I have a friend who just can’t get competent help from Verizon Wireless. See, for the past couple of months she has been receiving strange SMS messages to her phone that consist of a bunch of code, prefaced by the word "BREW."
Now she’s pretty sure on why she’s getting these; about a year ago, she was upgrading phones (new every two!) and test drove a LG VX9800. It was fun playing with "Get It Now" for a day or two, until you realize that the video is too small and slow to provide a good experience. So she kept the same number and swapped it for a more practical Treo.
But for the past two months she has been getting BREW SMS messages at all times of day and night, some days 20 or more. It’s pretty clear that these BREW alerts are related to the old phone – they mention VX9800 amongst the gobbeldygook along with a site name like "Accuweather" or "Fox Sports" and apparent subject lines like "Doctors say Everett impr" and "VZW Fox Sports."
But Verizon’s customer service can’t seem to figure out how to stop the messages.
– She’s been in two stores where techs said they’d fix everything in 20 minutes. No clue.
– Been on the phone three times with tech support. No help.
– Sent to 3rd party alert provider. No idea.
– Checked settings online. Nothing there.
The solutions offered have ranged from "change your phone number" to "just ignore and delete them." Verizon will not block spam, even when it’s their own. That’s about 5+ hours of life wasted with tech support that had no clue. They can’t even connect the dots on the "Get It Now" part of the equation!
At this point, she is ready to terminate the contract and switch carriers. If she’s going to switch numbers, why stay with a network that can’t help you?
This is a known, but uncommon problem. Anyone else experience this? Have a solution?