I have been a Verizon customer for almost 30 years (six with a corporation and the rest with my own business). I currently have a 5GB plan which is more than enough for me since I work mostly from home with Wi-Fi. In those years I have been a customer I have exceeded my plan limit maybe three times, and not by much. I am a tech guy so I am always very aware of how I use my devices.
My current device is a Samsung S25 Ultra which I got in a swap device deal through Verizon.
A couple of weeks ago as I was driving to run some errands, I got a notification form Verizon that I had exceeded my limit. Since I had some carry over data and some ones data which game me a total of about 11GB available for the month (my billing cycle is practically the calendar month), I thought that it was probably a mistake on their end.
Without getting into all the gory details, here’s what I found:
- My data usage on my cell phone said I had used 10GB of Spotify data on that day I got the notification.
- I asked Spotify for their logs which tell what I was listening to or watching with the data showing I had listened to 10 songs for a total of 40 mins (that amount of AUDIO MINUTES cannot ever drive up 10GB worth of data)
- Then I went to my account online to look at the usage logs and Verizon claims that I used that amount of data (here’s the breakdown)
- 03/11/2026, 01:24 PM, 3.815317 GB
- 03/11/2026, 01:28 PM, 1.548105 GB
- 03/11/2026, 01:29 PM, 2.389334 GB
- 03/11/2026, 01:31 PM, 1.615040 GB
Now here’s a sequence of calls I made and actions I took:
- I called Verizon because I have always had great to exceptional service from them. The rep as always was attentive and started checking things out. I could clearly hear him sound confused as if something didn’t look right. He wasn’t able to help me but said he would elevate the issue to tech support. Fair enough but I said this was a problem because I was going out of the country and would need to use Verizon’s international plan which even thought I have the data protection option on, the speed was now an absolutely miserable 128 kbs. He tried to get me sign up for an unlimited plan but I said no (I do not need an unlimited plan and won’t do is as long as I am able to have n5 GB plan). He then said he would transfer me to tech support.
- In tech support I had to re-explain everything and, again, they tried to upsell me. I again said no. Then after several minutes of chat he said he couldn’t do anything. Why was I transferred to them????
- A few days later, a Friday which by then a full 48 hours had gone bay, I got a call from Verizon because they had escalated the problem. And again, they tried to upsell me! I again said no. They told me they were still working on the issue and they would get back to me on Monday. That would make it make it 4 days since the problem arose.
- I then decided to go a couple of stores to see if they could help me (and armed with the data logs). The guy I talked to said they were not authorized to do anything but he agreed with me that the logs made no sense at all.
At the end of the day Verizon DID NOT MAKE ME WHOLE. I had to use an eSim while out of the country so ensure reasonable speeds.
I find it hard to believe that after almost 30 years with Verizon they would be so unreasonable GIVEN that the data shows the impossibility of what they say happened. Apparently the truth has eluded Verizon so when I get back home I will be talking to other carriers about switching my service.
As Sherlock Holmes once said, “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth”
PS: I am NOT going to upgrade to unlimited.
