Grandfathered Unlimited Plans

SlyFerret · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 127

Howdy!
I've had my Verizon EVDO plan for a few years now. I signed up back when it was unlimited, and my plan always said it was unlimited when I logged into the VZW portal.

I called Verizon Wireless customer service yesterday to inquire about their EVDO plans. There is a lot of great content out there on the internet, and I wanted to see if they had a business plan that didn't suffer from the 5GB limit. I told the customer service rep that I was interested in trying some of the online movie rental services offered by Apple, Amazon, and others (I'm not interested in pirating content).

The CSR that I spoke with told me something interesting. She said that my plan was grandfathered, and actually is unlimited. The 5GB/month limit doesn't apply to my account. She told me that I could go ahead and try out the movie rental services! On my request, she took a moment to make a note in my account regarding our conversation and what she had advised me.

Have any of you guys with grandfathered plans had any issues with using more than 5GB/month?

-SF

JGriggs · Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 5:40 pm Post subject:

The answer for me is no.
My current usage shows 18 GB.

Atmega · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 23 Jun 2008 Posts: 123

This seems to always be the case because I believe they are forced. What you are signed up for would be Unlimited because they decide to put in 5GB cap doesn't mean they could change your contract unless it specifically said they could (which is probably does).

Don't quote me on this but I think its just a business practice with cell phone companies to keep people on usage that they signed up with or upgrade them if its greater.

I believe if they do integrate with Alltel they might put in the cap for new customers or who knows...Not at all?

SlyFerret · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 127

JGriggs · Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 7:56 pm Post subject:

I seem to average 12 - 20 GB per month.
When I signed up, it was unlimited in the original form of the word. Laughing

the Stemdoctor · EVDO Newbie Joined: 21 Feb 2009 Posts: 1 Location: USA

SlyFerret
I too found out this 'grandfathered clause' thing here recently when I went to purchase my daughter one to use while away at college. When I first learned of the 5GB limit, I was very concerned knowing how she is on the internet. I told the CSR at VZW that "my card is unlimited" having bought it several years ago and she explained to me that I was correct and that they no longer offered any unlimited plans. I am on the road a lot and use it for trading purposes more than anything, or at least I used to Embarassed

I had thought initially that maybe I should trade with her knowing that it would be a huge risk of her going over the limit but for the first few months everything was OK. It wasn't until this past December, actually I found out on New Years Eve in the automated bill from VZW that for some reason the bill was almost exactly double. After looking at the bill, I found out that she had used over 7 GB and at the rate of .25 cents a mb over, it doubled the entire bill. Unfortunately, for my daughter, she learned the hard way about watching her usage as I made her pay not only for her overage, but her entire portion of the bill. Needless to say, everything is now back in line with her usage.

I would be scared to ever buy a card with limited usage for myself as you never know what you may need or how much you may need to be using and am glad I got mine when they first came out. Now the only problem I foresee is the fact that the card is so old, it is now no longer supported by the manufacturer.
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the Stemdoctor

JGriggs · Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2009 7:10 pm Post subject:

Don't ever upgrade your account with a promo card.
Buy a card on Ebay and change equipment without changing your plan...

CrispyFried · EVDO User Joined: 19 Mar 2008 Posts: 39

Im grandfathered in. I average about 10 gigs/month. no issues, no throttling.

SlyFerret · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 127

I was surprised to hear that I was still grandfathered.

I replaced my original 2 year old PC5220 with a new UM175 from 3Gstore last summer.

Since the 5220 was our only internet I had them ship the UM175 unactivated. When I arrived, I called and had them do the ESN swap.

I wonder if this is how I somehow managed to remain grandfathered, even with the new card and 2 year contract?

-SF

TriGGer · EVDO Newbie Joined: 01 Mar 2006 Posts: 9 Location: PA, NY

Everyone with "grandfathered" truly unlimited planes should check out there bill.

I recently saw something there that raised an eyebrow, I saw an END ON CONTRACT DATE. Dont really know what that means, but maybe someone here can look into this. Does it mean that we are all terminal with out "grandfathered" plans. I hope not. Just thought I'll through this out there...

BTW, I'm using about 14-17 gig per month.
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USB720,KR1,Ant.

Hankinator · EVDO Newbie Joined: 10 Oct 2007 Posts: 8

I too learned that I was grandfathered in but I still got throttled to 200k for a month. I went a few rounds with 2 different CSR's and was not happy. Basically what I found out was I could be throttled for going over the usage (5G) but not charged for anything over.

I was pissed. I have gone way over a few times but have not been throttled since.

Dunno. It's confusing to me. You'd think for $60 a month you could do what you like. As soon as I find a comparable alternative I will change.

Hankinator
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Hankinator

mbcvida · EVDO Newbie Joined: 26 Oct 2008 Posts: 5

is your card still available?

RLMEsq · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 14 May 2007 Posts: 24

mollygirl · EVDO Newbie Joined: 27 Jul 2009 Posts: 3

Does this unlimited grandfathered contract apply for Alltel unlimited plans that will eventually be merged to Verizon?

(Alltel is still available in Michigan and I'm signing up soon and would like it to stay unlimited when it goes over to VZW if possible.)

ChoP · EVDO User Joined: 13 Jul 2008 Posts: 46 Location: Alabama