Re: pay more for data or shoes for Johnny . . hmm lemme think . .
ssmitty1985
Newbie

They in Fact are forcing you into a share everything plan if you want to add another line to your existing account. my bill would go from 75$ with 450 min, unlim. text and unlim. data, to over 140$ to add my girlfriend and SHARE 2GB of data... we dont even use 450 min combined each month.. Outrageous

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Re: pay more for data or shoes for Johnny . . hmm lemme think . .
Tidbits
Legend

Fun fact :

1.  Verizon is not holding a gun to you head.

2.  You can switch to another carrier

3.  You don't have to get a smartphone

4.  You can keep you plan if you are an existing customer just the data plan has to change.

5.  Only new customers don't have the option.

So your price paid stays the same just the unlimited will switch to 2GB of data.

This has been explained everywhere by now.

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Re: pay more for data or shoes for Johnny . . hmm lemme think . .
Tidbits
Legend

erik.reppen wrote:

But with modern Telecom providers it's not about supply. If it was, there would only be data charges. There would have never been charges for text messages, a medium of communication measured in bytes (hint: there's 100s of thousands to millions of bytes in a typical JPEG), a separate minutes layer for voice, AND tiers for data.

I will say that simplifying things is a step in the right direction, but what I'm really fed up with is that they aren' t charging to meet a profit margin based on what kind of strain the mean user will put on their network overhead. They're charging to make much more than that by charging a massive flat fee for data so they can continue to make what they made when they charged you to not turn off features on your phone, or extra for features like text messaging that actually reduced the strain on their network simply because they became popular.

So here's a thought. Why not figure out what the threshold, the real data-limit is per user before the network implodes and just start throttling customers before they reach that and then charge a compensating premium for people who want to expand their throttle limits. Voice and text should have been unlimited for years now. They just like what they make off those overage fees and now they want to pull off the same trick with data while avoiding increasing criticism for the ** charges from an increasingly better tech-informed user base.

But I am not convinced of this:

"Unlimited data plans are unsustainable"

If that were the reason for the switch to tiered data, why did their attempt at a replacement tiered plan charge more at the lowest tier than what we payed for unlimited? I'm no salesman, but what grandfathered customer was going to jump on that particular deal, which was pulled in how many months? Wouldn't you want to encourage older customers to commit to less data usage by charging less for lower data tiers than they had with unlimited if there was a threat to network integrity?

Do you know carriers pay for data just as much as we do?  They have to make deals with AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner, and such to get the back end to deliver that data to you.  They pay for overages as well if they go over the amount agreed to.  At some point they will be unsustainable.  Are you willing to pay more for unlimited data?  At some point it will get more and more expensive to offer it, and less and less people are willing to pay it.  Would you pay $50 for unlimited?  $100? $200? 

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Re: pay more for data or shoes for Johnny . . hmm lemme think . .
Not applicable

Tidbits wrote:

Do you know carriers pay for data just as much as we do?  They have to make deals with AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner, and such to get the back end to deliver that data to you.  They pay for overages as well if they go over the amount agreed to.  At some point they will be unsustainable.  Are you willing to pay more for unlimited data?  At some point it will get more and more expensive to offer it, and less and less people are willing to pay it.  Would you pay $50 for unlimited?  $100? $200? 

I think you're missing his point. Anyways to address yours, there are people willing to pay an extra $400 for a phone to keep unlimited. That says a lot. Now back to his point. If Verizon actually wants people to get off of unlimited( and I agree no way they can have millions of customers on unlimited, it's not sustainable.) Then you'd think they would do something that gets people to switch from unlimited, not stay on it.

What if Verizon had the pricing

$50 for 6 GB

$60 for 8 GB

$70 for 10 GB

$80 for 12 GB

$90 for 14 GB

$100 for 16 GB

$110 for 18 GB

$120 for 20 GB

$150 for 30 GB

and then offered those on unlimited double data for 2 years. Guess what Verizon would have a ton more people on Share Everything and a lot more unlimited people switching. And isn't that what Verizon wanted people off unlimited so they aren't using 100 GB of data for $30 a month? It's call more flies with honey instead of vinegar.

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Re: pay more for data or shoes for Johnny . . hmm lemme think . .
Tidbits
Legend

Do you know how much these people pay or what the original agreement was?  Just 4 years ago the amount of data usage grew exponentially. 

If you ever looked at T-Mobile's pricing for unlimited data in relation to their overall network coverage you'll see something.  T-Mobile data prices are actually HIGHER than Verizon's.  It's always going to be a matter of perception on the grand scheme of things. 

Ironically I switched the the new plan and I will save money.  I used to have unlimited data.  I broke it down and Instead of going to Sprint or T-Mobile due to savings.  The service is terrible here, and even though it seems I would be getting a better deal with the two smaller carriers I would actually be paying $60-110 more per month for the same services of which 40% of the time I can never use them. Smiley Happy

I have done my homework and various scenarios and Verizon tops out again even with the new plans.

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Re: pay more for data or shoes for Johnny . . hmm lemme think . .
erik_reppen
Enthusiast - Level 2

The crux of my point was that I'm sick of getting charged for random crap rather than the actual work they have to do to provide the service. They are raking it in and while I do believe it's possible there's a legit concern in regards to sustainability of unlimited plans, their behavior has indicated that they are either morons, or it's not really a problem yet. I don't doubt Share Everything will save a lot of people money. It will also save Verizon a lot of headaches from people waking up to the absurdity of texting charges and charging you monthly to not turn off features that were built into your phone. But what they're betting on is that everybody is going to start streaming videos like it was going out of style (the commercials are practically begging you to) and I don't think that's how it's going to roll. This plan won't exist a year from now because in fact too many people will save money on the phone stuff and not hit as many overages on data as they're anticipating.

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Re: pay more for data or shoes for Johnny . . hmm lemme think . .
Tidbits
Legend

Then let it fail. Complaining and saying it will fail is pointless. If you don't let people fail how are they going to learn anything?

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Re: pay more for data or shoes for Johnny . . hmm lemme think . .
nvcustomer
Newbie

No one is holding a gun, as stated, however think about the business customer too.  My company will only pay so much for my phone and requires me to have a phone with email \ data to support our business otherwise I would have a basic phone.  THERE IS NO BUSINESS PLAN OR SUPPORT for us.  When I talked to my boss about it he said that he was on the unlimited plan and a smart phone and I should be able to carry it over.  Wrong.  I've gone into the store twice and called a couple times.  The options I am being given are buy the phone at full retail or change my plan.

Blackberry is becoming obsolete so what are my choices for getting a phone that supports server based email?  A Smart phone.   I am loosing my unlimited corporate plan for $44 a month that includes the email server feature and would have to pay $100 instead for 100GB + $15 for the email.  How is that better for me?  Their math is way off.

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Re: pay more for data or shoes for Johnny . . hmm lemme think . .
Tidbits
Legend

Then it will carry over if you buy full retail or change your plan.  You have options... If they are not going to work for you then you are allowed to shop elsewhere which I recommend.

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Re: pay more for data or shoes for Johnny . . hmm lemme think . .
nvcustomer
Newbie

Yes, but getting a new phone at the discounted price was Never contingent on changing my plan Only renewing my contract.  I have done this many, many times before.  The plan and contract were not dependent on each other and now I am being forced to change my plan. More features are getting cut without notice and extra charges just to do the same thing.  I called in to make sure my plan would carry over and was told it would.  It is deceptive business practices.

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