| Lance Crowley |
All you Verizon customers check this out.
Within the last 3 weeks I signed up for the Verizon National Plan and purchase a Motorola T730 phone and a hard wired car kit for it. At the time I signed up I asked the Verzion's salesperson if you could change the number of minutes in your plan anytime during a billing period and have the change be retro-active to the last billing date. Absolutely was the answer. I explained how ATT worked their plans (I still have the ATT Digital One Rate Plan on a Nokia for my wife). Absolutely the same was the answer.
Yesterday I talked to the Verizon service folks on another issue, during that conversation it came out that they've changed their billing method and you no longer can operate as described above.
I find this new plan to be contrived and it really upsets me, mostly because it's not very well thought out, IMHO.
Here's the way it works: Let's suppose you have a 400 minute per month plan, by the way that's 13.3 minutes per day (you'll see that fact becomes very important). Now let's say you check your minutes after 3 weeks and find out you've used 395 minutes, still got a week of phone use left, right. So you call and tell them you want to move up to the next level, let's say 600 minutes per month for the sake of discussion. The calculation goes like this: 21 days X 13.3 minutes per day = 279 minutes that you're allowed, but, you've used 395 minutes. You'd be billed 395 - 279 = 116 X $0.45 = $52.20 + you're regular monthly charge, which in this case is $55 per month for 400 minutes.
So now you got a choice, pay double what you've signed up for OR, not use the phone for a week.
Another example to show how dumb this really is. Same number as above except you're 10 days into your billing period and have used 150 minutes. 13.3 X 10 = 133 minutes, you're 17 minutes over your alloted time. Now you know your going to use a lot of minutes the last 20 days of the billing period so you call and change to the next level up. You'd pay for the cost of the new plan + 17 X $0.45 = $7.65. But wait, if you don't use the phone for 2 days (12 X 13.3 = 159.6) you could change your plan with no penalty.
Is it just me or am I missing something. Verizon tells you "they're working for you" and that they want you to have "the best wireless experience". Doesn't this seem like a lot more math than's necessary?
Really interested in the forums comments, I'm starting to think I've gone over the hill. |
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| TheWorm |
Your salesperson was wrong. Their billing has always worked this way...or at least as long as I can remember (years w/Verizon).
Yes, it sucks. They actually explain it to you when you call customer service to switch plans, and caution you to be careful about the date/timing; typically they recommend changing plans the day after your billing cycle ends IIRC, since it would minimize any proration "penalty" as you have illustrated.
Before, the customer service reps said nothing: you got the good news in your bill. Now, at least they let you know.
Aren't you still within your give-it-back period? Just threaten to return everything unless they credit your account. Unfortunately, you'll have to do that in the store, too. The customer service peeps don't care - only the salespeeps. In my experience, anyway. |
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| neide |
| While I agree this is a tough policy, it wouldn't suprise me if its rooted in their billing system - they may simple be unable to make it work the better way - because of system limitations. |
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| socalJD |
| Yup, Worm is right, it has always been this way and your salesperson has no clue. The system automatically prorates the minutes in the plan when you up/downgrade, so not even CS can tell you exactly how it works. I've been with VZ forever (thru 2 mergers in SoCal) and it's always been a prorated and not a grandfathered or backdated upgrade system. Best bet is when you get your next bill, call CS and ask them to credit back the overcharge for minutes due to the plan upgrade - if you have been with VZ for awhile, always pay your bills on time and show a clean history, it should not be a problem - cellular service is way too competitive, and VZ will not want to lose a good customer over a few $ - IMHO . . . |
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| Markedoc |
| Like the Worm said, their billling process has always prorated the minutes. I don't see any reason to threaten to give the phone back - what is that going to accomplish? Maybe the salesperson was stupid, maybe he didn't understand your question, maybe you didn't phrase it well, who knows. I err to the side of buying a plan with a few more mins than I need, and one where I don't have to check the mins every day to make sure I don't go over. It's not that hard of a process to manage, IMHO. |
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| Lance Crowley |
I find something just a bit fraudulent about a billing system that can change simply based on the day you make a decision to modify your plan.
Yesterday I printed out Verizon's "Customer Agreement", it says nothing about this system. There's a couple of important things a customer should be told about the system.
1) How is the minutes per month established? is it based on 30 days per month or the actual number of days between your billing dates. In other words do you have to do the math for each month with 30, 31 and 28 (or 29 for leap year)
2) What happens when if you're roaming and charges from other companies come in late. Is the charge based on the number of minutes used at the time Verizpn updates your bill OR can they go back and re-calculate after those late minutes come in?
3) What time of the day do they update their system? It's important for the customer to know so they can make the correct calculations.
One way to handle this, as pointed out, is to buy a big enough bucket of minutes so that you're covered. The problem with that is that we're on the road for 6 months of the year and the cell phone is only phone. On the other hand when we're home the cell phone is used very little. On the road we use about 1000 minutes per month, at home less than 200. So, there are 4 months of the year when we make significant changes to our plan. We'be been caught several times with large charges because of the delay in getting roaming charges added to our bill.
If they were no alternative I'd work with it, however, ATT has a very straight forward system, you change minutes whenever you want, and the number of minutes you've signed up for on your billing date is the number of minutes you pay for.
Again, it's the fact that being one day off when you change the plan, or having roaming minutes catch up with you that can cost you significantly more money is what bothers me. The are laws covering deceptive pricing practices, I find this situation to be very close to being deceptive. To me pricing practices should be in writing on the Verizon website, they should also be easy to understand and it shouldn't take a math major to figure them out.
All this of course is just my opinion, and again, I'm interested in what everyone else thinks. |
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| Markedoc |
| AT&T might have a better billing system, but their coverage is not even close to the quality of Verizon's around here (45 mins west of Boston). To me, there's nothing worse than having (and paying for) a phone and not being able to use it, or having a poor signal that cuts in and out. |
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| m2pc |
| It may be rooted in their system, but when someone tells me something and I make a choice based on that, I would be upset as well. As to returning the phone and cancelling the new plan, that is a personal decision, just make sure your not cutting off you nose to spite your face. But if you don't need the upgrade immediately, then you can shop around to see if there is any better plan, if not, then now you know how the timing and billing thing works, just sign up where you don't get penalized. I think you are prorated to pay any minutes you have used on the new plan though, if you cancel the plan. |
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| Lance Crowley |
As pointed out I do have a choice. I guess the single thing that bothers me the most is that I've spent $100 for a new phone and $150 for a hard wired car cradle to fit it. All this based on what I was told by a Verizon salesperson + the fact that I can find NO details on how their plan works. I don't mind playing the game, but, I sure want to know the rules, before I start playing.
Regarding coverage. We've used the ATT Digital One Rate Plan for 4 years, all across the country and very seldom had a "no service" problem. With the exception of Hilton Head Island and a spot about 4 blocks from my home. What's interesting is that I've also got a spot about 2 miles from my home where the Verizon system give me a "no service" message. Most reports that I read indicate that there is very little, if any, difference between the ATT and Verizon footprint.
The primary reason I changed to Verizon (I've still got my ATT service, but, I was going to drop it once I had a chance to check out Verizon) was the ability to use the phone as a modem and get on the Internet. That system appears to be working OK. I'll know more about that once we leave home for the winter latter this week. Headed for Las Vegas and will get a chance to try the system all the way. What I may do is just keep the Verizon wireless Internet service and go back to the ATT service for my voice service.
Got a message into Verizon asking for clarification on their billing system, we'll see what kind of answers I get and how they handle my concerns. |
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