Oh Wow.....I was having second thoughts about this new Share Package I signed up for and am awaiting my new phone. I will definitely watch these posts and attempt to keep up with data usage. Unfortunately, I am not a technical person and am afraid of being taken advantage of with no way to escape!
SHARE EVERYTHING folks are gonna get screwed
Had the same issue only with 3G.
I have been with Verizon for 9 years now. I had a smartphone plan wherein I paid for 2GB of data per month. I never even used 1 GB but was always willing to pay more just in case and so I wouldn't have to worry about it. Last month, July 29th to be exact, I added my daughter to my plan and also switched to the Share plan. We are still sharing 2GB of data. I thought I would see how it went month to month and then upgrade to 4GB if I needed to. We have wi fi at home and use 3G very little duing the day. So from July 29th to yesterday, August 28th, I studiously watched the data usage on the My Verizon data widget. Yesterday, the last day of the billing cycle, we were at 1.8. This is understandable as we were away from our home wi fi for 2 weeks this month and were only using 3G. I checked the data usage this morning (August 29th start of a new billing cycle) at 6 a.m. and the data showed a whopping 1.511!!! How could we possibly go from using the data alot more than normal on 3G and only incurring 1.8 to 1.511 in the span of 6 hours AND that was all on wi fi AND we were sleeping!!!???? I called Verizon and the tech basically told me nothing that I didn't already know (watching you tube videos, streaming pandora, etc. will eat up data). I wanted someone to tell me what happened so I would know not to do it again, but she said they have no way of looking up what happened and couldn't help me. So you mean to tell me they can just charge whatever they want to my data and there is no recourse??!!! She did give me an upgrade to 4GB for the month, credited me the extra $10 bucks, and then said I will switch back to 2GB next month, but that still doesn't help solve what happened during that 6 hour timeframe where we used almost as much data as we used in an entire month! I looked at my bill from last month and did the whole data usage Excel spreadsheet thing and come to find out there were many, many instances where I was definitely home and on wi fi yet the bill shows data was used??!! I still can not figure out a way to be able to prove anything.
It seems I am having the same problem that many others are having in tracking data use with my 4G Share Everything data plan. I have a tablet, smart phone and a Pantech UML290 USB wireless modem hooked up to my desktop. Because I live in the country, I have no other reliable wireless service.
When I signed up for the new plan with Verizon, I moved from the unlimited data plan to a 20 GB plan because Verizon said I had used 23 GB in each of the last two months. Previous to that, I was using any from 5 to 9 GB per month. I found the 23 GB figure hard to believe but went with 20 GB plan anyway. The smart phone and tablet each use less than 1 GB per monthly consistently and that has not changed. I use the desktop for e-mail and some Internet access, and avoid downloading music or movies. I don't even back up files online except for Quicken.
Things got really crazy in August. Verizon began sending me alerts that I was rapidly exceeding may data plan limits. For some days, I have reportedly been using 5 to 8 GB per day. About 15 days into the month ending in September, I have already used 40 GB. I had my desktop thoroughly checked remotely by Norton for any type of virus or Trojan horse. I did a clean reinstall of Windows 7 to ensure I had no corrupted files.
Verizon tech support is now giving me the run around. One tech said that maybe my SIM card was bad so she sent me a new one. Another tech said that wouldn't solve any thing and the the charges are valid and I will need to pay another $1,000 ($15 per GB) or so in September because I am using that much data. It now has been escalated to their engineers because there is no way I am going to pay that amount of money. The last tech suggested that I not turn the desktop on and may that would solve the problem. Duh, then why am I playing for the service. I have download the data usage information into Excel spreadsheets have have noticed numerous discrepancies in the data such as new usage appearing up to 4 to 5 days later.
I believe that my only recourse is to continue fighting this issue with Verizon and keep escalating it until Verizon realizes I am not going to pay for something I am not getting. Verizon has a systemic problem that they are not willing to face.
Would also like to see Verizon respond to this as there seems to be something fishy going on.
Hi there,
I recently got hotspot 6GB lasted me the whole first month. Then the next month I changed to the share everything plan. My husband and son don't have data enabled devices, only me. The usage indicator on the Verizon mobile site showed that I used 2 GB of data the first day that my billing cycle began. Then after a week it showed 6 GB, after 2 weeks it showed that I was close to 7! I called multiple times and no one at Verizon could or would give me a straight answer as to how that could be possible. I don't watch videos or stream music. All I do is check my email, surf Facebook, the web, and go online to do my coursework for my Bachelors. The first 2 people at Verizon thought as I did that it must be a glitch in the system. One guy said that it was a known issue with the share everything plan where usage was not resetting, another guy said that according to his coworkers it was a known issue in the Western states. They said to call back in a week and it should "correct itself." Needless to say midway through my billing cycle it did not correct itself. I called again and the rep said that there was a known issue with the Droid regarding data errors. Then she backtracked and blamed me for all the usage. I explained how it showed 2 GB of usage on the 1st day of my bill cycle and there was no way that I used that much in 1 day. Also, the data was being used at odd hours of the day and night like at 3am when I know I was sleeping and not using data and during the day when I was at work. Tech support continued to insist that I was using the data. I told them that I was tired of the different answers, runaround, nobody trying to look into my issue, and that I just wanted to cancel so that I could go to a different provider. Sprint has unlimited data now. The tech person didn't care, didn't try to "save me" as a customer though I've been with Verizon for a few years and spend $200 a month on service. She was just going to disconnect my account. I told her that I wanted a supervisor and didn't like her "so what" attitude. Per her supervisor they upgraded me to 10 GB of data and credited me $20. They said to call back a few days after my next billing cycle 10/07 and they would examine the usage to determine if there was a system issue or if it was me using the data. I asked the tech support rep if my phone might have a virus or if someone could be hacking into my hotspot. She said that to her knowledge smartphones while like computers, don't get virus'. I said really? And you're in tech support. Wow!
After I got off the phone I decided to change the password for my mobile hotspot as I just had the default one and didn't know I could change it. I also elected to no longer broadcast my SSID and installed Verizon's app "Verizon Mobile Security." The app advertises that among other things it can scan your smartphone for virus' and malware. I guess smartphones can get virus' you dumb lady that should NOT be in tech support. I did a virus scan and it found nothing. My guess is that someone was likely hacking into my hotspot. Anyway hopefully the security measures that I've taken will help. Well see come next billing cycle...
Just saw all the other responses and it sounds like a widespread issue that Verizon is covering up by playing stupid. I think the first two customer service reps screwed up in admitting that it was likely a system glitch. They probably didn't get their script from Verizon yet regarding this issue...
I say we join together in a complaint with the BBB and if this continues without resolution we may be joining a class action lawsuit.
I think going to the BBB should work, but I have unlimited for now so it does not matter what they say my useage is.
Any way good luck and hope that it get's fixed.
Update to my prevous message - I was able to get Verizon to write-off my excess data for one month and one-half of the excess data for the second month. Although it took at least six calls, I did find a sympathic tech who finally understood that I was not going to let the issue rest. I am still on the 20 GB plan with the Share Everything option. I really do regret leaving the unlimited data plan. I now watch my usage very carefully.
20 Gigs plan? And you was going over?? 
Maybe you may want to install Onavo Count - Monitor Data from Play Store at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onavo.android.onavoid&feature=nav_result#?t=W251bG... it does well to keep track of apps and data use, you can set them the high data apps to only connect on wifi to regulate data use..
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