New Charge Owner Here and I WAS completely satisfied ...

[daThomas#AC]

... I specifically purchased the Charge to lock in my unlimited data for another two years given the Verizon data changes and to upgrade hardware using the available upgrade on the account. I SPECIFICALLY requested the $20/month 2 gig cap tethering plan at point of purchase several days ago. Today the tethering did not work for me and when I called support they said I needed to signup for the tethering plan which they said was $30/month for unlimited data.

I was barely able to choke down the cost of $20/month for the 2 gig tethering limit but wanted the convenience and assumed I had that at point of purchase but it was actually a trial. Spent much time on customer support tonight demanding the price I was quoted to no avail.

So I'm facing the choice of walking in the store tomorrow and returning everything if I don't get the original deal or not having the ability to tether. (I tether pretty infrequently, low data use).

So what do you think? Throw in the Charge and tell Verizon to bite me? I don't think I can root as I allowed the update after purchase.

 

[guinnkevinr]

I'd return everything because verizon confirmed that if you are on unlimited 3g plan you are guarenteed to upgrade to unlimited 4g for 30 bucks a month whenever you decide to upgrade to a 4g device.

Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk

 

[noobsickle]

So basically there's nothing wrong with the phone and Verizon is an *******. Gotcha.

 

[daThomas#AC]

I'd return everything because verizon confirmed that if you are on unlimited 3g plan you are guarenteed to upgrade to unlimited 4g for 30 bucks a month whenever you decide to upgrade to a 4g device.

Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk

Sorry if I wasn't clear. They're solid on the unlimited 4g data through the phone. The issue is tethering. They offered 2 gig capped tethering for $20/month and have now switched to minimum tethering plan of $30/month unlimited tethering which would be a total of $60/month. JUST TO HAVE THE ABILITY TO TETHER!?!?!??

Not kewl.

 

[daThomas#AC]

So basically there's nothing wrong with the phone and Verizon is an *******. Gotcha.

The phone is fine. The 4g rocks. Just need the ability to tether once or twice a day for 15 minutes. Not worth $30/month.

 

[noobsickle]

If you root, you can use barnacle or open garden. Haven't heard of Verizon punishing people yet since they stopped the free tethering.

 

[addictedtocars]

So you buy a $200-$300 phone and have monthly expense of somewhere around $80-$90 monthly bill and you want to return if all becasue the phoena nd 4G rock, but the monthly bill will be an extra $10 and you get unlimited tethering vs 2GB CAP? Don't take this wrong, but if $10 is that much of an impact in your monthly budget I suspect a smartphone should not be high on you monthly "must have" budget list. 2GB sounds like alot of data today and that is what the telcos want you to think, but in 5 years I suspect most people will blow throw 2GB in no time at all. This is the telcos way of setting everyone up for $50 data plans in 3-5 years. I don;t even plan on tehtering much and am thinking about getting it now to lock it in, and considering moving the gf to a 4G phone to get free thethering since her DSL line is $42 a month for 3mb down and 300k up, hell my Charge routinely gets 10-20mbs down and 2-5mbs up, so for her moving from DSL to tehtered phone saves $10 a month and gets her higher bandwidth!

 

[dubge]

I would just suck it up and pay the extra $10 a month. I tether once or twice a month if that and am thinking of getting the tethering plan. I guess if I got it I would just let the kids online more in the car to justify having it. It did come in handy one day when comcast was out for an hour or two.

 

[waterfrontmgmt]

the mobile 4g hotspot is the wave of the future...it is worth $10 extra just to granfather in the unlimited part. if you have vzn's 4g, you will never connect to a laptop via wifi again. their 4g is faster than any home network i have seen.

just my 2 cents.

 

[mc21]

ummm cancel the tether and use pdanet for tethering without rooting?

 

[deadpenguins]

If your phone is updated to EE4 you can root very easily. I had no experience and did it with no hiccups. Just read up on it a bit and follow instructions exactly as stated and you'll be fine. My choice of route was through this method.There are tons of benefits to rooting other than free tethering as well. If that's not an option, I'd agree with the others that the $10 isn't SO much of a difference that it's worth forfeitting your device, but that's just cause I love mine so much . Good luck.

 

[moondrius]

Is this really something to complain about? If you go over 2 gbs in a month you just spent $30 anyway. Now you can use whatever you want and its still $30. If they were smart they would just put you on the $20 plan and hope you use 5 gigs in a month with hotspot.

 

[daThomas#AC]

So you buy a $200-$300 phone and have monthly expense of somewhere around $80-$90 monthly bill and you want to return if all becasue the phoena nd 4G rock, but the monthly bill will be an extra $10 and you get unlimited tethering vs 2GB CAP? Don't take this wrong, but if $10 is that much of an impact in your monthly budget I suspect a smartphone should not be high on you monthly "must have" budget list. 2GB sounds like alot of data today and that is what the telcos want you to think, but in 5 years I suspect most people will blow throw 2GB in no time at all. This is the telcos way of setting everyone up for $50 data plans in 3-5 years. I don;t even plan on tehtering much and am thinking about getting it now to lock it in, and considering moving the gf to a 4G phone to get free thethering since her DSL line is $42 a month for 3mb down and 300k up, hell my Charge routinely gets 10-20mbs down and 2-5mbs up, so for her moving from DSL to tehtered phone saves $10 a month and gets her higher bandwidth!

To be honest, the tethering was not really worth the $20/month I agreed to. It was obviously throttled a great deal so it's not worth $10/month more.

 

[ts47]

If you said you wanted the $20 2gig plan at time of purchase and they forgot to put it on, I would go to the store and complain.

You may want to think about the opportunity that is in front of you though. For an extra $10, you will have the ability to tether your tablet, or your laptop, or whatever internet appliance you purchase now and down the road WITH NO DATA CAPS and NO OTHER DATA PLANS!! My wife has a Blackberry and an Ipad2. She has to pay for two data plans and only gets 1 gig of data a month. When she upgrades her phone down the road, she will pay more than I do with my $30 unlimited data tethering plan.

With unlimited data tethering, you can work from poolside or while relaxing in a park, or anywhere there is a cell signal.

One last thought... I currently use close to a gig of data a month on my phone without tethering. Once you plug your laptop into your phone, you might be surprised how fast you burn through the data. The unlimited data plan buys feedom and future proofs your life.

Hope this helps!

 

[AirSushi]

To be honest, the tethering was not really worth the $20/month I agreed to. It was obviously throttled a great deal so it's not worth $10/month more.

I tethered to my laptop/iPad 2/and multiple iTouches and iPhones and they speed test at 4g speeds. Almost as fast as the phone would test at using Verizons built in tethering app.

The problem with rooting and running WifiTether, Barnacle, Open Garden, etc is that they all tether via an ad-hoc connection not an access point connection like Verizons native app. Therefore an Android device can not 'see' the wifi hotspot and can not tether. Usually not an issue with Android phones as no one tethered a phone typically but with the introduction of tablets it becomes a bigger problem.

My personal opinion assuming you are referring to tethering an Android device is that the extra $10 while annoying is well worth it for an unlimited data plan at least until a rooted app offers access point tethering.
If you are tethering anything else besides an Android device (like an apple product or laptop) ditch the data tethering with Verizon and root you phone and run wifi tether or barnacle. My favorite is wifi tether. Any app you decide to use will produce an occasional error message when starting but will still work.

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk

 

[zman6900]

root and tether or pay the $30 per month or F verizon and go with sprint unlimited everything plan for 79.99 per month and root and tether it.

 

[daThomas#AC]

Ok, I swallowed my disgust with being charged an additional $10 (on top of any charge for something Android does natively) for tethering.

Before calling Verizon I did try going to the store and plead my case of being quoted the $20 plan but they said there was nothing they could do. Even tried the "I'm within my 14 days so I can just return everything right?" and they didn't blink.

I called Verizon and and asked if the tethering was month to month and of course the rep said yes, and I, trying one more time, said "so that's $20/month for the 2 gig cap" and he enthusiastically said yes and that he had it and it's great. I said well let me get that and he said ok, and started looking for it on his screen. At that point I was thinking I was gonna weasel my way into the $20 buck plan. Then after several minutes of him fruitlessly looking for the option on his screen he put me me on hold. At that point I was pretty sure he was not aware of the change and sure enough he came back on and apologized that the $20 deal ended on the 7th and the only deal was the $30/unlimited. I said, yea, heard that. Give it to me.

Hope I find it worth it.

 

[cbebruno]

Hope it worked out for you. You may tether more frequently now because of the unlimited.

 

[AirSushi]

Ok, I swallowed my disgust with being charged an additional $10 (on top of any charge for something Android does natively) for tethering.

Before calling Verizon I did try going to the store and plead my case of being quoted the $20 plan but they said there was nothing they could do. Even tried the "I'm within my 14 days so I can just return everything right?" and they didn't blink.

I called Verizon and and asked if the tethering was month to month and of course the rep said yes, and I, trying one more time, said "so that's $20/month for the 2 gig cap" and he enthusiastically said yes and that he had it and it's great. I said well let me get that and he said ok, and started looking for it on his screen. At that point I was thinking I was gonna weasel my way into the $20 buck plan. Then after several minutes of him fruitlessly looking for the option on his screen he put me me on hold. At that point I was pretty sure he was not aware of the change and sure enough he came back on and apologized that the $20 deal ended on the 7th and the only deal was the $30/unlimited. I said, yea, heard that. Give it to me.

Hope I find it worth it.

I think you will find its worth it. People are surprised at how much data they actually use for 2 reasons. One they don't realize how many apps actually use data (no one in this forum obviously) and two people find more uses for it now that they know its unlimited and faster. 4g speeds really opens up a whole new realm for data. Streaming TV/movies/music is what 4g is made for. I don't think any of the cell phone companies know how much data is going to be used once apps like NetFlix and Hulu become more standard.