METRO PCS changing 4g Rate Plans, say goodbye to unlimited 4g unless you want to pay $70 per month.

[THE W]

I was told that all existing customers would not be changed to the new pricing structure. They should all be grandfathered in to the old rates. In this case of really high usage though, they may have broken that promise because they really don't want a customer like that.

he actually is grandfathered in which is why he only has 1GB instead of the 2.5GBs on the new $50 plan. what they have moved everyone over to, including old customers, is the new way of counting data. everything counts towards usage now.

 

[UKCatFan]

he actually is grandfathered in which is why he only has 1GB instead of the 2.5GBs on the new $50 plan. what they have moved everyone over to, including old customers, is the new way of counting data. everything counts towards usage now.

I was told by them that existing customers still count data the old way. I still show zero percent usage over the past five days since my new month started. I am on the $40 plan so I would have almost no 4G data if they were counting the new way. I have done a decent amount of surfing, downloaded a few apps, and updated probably twenty apps since then. I am still completely on the old plan and my data is being counted the old way.

 

[THE W]

are you doing this on wifi or 4G?

 

[ohbaby]

The salesperson that told you the $50 plan was unlimited was telling you a half truth. Under the old plan you got one gig of "video streaming" which means only stuff like netflix, hbogo, and rhapsody counted towards your data usage. You could still surf the web and do everything else and not be charged for data usage. Under the new plans all data usage is counted so you were doing the things you usually do and it was all counting towards your data usage.

This is why you were able to use so much data before and not get throttled. You can't do that now.

I'm not sure how many ways I can tell you,... I fully tested it to see if it was truly unlimited. The Knicks and the Rangers had a lot of games in March. I watched most of them on the big screen. That's what I call it. Each game last 2 1/2 hours. Times that by 20 games, a very conservative number, and we're talking alot of gigabytes. Now unless streaming isn't counted either.....


The reason I got the LG Connect, and the unlimited plan was specifically for the Knicks and The Rangers. To watch at work. Now if I didn't watch most of the games, I could see your point.

Now these games they stream are of very small resolution and probably a low bitrate to keep the bandwidth down. But were talking over 40 hours of streaming. A 320 x 240 .mp4 video with a decent birate that is a 1/2 an hour long,... has a file size of approximately 70 MB. Say the games have half that quality,.. that's 70 mbs an hour times 40 hours equals 2.8 gigs of streaming. This is a very conservative example. My data from streaming is probably double that or more. And I know for a fact I did not stream at EV speeds. Cause I have the 4g toggle app. I realise right away when I'm browsing or surfing the web at EV speeds. You could forget entirely about streaming at that speed. Just go to YouTube and see how long it takes to buffer at EV speed. So there was no way I was capped last month, and went way over the 1 gig limit.

I was truly unlimited. And now I'm not, unless I shell out an extra 20 bucks a month. Could you imagine your landlord raising your rent 40% after the first month? It's unheard of.

 

[THE W]

what site were you streaming the games on?

 

[THE W]

in either case, its weaksauce.

shuffling grandfathered accounts over to the new data counting methods is shady.

picking and choosing who to throttle based on usage for grandfathered accounts is even shadier.

these type of shenanigans arent new though. all phone companies do this kind of crap.

 

[UKCatFan]

are you doing this on wifi or 4G?

Almost all on 4G. I hardly ever use wifi.

 

[ohbaby]

W go to hfboards, any gameday thread. There will be a number of sites you could watch any game live.


Late last nite I got an on the air update to zv9. You guys got this update last month. I get it yesterday. What's that tell you.

 

[UKCatFan]

Late last nite I got an on the air update to zv9. You guys got this update last month. I get it yesterday. What's that tell you.

All that tells me is that you can no longer use your phone as a wifi hotspot unless you are rooted. From what I heard that is all the update does.

 

[THE W]

W go to hfboards, any gameday thread. There will be a number of sites you could watch any game live.

yeah i know about that stuff. i used to stream football games on justin.tv.

that wouldnt count against your data though.

dulal made another thread saying he also got a txt about going over the limit and he said his speeds are back to normal. have you tried using you data again?

 

[ohbaby]

yeah i know about that stuff. i used to stream football games on justin.tv.

that wouldnt count against your data though.

dulal made another thread saying he also got a txt about going over the limit and he said his speeds are back to normal. have you tried using you data again?

Where? In the LG Connect threads? Cause I'm a bit shock I'm the only one.
I might have shot myself in the foot cause I upgraded to the new $50 plan, without actually checking to see if they throttled my speed. I was so upset I got that text, I called them right away.

I don't think going to the corporate store to show my data and plead my case (being unlimited) will make any difference,.... even though it is strong evidence.

BTW, what is with the lifetime data counter? I restarted my handset and now it says 10.9 gigs. It was at 12.9 before the reboot.

Why do you say streaming games doesn't count? Cause it's not downloaded? I find it hard to believe it wouldn't count. Why?

Justin TV was a great site.

Even so I have only 9 gigs left on my 16 gig SD card. So I downloaded alot of stuff too besides all that streaming. I have been really working this puppy to death, in checking that it is unlimited.

As far as checking my data,.... I changed plans in haste, so it will be for the new plan with the 2.5 gigs. You think streaming the games will count in this new plan?

 

[THE W]

if you switch to the new plan you will come under the new data counting rules where everything counts.

 

[ohbaby]

if you switch to the new plan you will come under the new data counting rules where everything counts.

Fine, but what makes you think steaming games didn't count on the old plan?

If I have 6 gigs of downloads on my SD card, there is still 7 gigs of data unaccounted for on my lifetime data.

And why did my lifetime data drop from 13 to 11 gigs after restarting my handset?

Anybody know why? I can't figure it. And how would you reset the lifetime data counter?

 

[THE W]

People have been saying how stuff like YouTube didn't count towards data. Only netflix, hbogo, etc were counted.

You can find out how much of your data allowance has been used by going into your account at the metro website.

Here's a link to the thread on this topic:
http://androidforums.com/showthread.php?t=499180

 

[UKCatFan]

yeah i know about that stuff. i used to stream football games on justin.tv.

that wouldnt count against your data though.

dulal made another thread saying he also got a txt about going over the limit and he said his speeds are back to normal. have you tried using you data again?

On the post from yesterday he said that he had them upgrade him to the new plan. I hate to say it, but I think this means the grandfathered status is gone for him. (Btw I don't know you and am just assuming you are a guy. If not then sorry for calling you one)

 

[ptmarzullo]

Boost mobile kicks Metro'a ass in EVERY facet. Was with Metro for. 7 years. Their Android service, phones etc... suck. Not to mention their horrible customer service and knowledge.

 

[THE W]

Well we certainly appreciate you coming into a forum of a carrier you hate and letting us know of boosts superior non 4G service.

 

[UKCatFan]

Well they hit me today. Metro truly sucks! They tried to muscle me into changing my plan so I could get more data. The rep was a rude arrogant SOB that completely refused to review my last chat where I was promised that I was grandfathered in on the old rates. I am going to bring my printed transcript to the local corporate store next week and argue my case. Also note that they changed my plan on me five days after my month rolled over. Yesterday I had zero usage and today I now have some after doing no media streaming.

 

[THE W]

So it looks like they did switch limited customers over to the new data counting method.

I'm still concerned with why I have 5% usage when I'm unlimited.

 

[lingming]

well i hate to be the one who said i told you so but i told you they would do that even tho they said you got the Word Of Metro that they wouldnt witch plans but for me their 4g is about as slow as other 3g also when 4g is on its about 1-2% batt drain

 

[UKCatFan]

well i hate to be the one who said i told you so but i told you they would do that even tho they said you got the Word Of Metro that they wouldnt witch plans but for me their 4g is about as slow as other 3g also when 4g is on its about 1-2% batt drain

Over the past eight years we have been with Ghetro, I could tell you many horror stories. This is par for the course for them and sadly I expected it eventually happen. I am not going to give up yet though. We would never be with them if it was not for having four phones for just over $100.

 

[horsecharles]

It's very ill-timed...no tablet, dated phones, 4g upgrade not finished.
If they wanted more money they shoulda offered instead hotspot addition...even a separate modem would work...
Or..at the very least allow full tethering on these higher plans....

Sent from my LG-MS910 using Tapatalk 2 Beta-6

 

[THE W]

i do agree that they should have offered more than just allowing us to have both rhapsody and metro studio which is worthless. but i think this is more about them getting the funds to get more spectrum and improve their 4g.

think about where metro was 5 years ago or even just 2 years ago. they didnt have 4g at all and nothing coming close to the esteem or connect. they're now starting to provide good smartphones and a pretty good 4g service for a budget carrier. they used to have a $30 plan with taxes and fees extra and they raised that to $40 taxes and fees included. improvements cost money and no one was offering unlimited talk and text ANYWHERE NEAR that low so getting people who were paying practically nothing for unlimited services to pay an extra $10 or so is probably the reason metro has what it has right now.

at the end of the day though, metroPCS is still, again, a budget service like boost and simplemobile. you're not going to get the phones and the coverage of the big 4, not even close. if you want that, you'll be paying big 4 prices. even at $70 metro still has one of the lowest prices in the industry for unlimited talk, text, and 4G data and you can correct me if im wrong but there isnt another carrier out there running a faster data service besides verizon, AT&T and Tmobile. in the next 2 or 3 years metro will have data speeds at 10mbps or more. its a process folks.

but if you're not willing to wait, tmobile has a $70 prepaid plan and their 4g is faster than metros. if you're okay with paying $500 or more for a phone and can deal with only having 5GBs a month in data thats the best alternative.

its been said many times and its true each time. you get what you pay for.

 

[UKCatFan]

i do agree that they should have offered more than just allowing us to have both rhapsody and metro studio which is worthless. but i think this is more about them getting the funds to get more spectrum and improve their 4g.

think about where metro was 5 years ago or even just 2 years ago. they didnt have 4g at all and nothing coming close to the esteem or connect. they're now starting to provide good smartphones and a pretty good 4g service for a budget carrier. they used to have a $30 plan with taxes and fees extra and they raised that to $40 taxes and fees included. improvements cost money and no one was offering unlimited talk and text ANYWHERE NEAR that low so getting people who were paying practically nothing for unlimited services to pay an extra $10 or so is probably the reason metro has what it has right now.

at the end of the day though, metroPCS is still, again, a budget service like boost and simplemobile. you're not going to get the phones and the coverage of the big 4, not even close. if you want that, you'll be paying big 4 prices. even at $70 metro still has one of the lowest prices in the industry for unlimited talk, text, and 4G data and you can correct me if im wrong but there isnt another carrier out there running a faster data service besides verizon, AT&T and Tmobile. in the next 2 or 3 years metro will have data speeds at 10mbps or more. its a process folks.

but if you're not willing to wait, tmobile has a $70 prepaid plan and their 4g is faster than metros. if you're okay with paying $500 or more for a phone and can deal with only having 5GBs a month in data thats the best alternative.

its been said many times and its true each time. you get what you pay for.

I do not disagree with you on this. Where they messed up this time is changing the plans a month and a half after releasing a new phone that was truly a step up that many existing customers went out and bought for $350. We bought the Connect with expectations that we could go with the plans that were offered at that time. To go and change that before our credit card bills paying for the phone were even due... HORRENDOUS!!!!!!!! We are the customers that helped get them where they are today. To bend us over like they did is unacceptable!!! This might just be the straw that breaks the back and makes us leave after nearly a decade with them.

I really hope one of their customer research people are reading this forum.

 

[THE W]

doing that was a bad look. pre-change accounts should have been left AS WAS.