Verizon Says "Too Bad" to Complaints of no Coverage in Hernando County

HERNANDO – Verizon customers are fed up with the lack of coverage in Hernando County and some say the coverage map is nothing more than false advertising.

The majority of Hernando County's population is centered in Spring Hill, and Verizon has pretty good coverage along US-19 and Cortez Blvd, but if you head east of the Suncoast Parkway or west of US-19, the service is intermittent. As you pass US-41 and head towards I-75, the coverage begins to completely disappear. Anything past I-75 and you're lucky to get any coverage at all, but not according to Verizon's coverage map.

According to Verizon, customers have full 4G LTE coverage in the entire county and even 5G Ultra Wideband in the city of Brooksville. If you're a Verizon customer in Spring Hill, then you know there is no coverage from Spring Hill Drive and Mariner Blvd to County Line Road and north to Northcliffe Blvd. But again, according to Verizon's coverage map, you have 5G, and 4G in that entire area. Ironically, if you stand directly in front of the Verizon store at Mariner Blvd and Northcliffe Blvd, you have nearly no service at all.

R News surveyed several customers and here's what they had to say:

Heather Campos: "Verizon, $187 a month and it's extremely horrible, pretty much everywhere here."

Michelle Ramirez: "I have Verizon and I don't even get service in the Verizon store (on Mariner)"

Katie Johnson: "I have Verizon and I have no coverage in the 4 corners area and most of Mariner also have no coverage in Brooksville by Lowe's and some other areas. I hate it."

Samantha Bartholomew: "Verizon live in Royal highlands and have horrible service!"

Gavin Zeller: "Verizon has terrible service in Brooksville as well as multiple areas in spring hill the worst I've notice is mariner and spring hill dr."

Hans Haehnel: "Just got rid of Verizon after like 8 years... service in spring hill is HORRIBLE. Anywhere on mariner was just terrible. Have T Mobile now and the difference is incredible.

The complaints go on and on... Follow us at Adventure Coast Journal on Facebook for more comments regarding this article.

Verizon customers tell R News that when they try to resolve the problem with customer service, they spend hours on the phone and in many cases the representative just hangs up on them. When they call back, they have to start the entire process all over again.

A lot of new customers purchase phones with Verizon and are stuck in a payment plan before they discover they have no service. That leaves them with two options. Keep making payments on the phone or moving to another carrier and trying to close out the account by paying it off in full.

We spoke with representatives of AT&T who said the most of their new clients are disgruntled Verizon customers. Other carriers have noticed the same exodus and customers seem to be happier with anyone else but Verizon.

Verizon does have small print on their website that states coverage is not guaranteed and subject to change; however, sales representatives are not advising new clients of known problem areas.

One Verizon story rep. told R News that the majority of customer walk-ins are angry over coverage issues. They blame the issue on towers in disrepair or not in existence at all.

R News attempted to speak with customer service regarding service issues and we were told, "Too bad, Verizon doesn't guarantee coverage." We then reached out to Verizon's corporate communications and legal department to discuss the issues, but we have yet to receive a response.