In January of this year, we went to our local Verizon Wireless office to see how to reduce our bill since my husband recently retired and we live on his pension and social security. We each had a cell phone and was on a plan that had a 700 minute cap - we barely used 100 minutes of phone time between us but this was the minimum amount of minutes that was offered.
At the time, we were on a Bundle Plan through Verizon that included our home land line, internet, Direct TV and the two cell phones. We had had this plan through Verizon for about 4 years (once wireless internet service was available in our area) and prior to that, had other providers for our internet service. In all the years we have had internet service regardless of the provider, we have NEVER been allotted a data usage cap or been charged for data usage for our home computer.
The rep at Verizon Wireless told us that there was not a plan available with lower minutes for our mobile device but by looking at our Verizon bill, she could save us money by switching our land line and internet to Verizon Wireless (we would have to be billed separately by Direct TV). This would give us unlimited long distance and texting and would be less expensive than what we were paying.
During the sign up process, she asked what types of activity did we use on our computer. On-line banking, web browsing of real estate and news sites, email, etc.. No movie, tv or radio streaming. She said that "5GB should be plenty". We didn't think much of this because we had never been limited to data usage on our home computer and had no idea what we used. We had 14 days to change our minds.
About week 3 we began getting the "overage" messages. I called Verizon Wireless and they suggested raising our plan to 6GB for less than the overage penalty would be. That was in January/February 2013. We are currently at 10GB and don't know why or what we are doing to cause this much usage - we never watch movies or stream anything live, our emails number less than 200 a month with no big attachments, we don't play on-line games, etc.. I have had several conversations with the reps at the local office and the tech people at Verizon Wireless to no avail. No matter what we raise our GB to, it never seems to be enough! It is very frustrating as we turn off the jet pack and disconnect at night and even during the day when we are not on-line. To date, we are paying $100 a month for 10GB of data usage something we never paid for in the past.
The biggest clincher is that I am willing to pay the early disconnect fee but now I am told that internet service through Verizon is no longer offered in my area! Where did it go? I would gladly switch to another provider but, unfortunately, we are in a somewhat rural area and presently there is no alternative for wireless service.
Could it be that Verizon is trying to get their customers to switch all services to Verizon Wireless in order to charge for home computer data usage? I understand charging for data usage on a mobile device but home computer? By the way, we are a household of 2 senior citizens with one computer.
Another side note: This pales in comparison to the data usage issue but, the line quality on our home phone is poor as there is not a tower close by. People always think we are calling on a cell phone and often calls are dropped. Again, the possibility of which was never mentioned when we switched.
I did file a complaint with the FCC and have been playing phone tag with a Verizon Wireless rep from the executive office. I also received a letter from him yesterday saying that he has been "unable to reach you by phone" and if I don't contact him before 11/18/13, "Verizon Wireless will consider my case closed".
Has anyone else had this experience?
