I was penalized with overage charge for upgrading my plan online

Question

I just switched from AT&T in Oct and signed up with the 700 min Family plan. In Nov, I realized I was going to go over the limit if I don't upgrade my plan. So I went online and upgraded my plan to 1400 min Family plan. When I looked at my current bill yesterday, I was surprised to see there was a $102 overage charge on my bill. I talked to a representative yesterday and asked her to explain about the overage charge. She said because I upgraded the plan online (on demand), my 498 used min were prorated which resulted in 227 min overage.
I said the reason for my upgrading the plan was to avoid overage. I did not exceed the 700 min in my old plan and I was not aware I am only allowed 25 min a day if I change my plan in the middle of the billing cycle. I can understand the proration of my monthly access charge (from $70 to $90 per month) but I don't understand the proration of used min. I pay for 700 min per month not 25 min a day. She offered me a 25% discount of the overage charge which I did not accept. 
I called VZW this morning and talked to a different representative. I asked her if I would have upgraded my plan by talking to a representative instead of doing it myself online, will I incur the overage charge. She said the representative would have backdated the change which would avoid the overage charge. I asked her was it fair that because I tried to save VZW resources of not utilizing the time of a customer representative and going online to upgrade the plan myself, I incurred a penalty in the form of overage charge. She couldn't answer my question.
I asked her if she could remove the $102 overage charge. She said she couldn't but offered to make another adjustment which still resulted in $47.50 overage charge. I thanked her for doing more than the CS the day before and unwillingly accept the adjustment. I told her I am still not satisfied with the settlement and how VZW penalizes customers for trying to make it easy for them by upgrading online directly.
Lesson learned: Don't upgrade or change anything online without talking to a customer representative. I am looking for a new wireless carrier as soon as I can.

Answer 1

Percula4 wrote:
I just switched from AT&T in Oct and signed up with the 700 min Family plan. In Nov, I realized I was going to go over the limit if I don't upgrade my plan. So I went online and upgraded my plan to 1400 min Family plan. When I looked at my current bill yesterday, I was surprised to see there was a $102 overage charge on my bill. I talked to a representative yesterday and asked her to explain about the overage charge. She said because I upgraded the plan online (on demand), my 498 used min were prorated which resulted in 227 min overage.
I said the reason for my upgrading the plan was to avoid overage. I did not exceed the 700 min in my old plan and I was not aware I am only allowed 25 min a day if I change my plan in the middle of the billing cycle. I can understand the proration of my monthly access charge (from $70 to $90 per month) but I don't understand the proration of used min. I pay for 700 min per month not 25 min a day. She offered me a 25% discount of the overage charge which I did not accept. This makes me question your logic. You want the amount you are charged to be pro-rated, but not the amount of minutes you are able to use? Say you start the month with the 700 minute plan and change half way thru to the 1400 minute plan. You want to only pay half of the cost of the 700 minute plan for the 1st half of the month and still use ALL of the minutes? You then want to pay half of the cost of the 1400 minute plan for the  2nd half of the month? After all, you are only on the 1400 minute plan for half of the month. I suppose you should also receive all of the 1400 minutes for the 2nd half of the month? That comes out to 2100 minutes for the price of half of the 700 minute plan + half of the price of the 1400 minute plan. Quite a deal you want there!
I called VZW this morning and talked to a different representative. I asked her if I would have upgraded my plan by talking to a representative instead of doing it myself online, will I incur the overage charge. She said the representative would have backdated the change which would avoid the overage charge. I asked her was it fair that because I tried to save VZW resources of not utilizing the time of a customer representative and going online to upgrade the plan myself, I incurred a penalty in the form of overage charge. She couldn't answer my question. When you do this online, you are able to choose to have the 1400 minute plan take effect at the BEGINNING of the CURRENT billing cycle, which would have prevented you from receiving the overage charge. It doesn't matter whether you do it online or with a representative over the phone/instore, you could have avoided the overage charge by starting the new plan at the BEGINNING of the CURRENT billing cycle(backdating).
I asked her if she could remove the $102 overage charge. She said she couldn't but offered to make another adjustment which still resulted in $47.50 overage charge. I thanked her for doing more than the CS the day before and unwillingly accept the adjustment. I told her I am still not satisfied with the settlement and how VZW penalizes customers for trying to make it easy for them by upgrading online directly. They don't penalize you for doing this online, as I have pointed out that you have the same choices whether it is online or via a CS rep. They will penalize you, though, if you make a choice which will result in overages.
Lesson learned: Don't upgrade or change anything online without talking to a customer representative. I am looking for a new wireless carrier as soon as I can.
Next time, if you are increasing your minute plan, just make sure that you have it backdated to avoid any overages. You can still do it online, though.