Go Unlimited Plan Clarification

[MATCAN13]

I want to start by saying I have had Verizon for over 15 years and can honestly say I have NEVER been dissatisfied with any customer service whether remote or in local retail stores.  I have never considered switching carriers.  My employer has always offered AT&T or Verizon phones, and I have, without hesitancy, always chosen Verizon.  I say all this, because I have just become the impulsive/angry customer over the past few months with the hidden secrets of the Go Unlimited Plan we have all discovered, but I still have some clarifying questions I would like answered by the Verizon Community.

Our situation: I recently joined on a plan with my spouse who pulled her personal number from her company when she decided to have two phones.  We mostly decided to pull the trigger on this because of this magnificent 'Unlimited' plan that finally resurfaced. She travels for work around the city and state, and is always away from WIFI.  (We never considered opening a personal line due to this reason). We found this Unlimited plan would work in our budget, and joined a new plan together.

Our wake up call: We live in Nashville, TN.  In case anyone is living under a rock, Nashville is growing at ridiculous exponential speeds with next to 0 economical plans to sustain it.  We received our unveiling of the "deprioritizing" stipulations of the "Go Unlimited Plan" when she would be stuck in traffic around the city, traveling, and could NEVER get her maps to work. She travels and has to have maps.  Any time in "congestion" her maps/internet/apps were extremely slow.  Contacted Verizon (for the first time, probably ever) and they informed us about the congestion parameters.  NEWS FLASH! NASHVILLE IS ONE GIANT CONGESTION ALL THE TIME. Reality Check= you are screwed on this plan UNLESS you use Beyond Unlimited, which defeats the whole purpose on even having to worry about ANY data amount (regardless of what that # is).

Our reaction: Touche Verizon; We understand the "business" side of this.  At the end of the day, the whole world cannot have unlimited data, fastest speeds,  and for X amount of dollars across the board.  You would probably go bankrupt.  We get it.  HOWEVER, we are still angry on some clarifying things that Verizon cannot explain to us and we would like clarified before having to shop elsewhere.....

-We were told, during times of congestion we are deprioritized behind customers who are Beyond Unlimited, and those who are NOT on any kind of unlimited plan (business move).  However, no one can tell us how WE AS CUSTOMERS  IN A CONGESTED CITY, are able to at least KNOW when we are in a "congested" area/time to at least know we are about to be dropped to the bottom of the barrel for a bit.  We live down town, meaning, if there is more than one event downtown nashville (which is like 6 days a week), we are deprioritized sitting in our dang courtyard.  How can we at least be able to IDENTIFY when we are being depriortized and to what extreme? We used to be able to change the 4 Count Bar to an actual # instead of 1 bar, 2 bar, etc. (running a field service test would change this for us). However, Verizon does not have this feature on newer IOS updates. Why is that? My spouse should also know when she is entering an area/time her maps are going to completely NOT work.....

-  We were also told this "plan" is deprioritzed in times of congestion.  I have lately found this hard to believe and need clarification. I work in an office all day.  I am rarely off wifi.  I use very little GBs a month due to this. My spouse, unfortunately, does not have the local office and work day access to WIFI.  Thus, she uses more GB.   While we are both home, we are on WIFI.  Here is the situation we have been testing lately and would like clarified: We were at multiple local events together in Nashville over the past few weeks definitely in "congested" times.  We ran field service tests  in the same spot and NEVER had the same numbers and speed. Her apps/internet NEVER worked where mine ....just took awhile.  So do you actually depriortize the PLAN TYPE, or do you actually deprioritze people who use more DATA than others as well?  My speeds are not even comparable to hers during what are obvious congested times.  What type of customer and stipulations are deprioritized? How can this be verified to your customers?

If you are going to provide a plan of deprioritizing during congested times regardless if it is day one of billing cycle , there needs to be notifying or accessible data we can retrieve to tell us about this and how severe it is...

[rcschnoor]

First of all, the maps thing is easy. You can download Google Maps info prior to using it while you are on wifi. You would then be able to use your maps when you have no connection.

While it would be nice if Verizon offered a service which told you HOW congested things were, but since this can change from second to second, it is not realistic. You could go on, get information that says it isn't VERY congested and then it could change 10 seconds later. That is the nature of "mobile data".

Only the plan type is de-prioritized on GoUnlimited, it doesn't matter how much data you have already used. If you switch to BeyondUnlimited you are allowed 22 GB before possibly being de-prioritized. There are other things which can affect the speed of your phone, such as the overall health of your phone, battery saver mode, etc... It is not just the speed of data to your phone.

[DANGERMACE]

I joined the #gounlimited two weeks ago. Was on an old 16 gig family plan before. But my kid chews through the data and I thought for the same price I can get unlimited for all three lines. What a deal. We are at a lacrosse tournament the next day after the switch. I figure, sure we will get deprioritized. No big deal. However it was more like no-priority. Useless. All weekend. I ran speed test and fast.com and all three lines we were getting anywhere from 10 to 120 Kbs. KBS! That is no better than no service. I connected with tech support because the phone portion still works. They were all like, well, you could switch to beyond unlimited. The heck! They are telling me that the plan I bought just doesn't do data when congested? Well, sir, it should be a least 600 Kbs if you are deprioritized. Well it is not. And since then, driving around my kid says, I have no  internet. 4 bars of service, no internet. go unlimited is more like go forget you have a data plan. I am so sorry I switched plans. the XL was a rip off, but it worked. Now I cannot go back. I will have to get the beyond unlimited just so I can get data when I need it. Stinking go unlimited plan. It should be pulled. Can't imagine being at the bottom for service every time you are out of wifi. Because that is what you get.

[boringusername]

So you went form 16 GB to unlimited and expect the same price? Does that makes sense? You obviously were in a congested area since you said you were at a tournament where they were what hundreds of other people if not over 1000? If it's really an issue upgrade to Beyond. Simple. I'm on Go Unlimited for the last 11 months and have no issues.

[DANGERMACE]

actually the price is a better deal. not by more than $15, less. and yes 1,000 or more. but what i did not expect was to be throttled so low as to be unusable. 10-100 kbs. i equate that to no service vs being throttled.

[vzw_customer_support]

MATCAN13, your time of 15 years certainly cannot go unnoticed. Thank you for your time with us. I can see why being transparent and concise with our disclosures would be mandatory when changing the plan. It would be my pleasure to help clarify the details regarding the Go Unlimited plan. Deprioritization occurs according to the plan type on the Go Unlimited. For this reason, you and your fiance should be experiencing similar speeds in the same area and time. However, if this is not the case, then the problem would pertain to the device as @rcschnoor has explained in his post. Please provide me more insight on what model phone and software update your finance is currently on. Moreover, when was the phone purchased? Alternatively, when deprioritization is occurring, you can verify this, not by the signal indicator on your phone, but with speed test. In addition, the only other indicator would be is when your finance travels and connects to another tower, the speeds improve with the speed test.

DANGERMACE, I can understand your need for speed and to be on the most beneficial plan. I would like to further review price plans to make sure you have the most cost-effective plan that fits your data needs. I have sent you a message to your inbox. Please reply to me there.

Akane_VZW
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