success in shedding their old discount-carrier reputation.

But hey, this post isn’t supposed to be about my views – we want to know why you left Verizon. What’s up?