Verizon charges $ for BROWSING ringtones

Wait, I'm confused. Verizon charges people to browse their own Verizon web/WAP site where they sell ringtones, etc.? That seems wrong to me. Most operators I know give free access to their own portal as an incentive for people to browse and buy things. strange Verizon doesn't. Instead they charge their customers for looking and piss them off? Hmmm... :headscrat

 

They charge for data access period. The issue here is before, under America's Choice, data came off of plan minutes. Now, under Nationwide, data access of any kind is $1.99/MB.

You have to switch to one of their pre-packaged data plans or block it entirely. This has been the case for about a year and a half already.

Yep, Verizon charges for just about everything...

 

@ Mobile Mike...
I was able to get free WAP on my RAZR... will I incur internet charges for browsing the internet?

I have AC not Nationwide.

 

If your on AC, it will take off of your minutes. Check your bill info online to see how what you're doing affects your account. Be careful, though, you're running into risky territory using "free WAP".

 

@ Mobile Mike
I have a BB curve for work, so I only get on free WAP with my RAZR occasionally. Thanks for the warning all the same.
Just one other question... why is free WAP "risky territory"? I also tether my BB is that illegal or just risky?

 

If the free WAP you're getting is by legitimate means, you're OK, but if you're trying to access something you're not paying for and therefore not supposed to have, you run the risk of getting caught (as there are loopholes people have found to get services for free).

It's more of a general caution, that's all.

 

I just got verizon on Sunday and just checked my account online and it shows 0.023MB download. This is from randomly playing with my new phone and pressing buttons. It is really non-obvious when data is even being used. Whenever I saw something like 'connecting', I would immediately hit cancel. Does this mean I will already have to pay an extra fee at the end of the month?

I'm gonna go thru and block all the things on the add/remove features page as suggested above. Will that guarantee that nothing will go thru from now on? However, I still want to be able to send pix/video texts. Also, I think a post above said I can access MyVerizon from the my phone for free? I haven't tried that - how do I know if there is a charge for it or not? Will that get blocked too?

Thanks.

 

Even though you used only a small amount of data, you will be charged $1.99 for it on your next bill. As you know, you can select all of the different data type blocks you want on the My Verizon site. But...

I would recommend talking with customer service about them courtesy crediting you for the data charge. Explain what data features you want access to and have them verify you have the right service blocks in place so you won't have any further accidental data charges.

Welcome to Wireless Advisor.

 

Thanks for the reply. I wish cell carriers would just do the common sense thing and automatically subtract these kinds of charges. I feel the same way about all the spam calls that you get nowadays on cell phones - those prerecorded msgs or the fax calls. Even though I hang up within 1 sec of answering, it still deducts a minute from my time.

 

What is common sense to us is anti-profit for carriers. They leave it to us to read the contracts and expect us to follow them. Which, legally, is correct, but life isn't that simple.

So buyer beware and be informed.

 

All you have to do is cal 611 and ask for a data block..it's free and if you try to access anything involving the get it now..it will not allow you...we have it blocked on all 5 ouf our lines.We did have the data fees credited (as we didnt know that we were using the internet) our rep we spoke with was very polite and reversed the charges!!

 

It's Because you have a Nationwide Plan now. Before, you probably had the America's Choice plan, which just used your minutes for data.

 

Still continuing to get small .02MB charges on my bill once or twice a month, which means I'm charged $1.99 for absolutely nothing. I've blocked everything I could thru MyVerizon. Finally spent an hour on the phone tonight to figure out once and for all what is going on. Rep said that even with all the blocks, I will still access data when pressing a button which uses some service called Brew. I.e. when clicking thru Media Center, if you accidentally press the wrong button and it says "connecting" and even if you cancel immediately, she said you will incur charges.

She said the only way is to do a "National Access Block" which disables data completely. This was not one of the choices on the MyVerizon website, btw. (If that's what others were referring to above when they said to "ask for a data block", it wasn't clear.) HOWEVER, this will also block picture and video text msgs. This makes no sense at all since this is an extra service that I'm paying for. I.e. I will still pay full price for text msging, but lose half the functionality. They should provide a way to do one without affecting the other.