First of all, I was with Verizon from my very first phone at age 18 until age 26, 8 years. I switched employers and my discount reduced dramatically, my grandfathered plan had unlimited data and of course VZ wants to get rid of those customers so they jacked my bill up. I could not afford it so I switched to a shared plan with my sister on Sprint. In the year and a half I was with them, I used an average of 1.5-1.9GB per month. One month I used 2.06GB but that was only one month. My last month with sprint I traveled 10 hours to Florida and back, 5 hours to Kentucky and back, both of which trips I used my Google Maps GPS. On top of that, for all 10 days of those travel days, I did not connect to wifi at all. The most data I ever used was again less than 2GB. I used snapchat, instagram constantly, literally taking video after video of the drive on the way to and from Florida on snapchat. I also had Google drive backing up my photos via both wifi and 3G/4G. I even used my FitRadio app and turned wifi off when at the gym for an hour a day every day because it connected better than the wifi. I never once had to think about whether I was connected to wifi or not, when to turn my data off, if I was running over, anything like that with Sprint. I had a Samsung Galaxy S4 phone at the time.
I switched to Verizon on Tuesday May 12th, I received my Samsung Galaxy S6 phone in the afternoon and turned it on for the first time around 3pm. I signed up for a 3GB plan knowing that should be well over what I need. On Friday I drove to the beach (4hours) but didn't even use my GPS. I connected to the beachouse wifi the entire time once there. On Sunday morning I got a notification that I had used 75% of my data already! I had to use my GPS to get back home and therefore felt worried about going over and added the $10 extra 1GB to make sure I could get home ok. I then went through all of the apps and put them on minimum data usage, turned Google drive photo backup, and app updates to only run when connected to wifi,and turned my data completely off at all times, unless I had an emergency need to use data when not at home, work, or the gym (all of which have wifi, keep in mind besides my car, these are literally where I am located at all times and connected to wifi). Since Sunday (we are now here on Friday), my phone shows another entire gig has been used! So I am over 3GB of data used right now, paid $10 extra to get me to 4GB and I am not even a full two weeks into service with Verizon.
I called Verizon customer service this morning to explain all of this. I spent 30 minutes on the phone with them that I should be at work but have no choice.
Their only options for me are as follows:
1. turn data off completely when connected to wifi because the phone will default tot he faster connection and therefore use data instead of wifi sometimes. 2. use the data calculator on their website 3. the phone is newer and therefore uses more data 4.sprint doesn't have good service so that is why it uses less data 5. they will give me 500GB of data for free for 1 year (this is not much if my data is going to be tripled from what it was and I am going to have to pay almost $200 for enough data 6. switch back to Sprint.
O and I was told when I agreed to sign up, that I had 30 days to change my mind and send back the phone for a $35 restocking fee. Today I am told it is really only 14 days and because Monday is a holiday and would normally be my 14th day, I would need to ship the phone out tomorrow in order to be able to cancel and only pay the $35 restocking fee. They called me back to tell me it is indeed 14 days not 30 like I was told and if I don't ship the phone back tomorrow, if I want to cancel I would have to pay the full ETF.
I absolutely call Bull on Verizon. How is it that I can use 30 hours of GPS, ten full day with no wifi, stream music for about an hour a day every day without wifi, use snapchat and instragram constantly and still come nowhere near 3GB on Sprint. But on Verizon while using my phone 1 week with data on but almost all day connected to wifi (besides in the car), 1 week with data turned off completely, used music and everything else on wifi, and one 4 hour drive of GPS and I am already over 3GB in less than 2 weeks.
Their explanation and options given to me are not sufficient. Verizon please come up with a better explanation and stop treating customers as if they don't matter. I understand that you have great coverage, but that does not give you the right to charge exorbitant amounts of money and claim triple the data that other carriers used. There is something inherently wrong with this. Consumers do have rights, and you are violating them.
I am sure you dealt with very similar issues regarding call minutes, text messages etc in the past when they were charged individually rather than just unlimited. Why didn't you learn that the consumers are happiest when they can use their device as needed without worrying about how much time they spent on it? We all look forward to the day that data is truly unlimited. How is it that the cable/phone companies do not have to charge by usage to home consumers, but mobile consumers do have to be charged that way. We need change and we need it now.
I fully expect a better response than what I have received so far Verizon...
Waiting on you, and remember I only have until tomorrow to ship my phone back and accept that Verizon is just not for me.
-Julie
