Why Did I Run Out Of Data After I Switched Plans?

[NOTLINDA]

Last Spring, I upgraded my plan to 18 GB because I got an alert saying I was almost out of data. I was getting ready to head out of town and didn't have time to research it, so had no choice but to pay extra. When I got back, I discovered the spike was due to duplicate photos being backed up in the cloud (sometimes many copies of the same [Removed] thing). I cleaned up some of that, but who has time to go through thousands of photos to check Verizon's work??? I have four lines on my account, already pay too much, but I'm a busy girl so just let it go and didn't make any further changes....UNTIL I saw the ads about Verizon's new "unlimited" plan. Today I logged on to check data utilization over the past several months...except that I couldn't see any info earlier than October 2016. From what I could see for the past four months, though, we were only using 1/4 to 1/3 of the 18 GB allowance. With 10 days to go, I still had 72%, or 12 GB left in my billing cycle, so I decided to change my plan (effective today, not at the end of the cycle). Moving to the "unlimited" plan would have increased my bill about $25/month (thanks for nothing!) so I changed to a lower GB plan (the "large" 8 GB option). Supposedly, this would save me about $25 a month off of my $300/month bill.

Here's what happened next:

• I received an onscreen notification that I had 8 GB left for the 10 days until my next billing cycle, along with a text confirmation of the "new Verizon plan":

• Thirteen minutes later, I got a text saying "You're out of data. You've been charged overage data for this month at $15 per GB. Get unlimited data on America's best 4G LTE network." Important to note: I have been at home, on my WiFi, all day.

• A few minutes later, I logged into to my Verizon account online and saw that it now decided I only have 2.84 GB of data left:

WHAT THE [Removed] ARE YOU DOING, VERIZON??? Do you TRYING to drive me back to Sprint???

Profanity removed as required by the Verizon Wireless Terms of Service​

Message edited by Verizon Moderator

[JOHNJE]

This is why I always make plan changes via chat session with a Verizon rep. They're wonderful about making sure customers have a good experience, and nothing gets messed up. I'm sure if you contacted support (via chat) they would happily take care of any confusion.

[NOTLINDA]

Actually, I tried contacting Verizon by phone AND by chat. Both were busy and not taking new callers/customers (I just took the screen shot below - they are still too busy to talk to me). In any case, I used the online tools VERIZON PROVIDES TO MANAGE MY ACCOUNT, which shouldn't be available if it means I'm using them at my own peril.

[Ann154 · Accepted solution]

The problem is that you made the plan change effective immediately. When decreasing your plan allowance always always make the plan change effective at the beginning of the next billing cycle. When increasing, make the changes effective at the beginning of the current billing cycle.

You should call customer service at 1-800-922-0204 from a landline or *611 from your phone and see if they can reverse the change for the current billing cycle back to the 18 GB plan and have the next billing cycle start with the 8 GB

Based on the data provided, your bill and data allowance looks like this

30 day billing cycle. Changed plans on day 20

20 days on 18 GB plan for a total allowance those days = 12 GB (18/30=0.6x20=12)

Partial credit on bill for the 10 days you already paid for the 18 GB plan

Backdated partial charge for 10 days on the 8 GB for the previous billing cycle and the full monthly charge for the 8 GB for the current billing cycle.

10 days on the 8 GB for an allowance of 2.6667 GB (8/30=0.26667x10=2.6667)

If you used more than 12 GB in the first plan or 2.6667 GB on the second plan, you will be charged overage fees in 1 GB blocks.