Re: The Public weighs in on shared data plans
rcschnoor
Legend

Quackman16 wrote:

We'll you can say that but I don't have unlimited texting and don't need it so the overall price of my plan would be the same but would be of less value to me if I went to the share everything plan, I just don't understand why people use this argument. You pay the same amount and you use the same amount of minutes/data/texts. How is your plan of less value to you. Do you consider it a value to "waste" the data you are not using. If you do not have to make ANY changes in your usage patterns and you are still getting the exact same usage for the exact same cost then the value per cost has not changed. Of course, with your arguement, that you have no use for all the unlimited minutes you won't be using, couldn't the same be said for all of the data you don't currently use? What does it matter which item Verizon gives you that you DON'T USE if as you say the overall price of your plan would be the same?

I use maybe 200 messages a month and maybe 200 of my 700 shared minutes, unlike kids most adults don't spend all day talking on the phone or texting, I'm never going to be like my kid and do 20 thousand texts a month.  Unlimited voice and text is bogus, the vast majority of people don't use the minutes they already pay for.  And a lot of people don't use the data they already pay for, too, me included. If I were to switch to the Share Everything plan, though, the overall price of my plan would increase, which is why I have chosen to stay with my current plan.

Your argument is equivalent to saying I should feel good if I go to the gas station one day with 1 car and pay $30 for two gallons of gas, the next day I show up with both my cars and put 1 gallon of gas in each and pay $60 for the same two gallons but I should be happy because the gas station will throw in all the free air for my tires that I want.  But with your current plan, wouldn't your current usage be equivalent to saying you pay $30 for two gallons of gas in each of your two cars for a total of $60 and then having to throw out one gallon of gas from each car at the end of the usage period? What is the difference if you are paying $60 for 4 gallons of gas but end up throwing away 2 gallons of gas.

If my habits and needs are 200 minutes a month telling me I can have 5 million minutes a month is pointless, I'm just paying for something I don't want and don't have a choice, its the only plan that new customers can get.  If these plans are not acceptable for NEW customers, by all means those people SHOULD NOT come to Verizon and would be crazy to do so. However, if you are a CURRENT customer, you do not have to go on the Share Everything plan. You can stay on your current minute plan with tiered data and still get a subsidy for a new phone. If you currently have unlimited data, you would not be able to get a subsidy on a new phone if you want to keep it, but you are still not forced onto the Share Everything plan EVEN if you want a subsidy because you can just switch to tiered data. I assume you either have tiered data or have unlimited data but don't use a lot since you have already said the overall price of your plan would be the same.

I don't need to be "bundled", let me pick a la cart how many minutes and gigabytes of data I want to share, geez if I'm single who am I sharing with. Even the cable and satellite companies provide various services and price levels and let the consumer decide what is best for them.  Verizon is telling consumers you can have any color you want as long as its black.  At least with AT&T you can choose between individual plans and shared plans.  If they don't change I'll be switching to Sprint when the time comes as I actually get a strong 3G signal at home unlike the Verizon signal that fades in and out, in addition for a cheaper price I can get unlimited data.

You can spin it anyway you want but they doubled the price of the data.  In the example below I pay $10 a month for texting not $30 so my total before a company discount is $140, but I would get 4G of data not the 2G in the new sharing plan and still have plenty of voice and text capacity for my situation.   Data is whats valuable not voice and texts, just like gas is more valuable than air for my tires.  Yes I need some air just like I need some voice/texting, but I don't need unlimited amounts.  Anyway I'm sure there are examples that work both ways, the point is the consumer should have a choice of what they need and/or want.  One size doesn't fit all. Absolutely, which is why Verizon is not forcing ANY current customers onto the Share Everything plan. They only go on it if they CHOOSE to. New customers are basically the same way since if they sign a contract with Verizon on the Share Everything plan then they CHOSE to do so. If they are unhappy with the Share Everything plan, they obviously won't sign up.

Edit: But to say you are leaving simply because Verizon offers or even has a plan you don't like but which you don't even have to switch to is kind of silly. I assume you are going to switch to a carrier which has only plans you like? Even the ones to which you will not be subscribing? If you don't like the plan you are on and don't have a better plan to switch to, well that is a different story.

Re: The Public weighs in on shared data plans
dimap52
Specialist - Level 1

I like the gas/air analogy here, even though it doesn't quite fit the business model. Drivers DO either use up the gas they have, or they "roll it over" when they top up the tank.Unused gas does not expire via evaporation at th end of the month. But the comparative value between gas for the engine and air for the tires is valid. The problem is the business model. For moderate to heavy data users, the price of data on these shared plans has become exhorbitant as the value in voice/text has been reduced to almost nothing. At least if that $50 bought the same 4 Gig with Tethering that it buys on the indivdual plans then the value of the plan would be more attractive. Either that, or those hot air "access fees" should be reduced to the $10 per device per line that they were widely expected to be before the plans were announced.

Verizon, like all capitalists, wants to have their cake and eat it too. And consumers are saying NO. It's either ONE or the OTHER or we vote with our wallets and WALK.

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Re: The Public weighs in on shared data plans
rcschnoor
Legend

I agree that it does not quite fit the business model, but I wasn't the one to make the comparison. However, the way it was being compared would be if the driver of the car did not have "roll over" gas and had to throw out half of it at the end of the period. This was why it was compared in this manner. He was comparing 2 gallons of gas to a 2GB data tier in which the data does not "roll over" and the excess data was being lost at the end of the cycle.

I was just making it fit the comparison Quackman16 made in the post prior to mine.

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