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Verizon Boosts Price of Grandfathered Unlimited Data Plans By $20 (theverge.com)
nicholasjay writes: In November, Verizon Wireless is going to start charging its customers with the grandfathered "unlimited data" plans an extra $20 for the data. This is obviously an attempt to get people off of the old unlimited data plans. Even though a Verizon spokesperson confirmed the change, I'm hoping they won't go through with this plan — but right now I'm weighing all my options.
This is being reported all over. Here's a link from CNN Money.
http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/0...
Those bastards!
Grandfathers are usually on fixed incomes.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
I'm not even in an area where I have good service with T-Mobile (it's actually not that bad although I'm in a remote area with less service coverage than most people would desire- ie no 3G/4G/5G) and yet I still stick to T-Mobile. Verizon is the equivalent of Comcast in the cellular industry. They've done all sorts of horrible things from cooperation with the NSA to crippling phone lines and landline internet services to prevent users from switching *back* to services they are legally required to offer (ie it costs the customer money to have someone come out and re-wire ones house). They even hate standards choosing to stick to there stupid proprietary formats (and yea- I know it has some advantages in certain areas- but come on- I shouldn't need to own multiple phones to switch between providers or travel). They've also stopped rolling out fiber service to areas where they think it won't be 'cost effective' despite promises to do so. Lets not forget that the government stole our money and funded these projects to begin with- and then never fulfilled there obligations!
"Even though a Verizon spokesperson confirmed the change, I'm hoping they won't go through with this plan"
I hate to break it to you, but they are going through with this plan.
I've been hanging around on my old grandfather'd Verizon plan for ages because of the unlimited data. I had been recently considering switching to Google Fi. This just dropped a 50 ton weight on the other end of the see-saw I've been balancing on. Good bye and good riddance Verizon!
Not when the contract has a clause that says they can do exactly that. If you don't like the change, the contract allows you to back out.
Used to mean the price was the same too. AT&T has been telling people they're tethering on their unlimited plan to boot them (even though there is no proof in many cases), Verizon is upping the price of their unlimited grandfathered plan to get people to switch to a more lucrative plan for the company, and then there are T-Mobile and Sprint. T-Mobile changed their unlimited policy to not raise when they throttled data and only during heavy load times, and Sprint has unlimited everything for like what $50? You can really see that if AT&T merged with T-Mobile those customers would have been a lot worse off. I used to have T-Mobile when I got back from Germany (it was Voicestream then) and when I turned on my Tri-Band Motorola their name came up so I signed up. It was great and I only switched off to AT&T for the iPhone 3G. It was worth it cause of my companies AT&T discount, now when my contract ends and my family members on my plan get off to another one I'm getting a dumb phone, not sure which carrier I'll move to, but I'm done with smartphones. The only smartphone I'd stay for is the new Windows 10 phones with continuum, but since I hardly ever use more than a tablet at home (on a computer all day at work) I don't really have the need for a PC/Phone. But a week long battery life with a dumb phone is the way to go for me in the future I think. I'll probably use my 1520 as a GPS after that since all the maps are saved to it (I did that to save on data usage and to have faster load times).
This is not a breach of contract (and likewise can't be used to get out of your contract without paying the ETF) because it doesn't go into effect until the contract ends for the folks that are still under contract. Now most folks who have unlimited data are not under contract but there still a number of them that use loop holes that allow you to continue with unlimited data and get subsidize phones but make you sign up for a contract. Generally the loopholes involve transferring the upgrade to a second line, doing the upgrade on that line, and transferring the new phone back.
Sadly, PS/2 was yet another victim of USB, which doesn't care what you plug into it, the electrical slut.
If I had the time, I'd write an app to burn data just to piss off big red. Since I'll be paying almost double for my unlimited data, it sure seem likes I should start getting a better value for my money?
Seems like a simple app:
-->If on 4G with excellent signal and over some battery full % (user configurable)
------>Download random data and discard, just to burn bandwidth.
------>Rinse/Repeat
I've put of with a lot of BS from VZW to keep my grandfathered unlimited plan (locked bootloaders, crippled features VZW disables, etc), but jacking up the price like this really pisses me off.
Once a person is on a plan, the "plan" cannot change without prior written consent of the customer.
Have fun with your class action lawsuit there Verizon., you're gonna end up giving all the grandfathered accounts free unlimited for life.
Does this still apply if the customers are on a month-by-month plan? There's no contract at that point, as the contracts only lasted two years and they have long since expired.
Actually it can. The contract people agreed to when signing up for service says that they can change the price at any time. However, if the price goes up you have the right to back out of the contract without paying the early termination fee.
Darth Vader: "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."
Verizon: "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."
Kind of hard to tell them apart if you ask me.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Kind of hard to tell them apart if you ask me.
No one dresses up like Verizon on Halloween?
Vader works for AT&T. They use the Death Star as their corporate logo.
I was a founding joiner of Sprint. Worked for Qualcomm, got a good deal on a Qualcomm candy bar. Anyway, I had unlimited data and a pretty good price on Sprint for about 10 years. Then they let me know they are moving me to a 3 gig plan and I get to pay a bit more for it. I said no thanks and moved to AT&T. That was 10 years ago. Sprint has spent time and money trying to woo people like me back. I think of the 1000's of $ that Sprint did not make off of me in an attempt to gouge every last cent out of me. When AT&T come and tell me that I no longer have unlimited data, I'll find something else. But AT&T not attempting to renegotiate my plans has resulted in a family of 5's iPhones, and iPhone upgrades and a $200 a month plus plan. Hum, $2400 a year * 10 years is $24,000. So Sprint, that is what your brilliant plan to gouge me cost you.
Same with cable. Went to satelite. Now I am planning to drop off satellite and use my unlimited AT&T LTE connection feed my house.
IF it would ever get to trail since the contract states you agree to arbitration for everything.
there are no active "plans" that are unlimited, only fools think they can sue this one out.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
What court? You agreed to forced arbitration which the Supreme Court upheld as legal.
"Can you fear me now?"
Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!
Kind of hard to tell them apart if you ask me.
Vader is generally competent, a big blind spot around his kid aside. Verizon, OTOH...
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Have fun with your class action lawsuit there Verizon., you're gonna end up giving all the grandfathered accounts free unlimited for life.
Unless you can prove the contract illegal, have fun trying to get a class action lawsuit when you agreed to Supreme-Court-upheld forced arbitration.
You have two options.
1) Agree with what they do and pay more
2) Say it is a breach of contract and drop out
With 1) the company gets what they want
However with 2) the company gets what they want.
I used to work for a company that was in a similar situation. We had contracts with customers. However our cost increased in such a way that there was no way we would be able to make a profit. However the contract was in such a way that a cancel from our side would take 3 months to do the cancel (legally) so that was not an option.
The same would be for the customers. Their cancel would be three months as well. However when they contacted us and told they wanted to cancel due to the price increase, we would 'allow' the customer not to follow the letter of the law and cancel the accounts ASAP.
The intend of the increase was so customers would cancel. This so we would not loose any more money. So instead of loosing money over a 3 month period (even with the price increase), we lost money only over a 2 week (on average) period.Those who did want to follow us received a cancel letter a bit later and we had to respect the 3 months cancel.
Obviously I have no idea if they are actually loosing money or if the profit just is not high enough.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
My wife and I were on the AT&T unlimited data plan which got grandfathered once they dropped that plan. AT&T was very interested in pushing people off of that plan which they achieved by throttling people who used too much data. My wife received notice that her data was going to be throttled for the remainder of the billing period for going over around 3 GB. This happened right around when T-Mobile started their "un-carrier" plan which included unlimited data, voice and text. We left AT&T shortly after and never looked back. Thanks to AT&T's shortsighted push to get people off of their unlimited plan, we found T-Mobile which has kept improving what it offers customers (we recently visited Canada and, thanks to their new plan which was added for a few dollars, we were able to use 4G /LTE data, make and receive unlimited calls and use text without worrying about data caps and ridiculous international overage charges). Verizon is doing ht same thing here. Is it really worth losing customers just to drop this unlimited plan? They lose out on added lines (we added another family member to our plan plus a couple of iPads which get data through T-Mobile now).
As long as AT&T and Verizon continue to treat their customers with contempt, people will continue to leave for greener pastures.
The thing that Verizon doesn't realize is that the type of people that hung onto this plan for 3 years are not the type of people that will stay with Verizon if they get off of unlimited, its the type of people that hang out on slick deals. They are going to be left with just the people who use 50+ GB a month and the ones that use 5-10GB are going to switch to another carrier where they can pay half the price for that amount of data.
It never applied even for customers on a contract. GP apparently never read the contract they signed with Verizon.
They can claim that that clause means I cannot sue them all they want, and in some circumstances, they might be right. But a clause that says "thou shalt not sue" does not protect them from being sued over that very same clause. At least I would hope it doesn't. IANAL.
"I'm not sure I like the fugnutish tone you used in your post!" -RogL (608926)-
When you use more than 200 GB's a month, it takes more than 20 bucks to make you think about switching to a *uck everybody oops i mean a share everything plan... say they charge 20 bucks for 2 GB, so that would mean I'd have to pay 2000 dollars for 200 GB's... yeah I'll keep the unlimited... Also there has been some mention of letting grandfathered's use their upgrades... that's pure BS... The minute you press that button Verizon will put you on a minimum data plan and not tell you so they can get a big payday from you.. I haven't called customer service in four years because they'll move you off it in a second and CSR's get bonuses for doing it. I wonder what verizon's real world throughput per tower is.. because I'm betting they're using less than 10 % off of most rural towers... My point on that is they could easily handle a geometric increase in traffic with the bandwidth and towers they have and give everyone unlimited data but it's more profitable to meter to an insanely low threshold and charge 3x as much for an average customers unfettered usage...
It only goes into effect on those who are "off-contract" and on month-to-month. If you are "on-contract" with unlimited data, it remains $29.99 until the end of your contract.
Their contract lawyers have thought of everything so don't worry.
You can try to sue that the clause is illegal to invalidate the contract but you're facing very little success of winning that.
And the Supreme Court has upheld the forced arbitration clause which gives them even more leverage to fuck people over.
So that's why Verizon got James Earl Jones to do their commercials.
Lose, not loose. You did it THREE TIMES! It's practically a crime.
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
The t-mobile plan I have on my hotspot is unlimited in the sense that there will never be overage charges, but after a specified usage it reverts to a much slower connection. The main advantage is not having to worry about large unexpected charges.
My Verizon hotspot has 15GB, but I have to watch to make sure I don't go over, because on their plan the overage charges add up very high very fast.
Yes, I have two hotspots. One stays at home and is my full-time internet service there. The fastest DSN I can get in my location is half the speed of my mobile hotspot.
I used to have a Sprint unlimited hotspot; they took that plan away from me, so I switched to a Clear device with an unlimited plan. That worked very well until Sprint bought Clear and turned off the local tower. So I dropped that plan and went to Verizon. That made me discover how much better Verizon coverage is, so I also switched my voice service. Sprint lost a couple of hundred dollars a month from me just because they were being greedy.
... wow, this is like... a nesting egg of awesome.
one guys tosses in islamophobia... for some unknowable reason.
the other guy assumes he's shilling for israel.
We shoulda just given all the jews a state... maybe part of utah or part of new mexico... look what the mormons did with utah, and I at least think the jews are less crazy than the mormons. :)
"You venture to call Ferdinand a wise ruler," he said to his courtiers — "he who has impoverished his own country and enriched mine!" Bayezid- ruler of ottoman empire on the explusion of jews and muslims from spain during the spanish inquisition.
I'm sorry that you left AT&T and its unlimited plan. I've been with AT&T since 2008 and its unlimited plan. I pay $70/month, inclusive of everything.
wouldn't this constitute a breach of contract?
You mean the 2 year contract that has long since expired?
Most cell contracts say they can change the price anytime.
Some might but I haven't seen this but it doesn't really matter as most contracts are only good for 2 years and no judge is going to hold a company to a contract that expired 8 years ago. And yes, most contracts in any industry say they can adjust the price on renewal of the contract.
My phone is paid for by the company I work for, so data is Someone Else's Problem for now. My wife's phone is paid for by us, and she's been on the AT&T unlimited plan for ages. Every single time she's done equipment swaps, upgrades, any plan changes whatsoever, they very subtly try to sneak her out of the unlimited data plan. She's extremely savvy when it comes to this stuff, but it's amazing how slick they are when describing the change, and once you sign for the changes, you lose access to the old plan forever.
Metered data is going to be the next thing that will force a change in the industry. Once the carriers start turning the prices up just a little too high, and as the massive amounts of data required for even basic Internet usage skyrocket, people will eventually complain.
nah, you don't need to shill for israel to be islamophobic.
i'm under the impression that demographic-shifting waves of muslim immigration into europe have people slightly worried there on that front too... and those europeans are anti-semitic too.
there's no reason he can't hate both muslims and jews, but had to choose one in this situation.
Because you've been a loyal customer for more than 1/3 of your life, we're gonna put some Vaseline on this stick first. Consider how lucky you are.
...Free Super Cookies With Every Purchase!!!
You have two options. 1) Agree with what they do and pay more 2) Say it is a breach of contract and drop out
With 1) the company gets what they want However with 2) the company gets what they want.
While it makes sense in situation you describe (the company you work for losing money every week) for them to cut their loses, I'm doubting that Verizon is in that desperate a situation -- which means that if you take option 2 and drop out, switching to another carrier, no, Verizon isn't exactly get what it wants. They've lost a customer and whatever their monthly profit was on that customer, plus they'll have to spend money trying to get that customer back (which may not succeed).
www.gaiageek.com
They've lost a customer and whatever their monthly profit was on that customer, plus they'll have to spend money trying to get that customer back (which may not succeed).
Or they'll just get other subscribers to join that will start out on a higher-margin plan and thus Verizon wins. Why would they spend money to get a lower-profit customer over simply getting new customers that they'll extract more profit from?
So that's why Verizon got James Earl Jones to do their commercials.
It all makes sense now....
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
However, as time goes by, people use more and more data on their mobile devices. All of which requires additional investment or incentivising customers to lower their data usage.
A few years ago, average data usage on one of the UK's mobile networks was c. 2GB per month. This year, average data usage on the same network is c. 4GB per month. I have an unlimited (genuinely unlimited) plan with the same network and my average monthly usage has gone from 2GB to 15GB in the same period of time.
So, in spite of prices going up, we are probably actually seeing a decrease in the cost per unit used.
I'm wondering how much of that is streaming music or video? Over here in the US, on Tmobile, I average about 1.5GB/mo with a lot of streaming, email and maps usage, but my music is zero-rated so it doesn't show up as used bandwidth.
What's your usage pattern for 15GB/mo?
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
> And yes, most contracts in any industry say they can adjust the price on renewal of the contract.
Uh, if the terms of the contract are changing, that's not a renewal, thats a new contract trying to be passed off as an existing one.
Google Fi is pretty darned awesome. It doesn't have unlimited data, but it's a flat $10/GB (only pay for what you use), and you pay the same rate roaming in 60 countries, albeit at 3G speeds.
So, who is Luke Skywalker then? :P
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
...in the ass.
They claim that less than 1% of their customers still have unlimited data. As if nobody remembers this time last year when they were talking about throttling grandfathered LTE service. Let me see if I can find the info from then...There it is. In August of 2014, they claimed that 20% of their customers still had unlimited data and 95% of those customers use less than 5 gigs of data.
So I'm supposed to believe that they've managed to cull 95% of their grandfathered customers in the last year? Or were they lying a year ago when they claimed that 20% of their customers still had a data plan that hadn't been offered since, if memory serves, 2009. I signed up just before they stopped offering it then bought my next phone in 2011 just before they stopped renewing contracts and subsidizing phones.
And, if they did manage to cut 95% of their unlimited customers in just a year by doing nothing but waiting, why would they bother taking additional action? If the holdouts are down to less than 1%, do they think $20 is going to be what pushes them over the edge?
How am I supposed to take them seriously?