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Hi,
I've been looking through GS4G threads and haven't seen any posts on the GS4G threads about this. I'm pretty disappointed with this phone, but I have a lot of confidence that with the mods that can come out it'll be a good investment. I originally was informed that the phone can be rooted and rommed to make it its own wifi without needing to pay for internet access through the carriers and that's why I bought it. (I think it was by using Busybox? I don't remember) - but has anyone done this and is it really possible to do this? So many sales points made by the TM guys have proven to be wrong, I am now questioning this point also.
My phone was unlocked by a local service for $30 after 3 minutes work. I now have Simple Mobile and I'm happier than I was with TM. It does still seem that everything has to be routed through Goog, nearly every function must pass through the cloud and that's why so much data use is sucked up so quickly and my experience so far is that the Android platform is either surprisingly unstable or so far advanced that a simple mind such my own cannot quite grasp it's nuances...yet.
But I digress - can this phone be made into it's own internet AP without having to pay TM, ATT, etc?
All helpful comments welcomed and acknowleged.
Cheers,
Moved to proper forum
I search a wiget hotspot on market n work very good for wifi tether
Sent from my SGH-T959V using XDA App
built in wifi
The Mobile AP works without being charged.
Hmm...
So are you saying that you want to be able to use data service on your phone without paying for the data service...or are you saying that you have data service and want to tether or use your phone as a hotspot to use your data plan on another device without paying the AP fee?
If it's the former...I really don't think that that is possible...because everyone would be doing it. The data part of my family plan is something like 60 bucks...I'd love to be saving that every month. The fact is, none of the carriers would allow that. The data is tracked and I can't imagine it would be possible to sneak it under their radars without getting a nasty letter.
If it's the latter, yes. Root your phone (In most cases) and download a free tethering or wifi app (I use EasyTether, but there are several out there). Follow instructions. Easy Peasy. Tethering and/or Mobile AP without paying the $15 or whatever fee. But (And someone correct me if I'm wrong here) I do not think that you can use tethering or mobile AP without having a paid for data service from a carrier. Sorry.
There are also people saying that if you use the built in tethering/mobile AP ability on your device without having paid for the service through T-mo, that as long as use it lightly, T-mo will ignore it. I have heard accounts of people using it too much and getting an email from T-mo basically saying "Hey quit that...pay for it, you greedy bastard" (Paraphrased).
Also...What exactly is your disappointment with this device? If you let us know exactly what your issues with it are...there is a chance that we can give you advice or a workaround to get the most of your device...that's what we're for. At very least we can point you to a thread that already exists to help you out.
Pretty simple... the mobile ap included within the phone works fine.... use it as an AP as much as you like.. tmobile's fine with it cuz they know as soon as you hit the 5gb thresh your gonna be throttled down. Doesn't matter if you root and download 3rd party AP software cuz as soon as you hit the 5gb your all done.
In my opinion I think this is totally fine for TMOBile to do.. although I wish they were clear about the 5gb cap when you sign the 2year agreement. I had Sprint 4g before this and Att before that and this is the first internet connection I would drop my home internet for.... of course if it had true unlimited bandwidth. At work and at home I get a steady 7+mbps down and 1.5mpbs up with a 65 to 100 ping... when I'm using it at home it hardly seems noticeably slower or less snappy than my 20mbps comcast connection.
I think ultimately if they are going to throttle they should raise the limitation to about 15gb or so and be very upfront to the customer when they sign... That would take away about 99 percent of the complaints they get and give us some headroom.. also would still guarantee no one's gonna be running their website or downloading 100's of gigs of torrents over a cell tower..
All carriers throttle...no carriers have "true" unlimited data. T-Mo is pretty upfront about the throttling. I mean...it's there...in black in white. I knew about it when I signed up for my service. There's no reason that anyone doing any form of research before just jumping into a two-year contract would not be able to find that information as well.
Also...the reason they throttle is to keep users from using it as their home internet. That's not what it is intended for and if everyone was doing that...it would prolly have cataclysmic effects on the network (Again...correct me if I'm wrong here).
I have a hard time believing that your mobile connection is faster than your home cable internet...But I can't prove my suspicion...so that aside, the 5gb limit is way more than enough if you are using your mobile internet for just browsing and downloading apps or streaming media. I would consider myself I pretty hard-core mobile internet user and I have never hit 5gb in a month...that being said...I'm also not trying to use it as my home internet. I don't use it to download torrents or stream entire movies or play online games. Besides...T-mo only throttles your bandwidth after hitting 5gb...at least they don't shut you down like other carriers.
The fact is...there is no Unlimited mobile data...but as far as it goes...T-Mo has the best plan out there. Great coverage, 4g, 5gb limit and only then they throttle you back a bit.
Sigh...I should be working in the mobile technology business...instead I'm working a mind-numbing production job for **** pay. Not applicable to the thread...but I really felt like pining.
wmikemoon said:
All carriers throttle...no carriers have "true" unlimited data. T-Mo is pretty upfront about the throttling. I mean...it's there...in black in white. I knew about it when I signed up for my service. There's no reason that anyone doing any form of research before just jumping into a two-year contract would not be able to find that information as well.
Also...the reason they throttle is to keep users from using it as their home internet. That's not what it is intended for and if everyone was doing that...it would prolly have cataclysmic effects on the network (Again...correct me if I'm wrong here).
I have a hard time believing that your mobile connection is faster than your home cable internet...But I can't prove my suspicion...so that aside, the 5gb limit is way more than enough if you are using your mobile internet for just browsing and downloading apps or streaming media. I would consider myself I pretty hard-core mobile internet user and I have never hit 5gb in a month...that being said...I'm also not trying to use it as my home internet. I don't use it to download torrents or stream entire movies or play online games. Besides...T-mo only throttles your bandwidth after hitting 5gb...at least they don't shut you down like other carriers.
The fact is...there is no Unlimited mobile data...but as far as it goes...T-Mo has the best plan out there. Great coverage, 4g, 5gb limit and only then they throttle you back a bit.
Sigh...I should be working in the mobile technology business...instead I'm working a mind-numbing production job for **** pay. Not applicable to the thread...but I really felt like pining.
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A lot of what you say is true but, I was not told about the throttling when I got my UNLIMITED DATA plan. I came from a company that had truly UNLIMITED DATA. I was with them since 2006 and never once had a letter about my data use nor was I EVER throttled. I had excellent Download speeds and could easily use streaming media. That company was Alltel. It is the BEST cell phone service I have ever had. Unfortunately, they sold out in my area first to Verizon in Maricopa county then AT&T in Pinal county Arizona. This is a great loss. With TMO I get 2G Edge speed at best unless I drive 40 miles into town. On my laptop it takes 3 to 5 minutes to load my gmail account. Where I am at I can get satellite or cell service only for internet. I am a truck driver so it doesn’t pay to get satellite because I am not home enough to use it. At best I get 16 t0 20KB/SEC down. I reached my 5GB limit this weekend and am being throttled for the next week or so. I talked to customer service and explained my situation to a supervisor and her comment was “It looks like we are throttling all the time and now throttling you even more. When I talk to the rep at the TMO store a week or so ago about the throttling he failed to tell me about he admitted that TMO would slow my service from 4G down to 2G. What TMO has done to me was slow me down to 1G. Right now it takes 3 to 4 minutes’ to download 1MB. I had faster download speeds with NETZERO dialup for $8.00 a month back in the 90’s. I was miss-lead by TMO both in their advertising and thru representation. I can’t say I blame my rep so much because I’m sure they are trained to only give you enough information to make the sale, which means they are trained to withhold the TRUTH or at least not disclose the meaning on “UNLIMITED” unless you pry it out of them. Truthfully, I like the people at my TMO store. They are very helpful. It’s just they are bound by the corporate Greed that makes their paycheck. I will likely not be with TMO much longer. I like my phone but the service sucks.
It works just fine.
Don't abuse it, use it only when needed and you will be fine. Otherwise, they will "recommend" you to add the whatever-is-called-tethering add on.
In fact, everyone: Don't abuse it and they will probably leave it as it is... Until the att takeover takes place (ouch)
fosormic said:
It works just fine.
Don't abuse it, use it only when needed and you will be fine. Otherwise, they will "recommend" you to add the whatever-is-called-tethering add on.
In fact, everyone: Don't abuse it and they will probably leave it as it is... Until the att takeover takes place (ouch)
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With that attitude you will conform to whatever these corporations want to shove down our throats. Every day corporations are charging us more and more and giving us less and less. Then they buy up the few companies left that are giving us value for our money. Soon we will back to one choice like back in the Ma Bell days and you will be standing right up front saluting the Beast.
Like I said...All carriers throttle. I'm glad that a company that is not around anymore didn't throttle...but that was also before mobile data really took off. I'm pretty sure what happened is people started using mobile data for their home internet and started clogging the tubes (or you know...airwaves or whatever) and the major carriers did what they had to do...which means throttling. If they didn't throttle...people would be using mobile data for their home use and making it so people, like myself who pay for cable internet but like to browse or whatever on the go, would suffer...which isn't fair considering me and people like me are using (and paying for) the mobile data for what it is intended for.
In your last post you berated a fellow poster for saying to use the tethering but not to abuse it. You basically said that his attitude was that of a conformer to major corporations...This boggles my mind. Really and truly...T-mo wants you to pay for the tethering and if you use it without paying for it...you are rebelling to corporate standards...so your comment makes no sense.
The fact that T-mo takes the stance that they do on the tethering without paying for tethering thing earns my respect. They're basically saying "You know what...we ****ed up and made it so you can use the tethering option without paying for it...just don't be a **** and we'll look the other way."
Also, If you root and or mod your phone in any way...and something happens and you have to send your phone in to T-mo...they tend to look the other way. Can Verizon or Att say that? Hell no...Att is trying to make it so their phones CAN'T be rooted or modded in anyway. Ask an Atrix user.
Sounds like to me you are just whining because T-mo didn't tell you about the throttling. Again, I stand by my earlier statement...Do your research before jumping into a Two-Year contract. It's there...everything is...you just have to READ it. That goes for ANYTHING that you sign a contract for. When you buy a new car...do you just skip everything the contract says and sign it? Of course not. You read that **** because you don't wanna be screwed. Companies exist to make money off of you...plain and simple...so if they make you sign a contract...you best do your research to know exactly what they are offering...and if you don't....I have absolutely no sympathy for you what-so-ever. It's you with the egg on your face...just because you didn't take the time to read.
I agree with tmobile on Throttling to a degree.. and I understand the reasoning BUT.. I still believe their advertising and plans are a bit misleading... For example I went to a tmobile store here in Eugene.. talked about plans and speeds with a tmo rep and was told nothing about the limits. Also I bought my galaxy 4g at Radio Shack and also was told nothing about it.. I looked on TMO's website and found in their agreement this>>>>>>> "Your data session, plan, or service may be slowed, suspended, terminated, or restricted if you use your service in a way that interferes with or impacts our network or ability to provide quality service to other users"
That is pretty vague when in reality there is a solid 5gb max.. whether it's on your 1st day of service or 2nd to last day...
I knew about the limits before only because of these message forums... but even after reading the fine print i wouldn't have known for sure
Protective Measures: To provide a good experience for the majority of our customers and minimize capacity issues and degradation in network performance, we may take measures including temporarily reducing data throughput for a subset of customers who use a disproportionate amount of bandwidth. If your total usage exceeds 5GB (amount is subject to change without notice; please check T-Mobile’s T&Cs on www.T-Mobile.com for updates) during a billing cycle, we may reduce your data speed for the remainder of that billing cycle. If you use your Data Plan in a manner that could interfere with other customers’ service, affect our ability to allocate network capacity among customers, or degrade service quality for other customers, we may suspend, terminate, or restrict your data session, or switch you to a more appropriate Data Plan.
Copied from the Terms and Conditions which has a link on literally every single page on T-Mo's website and is clearly marked in the section titled "Data Plans and Other Features".
Alternatively, on Verizon's site...You can only get to the details about their data package after adding a voice plan and phone to your cart...at which point it gives a vague description of their throttling rules that do not mention exact amounts. It just says that it can throttle your speed whenever it feels like.
So again...not seeing a problem here...
Using GS4G as hot spot
Thanks for all your replies. It took me a while to find where the thread went.
Yes, I did mean turning the phone into it's own router/internet AP without tethering. My BB used Tether and it was great and that of course used my data plan from SPrint. No problem with that - I'm a very light user. But Android is different - just about every app uses the web so it's a data hog, even though I'm a light user.
I know that TM and others permit tethering as a built in or as a work around with a third party app. But I was told - apparently incorrectly - that the GS4G could do the same thing as a router without any cap set by the carrier. Hmm. Maybe there's a way to develop and independent app to do just that... but that's way beyond my pay grade.
Misc - 1). I guess I filed this thread under the wrong heading. Sorry, Mr. C and thanks for the course correction; 2). What issues do I have with the phone? Well, the biggest one is that suddenly - after I changed to Simple Mobile from TM, I can no longer access the login page to my third party office scheduler. Previously, I could at least access the login page, login and view the appointments, but it crashed every time I tried to make an app using the phone (but not using a laptop). Support told me that a mobile Android app has to be customized in order to work because of the page loading limitations of the Android system - whatever that means - and that maybe in a few months they'll have an app. In the meantime, they recommend using a sync with GooCal. But GC seems to flub the time zone differences between when you post an appointment online and when it is synced to the phone. I thought that Goo had fixed that, but I still see West Coast time on the GooCal website and the correct East Coast time on the phone. I'm so confused! Does anyone know if GooCal is HIPAA compliant for a medical practice? If not; anyone use another service that IS compliant on their Annie device? Another problem I had - now resolved by my ISP provider - was that Android didn't support the wav file for my voice mails. Now it does. If not, that would've been a deal breaker. Also, I was told - apparently ALSO incorrectly by TM - that visual voice mail was a speech to text app. Nope. It just plays an audio and you can see the date and time and phone number and pause it. Big whoop. I'm told that Google Voice IS a real, but perhaps flawed, speech to text voice mail conversion, but I don't think it will work for business purposes. I thought about Line two, but was told their visual voice mail is only like TM's visual voice, not speech to text. Lastly, TM said you could dictate reports with a pre-loaded, stock dictation/speech to text app. Nope again. Um, I think that covers it. Any experience with any of these glitches?
I think that his site rocks and everyone thinking of buying any cell or service should come here first and just not even bother with any of the carriers' sales personnel. But the carriers aren't interested in selling to folks like us, are they? They want the masses who just plug and play. OK. No quarrel with that. I'm just glad we're not ALL forced to PnP and this site, we don't have to. I do think that adding Mods and rooting are the way to go, but I'm a Mac guy and everything here seems PCentric. so I may have to wait till I get my hands on a Win 7 machine for half an hour. (No, I don't run Parallels - had a bad experience with a couple of early versions).
I'm still a GS4G booster to date and I'm going to try new things with it. But so far it makes me wish it was more intuitive.
Cheers,
wmikemoon said:
Protective Measures: To provide a good experience for the majority of our customers and minimize capacity issues and degradation in network performance, we may take measures including temporarily reducing data throughput for a subset of customers who use a disproportionate amount of bandwidth. If your total usage exceeds 5GB (amount is subject to change without notice; please check T-Mobile’s T&Cs on www.T-Mobile.com for updates) during a billing cycle, we may reduce your data speed for the remainder of that billing cycle. If you use your Data Plan in a manner that could interfere with other customers’ service, affect our ability to allocate network capacity among customers, or degrade service quality for other customers, we may suspend, terminate, or restrict your data session, or switch you to a more appropriate Data Plan.
Copied from the Terms and Conditions which has a link on literally every single page on T-Mo's website and is clearly marked in the section titled "Data Plans and Other Features".
Alternatively, on Verizon's site...You can only get to the details about their data package after adding a voice plan and phone to your cart...at which point it gives a vague description of their throttling rules that do not mention exact amounts. It just says that it can throttle your speed whenever it feels like.
So again...not seeing a problem here...
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When I asked the TMO rep “This data plan has UNLIMITED DATA”? He said YES. He made no mention of the 5GB “LIMIT”. Therefore he misrepresented the product. These companies falsely advertise their products with misleading information to make it look bigger than life in an attempt to lock us in to a two year contract. You are saying that because they hide the gory details somewhere in their web pages that makes it OK. You speculate that the reason Alltel went out of business is because of over usage by their customers clogging their lines. I don’t know where you did your research but I never had any issues with service failure due to over usage or any other issues for that matter. You said “All carriers throttle”. I was never throttled ONCE by Alltel. I guess that may be true now, since the only decent service provider has been acquired by their Big Brother Corporations. If they were still in business I would still be there. Would it not be a novel Idea to invest in their network so they can handle the added throughput, and provide a robust network that gives us the service they promised us in their advertising? I don’t have any problem with paying for a product or service I want. I do have a problem with companies that lie or mislead about their product. TMO puts it out there in LARGE WORDS “UNLIMITED DATA” then hides the gory details in other places. Your attitude is that’s just fine with you. If more people would not take the BULL-onie that these Corporations are shoving down our throats and demand HONISTY in advertising we would be getting a better value for our money. You are dam right when you say I am rebelling to corporate standards. Corporations do not have our best interests in mind. They are only concerned about profit. If they can do away with competition, there is more profit for the higher-ups. Then you lose your job and the public looses their choice and gets less value. You choose to justify what these corporations are doing to our nation and put on blindfolds to the truth.
I gladly respect and give fosormic his right to his opinion. I just think that attitude promotes the passive nature that has allowed this country to go down the tubes and be taken over by greedy corporate money barons. People in this country have to have the Balls to stand up and be heard if this nation is to survive.
If you want to get worked up about something look into "'net neutrality" -- that's a cause worth fighting.
Yes, it is "easy" to hit a 5 GB cap. Yes, it is very clearly called out in the T&C of the phone -- You had 14 days in most states (30 days in California) to read that and get a full refund if you didn't agree.
The T-Mobile data service is arguably "unlimited" -- once you hit the cap, you are free to continue.
As speeds increase and more people have a phone capable of sustained and reliable rates over 1 Mbps, then you will see consumer pressure for higher caps. Until then, welcome to the bleeding edge...
Dude...you are getting way too bent over this.
You keep making T-mo out to be a terrible carrier...I'm just trying to convince you that they are the lesser of the evils.
nwpro3 said:
When I asked the TMO rep “This data plan has UNLIMITED DATA”? He said YES. He made no mention of the 5GB “LIMIT”. Therefore he misrepresented the product.
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No...he told the truth. It is unlimited data. The alternative to unlimited data is what Att does which is set a limit and then charge you when you go over that limit. It is (or should be at this point) common knowledge that if you have a mobile data plan that is unlimited...your carrier will throttle you if you use too much.
nwpro3 said:
You are saying that because they hide the gory details somewhere in their web pages that makes it OK. You speculate that the reason Alltel went out of business is because of over usage by their customers clogging their lines.
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Um...no and no. I'm saying that it's there for you to read in the place that you should read before committing to a two-year contract. We're not talking about fine print locked away in a website that can only be found by searching one specific term...It's the TERMS & CONDITIONS and there is LITERALLY A LINK ON EVERY SINGLE PAGE ON THEIR WEBSITE. They are not hiding it...I really don't see why you think they are. Also...I never speculated why Alltel went out of business...I don't know why and I don't really care. They are not around anymore and have not been for a while so there really is no point in talking about it.
nwpro3 said:
Would it not be a novel Idea to invest in their network so they can handle the added throughput, and provide a robust network that gives us the service they promised us in their advertising? I don’t have any problem with paying for a product or service I want. I do have a problem with companies that lie or mislead about their product. TMO puts it out there in LARGE WORDS “UNLIMITED DATA” then hides the gory details in other places.
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It's for MOBILE DATA. That's what the network is intended for...NOT HOME INTERNET. The service you want is HOME BROADBAND. If that's what you want...get that. They offer unlimited downloads and never throttle your speed because their service is intended to be used on a massive scale. What you are doing is like...Going to McDonalds and wondering why they aren't serving high class food. It's a restaurant...They serve food...gotta be the same as a 5-star restaurant...WHY AREN'T THEY SERVING 5-STAR FOOD!? Because you're looking in the wrong place, dude. If you want home internet...get home internet...stop expecting all of the carriers to conform to what you want when they are clearly just not set up for it.
Stop dissing T-mo...T-mo is the best carrier out there for what people on this site want from a carrier. Basically...they love nerds and are very very fair. Yes...the T-mo Customer Service people in store aren't the brightest people in the world...But it's because they are hired based on customer service experience not technology knowledge (Techknowledgy!? COINED IT!)...if they were A) I wouldn't be working on a Production Line making 8 an hour and B) Mobile phone customer service reps would know what the **** they were talking about.
Word?
@Whiskey Tango - Go to Menu>settings>Wireless Network>Mobile AP> Activate Mobile AP. This is what works for me, idk if maybe simple mobile is any different then tmobile or not.
So if you already have a data plan, you should be able to make your phone a "router". I have let many friends (w/iphones & att) use my mobile AP and it was 10 x's faster than there data connection.
I also tether my pc to my phone and have been able to load any page I went to.
Maybe I'm totally missing the question. Wouldn't be the first time.
wmikemoon said:
Dude...you are getting way too bent over this.
You keep making T-mo out to be a terrible carrier...I'm just trying to convince you that they are the lesser of the evils.
No...he told the truth. It is unlimited data. The alternative to unlimited data is what Att does which is set a limit and then charge you when you go over that limit. It is (or should be at this point) common knowledge that if you have a mobile data plan that is unlimited...your carrier will throttle you if you use too much.
Um...no and no. I'm saying that it's there for you to read in the place that you should read before committing to a two-year contract. We're not talking about fine print locked away in a website that can only be found by searching one specific term...It's the TERMS & CONDITIONS and there is LITERALLY A LINK ON EVERY SINGLE PAGE ON THEIR WEBSITE. They are not hiding it...I really don't see why you think they are. Also...I never speculated why Alltel went out of business...I don't know why and I don't really care. They are not around anymore and have not been for a while so there really is no point in talking about it.
It's for MOBILE DATA. That's what the network is intended for...NOT HOME INTERNET. The service you want is HOME BROADBAND. If that's what you want...get that. They offer unlimited downloads and never throttle your speed because their service is intended to be used on a massive scale. What you are doing is like...Going to McDonalds and wondering why they aren't serving high class food. It's a restaurant...They serve food...gotta be the same as a 5-star restaurant...WHY AREN'T THEY SERVING 5-STAR FOOD!? Because you're looking in the wrong place, dude. If you want home internet...get home internet...stop expecting all of the carriers to conform to what you want when they are clearly just not set up for it.
Stop dissing T-mo...T-mo is the best carrier out there for what people on this site want from a carrier. Basically...they love nerds and are very very fair. Yes...the T-mo Customer Service people in store aren't the brightest people in the world...But it's because they are hired based on customer service experience not technology knowledge (Techknowledgy!? COINED IT!)...if they were A) I wouldn't be working on a Production Line making 8 an hour and B) Mobile phone customer service reps would know what the **** they were talking about.
Word?
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I agree with the statement TMO is the lesser of two evils. I have had cell service with all the majors: Verizon, Sprint, Cingular/ATT, Alltel and now TMO. Unfortunately the only one that gave me decent service is no longer around. I went to TMO because they advertise unlimited data and when I talked to the rep he said they also have an unlimited voice plan. I am looking for the best value I can get. I’ve been around a long time and have watched this corporate mentality lower the standards of living for most Americans. Part of why this is happening is the passive nature of people in America. We have become complacent. We are not demanding enough on these companies that deceive us with their advertising and then don’t give us what they promise.
I am using this as my primary internet as I said because I drive truck and not home enough to warrant getting satellite service, which is my only other option where I live. Realistically when I am on the road I probably will not hit the 5GB limit very often. What sucks is while I am at home I get this lousy EDGE speed. After further checking, Sprint, ATT and Verizon all have 3G from the same tower that TMO gives me 2G and then TMO throttles that to 1G or less. So yes, I’m pissed off. But then I have taken action and voiced my concern to TMO. The result is I’ve been released from my contract. I have the option of going to another provider. The problem is I’m already with the lesser of the evils and next year there will be even less choice. I haven’t been out on the road yet to see what TMO will provide for service then. I will probably keep the service for a while until I see what kind of service I get on the road, and then decide my next move.
Hey guys, anybody else having problem once they activate the AP settings on there phone? I can get my computer to connect to the phone, and yet i can't get access to the internet on my laptop (vista).
I have never in my life dealt with such an incompetent company.
Here's what happened. I have been on the even more plus 1000 since November . I called today to see if they can upgrade my data from 5gb to 10gb. After 3 hours of her screwing around with my account I was told no and hung up. I instantly saw that I had no internet and call back to have them tell me I (yes I) disconnected it.
I informed them no you messed up and please restore my plan I had an hour ago. I am told that plan is no longer available and I would have to pay $20 more a month to have similar service that the CS deleted without my permission. While arguing the second it hit 2 am est they hung up on me and I heard a message that they are now closed for the night.
I have had it. I don't know what else to do besides cancel my service when they open back up tomorrow.
Any suggestions?
EDIT: I was asked for the whole story so here it is
I dialed 611 waited on hold for 47 minutes before the fist lady that answered who spoke no English tried to help me. You could immediately tell she was new but after 10-15 minutes of searching for the 10gb she said she found it and it would take a while to try and switch it to my account. I was put on hold for around 40 minutes and just watched a movie. When she came back she said I would have to buy a new phone, a new sim card and activate a 2 year plan and she would have to transfer me. I agreed as I just wanted to speak with someone else. She was nice enough to transfer me to the 800 number where I had to go through all the voice prompts again and was put on hold for 25 minutes. By now my first movie is over and I started the second.
Now the second rep picks up who speaks even less English, so I give her my contact info and demand a supervisor "none are available" so she tries to help me. I Explain I want 10gb of data on my current plan instead of 5gb. She responds that T-Mobile does not offer 10gb phone data plans and asks me If I would like to purchase a USB thumb drive that is capable of 10gb instead. (you could see where this is going) I again ask for a supervisor and told none are available. Every 5 minutes or so she would come back and say she found it and was switching me for an extra 20. Than she would come back and say it did switch . Ask for a super again, "still not available".
Now she comes back on and wants me to switch to a 2 year contract, I decline as I paid full price for my phone and the plans are cheaper this way. Then she asks if I would like to downgrade my data to 200mb on a cheaper plan. (i'm losing my patience by now) Ask for a super again but she informs me that she found the 10gb upgrade for my plan and it would be $60 more a month but they would credit $20 from my existing plan. I agree and wait and wait and she comes back and informs me that it did not work and there is nothing else she could do. We hang up
I check my phone see 4 bars and 4g g but have no network connect so I call back and speak with a gentleman who claims I broke my phone and would probably have to send it in for repair because everything in their system is fine. He tells me to turn the phone off, he zaps it and still nothing. I'm thinking maybe its the radio I flashed last week so let me see what I can fix so we hang up. (we did a bunch of tests but during our conversation)
I try the internet one last time and it brings me to T-mobiles site saying that I have no data plan so I call again and explain my situation to technical support. I am told that I disconnected my data plan, I simply said look at my bills since NOV I am just under 5gb a month, now look at the notes from the first call, the reason I called was to increase my data to 10 gb so don't tell me I called to disconnect my data. Every time I told him something he had to ask his super for help and how to fix this "but the super was working with 4 people and she couldn't speak with me." (By now I'm almost done watching my second movie) when he comes back on the phone asking if I would like the 200 mb plan as it's the only one they offer or go up to the 2 gb for $20 more a month. No go back to your super and tell her to restore my plan back to what it was 1 hour ago. He finally returns and says this is what we are going to do CLICK "T-mobiles offices are now closed please call us back tomorrow"
I wait to see if he will be kind enough to call me back and what they were going to do but they never did. I jump on XDA to vent and write this post. I go take the dog for a walk check the phone and no data. I reboot the phone and Wow my data is back and the throttle is removed. SO I log in to T Mobile to see what plan they could have put me on.
I know have 200 mb a month instead of 5gb but the rate plan was kept the same price. They really screwed me on this one. I hope that was a little more complete and I tried not to leave anything out.
Try again for a different Rep tomorrow. I wish you luck lol.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
That's definitely not right at all. I can suggest a couple thing.
- Contact them on Twitter, try tweeting them or sending them a DM. They are VERY helpful with customers on Twitter.
- Call during mid afternoon, I find that I always seem to get younger people who always wanna just help me out, I always get fees waived off by calling during that time.
I've always gotten A+ customer service with them, just unfortunate that you had to get the bad couple out of the bunch. But keep trying, don't ever hesitate to keep trying. I know they'll work it out with you.
Good luck man.
Best thing to do is to call and say you are cancelling your account or ask for customer retention... they have a lot more pleasant demeanor because that's the way they are trained.
Coppo said:
I have never in my life dealt with such an incompetent company.
Here's what happened. I have been on the even more plus 1000 since November . I called today to see if they can upgrade my data from 5gb to 10gb. After 3 hours of her screwing around with my account I was told no and hung up. I instantly saw that I had no internet and call back to have them tell me I (yes I) disconnected it.
I informed them no you messed up and please restore my plan I had an hour ago. I am told that plan is no longer available and I would have to pay $20 more a month to have similar service that the CS deleted without my permission. While arguing the second it hit 2 am est they hung up on me and I heard a message that they are now closed for the night.
I have had it. I don't know what else to do besides cancel my service when they open back up tomorrow.
Any suggestions?
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Click to collapse
I feel like you are only telling us half teh full story
ionic7 said:
I feel like you are only telling us half teh full story
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You are right there is more I added it to the OP
This is what life will be like when the ATT takeover is complete. Go to fcc.gov and give your feedback with the online comment filing system. Issue 11-65.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA Premium App
Retentions is the only department with any power. Just say "cancel" at the first prompt and then tell them you are a long time customer and want your plan back.
el_smurfo said:
Retentions is the only department with any power. Just say "cancel" at the first prompt and then tell them you are a long time customer and want your plan back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
/\ do that
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
Retentions can't add the 10GB data plan to an existing plan. If you're on the Even More plus plan then you can't switch to one of the different data plans. There are a couple of things that I know can't be right.
First, a rep would never put you on hold for 40minutes and come back on. There are call resolution time requirements and a supervisor would never allow a long hold to kill their time. Their job is based on how fast you can get the call finished and no rep would allow that long of a call. No rep would take the chance of losing their job because of one person, just to put them on hold and twiddle their fingers.
Second, even if they remove the data plan you can still access the internet. It gets charged $1.99 per MB instead. You're phone doesn't "brings me to T-mobiles site saying that I have no data plan". You still can access without a plan in place. What you stated never happens.
Third, there is no 10GB plan for the Even More Plus plans. They can't offer what isn't available. It's only available for the new contract plans.
Fourth, you don't send your phone in for repair. They do a warranty exchange, which means they send a phone to you.
Fifth, you're rate plan price(even more plus TTW) would not have stayed the same, even if they were to switch you to the 200MB.
I'm sure you had a bad experience but I'm sure there's some embellishment. It would have taken me 2 minutes to give you the information that you are stuck at your current data plan and that if you want the new data plans that you have to sign a contract and switch to one of the new plans.
el_smurfo said:
tell them you are a long time customer and want your plan back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dropping the "I've been a customer for [blank] years" does the opposite effect. The rep can see what your tenure is without you throwing in their face and dropping that card will make more difficult to get what you want. I know from personal experience and talking to the retention people.
It sounds like you are calling me a lier. Thats OK
"Retentions can't add the 10GB data plan to an existing plan. If you're on the Even More plus plan then you can't switch to one of the different data plans. There are a couple of things that I know can't be right. "
I didn't call retention I called customer service and asked them if it was possible , two reps said it was , tried and failed removing my data plan somehow.
"First, a rep would never put you on hold for 40minutes and come back on. There are call resolution time requirements and a supervisor would never allow a long hold to kill their time. Their job is based on how fast you can get the call finished and no rep would allow that long of a call. No rep would take the chance of losing their job because of one person, just to put them on hold and twiddle their fingers."
She would check in and say "sorry for the hold it will just be a little longer" every so often. So technically not a complete hold but it was still a 40 minute window. When I get home I will take a picture of my call log to show one 2hour 45 minute call followed by a 30 minute call and 1 hour call. The next morning Another 45 minute call.
"Second, even if they remove the data plan you can still access the internet. It gets charged $1.99 per MB instead. You're phone doesn't "brings me to T-mobiles site saying that I have no data plan". You still can access without a plan in place. What you stated never happens."
This is where you are 100% wrong. While I still had the 4G symbol if I ran I ping test I would get "failed" "I have a screen shot of this showing all the other errors I don't feel like typing out" however if I went to the browser it would redirect me to this site "http://u.web2go.com/upsell/options.do?url=http://www.google.com/m?source=android-home&fteFlag=false&ppmbFlag=false&source=upsellredirect||nonppmb"
I just tried it on my phone and it still brings me back to the same "change your data plan". Try it on your phone it may or may not work.
"Third, there is no 10GB plan for the Even More Plus plans. They can't offer what isn't available. It's only available for the new contract plans."
I didn't know this that is why I called and asked. For them to "offer" it, that would mean they would have called me and and said "would you like 10gb." That didn't happen. So there was no offer as you state.
"Fourth, you don't send your phone in for repair. They do a warranty exchange, which means they send a phone to you. "
I know this, that is what he said. Could you imagine if every time someones phone broke how long they would be sitting around waiting for a repair to come back. Next time I will record the phone call so have proof.
"Fifth, you're rate plan price(even more plus TTW) would not have stayed the same, even if they were to switch you to the 200MB."
They only removed my data. The only data plan available for the 1000 minute unlimited text is 200mb. Removing my data actually lowered my bill $20. The 200 mb plan was $20 which kept it the same. At least thats they way It was explained to me.
"I'm sure you had a bad experience but I'm sure there's some embellishment. It would have taken me 2 minutes to give you the information that you are stuck at your current data plan and that if you want the new data plans that you have to sign a contract and switch to one of the new plans."
There is no embellishment. I am a very patient person and I know calling them takes forever which is why I put the phone on speaker and watched movies during hold times. I called to ask a simple question of can you upgrade my data while staying on the same plan. Besides declining everything they offered like "USB data plans" and "new phones to make this work" and asking for a supervisor, I don't think I really spoke. I know I just ended up with people on the other end of the phone that had no idea what they are speaking about. Maybe they were new? It happens.
Edit: Retention was able to restore my plan.
kalel33 said:
Dropping the "I've been a customer for [blank] years" does the opposite effect. The rep can see what your tenure is without you throwing in their face and dropping that card will make more difficult to get what you want. I know from personal experience and talking to the retention people.
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Click to collapse
It's customer service, service the customer. Someone yelling or cursing or just being rude I understand, but we can't see your systems and don't care to assume when it comes to our hard earned money. If "I've been a customer for [] years" makes you a bitter and spiteful customer service rep, then you need a new job.
darinmc said:
It's customer service, service the customer. Someone yelling or cursing or just being rude I understand, but we can't see your systems and don't care to assume when it comes to our hard earned money. If "I've been a customer for [] years" makes you a bitter and spiteful customer service rep, then you need a new job.
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You have it wrong. Your tenure is shown on the first page and doesn't need to be stated. I'm trying to give you some help. If you drop the loyalty card it'll backfire on you and it's not just me but most/all reps. If you want to keep doing it your way and throwing it in reps face then that's fine. I'm just telling you what doesn't work. If you're bitter and spiteful about it then you need to find someone else to call in for you.
kalel33 said:
You have it wrong. Your tenure is shown on the first page and doesn't need to be stated. I'm trying to give you some help. If you drop the loyalty card it'll backfire on you and it's not just me but most/all reps. If you want to keep doing it your way and throwing it in reps face then that's fine. I'm just telling you what doesn't work. If you're bitter and spiteful about it then you need to find someone else to call in for you.
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...you completely missed my point. I don't need help, and I don't EVER call any customer service angry. I happen to work in a customer service industry and so I understand where you are coming from, but I disagree with the attitude you claim is shared by those you work with.
Thing is, you have a job because these people pay for a service, and you are supposed to support them. It's the attitude that "the customer shouldn't say this or needs to understand [something only an employee could actually know] which ends up turning T-Mo into AT&T. I mean of all the horrible and insulting things I'm sure you guys hear every day, a customer stating his tenure really offends you? Really? It's a valid argument, whether it's on page 1 or not. The retention department exists because those people have been a customer for [] years, to take offense and actually alter your willingness to help and support them is petty and childish. If they yell and scream at you I get it (but even then it's the tone and volume that are offensive, not the words), I just don't understand why you and your co-workers are taking a stand against something so trite.
The reps aren't taking a stand. There is a right and wrong way to get what you want. It's psychology at it's finest and dropping the "loyalty" card does you no favors and actually can make it harder to get what you want. This isn't because of the AT&T, it's the way it's always been. You use the tactics that work to get the best outcome. I'm just giving you the information to get the best outcome. The people who drop the loyalty card always do it in a snide/privileged manner and doesn't do them any good. These customer usually are the one's that call retention often, and it shows in their records how much they've called. Retention should only be used for dire situations where you're looking at leaving. If you're using it every so often then it shows in the system and can look like the person cries wolf often to try to get what they want.
I've never heard anyone drop the loyalty card without it being snide or coming off as them trying to be superior to all other customers. You'll get the card dropped from someone who's only been a customer for less than 4 years, which is pretty short compared to most of the longtime customers. I was with them for 9 years before working there and I too, never called for retention. If I wasn't happy, I would have left for another carrier.
kalel33 said:
The reps aren't taking a stand. There is a right and wrong way to get what you want. It's psychology at it's finest and dropping the "loyalty" card does you no favors and actually can make it harder to get what you want. This isn't because of the AT&T, it's the way it's always been. You use the tactics that work to get the best outcome. I'm just giving you the information to get the best outcome. The people who drop the loyalty card always do it in a snide/privileged manner and doesn't do them any good. These customer usually are the one's that call retention often, and it shows in their records how much they've called. Retention should only be used for dire situations where you're looking at leaving. If you're using it every so often then it shows in the system and can look like the person cries wolf often to try to get what they want.
I've never heard anyone drop the loyalty card without it being snide or coming off as them trying to be superior to all other customers. You'll get the card dropped from someone who's only been a customer for less than 4 years, which is pretty short compared to most of the longtime customers. I was with them for 9 years before working there and I too, never called for retention. If I wasn't happy, I would have left for another carrier.
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Click to collapse
I've been in customer service a long time as well and if I state my tenure I'm just telling the Rep how I feel.
If a customer tells me they've been with my company a long time I thank them and ask questions to understand why they aren't feeling valued.
You should worry more about the psychology of how you treat the customer than the other way around because you can only control your own behavior.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA Premium App
kalel33 said:
The reps aren't taking a stand. There is a right and wrong way to get what you want. It's psychology at it's finest and dropping the "loyalty" card does you no favors and actually can make it harder to get what you want. This isn't because of the AT&T, it's the way it's always been. You use the tactics that work to get the best outcome. I'm just giving you the information to get the best outcome. The people who drop the loyalty card always do it in a snide/privileged manner and doesn't do them any good. These customer usually are the one's that call retention often, and it shows in their records how much they've called. Retention should only be used for dire situations where you're looking at leaving. If you're using it every so often then it shows in the system and can look like the person cries wolf often to try to get what they want.
I've never heard anyone drop the loyalty card without it being snide or coming off as them trying to be superior to all other customers. You'll get the card dropped from someone who's only been a customer for less than 4 years, which is pretty short compared to most of the longtime customers. I was with them for 9 years before working there and I too, never called for retention. If I wasn't happy, I would have left for another carrier.
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Click to collapse
Calling in to speak with someone in retention in any company is fine imo, why should i have to pay more or get less for something when the company is willing to show me that loyalty does pay with them.
And to address the issue that a customers history with the company shouldnt be important is preposterous. I think someone who has been around with the company is more important than a new customer unless the customer in question is a dirtbag and always missing/skipping paying. You also must consider the money this customer generates for the company, if a new customer is bringing more money, then they should be treated well so they can be converted into a long time customer.
just call a few times...this is what i did when i had to switch my plan. Some guy let me switch from even more+ to even more (they clearly advertise that you cannot), gave me a 5 dollar discount per month on each one of my lines that have data and a 5 dollar discount a month on messaging for the whole family.
it just really depends on who you talk to.
some advice: when you call 611, tell the computer (and only the computer, not a rep), that you want to cancel. this way you will reach the customer loyalty dept that has a lot more power than the normal customer service. they should be able to fix everything as they can offer plans that they no longer advertise (and plans that the normal customer service cannot give)
VibrantOwnr said:
just call a few times...this is what i did when i had to switch my plan. Some guy let me switch from even more+ to even more (they clearly advertise that you cannot),
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A regular rep has been able to change people from EM+ to EM plans for months. It doesn't take a retention rep.
Say all you want about how you feel about retention and dropping the loyalty card to a rep....doesn't matter to me what you do. I was just giving you some advice. I don't care if you take the advice or not, just trying to help out the XDA community in general. The reps can see your tenure right when you call in, doesn't matter if you tell it to them or not, they already know. Also, most of the people that drop the card add a 2-3 years on their tenure thinking that the rep doesn't have it in front of them and thinks by padding the time will give them a better chance.
Also eqjunkie829, I never said the tenure of a customer is not important. Quit trying to make it into something it's not, but the amount of money you spend does factor quite a bit. A person with 2 years loyalty might get a better deal than someone who has 6 years loyalty, if the person with 2 years has paid more to the company than the person with 6 years. Also, adjustment history, call in history, and payment history are almost as important.
By the way Phateless, I do care of the psychology of how I treat customers. That's why I have an extremely high score in customer surveys. Like I said, take my advice or don't.....don't really care. Just giving some helpful information that is not up for debate.
http://www.droid-life.com/2011/06/2...-verizon-july-7-packages-start-at-30-for-2gb/
zax10 said:
http://www.droid-life.com/2011/06/2...-verizon-july-7-packages-start-at-30-for-2gb/
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Data plans:
2GB – $30/month
5GB – $50/month
10GB – $80/month
God...so effing ridiculous. :/
I work for Verizon and the referenced post on Droid-life is confirmed. This is by far the most ridicolous thing I have had to deal with (well other than the 4g outages).... AT&T are you hiring???
zax10 said:
I work for Verizon and the referenced post on Droid-life is confirmed. This is by far the most ridicolous thing I have had to deal with (well other than the 4g outages).... AT&T are you hiring???
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AT&T prices are just $5 less, and they don't have LTE.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
DirgeExtinction said:
AT&T prices are just $5 less, and they don't have LTE.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
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Agreed.... To this day I don't understand the uproar. It is no different then AT&T really and they have had tiered for a yr now almost. IE VZW & AT&T have the same pricing across the board with $5 of each other. I guess my thing is everyone talks about leaving VZW over this but where are you going to go and save that much money really. T-Mobile limits full data speed after 2Gb anyways. Sprint has terrible coverage on a whole. And hell they were stupid and went WiMax so what go is that going to do you over the long haul.
And I'm not going to even go into the fact TM and AT&T scam with there claiming of 4g service
I just signed up with Verizon for a two year plan. I should receive my Droid Charge later today. Naturally, I will activate the phone the moment I get it. So, how does the new pricing rules affect me? Will I have unlimited data at $30 for the next two years, or on July 7th will I have to suffer with the crazy tier pricing?
-Greymarch
I write about technology, especially android smartphones, at my website.
http://www.greymarch.com
According to the article I read on engadget, "These new plans wouldn't affect anyone currently under contract, though it's still unknown if customers can hang onto them when it's time to renew."
http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/20/verizon-tiered-data-plans-coming-july-7-starting-at-30/
I've always thought it was lame to force people into tiered data plans, regardless of the provider. This is going to place the providers in a wonderfully profitable position once we start getting applications that can truly start utilizing increased bandwidth, but it's going to cost a fortune for us to use those applications. So I understand why they're doing it, but I think it's messed up to charge that much from a user's perspective.
I think having tiered pricing for your low-need subscribers is great, so they have the option of not paying for full-on data, but having an unlimited choice for high-need subscribers is necessary to me.
$30/mth for 2GB is kind of mind-boggling to me. I got in on the unlimited for $30 plan, but I'll be none too happy when I have to switch over.
I called verizon and they said this only affects the tablets
If this causes them to ditch the MS Exchange data surcharge, then I am all for it.
greymarch said:
I just signed up with Verizon for a two year plan. I should receive my Droid Charge later today. Naturally, I will activate the phone the moment I get it. So, how does the new pricing rules affect me? Will I have unlimited data at $30 for the next two years, or on July 7th will I have to suffer with the crazy tier pricing?
-Greymarch
I write about technology, especially android smartphones, at my website.
http://www.greymarch.com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you are find as long as you do not change your current plan. As an example until a couple of weeks ago when I upgraded to my Charge I had not bought a device threw VZW since 2005. That said for the past 4 years at least I have been using a smartphone on my line with the old school unlimited vPak. Mind you this included using my D1, D2, D2g, Driod Pro, Droid X, and Napoleon on the same account/line. The key is I never bought threw VZW I just left the line/account as it and swapped my phones out.
well I am just glad I got my phone before this happened...I worry though that at some point they will make us change....I know they are reporting they wont but I feel like they will do it anyways just to make that extra money
brandonaspencer said:
I called verizon and they said this only affects the tablets
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Click to collapse
What the hell? Really?
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
zax10 said:
I work for Verizon and the referenced post on Droid-life is confirmed. This is by far the most ridicolous thing I have had to deal with (well other than the 4g outages).... AT&T are you hiring???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Trust me as a former employee of that company (worked there for 6 years) I left because their business practices are crud. They treat you like crud, don't care about the their employees and have very questionable ethics. Think twice about asking that question
brandonaspencer said:
I called verizon and they said this only affects the tablets
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Lol I work in a call center for Verizon Tech Support and you really cant trust much that you hear from them. I've heard reps telling customers information that is totally wrong(not on purpose) around me before. like someone telling you its just for tablets cause they probably don't even know what your talking about with tiered data coming soon and just told you about our current data plans for tablets to get you off the phone. We don't hear about stuff until you do. So you usually have just as much training as we have.
woohoo! lets hear it for being "grandfathered in" !!!!! unlimited all the way. and if they think they can make me change it and pay 80 bucks for 10gbs, im gonna put a brick through their store window with a big **** your tiered **** sticker on it mwahahahahahahaaaaaaa
Well you may be grandfathered in for unlimited data, but if you signed up after Feb 2011 Verizon reserves the right to throttle your speed once you go over a certain amount much like Tmobile does now once you go over 2gb.
I have read scattered reports of Verizon throttling back heavy uses between 5gb - 9gb, but to date I don't think they are implementing this that much until they get the 4g network a bit more stable and they implement the tiered pricing.
I would expect in a couple more months they will be enforcing throttling to a much greater extent. Below is a article from CNET explaining the change.
Verizon Wireless will begin throttling the data speeds of customers who use an "extraordinary amount" of data, according to a document posted on the company's Web site.
First reported by BGR.com, the PDF on the Verizon site says the new rules will not affect the majority of the company's customers. However, if you are a heavy data user, you should be aware that your speeds will drop.
"If you use an extraordinary amount of data and fall within the top 5 percent of Verizon Wireless data users we may reduce your data throughput speeds periodically for the remainder of your then current and immediately following billing cycle to ensure high quality network performance for other users at locations and times of peak demand," states the document.
Verizon said it is taking the steps "to ensure that the remaining 95% of data customers aren't negatively affected by the inordinate data consumption of just a few users."
The company doesn't say how much data constitutes an "extraordinary amount," only that the new rules will affect the top 5 percent. Theoretically, that means you could be affected one month, but not the next even though you consume the same amount of data.
hrdc69 said:
Well you may be grandfathered in for unlimited data, but if you signed up after Feb 2011 Verizon reserves the right to throttle your speed once you go over a certain amount much like Tmobile does now once you go over 2gb.
I have read scattered reports of Verizon throttling back heavy uses between 5gb - 9gb, but to date I don't think they are implementing this that much until they get the 4g network a bit more stable and they implement the tiered pricing.
I would expect in a couple more months they will be enforcing throttling to a much greater extent. Below is a article from CNET explaining the change.
Verizon Wireless will begin throttling the data speeds of customers who use an "extraordinary amount" of data, according to a document posted on the company's Web site.
First reported by BGR.com, the PDF on the Verizon site says the new rules will not affect the majority of the company's customers. However, if you are a heavy data user, you should be aware that your speeds will drop.
"If you use an extraordinary amount of data and fall within the top 5 percent of Verizon Wireless data users we may reduce your data throughput speeds periodically for the remainder of your then current and immediately following billing cycle to ensure high quality network performance for other users at locations and times of peak demand," states the document.
Verizon said it is taking the steps "to ensure that the remaining 95% of data customers aren't negatively affected by the inordinate data consumption of just a few users."
The company doesn't say how much data constitutes an "extraordinary amount," only that the new rules will affect the top 5 percent. Theoretically, that means you could be affected one month, but not the next even though you consume the same amount of data.
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Click to collapse
Here are the numbers of how they base the choices on throttling. So unless you are using over 15Gb a month it is highly highly unlikely you'd ever get throttled.
1] 2gb+ average user
2] 7gb-15gb travel user
3] 15gb+ heavy user [monitored by vzw]
4] 20gb+ excessive user [monitored by vzw fraud]
I use 10+gb a month
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA Premium App
Tiered will kill me
I went through 1 GB yesterday using my Charge as a hotspot to run my computer playing DC Universe Online and doing my normal computer stuff all day.
EDIT:
AT&T's method of tethering detection has been settled.
AdamOutler said:
AT&T is monitoring the data traffic for the browser identification string.
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You can easily change your browser identification string by following this:
infernus1986 said:
Firefox has a plugin to change browser string, user agent switcher
You can add custom strings to mimic the phones browser
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Click to collapse
sfernandez said:
download USER AGENT SWITCHER add edit, add new then use this
"Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Andriod 2.3.4; en-US; SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 Build/GINGERBREAD) AppleWebKit/533.1(KHTML, like Gecko)Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1"
If you want to use Chrome Just right click then properties and and on TARGET right after chrome.exe paste this --user-agent="Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Andriod 2.3.4; en-US; SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 Build/GINGERBREAD) AppleWebKit/533.1(KHTML, like Gecko)Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1"
AND if you tether this will make your browser look like a captivate
infernus1986 said:
http://whatsmyuseragent.com/
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Use this and you will see it works
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Original Post:
So, I called AT&T about an hour ago to get my rate plan adjusted, they had some information on "usage patterns"
The AT&T rep told me that the system within the last 2 months had detected tethering. Basically read to me which part of the contract I was violating and that if I continued using it, they would remove my unlimited data plan (which I am grandfathered in) and place me in the 4gb tethering package (or something of that nature). He said AT&T is going to be sending out text messages to those who have been tethering starting tomorrow and will receive documentation in their bill about it.
I had been tethering through a MIUI rom, not that it seems to matter what method tethering occurred through.
The AT&T rep was even able to tell me that I had been tethering a 'laptop', not that that information is valid or backed up by AT&T data. I'm not sure how they would know that I was tethering a laptop (which is not the only thing that I had tethered in the last 2 months) or any other device, but by the way he told me the information, it sounded as if AT&T can tell what type of device I tethered too. I used to think it was impossible to tell, but I don't know.
Plus, I haven't gone over 2gbs in at least 4 months, tethering or not, so its not even like I am an abusive customer (even though in the past I have racked up 7gb)
I hope you didn't admit to anything. You should have called their bluff.
I said I hadn't. Ever.
And then the guy on the phone said, "well it says here that you have tethered your laptop."
I then said how I have an older phone, Samsung Eternity, that came packaged with tethering software, which it did and AT&T at the time encouraged me to use freely, might be causing tethering, but that I had never done it before.
He called my bluff. I don't want my unlimited data taken away.. so yeah.
I got a text message today concerning high usage data patterns. I wonder if anything has changed.
The problem is that their greed will pave the way for the little guy they are trying to monopolize with tmobile buyout so i think alot of people are sick of att and how they charge for anything im not suprisrd
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
I've been tethering my touchpad with my captivate since I got it. Haven't heard anything from AT&T yet, once I connect my laptop I bet that will change. I think a way around this will connecting to a VPN on the phone then tethering through the VPN. Is the possible? should stop att from inspecting the packets.
I would have said "What is tethering? I don't own a laptop. How dare you make these accusations? What is your name and let me speak to your supervisor immediately." Etc. And then tell the supervisor the guy is making ridiculous accusations. Tell them they are bordering on defamation making these claims and you make have to take legal action if they don't cease and desist.
you people who got the txt how much data do you normaly use ? i tether almost daily but i have not gotten a txt ...
---------- Post added 20th September 2011 at 12:01 AM ---------- Previous post was 19th September 2011 at 11:58 PM ----------
nh5 said:
I've been tethering my touchpad with my captivate since I got it. Haven't heard anything from AT&T yet, once I connect my laptop I bet that will change. I think a way around this will connecting to a VPN on the phone then tethering through the VPN. Is the possible? should stop att from inspecting the packets.
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If they are packet inpecting we got a lawsuit coming ... not for me but for "other" reasons .. I think ATT is blowing smoke frankly .
There was actually an article about this on Phone Arena a few months back that I read but at the time they were only doing it to iPhone users.
It would be helpful for OP and those who got notice from AT&T post your average monthly data usage. Otherwise, I'd say it is pure BS.
Mine wasn't anything too serious, they just let me know that I was in the top 5% of data users and that next month they will be throttling me if I go that high again.
I agree. Because I use a lot. Sometimes 7 gigs
foxbat121 said:
It would be helpful for OP and those who got notice from AT&T post your average monthly data usage. Otherwise, I'd say it is pure BS.
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Sent from my unbrickable cappy *bam*
7 gigs isnt alot some people do 50 gigs once i called custumer support couz my phone broke and he was like i see high data usesage 2.3 gigs and i told him i use cloudmedia for movies and pandora so he shut up. Couz they think if u use a lot of data u tether. Also if u want to be a **** just tell then i got cable and its a lot faster then ur connection. He should get the point
PS. I assume all the people who got the text are unlimited users if so at&t trying to make a switch for u because they want more money.
Sent from my CM7 Motorola Atrix 4G
Double post srry
BenKranged said:
I would have said "What is tethering? I don't own a laptop. How dare you make these accusations? What is your name and let me speak to your supervisor immediately." Etc. And then tell the supervisor the guy is making ridiculous accusations. Tell them they are bordering on defamation making these claims and you make have to take legal action if they don't cease and desist.
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Good post!
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA Premium App
BenKranged said:
I would have said "What is tethering? I don't own a laptop. How dare you make these accusations? What is your name and let me speak to your supervisor immediately." Etc. And then tell the supervisor the guy is making ridiculous accusations. Tell them they are bordering on defamation making these claims and you make have to take legal action if they don't cease and desist.
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The problem with this line of approach is that AT&T customer service reps are required by company policy that any time you mention taking legal action against them to transfer you to their legal department and have you immediately begin dealing with them. Had a friend who was a customer service rep for AT&T (and Cingular before it), and he sent many a people to legal for doing things like what you mention here. AT&T have some nasty lawyers so dealing with them is not something that should be high on your list.
Here's the run down of my data usage.
Averages for months
15 months: < 2.5gb/month (as far back as AT&T lets me see other than 1 month that I had 0kb for some reason)
10 months: 3.02gb/month
5 months: 1.68gb/month
3 months: 1.8gb/month
2 months: 2.3gb/month (this is for Aug-Sept)
1.95gb/month (this is for July-Aug)
The rep had said "based on the the last couple of months"; assuming couple is 2, those are the months AT&T is looking at for tethering. Those are mighty low averages imo.
Peak at 7.2gb per month, low of .1gb, normal low is .8gb.
And although its not on the chart, for my billing cycle in September, I used 1.5gb
http://i51.tinypic.com/3178aon.png
Honestly to tell AT&T I have never tethered is a bold faced lie. Back on Cingular, I was encouraged to tether, and I did often. I had a Sony Ericsson T616 and I would tether over its blutooth connection to my laptop. I had the 20$ unlimited data plan and tethered to watch streaming footage of Hurricane Katrina back in 2005. I eventually dropped unlimited data (which seemed too pricey, wish I had kept it). I got back on Unlimited data but for feature phones and tethered on those devices as well on AT&T from 2007-2009. AT&T provided software for it. I bet I can find it too. Also, my Samsung Eternity came prepackaged with tethering software, that was in 2009. And honestly, I never even surpassed 2gb until I got my Captivate.
I guess my stance is, if they didn't want me tethering, why include it in phone bundles, and why target me now? I wouldn't say that an average of less than 2.5gb a month is 'abusive' or causing significant strain. I guess its all pointless to argue anyway, it is what it is.
They must be packet sniffing... and I like the VPN idea, but you won't catch me trying it until some brave bastard does first. 30$ for data, restricted 'unlimited'-nontethering data, is fine with me.
Yeah I wouldn't actually follow up on the legal action. If they still wouldn't back down I would probably just change carriers. Though they are all the same for most intents and purposes. Maybe telling them you want to cancel your account because you don't like being accused of things when you are the paying customer would be a better approach. Have them transfer you to retention.
I just meant take the same approach to tethering as flashing roms. If they ask you about it just say "what does that mean?" and act like you don't understand technology at all.
mymansionisabox said:
Honestly to tell AT&T I have never tethered is a bold faced lie
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So is selling unlimited data that isn't unlimited.
I'm pretty sure anytime your data usage near or over 2GB mark, you're on the top 5% as majority of the smartphone users are probably on 2GB limited plan and spent no where near 2GB/mo. I'm a pretty heavy data user but I don't stream anything. My average is 350 to 500 MB/m and highest I've ever used is 1.5GB/mo that is because I streamed couple Netflix movies on a long trip.
If you're on top 5%, you'd bet AT&T will try anything possible to determine what you are doing using so much data.
Guys it is really not that hard for them to find out what is using the connection. Not only can you see a mac address from the device using the connection but the data traffic is different. We all knew this was gonna happen, and now that it has we will all have to live with it.
Does anyone here knows exactly if there is some sort of limitation that would prevent this phone from getting 4G speeds on mysimplemobile.com (T-Mobile MVNO)?
I have been able to get 4G speeds on their network for almost 2 months, and then it switched to 3G speeds (~240kbps for downloads). I asked the tech support wtf is happening, and the guy came up with some bull###t explanation, why my phone cannot possibly run 4G. I do not have a feeling he knows what he's talking about because when I kept asking him what standard must the phone support for 4G speeds, he kept saying "it must run 4G on 1700 band". After I kept pressuring him, he said "HSDPA+ 1700".
He also mentioned that people are getting 4G speeds on their network with iPhones from AT&T, until the "system recognizes" and then they somehow down to EDGE. It makes no sense to me whatsoever, how could a phone that doesn't support frequency on which network is running could run 4G at all, like, EVER.
Does anybody here know about the intricacies of the 4G networking to tell:
* if Samsung Galaxy S 4G does indeed support 4G on whatever belongs to mysimplemobile?
* is there even such thing as HSDPA+ 1700MHz, and does SGS4G support this?
* is it possible that a phone legitimately runs at 4G speeds for months, and then out of sudden stops doing it without any foul play from operator?
* is it possible that the phone runs 4G on a network that does not even support their band (like this iPhone thing)
Here's a quote from the tech support email:
Thank you for your interest Simple Mobile. We are responding to your
recent inquiry.
We were able to speak with you on October 28, 2012 (9:25 PM EST) at
*********. You were informed that the reason that your data speed
runs only with 3G is because your phone is not a supported handset for
4G speeds.
We understand that you were able to use the 4G speed these past few
months. You were informed that this case is similar with our iPhone
users. During activation, the network does not know the phone model the
SIM card is inserted into. The network sends data throughput through
multiple frequencies in order to determine the frequency the handset is
running into. Once the network realizes that the handset does not work
with 1700 MHz bands, it sends the appropriate data speed which is 2G.
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Does that explanation make sense?
Your phone wouldn't just stop getting 4g it would have never got it in the first place. If the phone supports what band the company uses for 4g then you get 4g if it does not the you will not.
The guy is an idiot about the iphone thing. It would be like setting your walky-talky to channel 5 and trying to talk to someone on channel 3. The bands either match or they don't.
My unicorn died, back on the pony.
vopezy said:
Your phone wouldn't just stop getting 4g it would have never got it in the first place. If the phone supports what band the company uses for 4g then you get 4g if it does not the you will not.
The guy is an idiot about the iphone thing. It would be like setting your walky-talky to channel 5 and trying to talk to someone on channel 3. The bands either match or they don't.
My unicorn died, back on the pony.
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I will wait a couple days for the next billing cycle, and if this theory is right, I will see 4G speeds back again. If I do, those SimpleMobile folks are sneaky a**holes. Not only they lie about their plan being "unlimited", they also have technical support lie about the phone/network capabilities in a manner that assumes their customers are dumb. This is wrong on so many levels....
Put this code in your dialpad *#2263#
Then you can browse and select the bands your phone supports
Sent from my SGH-T959V using Tapatalk 2
Simple mobile throttles you before you hit the 2gig mark. Yeap. It blows. It will reset on billing cycle. Text info to 848484 to see your usage and reset date.
champ1919 said:
Simple mobile throttles you before you hit the 2gig mark. Yeap. It blows. It will reset on billing cycle. Text info to 848484 to see your usage and reset date.
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That's what I thought. Thanks for confirming this for me.
How do they get away with it? They advertise unlimited everything, and then throttle? And not only throttle, but disable data completely after 3GB or 2.5GB, according to this: http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1773841-How-Much-Data-on-the-50-Plan
How come nobody sued their ass for doing it, isn't such blatant false advertisement a ground for class action?
galets said:
That's what I thought. Thanks for confirming this for me.
How do they get away with it? They advertise unlimited everything, and then throttle?
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Throttle slows down but if you can still download, you are still unlimited, so they are not in breach and are still offering you unlimited.
Also read things like Section 25-2, and others http://www.mysimplemobile.com/Simple-Mobile-Terms-Conditions.aspx it's clearly there, so you agreed to that, so there is nothing you can do. You can't tether, you can't P2P, you can surf webpages basically or you might get throttled.
When I first got suspended, the telephone rep I got to speak to, told me that Pandora was a breach of contract even. Maybe next month, instead of dropping the prices, they will up the data. Wishful thinking, but, doubtful.
champ1919 said:
When I first got suspended, the telephone rep I got to speak to, told me that Pandora was a breach of contract even. Maybe next month, instead of dropping the prices, they will up the data. Wishful thinking, but, doubtful.
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It is outrageous... I wrote a blog post why nobody should sign up with them. Please share around. Hopefully, at least a couple of poor souls would avoid this mess. http://blog.galets.net/2012/11/why-you-should-stay-away-from.html
getochkn said:
Throttle slows down but if you can still download, you are still unlimited, so they are not in breach and are still offering you unlimited.
Also read things like Section 25-2, and others http://www.mysimplemobile.com/Simple-Mobile-Terms-Conditions.aspx it's clearly there, so you agreed to that, so there is nothing you can do. You can't tether, you can't P2P, you can surf webpages basically or you might get throttled.
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champ1919 said:
When I first got suspended, the telephone rep I got to speak to, told me that Pandora was a breach of contract even. Maybe next month, instead of dropping the prices, they will up the data. Wishful thinking, but, doubtful.
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They just sent me a warning, "your data service at risk of being suspended due to violation of TOC, blablabla. call 1-800-xxxxxxx".
So, I called 1-800 number. Nobody there to talk to me, but the voice annotation says, like getochkn says, "if you're here, we've warned you, you agreed to our toc, we can disconnect you anytime we'd like, if you don't like that - f### off"
This made me quite confused, because I only used like 340Mb of "unlimited" data plan. Last month, when I used 2.5Gb, they didn't mind.
So I called tech support, trying to get an idea, what is it exactly that they don't want me to do. The guy started telling me all sorts of bologne, like we don't allow tethering, do you tether? I said "no". He said "do you have facebook?". I said "yes, what does it have to do with anything?". "WHEN YOU LEAVE FACEBOOK RUNNING, IT USES A LOT OF DATA, THIS IS WHY YOU GOT WARNING".
I said "I have facebook, but not on the phone. It seems to me that you are guessing. Can you look at my account, and tell me what exactly caused warning, so that I don't do it in future?" He said "it is because last month you used very little data, but this month you are using A LOT"
At this time I started suspecting that the dumbass not only does not know what he is talking about, but just makes up stuff as he goes. So I said, "you got access to my account, how much data does it show I used?".
he couldn't answer.
this was so eye opening... They are hiring monkeys for their tech support, and they are SO STUPID, THEY ARE NOT EVEN GIVEN ACCESS TO ACCOUNTS!!! So they make up stuff, as they go. I don't even know why would anybody call
This entire thread is just disgraceful in terms of the tech support. He lets techs straight up lie to you. I'd ask for a higher up and complain.
Sent from my SGH-T959V using xda premium
Hey Jacob said:
This entire thread is just disgraceful in terms of the tech support. He lets techs straight up lie to you. I'd ask for a higher up and complain.
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Interesting that you mentioned it. When I realized that the tech guy lies straight in my face, I asked him to talk to supervisor. He put me on hold for a few minutes, then picked up the phone back (himself), said that supervisor is crazy busy this time, and cannot talk, but THE WARNING ACTUALLY WENT BY MISTAKE, and he apologizes, there is no warning on my account, poof - gone.
I am pretty certain that he never actually could tell, if there is a warning to begin with
I'm wondering if I call them with a made up number, if they will pretend that the account actually exist, or they actually will be able to figure THAT.