Verizon WiFi overcharge?

liberty2010 wrote:
We were told in a Verizon store about our smart phones. When we look at the end of the billing period the usage would be under. Then we would get a notice (phone call) that we are over. We were told the billing period only covers the time on Verizon towers. then the I would call them and see what they can tell you and they will email you a print out so you can see where the overage is.

In Android, you may have a "data saver mode" setting that forgoes downloads and other data consuming tasks until connected to WiFi. You can also make sure Data Roaming is not enabled. Or at least use data while roaming only when you want to do so.

You can also download an app that sets limits on your data usage, as to not go over your allowance. Some security suites including free TrustGo not only allows you to set data limits, but gives you an indication of what apps are using data.

I've got 4 MiFi's for our office staff to use while out in the field with the 5G limit and in the 3-4 years we've had them, they have never even come close and that's running them with multi connections and on a remote desktop connection all day long..

Well, last month, I get the email warning that one is at 50% and it's only 5 days into it's cycle.... I tell the staff person the deal and the next day I get another one and finally get one that says it's now 2G over...

Finally get ahold of the staff person and she says that one of the managers has been using it.. Turns out he was using it to Skype with and it was raking up hundreds of mb of data usage per session!

Well, we finally got them to stop Skyping and they now owe the company $20 for the 2G overage, plus I've had to take that MiFi out of service until the next billing cycle..

So, that Skype uses a bunch of data!

Mitch

Do a Google search of "Verizon hot spot phantom usage" and you will find out this is a KNOWN problem with the Verizon system......You did nothing and Verizon is well aware of their problem, but will not tell you that. Had a good friend just go through this same scenario, but his usage jumped from <9 gig to 50+ gig in a matter of several days. He fought with Verizon for several weeks, but in the end, he won and they cleared his bill and sent him a new hotspot. Verizon has a customer satisfaction team, located in Tampa and that is who he finally worked with.

Do you have Windows updates set for "Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them"?

We were told in a Verizon store about our smart phones. When we look at the end of the billing period the usage would be under. Then we would get a notice (phone call) that we are over. We were told the billing period only covers the time on Verizon towers. then the I would call them and see what they can tell you and they will email you a print out so you can see where the overage is.

It's not unusual for many apps to update themselves and, depending on how you have them set up, whithout asking permission. Some of those can be quite heavy. I assume your wifi is secured which would rule out the other common reason for going over.

We have have Verizon MIFI forever here and sometimes we get charges thinking it is was the current cycle and turned out to be the last cycle coverage.. Hard to tell sometimes which cycle they are billing...

Also although our MIFI is pretty secure it always bothers me being wide open to everyone in the camp grounds... We have everything password protected... Have had some folks asking if that protected WIFI signal was us after seeing us using our computers sitting in the outside easy chairs.. Never really have noticed anyone else on any of our billing using it but it is always a concern for me...

Our dataplan is a grandfathered 3GB dataplan and some months we just barely sneak by...

Roy Ken

Have you installed any new programs that do things in the background? Like Carbonite live backup or dropbox?