Indeed, how many times is Verizon Wireless going to change the policy on unlimited data use? In an article by Amy Lee of the Huffington Post, posted 7/5/2011, they reported
On July 7, we are offering customers more smartphone data plan options. Customers may choose from $30 for 2G, $50 for 5GB and $80 for 10 GB data plans. Customers who have feature phones have an additional option of $10 for 75 MB. Customers currently using an unlimited smartphone plan will be able to upgrade to another 3G or 4G LTE smartphone and keep their unlimited data plan.
Well, that was July 2011, that policy didn’t stay around too long, as far as written policies are concerned. Around June 2012, Verizon then decided the new policy would end the grandfathering of unlimited data and according to NBCNEWS.com, a person could still keep unlimited data if they paid the full price for a phone.
Verizon would be ending its policy of allowing grandfathering in of contracts when purchasing a new phone. The company clarified the news Thursday, saying that only purchasers of subsidized phones (like the iPhone 4S and other flagship devices) would have to adopt the new pricing plan.
So what is Verizon’s new plan? This right off Verizon’s website
Share Everything
Introducing the Share Everything Plan. Unlimited Talk, Unlimited Text and a single pool of shareable data to power up to 10 devices. It’s the plan that revolves around you.
The new pricing plan goes something like this: It is $40 per month per smart phone just to have Verizon service ($30 if you have anything from a flip phone to just below a smart phone) For that price, the user gets unlimited talk and text for all devices on the plan and as an added bonus Verizon throws in the mobile hot spot service, for devices equipped with that capability. Then they have a pool of data use that you choose and that pool allows up to 10 devices to share the pool. The price for this is 1 GB $50, 2 GB $60, 4 GB $70, 6 GB $80, 8 GB $90, 10 GB $100 and you can add a tablet for $10 and internet service for $20. Verizon also has a link on the site that says, “Need more than 10 GB? learn more; however, the link goes to my favorite error 404, page not found.
If you paid full price for your smart phone in order to keep your unlimited data service at Verizon, you aren’t out of the woods either. According to Verizon’s customer service contract, Verizon can change the terms of a contract at any time simply by providing you notice. Does Verizon want to get rid of unlimited data packages so awfully bad that they will do this? Unknown, but my guess is it would provide some unwanted negative publicity.
I, as a Verizon Wireless consumer recently had to renew my contract and I asked repeatedly and I mean repeatedly if there was any way to keep my unlimited data package and I was repeatedly told no, that there was no way to be able to keep my unlimited data package. Then the salesperson goes in to what sounded like a well rehearsed monologue about how using this new share everything package is going to lower my bill because I have people on the plan that use less than 1 GB per month and therefore, I can get this package and it will reduce my bill and then he proceeded to go over the bill with me, making it sound like it was going to be less. It sounded like it was going to be less because he was comparing oranges to apples. He was comparing my bill that has all the fees and taxes already added in, plus the 3 insurance policies on 3 smart phones. So the spiel is that my bill will be less because he only added the monthly service for each cell phone and the shared data charges and told me I would save about $60 a month with Verizon’s new plan. Well, I am here to tell you, the cell bill is almost exactly the same and I have less data accessibility. Even if I never go above the amount of GBs I currently share, taking away my unlimited data is like taking away my security blanket, now I have to be careful…and then the add mobile hot spot for no additional charge? Great, I have mobile hot spot capability but I can’t use it because I don’t have enough data usage to use my laptop or other device? The customer service rep I talked to also told me that having everyone have unlimited clogs up the cell towers. Well, you are saying I don’t use that many GBs, whether I have unlimited or limited, the data usage is the same, how is unlimited clogging up the towers sir? Well, that is my rant, I am not happy that Verizon has decided to give me less for more…or less for about the same and then tries to sell me that it is better for me…That plan just doesn’t seem to “revolve around me.” So what am I going to do? What I always do, write a letter, email, complaint in every way that I can and suggest anyone else that doesn’t like the change to do the same! Tell us what you think of the changes in data plans!