Verizon Billing - over billing for data - heads up!

HalizDad

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Today Verizon says I've used 1.02GB of data out of my 4GB allowance. My phone says I've uses 1068MB...That's pretty close. I'm happy.
 

Tarpit_Carnivore

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When they switched me over they initially did my phone as 2GB and left the second line as Unlimited which was messing up my bill and I was getting texts about data limits. I just had to call them and they corrected everything.
 

pblakk

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Same here, but I'm sure sometime within the next few years, or even sooner, they'll phase out unlimited data for good, from everyone...
 

primevyl

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This thread makes me wonder...was it worth it? I've already determined that my Unlimited plan is only going away if/when Verizon pries it from my cold dead hands.

Amen. I pay too much to hand over my ONE ace in the hole

<<<?Sent from my Rooted (soon to be) 64+ gig Rezound!>>>
 

Bond32

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They have to honor my unlimited for another 2 years now... I transferred my upgrade essentially resigning my contract. I'll do the same in another 2 years (if they allow it) or cancel my line with Verizon.

Shared data, no thank you.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
 

oldAGE

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I'm sorry for the noob question and please by all means, direct me to the appropriate thread if this has already been reviewed somewhere, but how does one track how much data is used via WiFi vs. the network?

I have explained everything right in this thread from my first post to subsequent posts. There is nothing on the phone or My Verizon Mobile app that auto-magically tells you the delta but it's quite easy to differentiate. Your S3 tells you ALL DATA via the Data Usage function (see above posts) and you can include all mobile data or limit to specific apps, functions, etc and set the time period to measure before resetting back to zero. I have set mine up to measure all mobile data, starting on the first day of my bill cycle and ending on the last day. I have set mine to warn me at 1.5 GB and stop all mobile data at 1.8 GB. Then all I do is look at my My Verizon Mobile App and if something seems wonky, I look at my Data Usage function and compare, contrast, subtract... It needs to be a reasonable expectation of reality. What prompted this post was Verizon telling me that I used more wireless mobile data (on my bill) than both my phone used in it's entirety (all mobile data both wifi and wireless) for the billing cycle and what My Verizon Mobile was telling me. So your phone measures everything you want, My Verizon Mobile tells you what they have given you via wireless, and the difference should be what you have used via WiFi.
 

HalizDad

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I have explained everything right in this thread from my first post to subsequent posts. There is nothing on the phone or My Verizon Mobile app that auto-magically tells you the delta but it's quite easy to differentiate. Your S3 tells you ALL DATA via the Data Usage function (see above posts) and you can include all mobile data or limit to specific apps, functions, etc and set the time period to measure before resetting back to zero. I have set mine up to measure all mobile data, starting on the first day of my bill cycle and ending on the last day. I have set mine to warn me at 1.5 GB and stop all mobile data at 1.8 GB. Then all I do is look at my My Verizon Mobile App and if something seems wonky, I look at my Data Usage function and compare, contrast, subtract... It needs to be a reasonable expectation of reality. What prompted this post was Verizon telling me that I used more wireless mobile data (on my bill) than both my phone used in it's entirety (all mobile data both wifi and wireless) for the billing cycle and what My Verizon Mobile was telling me. So your phone measures everything you want, My Verizon Mobile tells you what they have given you via wireless, and the difference should be what you have used via WiFi.

Unless I have something different with a newer phone, the S3 tells you your wireless data AND WiFi data used. there's a tab to switch back and forth between the 2. Your mobile data should be very close to Verizon's.
 

walkingrock

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Wifi has no affect on your app on your phone showing data usages. By default when wifi comes on Verizon's data goes off, there by making it so no data information is being sent to and from Verizon's network. Wifi is in no way figured into your data totals. As far as the upgrade fees you are complaining about, every other company charges those, and they charge more just an fyi. Some special cases they are waived or promotions may happen. When you change your bill in the middle of a billing cycle (or anytime during one for that matter) you get a prorated data amount, not the full 2gb. So I guess my question for the person saying they got overages after changing during an active billing cycle, exactly how far into the billing cycle are you.

I was halfway through the billing cycle. I had unlimited data for 2 weeks, than 2 GB prorated to 1 GB for the last 2 weeks. They said I went over 1 GB in less than a week the first week I had the phone, but there was no evidence that I could see on my bill, they wouldn't give me a credit, although I asked about it twice with 2 different customer service reps. I had never even gotten close to using 1 GB before, with my previous smart phones. And I didn't use this phone that much that week; but I didn't know very much about it either. Maybe they charged me a bunch to transfer my data from my previous phone; although that never has been a problem before. I did delete the auto back-up to Cloud, as that could have contributed to the data usage.
 

kennyidaho

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I've noticed from time to time on my S3 if WiFi was set to turn off when asleep it would get stuck and never turn back on. The switch is toggled to the on position, but the phone doesn't see any access points. Perhaps this is happening to you guys?

On another note, while I rarely ever use more then 2GB of data a month, there are time I use 5GB and up. I could in theory deal with a capped plan. However like someone already said, I will never switch away from unlimited unless forced (or some insanely different data tiers came out say 10GB for $20).
 

unlmtdRW

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I'm sorry for the noob question and please by all means, direct me to the appropriate thread if this has already been reviewed somewhere, but how does one track how much data is used via WiFi vs. the network? ...
I have explained everything right in this thread from my first post to subsequent posts. There is nothing on the phone or My Verizon Mobile app that auto-magically tells you the delta but it's quite easy to differentiate...
Unless I have something different with a newer phone, the S3 tells you your wireless data AND WiFi data used. there's a tab to switch back and forth between the 2. Your mobile data should be very close to Verizon's.
Actually, you have to specifically check "Show Wi-Fi usage" in the settings of the Data usage view in order to see that split between Mobile and Wi-Fi usage levels, by default it shows combined. Once you have them split you can set alert levels & limits or not for each as desired.
 
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HalizDad

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Actually, you have to specifically check "Show Wi-Fi usage" in the settings of the Data usage view in order to see that split between Mobile and Wi-Fi usage levels, by default it shows combined. Once you have them split you can set alert levels & limits or not for each as desired.

Which is specifically the tab I mentioned.

2012-10-10 10.26.17.png
 

unlmtdRW

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Which is specifically the tab I mentioned.
Right, and I was not seeing the split tabs you mentioned so I poked around in the Data usage app a bit more and "discovered" that I could see the split by selecting "show wi-fi usage" in settings... just thought I'd post a comment for anyone else who may not know how to obtain the same view (BUT I wasn't explicit in my post to indicate that. Sorry my post lacked clarity -- didn't want or mean to imply anything about your post).
 
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HalizDad

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Right, and I was not seeing the split tabs you mentioned so I poked around in the Data usage app a bit more and "discovered" that I could see the split by selecting "show wi-fi usage" in settings... just thought I'd post a comment for anyone else who may not know how to obtain the same view (BUT I wasn't explicit in my post to indicate that. Sorry my post lacked clarity -- didn't want or mean to imply anything about your post).

Yet another weird thing about my phone...I didn't have to click "show wifi usage" or anything my screen is exactly wysiwyg....Now I see what you're saying though...Mine was pre-selected...I never touched it. That's why I was wondering what the OP was talking about.
 

unlmtdRW

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Yet another weird thing about my phone...I didn't have to click "show wifi usage" or anything my screen is exactly wysiwyg....
Yep... no worries, just another thing to demonstrate that with such a tremendously customizable environment like Android, we cannot assume anything about what another poster might be seeing or not seeing on their phone. :D
 

oldAGE

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As it pertains to the split function... heads up, at least on my variant (latest VZW ICS build), note that you cannot set the WiFi split date range to match your billing cycle. There does not seem to be a CHANGE CYCLE setting in the dates field. It looks like you have to use the sliders to filter for the dates in a billing range. Odd programmatic flaw or.... 'put favorite conspiracy theory here.' That's why I said there was no auto-magic way to get a quick snap shot. Mea Culpa. Good info to help all the noobs and other users to tweak their devices. Don't let VZW off the hook. If you have a problem, let it be their problem.
 

unlmtdRW

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As it pertains to the split function... heads up, at least on my variant (latest VZW ICS build), note that you cannot set the WiFi split date range to match your billing cycle. There does not seem to be a CHANGE CYCLE setting in the dates field. It looks like you have to use the sliders to filter for the dates in a billing range....
@oldAGE... On the Wi-Fi tab, try unchecking the "Alert me about data usage", then the "Change cycle" option should be visible in the "Data usage cycle" drop-down (may need to toggle between Mobile and Wi-Fi for it to refresh). At least it does this on my VZW build (baseband version I535VRLG7, build number IMM76D.I535VRALG7). Arrgggh!... Scratch that... it doesn't seem to "stick"/save it that way! It keeps returning to past 30 days from current date timeframe.
 

oldAGE

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@oldAGE... On the Wi-Fi tab, try unchecking the "Alert me about data usage", then the "Change cycle" option should be visible in the "Data usage cycle" drop-down (may need to toggle between Mobile and Wi-Fi for it to refresh). At least it does this on my VZW build (baseband version I535VRLG7, build number IMM76D.I535VRALG7). Arrgggh!... Scratch that... it doesn't seem to "stick"/save it that way! It keeps returning to past 30 days from current date timeframe.

Sorry, I had to laugh at the last line. I do the same thing. Why should you expect that a solution should work consistently with other sub-functions in the main function? We silly consumers expect too much common sense. Sometimes I think these programmers worked at Microsoft (try doing the same function within their Office Products - some work, some don't, some have entirely different command/control sets, and some do entirely different things even though they are in the same Program Family).

Thanks for trying :D
 

fofjjsr

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Sorry... you are dead wrong or you completely misunderstood what I wrote. The S3 has a Data Usage function (Settings->Wireless and network->Data Usage) that records all data to/from the device (irrespective of whether it's the LTE radio or 802.11 radio when you set it up that way) and it's pretty accurate down to a few percentage points. Secondly, as you write, My Verizon Mobile app "turns off" when WiFi is being used. So, the issue here - without being precise but to illuminate my point... If my Data Usage function of my S3 states that within my billing cycle, I used 250MB of data, and My Verizon Mobile App reports that I have used 50 MB of data, how can my Billing Report indicate that I have used 1.2 GB of data? The only thing that Verizon can bill me for is 50MB of data that traversed the wireless LTE network. The other 200MB was across WiFi.

As others have written here it seems like VZW has a product conversion problem in their billing software. I suspect that those two old "unlimited" lines will clear in the next bill cycle and I will see the expected $9.99 line and $30 data charges only. I am glad that other folks have looked and complained. As others have written here, I believe they are right that 2/3 of all consumers will pay based on the bottom line and never check their detail. Especially during the times when the bill is pro-rated and there are a thousand lines of charges and credits across different dates and multiple hand-set accounts. I think it's time for a class-action. Stay tuned....

You need to look into it more. My statement was more along the lines you won't get charged for it. Does it get tracked? Actually it does. But when I mean turned off, I meant your little widget stops. That is why it is different from your total. The widget only shows what you will be billed for. The phone tracks everything. I love how people start with all the "class action" stuff. If you are not in contract, Verizon has the right to drop you if they want too. Just like you can do the same to them. Your unlimited is technically only good for the length of your contract. Once that is over, all bets are off. Pro-ration has also been around forever. There are ways around pro ration, like if you switch plans ask if it can be back dated, or future dated. Bam, no pro ration.

My second question is, when you look at your bill (not 100% sure if it is on the bill), or when you call in to CS, there are two sections. Data used, and data billed. It is also known that the tracker on the phone isn't 100% accurate. The widget on the phone needs to be manually updated, which I am sure you are already aware of.
 

fofjjsr

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Also recently there have been errors with the warning messages going out when they should not be. If you get the message either check your usage via my Verizon or call in to tech support. Been a few cases of data not being reported correctly. Which can be fixed.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Android Central Forums
 

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