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Verizon no longer supporting Remind App for Educators

I was just informed that the Remind App, which is a tool I use as an educator to communicate with parents, will no longer be supported by this carrier. Verizon is charging the app company an additional fee as they are considering these texts spam. It would be great if Verizon would reconsider their decision as this is an important app to have for both teachers and parents.

Comments

KBdubU

I, too am a teacher and am very disappointed by this decision. I have used this method to communicate with parents and students for years and I love that they don't have my actual cell phone number. Almost all of my parents and students use the text feature because they don't want to download the app. I am hoping that verizon will reverse the charges. ReverseTheFee

jopapafivePS

Remind messages are not spam. This is a tool for EDUCATORS. I use my for my club soccer teams which are also non-profit. Remind is a great way to text/communicate ONE WAY.

SANMCG46

I agree that Verizon needs to change their mind on this. I am a High School coach of 3 sports. This is the only way I have of communicating with all my athletes and their parents. I know most teachers at the High school also use it as a means of communicating with parents and their students. I would hate to have to consider changing to another phone company.

psethom

I agree! This is a great tool for educators, parents, and students. It certainly is not spam. I also ask Verizon to reconsider.

ALYRICH

ReverseTheFee As an educator and senior class sponsor, Remind is the tool used to communicate with students. Please reconsider this action!

cweb19

Great work Verizon. You're willing to affect 7 Million students, staff, and families because you can't figure out your system issues. You may want to hire some new coders or system engineers if they can't figure out how to stop flagging Remind texts as spam. It sounds like don't you know how to fix the issue on your end, so you're just charging extra to release texts that are flagged as spam.

This link will take you to Reminds website with information about Verizon.

Verizon Fee | Remind

ARIZ18

I totally agree @teach11 ! I am also an Educator and I receive messages regarding activities for my student as well.

This is very disappointing and am considering changing carriers; as are others I know that have been affected.

Shame on you Verizon!! Cancel the fee or get coders that can distinguish SPAM texts instead.

ARIZ18

I am also an Educator and I receive messages regarding activities for my student as well.

This is very disappointing and am considering changing carriers; as are others I know that have been affected.

Shame on you Verizon!! Cancel the fee or get coders that can distinguish SPAM texts instead.

ALEMAU91

I am a parent and a school district employee and the remind app is an AWESOME way for me to know what is going on my kiddos classrooms. It has been a huge help for us as a family to remind of us an upcoming test or project that may of slipped our minds. I will be VERY disappointed in Verizon if they chose to move forward on this and I will be changing carriers ASAP!!!! It is very greedy in my opinion for a company of this size to threaten a well meaning, VERY useful app with the projected fee increase. Please reconsider doing this to a projected 7 million preople!!!

glillyg

Please #ReverseTheFee for the Remind service! We use it to receive important school and sport notifications for our child. It has been invaluable.

DAVBAT11

Verizon may be putting itself in a tough spot by charging the fee for the free remind service. So many education-based companies use this to communicate with students. My kid's school also uses this service and it is beneficial for student, parents, and teachers and you are taking it away from Verizon users. I for one will think very hard about being a customer of this company any further. I've been a customer for well over 10 years and it's sad that I will be moving but I guess it's all about the new customers and not the faithful customer.

iceman100181

#Reversethefee I am an educator, parent, and Verizon customer of ten years. I am a middle school teacher and I teach at a title one school servicing low income families. I use Remind to keep parents in the loop about what is going on in my class and in my campus. I am extremely disappointed with Verizon's stance in regards to the Remind app. Remind has been beneficial in our community to increase parent awareness and immediate feedback about daily things. I've been teaching for thirteen years. I have a vocation for education and it's demoralizing to see companies take away the tools that help us be efficient with our students due to profits.

My daughter is in kindergarten at a different district and her teacher uses the Remind app to send more than just text messages. We receive weekly newsletters, calendars, and pictures of my daughter's projects at school. I hope the company reconsiders this decision because frequent communication with parents is part of our YEARLY EVALUATION process as educators. We have to show our school administration how often we communicate with parents, content shared, etc. Remind has been the most effective tool to use.

TMACB

#reversethefee. I use the remind app to communicate with students who participate in our youth ministry program so I can send one text to all 70+ youth easily when we need to communicate information quickly. This change will adversely affect the way we do ministry. Please figure this out and fix it.

TAMRAB17

This is a bad choice by Verizon. Remind is an important tool that I use for work, my son's school and sports activities, church groups, etc. This is not spam and Verizon should not be charging them. #ReverseTheFee #NotSpam

KEWHITFO

Having talked to many parents and educators, Verizon's decision to charge Remind as if they were sending SPAM is a deal-beaker for customers. The public, especially responsible parents, will not tolerate corporate greed or convenience at the expense of their children's best interest.

As teacheres, we believe this decision effects the well-being and safety of our students. We have depended on the Remind app to communicate with students regarding cancellations and in instances where immediate communication is needed. We have found it effective with school intruder drills. We find it particularly vital on field trips where we have to get students to meet a particular location at a certain time when there are unexpected changes in itineraries. For obvious reasons, teachers are reluctant to contact students directly thru normal text messaging. Remind allows messaging without the student or teacher having to compromise their privacy.

This is bad business, bad PR and not good for all parties involved. There are other carriers who can match Verizon's coverage who will not abandon our schools and children. Verizon, fix this before its too late!!!

cplammie

Remind is NOT spam. By now Verizon knows this to be fact, and they are still sticking by their decision to charge Remind the additional fee. This is shameful and greedy. As an educator and a parent, I find Remind to be invaluable. So much that I am also now using it with my girl scout troop.

Verizon, fix this before you cause too much ill will to overcome!

KCon17

As a teacher and a parent this is very disappointing. I work in a low income area and many of the parents don't understand technology very well. It is easy to have them sign up for remind since they just get a text message. Trying to have them use the app is difficult. Please rethink this decision verizon.

NYKKYTKD

Our entire school is reacting to this news. We were told to contact Verizon in as many ways as possible to ask them to reconsider. I use this app for 4 teams I coach, my Physical Education classes and my two classes where I teach kids organizational skills and help remind them about tests, homework and assignments. This app is essential, I can't imagine not being able to contact my students. Please reconsider this fee.

boringusername

So much information. Verizon is not banning the app you can use it on Verizon. Verizon is asking the company to pay what everyone else does.

LTP3

As a parent of kids on sports teams at two different schools, remind is a huge help. Their schools have parent alerts but this is not something the coaches can use for specific teams. These are for school wide alerts. I think anything that can be done to make teachers lives easier should be supported. These are people who give so much of their time and often their own money for other people's children. For the amount of money I pay monthly to verizon, I would hope they reconsider this decision.

ANNKOL94

I truly hope that you change your mind about this, Verizon. I don't know if you realize how many people will be affected by this decision. Like so many others have said, Remind is the way I communicate with all the families of my 5th graders. I have one child that has 4 different caregivers who live in different places. Remind allows me to contact all of them at the same time. If Verizon continues with this decision, I honestly don't know what I will do. I can't send individual messages to each parent. It will be impossible to get all the families to upload the app. These are families with a lot of challenges and some are scraping by with prepay phones. Please reconsider Verizon! At the very least, wait until the summer so I don't end up cut off from parents in the middle of the school year.

BROWNCLOGS

[removed] Ditch the corporate-ese and help our public school educators communicate with OUR community parents by keeping Remind service fee-free for text messages without having to download an app. These messages are not SPAM and should not be treated as such. Help our educators to help our communities. We all win when teachers are enabled to do their tough jobs with as few obstacles as possible. Help your hard-working customers out, Verizon!

Content modified as required by Verizon Wireless Terms of Service

itbusinessanalyst

Remind already pays what everyone else does. Jan 28 Verizon will start charging Remind the additional fee they charge to spammers. Remind is not spam; it sends messages only to people who've asked, and it cancels on request (I've done that after my kid finished a class or team season). Remind should not be charged extra.

itbusinessanalyst

Postponing until after this school year would be a nice gesture from Verizon. Perhaps in the meantime Verizon will find a way to differentiate spammers from legit services.

BETHIC63

I have stayed on hold for what feels like forever with Verizon... the only response I have gotten is that it is an issue with Remind and I should speak to them. My thoughts on that are, I pay for Verizon and have been a loyal customer for many, many years. Remind is a free app that is useful to me as a parent, my school, my teachers, and my high school student (who gets information from her teachers on upcoming tests and events). I feel that the actual company that I pay should be the ones to help me and fix my issue. It is worth it to me to change carriers to keep the texts coming, the supervisor continually said she did not want me to leave, but did not do anything to help correct the issue. Chatting in this forum is the only suggestion I was given besides contacting remind. Remind is NOT spam! Please consider not instating this fee.

suyakun

Keep calling and keep posting everyone.

This is a silly move on Verizon's part and they need to know it. They are putting a select group of students and parents at a disadvantage, especially when it comes to success in education.

DAVKNO90

As a parent of 3 children, one of which is special needs, this app has been great to communicate with their teachers. I think you need to reconsider your decision. At least find an app similar. I will have to find a new carrier if you do away with the app.

will19380

Well I am glad Verizon is doing something about spam. Now since you are charging more for Teach, I hope it applies to the other 400 spammers a month that I get messages from. If you don't stop them, your decision to attack one company with legitimate use will show you don't seem to care. Re-instate Teach - not spam.

tlkep

Recently Verizon has implemented a huge service fee on bulk text messages, obviously to limit bandwidth and inhibit spam use of such. A good thing. However, as a result we have been notified that as Verizon wireless customers we will no longer be able to receive messages from our sons’ school via the highly used Remind App. This is solely because Verizon is imposing an unreasonable fee on Remind, a sender of bulk text messages, which as an educational institution and free service to users they cannot afford to pay. This will terribly interrupt both our son’s communication and our (his parents) communication with school and teachers and is totally and completely unacceptable.

We called Verizon, and they will not even take a complaint from us as they say that the problem is on Remind. The problem is not with Remind: the problem is the unreasonable cost Verizon is imposing on an educational application.

We are also expressly concerned how this will affect other such important applications and legitimate services using bulk text messages. One of which comes to mind is airline notifications thru text messaging on schedules and delays, safety services, etc.

As a Verizon stock holder, who also subscribes to numerous Verizon services to the average cost of $600 per month in our household, I will not accept an answer of more subscription costs to public services I require.

We implore Verizon to either rescind this fee, or to initiate some sort of filter which will allow selective and necessary public service bulk text messages thru their system.

Copies of this note have been sent to our State Attorney General, Josh Shapiro’s office, as well as our representatives in Congress and to The Better Business Bureau.

Enclosed below is a link to more info from and article in USA Today.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/01/16/verizon-fee-remind-app-draws-backlash-teachers-parents/2578711002/

tgei18

I am also a teacher. I am EXTREMELY upset about Verizon's decision to not allow the remind app to be used for communication on their service. Verizon is, if I'm not mistaken, the most expensive cell phone service there is in the US. Whom I sure makes quite a bit of profit each year. The Remind app is primarily used by educators, students, and schools to communicate in a safe way for teachers and students. I can't believe that Verizon would choose their own profits over schools, teachers, and students. I am urging you to change this decision! Give back to your community of teachers and students instead of worrying about the money in your pocket.

rcschnoor

You may want to read the following:

Verizon Promises to #ReverseTheFee on Remind After Educators’ Outcry | EdSurge News

KAMM1994

ReverseTheFee #NotSpam

I'm a parent and have loved having Remind as a way to know when my child will be back from a school function prior to them getting a cell phone. I've been able to be notified when softball games are cancelled because coaches use it.

My spouse is an educator and uses Remind ALL. THE. TIME. to contact his more than 100 band students and their parents simultaneously (well over 200 people being contacted) for various things. How is he supposed to contact all these kids easily with one text-Without sharing his personal phone number if not through Remind?

This is small benefit to educators everywhere and in no way is spam related. –Parents are able to end texts from Remind whenever we choose. Like Grown-ups.

As a VerizonWireless customer, we already pay a premium price for service.There's no reason for this gigantic company that makes billions of dollars to label this spam for any other reason than money.

This is just bad form @Verizonwireless

Bad. Form.

OMBESTUDIO

I would also like to encourage Verizon to reversethefee

It is impossible for me to know which of my students is on Verizon versus the other networks, who don't seem to have a problem with this at all. Teachers, coaches, club advisors - we use this extensively at my school. You might consider viewing it as a way to support students and educators instead of a money making proposal. It would go a long way to increase appreciation for your brand which is, just being honest, not anything anyone brags about. All I ever hear about Verizon is how awful their customer service is and the fact that I had to create 2 accounts just to post this and could get no chat service from you is further proof that you could use a bump in the reputation department.

OMBESTUDIO

REMIND is very different than spam. I agree spam is an issue but this is a specific service that people select to join.

Doggo

Just so you know, it's the other way around. All of this outrage was drama that didn't exist. Verizon support getting harassed for something they have no control over because of the company Twilio.

Sharon_user

I am very disappointed and amazed at Verizon. As if they don't get enough in fees and charges from us as customers. I cannot believe that Verizon is resorting to this. I am a parent. My child was just talking about and is very upset as this is the most used form of communication for her school classes/assistance with assignments. It is very helpful to receive updates from my child's teachers. This is not spam. Highly disappointing!!! reversethefee

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