Total by Verizon BAD?

[godlovingman]

Looking at reviews of Total by Verizon has me second guessing me possibly switching over from postpaid Verizon. Anyone familiar with them? If what a lot of review's say is true I won't be going with them.

 

[Clementine_3]

What reviews are your reading and what's so bad about it? Any MVNO is going to sometimes be throttled if towers are congested but that's really probably not often. Speeds will be reduced if you go over your limit. The towers are the same, the coverage is the same.
If they offer a decent plan at a decent price give them a try, if it's truly awful try someone else. If they are all terrible go back to Verizon. It all comes down to your phone, where you are and how you use the phone/service.

 

[ocnbrze]

i take reviews with a grain of salt. most reviews are almost always going to be bad.....especially when it comes to internet providers and cell phone carriers.

 

[nickdalzell]

Heck I don't even have a data plan!

 

[godlovingman]

There's a lot of 1 star review's/complaints on better business bureau and trust pilot and couple other sites.

 

[mikedt]

I think just about all telcos get bad reviews and publicly slated, except maybe Koryolink in North Korea possibly.

I still remember the popular "VERIZON SUCKS" memes and other jibes from the '00s..

 

[ocnbrze]

There's a lot of 1 star review's/complaints on better business bureau and trust pilot and couple other sites.

again take it with a grain of salt. i switched from spectrum to frontier for my internet and i could not be happier. but on trust pilot, frontier had the worst reviews, until i saw the reviews for spectrum which was just as bad.....and we were happy with spectrum for the most part. i wanted to switch because i wanted fiber optics instead of cable for my internet.

 

[nickdalzell]

I don't care about reviews online, or via yelp, or that stuff. I care more about public opinion and mainly what works best for me. Given the tech in my life being the least popular most of the time, I can say without a doubt I love that which everyone else hates. So online reviews wouldn't mean jack.

Online reviews are what made the least favorable decisions in the tech world happen. From losing removable batteries to headphone jacks, it all ended up just being driven by satisfying tech bloggers in the end as there were no customers demanding phones being paper thin to the point of bending (like the iPhone 6)

I remember when Verizon created their 'new' logo sometime around 2016, and the Google+ posts always had it edited to look like a devil horns and tail, almost always regarding them not having unlimited data like T-Mobile. Gee, I'd love to take advantage of T-Mobile's unlimited data as well, but alas, there ain't no service from them in my area unless you live in the Walmart parking lot!

 

[godlovingman]

I don't care about reviews online, or via yelp, or that stuff. I care more about public opinion and mainly what works best for me. Given the tech in my life being the least popular most of the time, I can say without a doubt I love that which everyone else hates. So online reviews wouldn't mean jack.

Online reviews are what made the least favorable decisions in the tech world happen. From losing removable batteries to headphone jacks, it all ended up just being driven by satisfying tech bloggers in the end as there were no customers demanding phones being paper thin to the point of bending (like the iPhone 6)

Yeah Verizon has great service where I live and total by Verizon has cheaper plans than Verizon prepaid I'm tired of the almost $100 postpaid every month with only 450 minutes.

 

[nickdalzell]

Yeah I'm going to use what works in my area and where I travel, online reviews be damned.

I still get miffed when people plan a vacation but OMG it has one less star! What are they gonna do?!

seriously people get over yourselves.

I don't use Total as up until recently they were T-Mobile based (Total Wireless, which is still sold in Dollar General for crying out loud) but I do use Verizon Prepaid. They let me use whatever ancient phone I prefer, and I can have a no-data plan (privacy and I have wifi whenever I need connectivity) and it's extremely cheap compared with the compromises I'd make anywhere else. Plus they still have American tech support.

 

[godlovingman]

Yeah I'm going to use what works in my area and where I travel, online reviews be damned.

I still get miffed when people plan a vacation but OMG it has one less star! What are they gonna do?!

seriously people get over yourselves.

I just worry about almost everything and over think everything as well.

 

[nickdalzell]

In the end worrying about what others think was too stressful. I for example don't favor anything 'modern' so I don't use Amazon and don't use modern smartphones. I have a Galaxy S4 Mini and it does the job fine. I am honestly trying to 'de-tech' from my life and restore the vintage 1950s style of life in the end. It's far less stressful, more confidence and I feel it works for me.

So I wouldn't care at all what some futurist who thinks I'm holding back progress thinks just because my phone is a decade old. In the end, what makes me happy and what allows me a stress-free (and potentially healthier, longer life) is what matters in the long run. Not what someone thinks I should use to fit in to what they see as the 'future'.

 

[StrictlyCash]

T

What reviews are your reading and what's so bad about it? Any MVNO is going to sometimes be throttled if towers are congested but that's really probably not often. Speeds will be reduced if you go over your limit. The towers are the same, the coverage is the same.
If they offer a decent plan at a decent price give them a try, if it's truly awful try someone else. If they are all terrible go back to Verizon. It all comes down to your phone, where you are and how you use the phone/service.

Total by Verizon deprioritized is abusive and nuts. I pay for unlimited data and hotspot, the deprioritized will happen randomly, anytime of day or night, everyday of the week, on holidays, keep in mind this deprioritized of data is not regulated, imagine your teaching a cousin to drive, stick shift, the jerking, sudden stops, slow then acceleration heads flopping forward then back, it renders the phone completely useless its own apps don't function Google Chrome function you cannot get any enjoyment during these events which are going to occur anytime it's unexplainable it's abusive it really really is abusive. And use of a favor don't bother calling customer service those poor people are so jaded listening to us their roots they just hang up on you thank God for screen capture. This type of service should be legal because there is no rhyme or reason to win you're going to have your service interrupted no reason you could be in the middle of something important and you will lose what you're doing because of the lack of data and I will see sneaking suspicion that the lack of calls inbound to me and the frustration of family and friends with trying to get a hold of me I'm being told that this number is not in service I've had it for 7 months and I've gotten two inbound calls.

 

[StrictlyCash]

Here some speedtest screen shot of random results.

 

[nickdalzell]

speedtest.net's credibility was debunked for me the very instant they claimed I had 25mbps down when in reality I barely had enough to stream 360p YouTube and it took over a week to download the day-one patch to Fallout 4. If anything my internet experience and cellular experience only solidifies my love of physical media over streaming, owning my own music and keeping anything digital on my device over some cloud that always disippates anyway, and not depending so heavily on being online. Many of my PCs are air-gapped now, and only two remain in active service at home, one that is air-gapped and this one which only seems to be used for this forum and some Reddit reads.

The last modern bits in my home are a Nest Audio and hub, one Home speaker, a really old Echo Dot, Nintendo Switch (which works offline better than a PS4 or Xbox) and my Z Flip 4. Everything else has gone vintage or stays stuck in 2009-10

No thanks, my own way of determining my internet speed seems to work best over some rando app.