Outrageous Usage

[dave21]

Has anyone looked at their usage for this month and seen that they have used an outrageous amount of data? I have a 5G plan and after almost a year of rarely going over by more than 500 MB, this months usage claims I have used 26 G. That is physically impossible on this computer.

[pkbarnhart]

This is a long thread... which must mean that it is a continuing problem.  Like several of you I was way over my 5GB in August (about 10GB used according to VZ).  The highest useage was on the evening of  Aug. 15. According to my billing statement I used over 3GB that night alone.  Only problem is that I was at a wedding from about 7pm until midnight.  According to the bill at about 8pm I logged on and used the 3+GB.  No one else has access to the card.  I am one of those lucky guys that signed up over nearly two years ago and I have an "unlimited plan".  The catch with the plan is that if you go over the 5GB then they put a "governor" on you and your access speed slows down to a crawl. (VZ slowed me down for the month of September).  I went up the chain with VZ and finally got the the Fraud Dept.  (The guys who slowed me down).  The people I talked to basically said I was a liar and that I must have downloaded a movie or something and therefore I must have committed fraud. I have NEVER downloaded a movie onto my computer... the speed of the system is way to slow to allow for that.

VZ ads also say that you can expect 1Mb speeds.  I typically don't get over 400KB speed and often slower than that. 

Your contract also says that you will not use the account for streaming video and other types of downloading.  I guess I am probably in violation of the contract every day as I go to a lot of news sites and they are always playing a small clip in one of the corners.  Even my MSN home page dumps streaming video ads on me without my asking.  If VZ was going to enforce their contract then they should shut down everyone who accesses the internet.   

It sounds like this may be a problem with VZ and their equipment.  The bottom line is I used to be a loyal customer and probably referred 10 people to Verizon. I won't do that again. I now intensely dislike the company and should the opportunity come up to switch I would do so in a heartbeat... only problem is they have a near monopoly in my area. 

[#3]

Maybe your computer was downloading software updates in the background, etc.  If I was having these sorts of problems, I would remove my Verizon modem with not actually using my computer.

[pkbarnhart]

Jim:... Have you ever seen a 3GB update?  Plus my computer would have to be a "magic puter" as I always shut it down when I am not using it.  I know some people leave them on all the time but not me. 

I am almost 60 years old and I am pretty methodical with my actions.  Been working on PC's since they were first invented.  I appreciate your idea.  I think that it was most probably something to do with the Verizon takeover of ATT in our area... For a couple of months my modem would switch to what it called... rats, can't think of the name... but it was the VZ "international service" as opposed to EVDO or National Acess.  I called VZ and was asked if I am near the border.... yeah... about 500 miles near.  

Anyway, all seems to be working fine now.  It just seems that based on this small forum there must have been lots of people with this overage problem. 

[#5]

I'm just trying to give you some possibilities.  Won't reply next time.

[pjk]

We signed up for the wifi the end of November. We loved it and used it the month of december without going over--my kids were out of school for 2 weeks and home. My daughter listened to christmas music online most of the month. WE THOUGHT--PERFECT--WRONG.

Some how the second month--when my kids were back in school and my husband was in the hospital for 9 days (and the kids used free internet at the hospital during that time) we were $95 over our usage.

NOW WE ARE STUCK BECAUSE WE DIDN'T GO OVER UNTIL OUR 30 DAYS WERE UP TO CANCEL--SEEMS CONVENIENT FOR VERIZON.

I contacted verizon and no one can tell me what website suddenly used so much of the MB. I was told my kids must have been on limewire or whatever it was. the guy almost insisted that they must be. But I check our computers at home--its not even downloaded and the kids were not on the limewire or whatever its called.

BOTTOM LINE--IF YOU HAVE KIDS AND YOU DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO CONSTANTLY POLICE THE INTERNET USAGE ---THIS IS NOT FOR YOU.

I AM THOROUGHLY DISAPPOINTED. IT WORKED SO WELL.  But I have to go to work and check (can't use any extra internet at home) every day to police our usage. My two kids are now allowed on the internet 15 minutes a day--worthless for $59 a month. 

WE DID NOT DOWNLOAD A SINGLE MOVIE IN THAT TIME.

I have a full time job--I didn't want a second full time job policing our internet usage.

Very disappointed in our wifi.  

[Deamore]

@ Dave1812-  I'm not a fan of government controlling everything but i am in favor of a government that protects its population from price gouging and stealing from the American public. Corporate greed is what put not just America but the entire world as a whole where it is right now financially because of the lack of government controls. The health care industry is out of control because of our free market and little to no regulation on that industry. Again lack of government controls. When the government broke up AT&T competition exploded and the prices for services dropped substantially.  Guess what AT&T is in the top 3 still, Microsoft is still raking in the dollars as well.

@ Tech_ Addition- The people that are using mobile broadband primarily aren't phone users, they are rural Americans who use it as there only broadband access point...You simply got taken advantage of is all. I find it quite funny that Sprint, AT&T as well as VZW have set 5GB bandwidth caps...

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/the-cost-to-offer-the-worlds-fastest-broadband-20-per-home/

After you read that you will see how we are as a whole nation being ripped off by the monopoly telecom's have created once again. I wonder how long 5GB of bandwidth would last with 100Mbps download that those accross the pond enjoy for half the price?

[Tech_Addiction]

Oh I agree with you, I was just saying that the penalties for data usage are not the same across the board with VZW.  I think that it's appauling that they feel a need to abuse rual customers for the greediness of a hand few.  There are plenty of ways to monitor the rule breakers.  Just downloading a copy of Win7 Beta for a rual customer would almost kill there allotment for the month.  That's sad.

Sorry about the horrible sentence structure in the above post.  I had to reload my touch pad driver so I could turn it off.  My thumb kept hitting it redirecting the cursor.

Message Edited by Tech_Addiction on 08-22-2009 07:00 AM

[dave1812]

Care to explain exactly HOW this is price gouging?  If you order an expensive cut of meat at your local steakhouse,  do you complain when the bill comes, despite the fact the price was listed on the menu????

[LukeTech]

With enough pressure from customers, that 5GB limit will change.

[dave1812]

I don't have a problem with the cap, but I WOULD like to see them do the "rollover" thing like one of the carriers does with monthly minutes.    That would be a good PR move and I wouldn't think it would severely impact the network traffic.

[mic318]

Well yes I would, number one is dishonest, and 2 Its a lie it is impossible to use that much internet in a month unless you run downloads 24 hrs a day, 2 it wasn't in my contract, or on any menu. Its a flat out lie to rip people off, and people like you are feeding the problem, maybe you have 300 a month for internet ,but I don't and even if I did I would pay that much Its ridiculous.

[#13]

Everybody these days wants to be a victim.  The service is $60 for 5 GB per month.  It's that simple.  The $.05 per MB overage charge is designed to encourage you not to exceed your contract amount.  Download Netmeter and manage your usage.  If there is somthing about Verizon you can't live with, switch to another carrier.  Better yet, start your own internet provider company and run it the way you want.

[Doodle]

Mr. Fitzgerald the day will come that you have Outrageous Usage charges and will want answers.

[#15]

If that happens, I will drop the service.

[Protege]

It's not very nice to wish bad things upon other people, they have a thing called karma you know.

If you feel there was an error, have them check all the connections.  Otherwise, the way the technology is set up is to monitor when you connect/disconnect VZ access manager and how much data you send or receive.  Some e-mails are rather large files. 

They are not going to just go out and bill people on purpose, Verizon Wireless makes enough money as it is. 

And for the guy thinking about dial-up

Good luck was what I was told to tell the people considering going back to dial up so....

GOOD LUCK 

edited for typo

[MisterBetelgeus]

Dave,  can explain exactly HOW this is price gouging.

If you order an expensive cut of meat at your local steakhouse, and they bring you road Kill

do you complain when the bill comes, yes you do.

Just like how the RIAA learned a few years ago, You can not gouge the US for to long.

[larrytheG]

Yes.... if folks have any success in getting te govt to order Verizon to lower it's prices, I'd like to suggest that next, we move on to gasoline.   I'd rather have it cost $2 a gal if no one minds.

[Deamore]

Here is a link Dave21 about the very recent FCC probe into Verizon and AT&T business practices. Market dominance ie monopoly is when a businesses can jack up the charges because there is little to no competition. This link will save me alot of typing. It will be interesting to see in the next several months how mobile broadband prices change. I think you will see broadband useage caps go away in the near future. When i don't know. I do know this rural America is not loading down the cell towers to justify any sort of broadband cap on mobile data only. Rural America where i live is less then 4 houses per square mile.Verizons tower is only 2 miles away from my house lol ..They are pushing netbooks really hard now. I wonder if they come with a disclaimer stating to not use it very often or pay a high price?

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aRWUCIwC10f0

[Tech_Addiction]

That blog does look incouraging.  Exclusive deals do hurt competitors and stuff the pockets of those company's that have them.  I do hope it lifts the 5gb cap but I really don't mind the price of the plan, just the cap.

Message Edited by Tech_Addiction on 08-22-2009 12:21 PM

[s2marks]

If anyone is interested, there are 2 things that you can do right now; 

1) You can pay $120 per month for a 10Gb cap.....Verizon will allow you to do that.  Ugly I know, $120 is a ridiculous amount of money for internet access. 

2) Check your contract!   My plan per Mb over cap was $0.25.  I called Verizon last week and they changed that down to $0.05 per Mb over cap.  Still very expensive but now remortgage you house time if a virus goes wild on your computer whilst you are out. 

Let's look at the original poster in this thread 26Gb ...let's see..assuming he has a 5Gb cap;If he were on the 0.05 per Mb over cap plan his bill would be 21 X 1024 x 0.05 = $1,075.20  (ouch.. is my math's correct?)...so he is being punished to the tune of 20 times his already expensive internet access for a wild overage which happened probably through no fault of his own. Of course perhaps he's on the 0.25 per Mb over cap plan......so his bill will be 5 times that.  a whopping $5,376. 

That is what I find so ugly about Verizon.  That is dishonest, it is simply taking advantage.  Overage should be pro-rated to the 5Gb = $60 rate or $60.00 / (5 X 1024) = $0.01172 ...that's about 1 cent per Mb, not 5 ...and certainly not 25.

Verizon time to respond.

 s2marks

[s2marks]

Whilst I'm at it..one more thing.

Verizon have no facility to prevent you going over the cap.   So if you are snagged by a virus or some other event outside of your control (someone hacks into your home wireless network and decides to download a dozen movies), then you may have run up several Gb over the cap before you have the opportunity to respond and do something about it.

I could handle my sevice being rendered inoperable after I went over say 5.5Gb each month, but the fact that there is no facility for this makes using this service a gamble with zero upside and major downside. 

How about some Carry-over Gb?

s2marks