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I am tired of the abuse of the word "unlimited". How stupid do these companies think their customers are?

I recall as a kid there being some sort of law regarding truth in advertising. I’m sure that rule was always bent, even then but the meaning of “truth in advertising” has crept further and further from the truth to the point of being flat out lies. Amazing.
 
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I'm so sick of Verizon.

I used to have a tiered plan and it was pretty decent. Then their original unlimited came out and I was adding my kids to the plan so I thought, why not, and switched. It was good. Descent performance and no need to worry about exceeding 8GB (not that I ever did). Then gradually, it got worse and worse. Performance tanked. Then often pages wouldn't load, music wouldn't stream etc etc. I'd start benchmarking my LTE and would often find it running at 0.2 - 3 mbps. 0.2???

Then I find they had split their original Unlimited into two and I was now on the base base version with their right to throttle me in times on congestion unless I upgrade to the next tier (the base doesn't even get a base amount of usage before throttling)... Bollocks! We're always congested in our area so I guess I am always being throttled... It's not unlimited if you can't even use the bandwidth to do anything.

I switched to T-Mobile and couldn't be happier. Well I could as TM can get impeded indoors and doesn't really work in the the mountains but it is still 1000% better than Verizon. In the 95% of places I use it, it actually works and even when the LTE is running slow (like 5mpbs) it feels responsive and fast compared to Verizon. I've also benchmarked it up to 75 mbps so that is awesome.

Verizon can go suck it.
 
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Not knowing what the bandwidth is like at different times and places, and factoring in that it's not throttling that happens but deprioritization, and only at times when there's higher than usual congestion and only in places where that is the case, it would still be quite different than the theoretical contemplations.
You say it’s not throttling, but that’s exactly how they describe it themselves when you reach a certain limit. Put it this way, you go to an “all you can eat” restaurant. The restaurant tells you after 2 plates of food, now your only allowed a half a plate of food per every hour. Sure the food is unlimited, but now you have to eat at a much slower pace and wait around for your food(data). You still want to defend a company that practices this way? Or better yet, allow every single business to run this way?
 
You say it’s not throttling, but that’s exactly how they describe it themselves when you reach a certain limit. Put it this way, you go to an “all you can eat” restaurant. The restaurant tells you after 2 plates of food, now your only allowed a half a plate of food per every hour. Sure the food is unlimited, but now you have to eat at a much slower pace and wait around for your food(data). You still want to defend a company that practices this way? Or better yet, allow every single business to run this way?
Using your analogy, it's more like saying food is unlimited, until the lunch rush where there are now 20 people inline at the buffet. You still can get unlimited food, BUT it takes longer to get your food.
 
i pay 5 euros a month for 50GB and unlimited calls every where. Verizon never had and never will be an option.
 
I definitely get what you're getting at because it is misleading, but it's still an accurate claim of unlimited 4G LTE data. You get de-prioritized after peaking 22GB/75GB's of data used but when you aren't de-prioritezied (solely based on demand around your nearest tower) you are still actively allowed to use full 4G LTE speeds after you peak the de-prioritization number. Yes it's confusing but they technically aren't lying about it. It's just marketing to get people on their network, it definitely sucks but that's business.



There would definitely be a difference, but even at unlimited full speed you'd come up with a different number month-to-month just based on the variability of how much bandwidth you'd receive at any given moment which is reflective of how these "de-prioritization" plans work, heavy users get kicked down to appease other customers, when it's not congested you get bumped back up to full speed again. I got on the AT&T grandfathered unlimited plan after it was closed off and not long after did me and my friend who was originally grandfathered in get notified that they would scale back speeds to accommodate network demand, so it's not a new concept here. If you pass your allotment of when they would enforce de-prioritization but the demand in your area isn't high enough to trigger it, you wouldn't see a change in service quality at all.
It’s not ok for businesses to redefine words to trick you into their marketing plan. If every company in this country worked this way, there would be a lot of angry bitter people. I vote for honesty and transparency. If you want to support this kind of practice then go right ahead. Just realize the bigger picture you are enabling down the line for our future generations.
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Using your analogy, it's more like saying food is unlimited, until the lunch rush where there are now 20 people inline at the buffet. You still can get unlimited food, BUT it takes longer to get your food.
Not the same at all. First off, people usually put food on their plate and move right along. Hardly a wait at all. Compared to the restaurant restricting you to only 1/2 plate per hour. One is acceptable, the other is bs.
 
Question about the current discount of $5 off each line for autopay & paperless billing. I'm wondering if this will stay intact. I don't see it mentioned anywhere.
 
It’s not ok for businesses to redefine words to trick you into their marketing plan. If every company in this country worked this way, there would be a lot of angry bitter people. I vote for honesty and transparency. If you want to support this kind of practice then go right ahead. Just realize the bigger picture you are enabling down the line for our future generations.
[doublepost=1529080466][/doublepost]
Not the same at all. First off, people usually put food on their plate and move right along. Hardly a wait at all. Compared to the restaurant restricting you to only 1/2 plate per hour. One is acceptable, the other is bs.
Beg to differ... Most lines people take their sweet time filling their plate, thus you wait for them all to finish.
 
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It’s not ok for businesses to redefine words to trick you into their marketing plan. If every company in this country worked this way, there would be a lot of angry bitter people. I vote for honesty and transparency. If you want to support this kind of practice then go right ahead. Just realize the bigger picture you are enabling down the line for our future generations.
[doublepost=1529080466][/doublepost]
Not the same at all. First off, people usually put food on their plate and move right along. Hardly a wait at all. Compared to the restaurant restricting you to only 1/2 plate per hour. One is acceptable, the other is bs.


I didn't say it was okay, but I'm saying I don't see it as a scam. They're as transparent as they have to be per the latest rulings. I'm absolutely for removing the tiered system put on data when people are heavy users but I've experienced congested network and even with no de-prioritization on my end LTE still was at 3G speeds because of the mass of people using it. I as a customer can appreciate a chance to have more functional service if I don't use 22+GB a month because someone who does gets de-prioritized. In congestion everyone is slowed down no matter what, the hand slap to heavy users during that isn't exactly fair given the prices to have a higher allotment until they are allowed to de-prioritize you but I don't see anything false in their claims. It's unlimited 4G LTE data, period, no matter what. I can receive 4G LTE signal all day long but that doesn't mean I'm able to download WALL-E in only a few minutes. The speed is not a guarantee, the throughput is what it is based on density of usage. Like I said everyone will see slower speed when using the data pool heavier than normal, people in the de-prioritization class just get slowed down harsher and it's not a hidden secret nor is it misleading on being able to use as much data as psychically available, which is a variable no matter what plan you have.
 
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You say it’s not throttling, but that’s exactly how they describe it themselves when you reach a certain limit. Put it this way, you go to an “all you can eat” restaurant. The restaurant tells you after 2 plates of food, now your only allowed a half a plate of food per every hour. Sure the food is unlimited, but now you have to eat at a much slower pace and wait around for your food(data). You still want to defend a company that practices this way? Or better yet, allow every single business to run this way?
Interesting how discussing the details of something means automatically just defending something simply because you aren't bashing it, seems like we are dealing with an imaginary world where things are either black or white without accounting for actual reality that is far more nuanced than that.
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Not the same at all. First off, people usually put food on their plate and move right along. Hardly a wait at all. Compared to the restaurant restricting you to only 1/2 plate per hour. One is acceptable, the other is bs.
Except it is a fair bit like that. The very unlimited biffets you speak of often do in fact have various rules and restrictions as well.
 
Beg to differ... Most lines people take their sweet time filling their plate, thus you wait for them all to finish.
People in line would be like getting poor signal in the city or driving where there isn’t cell tower. That’s reasonable. Being misled and restricted by a company is totally different. But hey, if you like that kind of stuff then go ahead. Sit down and wait.
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Interesting how discussing the details of something means automatically just defending something simply because you aren't bashing it, seems like we are dealing with an imaginary world where things are either black or white without accounting for actual reality that is far more nuanced than that.
[doublepost=1529085542][/doublepost]
Except it is a fair bit like that. The very unlimited biffets you speak of often do in fact have various rules and restrictions as well.
Restrictions at restaurants like I’ve mentioned? Give some examples. I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t last long doing business like that. The real concern here is that you along with a few others, seem to be ok with being misled and the decieved when it comes to spending your money.
 
So 'Unlimited' is now a meaningless moniker that can be used as we wish? Cool, my wallet has Unlimited Money. My iPad has Unlimited Storage. My iPhone has Unlimited Battery.
Exactly what i was thinking.....Only in this day and age is everything redefined to not be what it is.
 
Restrictions at restaurants like I’ve mentioned? Give some examples. I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t last long doing business like that. The real concern here is that you along with a few others, seem to be ok with being misled and the decieved when it comes to spending your money.
Many all you can eat sushi and some other types of food places will only bring you one roll at a time and you can only order one at a time. Various other ones will stop putting out some dishes at certain time or will put out certain dishes only at certain times when the buffet cost is higher.

The point is that various rules that are not only not unheard of but are fairly typical for things of that nature. Sure in a perfect world it wouldn't be like that, and there would be world peace too, but in the real world that we live in the reality is the reality.

That said, the marketing can definitely be better. Ultimately what it comes down to is that it's unlimited data, not unlimited speeds.
 
Do none of you 10GB+ people use WiFi?

This is a legit question, as I’m genuinely curious.

I fail to use beyond 3GB a month, and I stream loads of YouTube and radio and surf the web. Granted I don’t use FB much and I know it’s a data hog, but it’s mostly on WiFi though. Heck, I can even stream DirectTV NOW data free, because I’m with AT&T and they own DirecTV NOW.

Are you people streaming at work? In the car? Are you in school? Because otherwise, if you’re at home, I imagine you’d be on WiFi, yes??
The only time I use Wifi, is for updates and the occasional Airdrop to my iMac. I am paying for cellular data. It makes no sense to use Wifi if I don't have to.
 
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The only time I use Wifi, is for updates and the occasional Airdrop to my iMac. I am paying for cellular data. It makes no sense to use Wifi if I don't have to.

I have a coworker that has this SAME philosophy... "If I'm paying for it, why don't I use it?" and I have to admit it makes sense. Has to be nice not having to think about wifi. I envy you and will put effort into doing the same because I go out of my way not to use data.
 
It’s not ok for businesses to redefine words to trick you into their marketing plan. If every company in this country worked this way, there would be a lot of angry bitter people. I vote for honesty and transparency. If you want to support this kind of practice then go right ahead. Just realize the bigger picture you are enabling down the line for our future generations.
[doublepost=1529080466][/doublepost]
Not the same at all. First off, people usually put food on their plate and move right along. Hardly a wait at all. Compared to the restaurant restricting you to only 1/2 plate per hour. One is acceptable, the other is bs.
Verizon hasn't deceived the public. The problem is that too many here are reading their own personal expectations into the article, and then complaining that unlimited isn't unlimited.

Verizon does not guarantee all of the data will be LTE at all times. That still does not preclude the customer from receiving unlimited data.

Temporary slowdown at times, (if the specific tower being accessed is congested) is a matter of minutes, not days and weeks.
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I have a coworker that has this SAME philosophy... "If I'm paying for it, why don't I use it?" and I have to admit it makes sense. Has to be nice not having to think about wifi. I envy you and will put effort into doing the same because I go out of my way not to use data.
Once you change your thinking, you will kick yourself for not doing so sooner. I get LTE speed 99.999% of the time, regardless of how much data I have used during the month.

I am using about 60 - 75 GB a month of data. And about the same on my T-Mobile line. That brings my cost per GB to just over a dollar, which is in my favor as a customer. People who are paying for unlimited and using less than 10GB a month because they are using Wifi all the time, are shorting themselves a service that has been paid for in full. The cell companies love people who use Wifi all the time and pay for unlimited.
 
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I agree with pretty much every other person ever that it makes no sense to have multiple unlimited plans. I would also worry if they weren't doing much throttling after 22gb of LTE on the other plans before, that they intend on doing so now. If they're not throttling people that often after they're surpassing 22gb of LTE, then why would anybody need this new plan?

I don't take too much issue with the marketing of unlimited plans, in the sense that you do technically get an endless amount of data for the set price. Which is probably what most care about, simply not having to worry about getting charged an insane amount for using their phone. I just wish it was made more abundantly clear that this is really more a set amount of LTE Data, with unlimited 3G Data.
 
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Really enjoyed reading all the stuff here. I only have the 5GB plan which does fine for me but do understand there should be only one unlimited plan. Do like T-Mobile but sadly I go places where it wouldn't work and so far Verizon is the only company that has worked continually for me. Been a Verizon customer for 14 years now with no issues.
 
You are confusing unlimited data with unlimited bandwidth. The data is unlimited, the bandwidth is not.
For clarity, it’s my understanding that (at least with T-Mobile) after you hit the max, they first try to de-prioritize you before slowing your data rate. So there are two kinds of potential “restrictions”. Not sure about Verizon and just tossing this up in case anyone is confused. I know I was at first.
 
Wow!..

I've lived in the US for 2 years and Canada for 7 years. Now in France since 2014...:

Cheapest plan starts at 10 euros/month ($11.5), no yearly contract nor cancellation fee, unlimited calls/SMS (cell and landlines) in France and from all EU, unlimited free hot spots, and 30GB of 4G (goes to free lower debit beyond).

That's one of the few cheap things here (also: unlimited optical fiber and cable TV starting at $17)... but the Apple products are so much more expensive... :-( .
 
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