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Verizon rescinds service to Samsung Chromebook 3G owners
- jeremymcanally 13y agoBummer. I was going to get my nephew one of those because he really wants to learn programming and his family can't really afford Internet service. That amount of data was perfect for his needs. I hope it's a mix-up or something, but I kind of doubt it is.
- ben1040 13y agoWorst case, as someone mentioned in that thread, you could get a FreedomPop wifi hotspot for $50-$60 that includes 500MB/month of free usage. I bought a Samsung Chromebook a year ago so I can't remember what the exact price difference was between the wifi and the 3G model, but I feel like wifi model + hotspot would about be a wash vs the 3G model.
- driverdan 13y agoWow, FreedomPop has a terrible site. No coverage map, overly SEO coverage list, everything tries to get you into the funnel rather than giving you helpful info.
- jrs235 13y agoTell me about it! I couldn't find how much the service honestly costs because they don't you! Pro 500MB Data Plan Trial - FREE Freedom Spot Overdrive Pro (Refurbed) - $59.99 1 GB of Bonus Data ($20 Value) - FREE Shipping - $6.99 Due Today - $66.98 First Month Service - $0.00 All I want to know is how much are you going to charge me on a recurring monthly basis? This feels scammy to me... is this a dark pattern? UPDATE: I finally found were the monthly prices were/are found (they used strike-through on the monthly price on the plan selection page and wrote in larger font behind it 100% FREE Trial)... They're hurting themselves by making it difficult to find.
- jrs235 13y agoThey also hide on the FreedomPop Premier page that after the first month those "free" ($20 value mind you) offerings cost you $9.99 each month after the first one. They make the "Continue" button huge and the "I don't want free stuff" continue link much smaller. I would definitely say there are Dark Patterns in use by FreedomPop. Caveat Emptor.
- rdschouw 13y agoYou can look at Karma http://yourkarma.com http://yourkarma.com. They truly only charge for what you use.
- sahaskatta 13y agoBoth Karma and FreedomPop run on the same Sprint network. However, that's a big issue since it only uses WiMax which never really saw much coverage penetration. In addition, Sprint is ditching that entire network for LTE. Karma is apparently preparing to launch a new hotspot which runs on the new LTE network and I would suggest waiting for that device.
- eli 13y agoThey are a Sprint MVNO, so you can just check Sprint's map.
- RKoutnik 13y agoA warning about FreedomPop: They'll charge you for the next package of bandwidth when you hit 400MB (supposedly so "You'll never run out of data", more likely so "We'll never run out of cash!") You can't set it to turn off when 500MB is hit.
- jrs235 13y agoSounds like a dark pattern.
- teraflop 13y agoThey also used to charge an "inactivity fee" if you used less than a certain minimum amount of data in a month, even if you were supposedly on the free plan. That wouldn't be so bad, except that the only mention of it is buried in the middle of a 5,000 word document that isn't even directly linked at any point in the signup process: https://www.freedompop.com/service_plan_terms.htm https://www.freedompop.com/service_plan_terms.htm It looks like they abandoned the inactivity fee in June 2013, but even so, it left me with a very negative impression of the company.
- rickyc091 13y agoSeems there's a lot of hate for FreedomPop, but they aren't as bad as it seems. The way I see it is, you get what you pay for. I've been using them since 2012 and they've never overcharged me or ripped me off. Yes, they use to charge you for inactivity, but they no longer do that. If anything, I was always able to resolve any issues with a quick email. They've even given me credits on occasion. To date, I must have only paid them $20-$30, strictly relying on the free MBs from referrals. They aren't perfect, but for the price I'm paying (nothing), I'll happily deal with some issues on occasion.
- gbhn 13y agoRead the bottom of the linked thread.
- joshrotenberg 13y agoThe HP Chromebook 14 comes with 200MB/month from TMobile. "4G for life. 200MB of free data each month, no annual contract, for the life of your device." according to their site. I just got one from Costco. It's a bit more than the Samsung ($379 at Costco, a little cheaper at Walmart) but so far I'm liking it.
- noname2 13y agowow, I just bought a t-mobile hot spot so I could use my other devices. I am not willing to toss any more doe on chromebooks, but I am curious if the upsale plans in the chromebook are any different than their data offered at the store.
- joshrotenberg 13y agoIt looks like I have the following upgrade options: On-Demand Day Pass 500MB $10 Week Pass 1GB $15 Month Pass 2.5GB $30 Monthly options 500MB $20 2.5GB $30 4.5GB $40 6.5GB $50 8.5GB $60 10.5 $70 12.5 $80 I have plenty of wifi at home and at work, and even on the bus into work (AC Transit in the Bay Area), so chances are I won't be using it all that often. I can tether to my phone as well (Verizon). That said, I can see it coming in handy now and then, and if I were out of town or something I wouldn't hesitate to try one of the on demand plans. Not sure if there is a contract on the monthly plans.
- baldfat 13y agodough not doe
- keithpeter 13y agoCrouton (Ubuntu on Chrome) so he can work at home not connected and use of College/Library wifi when he needs to sync and to find information?
- natch 13y agoHe could learn programming with just a C book and a used computer. Or if he really needs Internet you could pay for the monthly service and rustle him up a hand me down computer.
- jeremymcanally 13y agoI'd go that route except I'm not around to help him through much of anything. I'm probably going to buy him the Prag's book on learning to program with Minecraft extensions or one of the entry level books geared towards kids. But it'd still be helpful if he could e-mail me questions, look up things on Stack Overflow or something, and so on.
- lostcolony 13y agoThere are free wifi hotspots he can use with any portable gadget. He can also make use of library resources for email, searching, etc. It's non-ideal, but it might have some perks; having to chew on a problem for a bit before you can get to a library may help him develop some serious problem solving chops.
- natch 13y agoSo, like I said, pay for his Internet service.
- ascendantlogic 13y agoLets wait and see what the resolution is. As someone in that thread pointed out Verizon has people specifically for Chromebooks. I'm not a Verizon apologist, but it sounds like this needs to come to some sort of definitive resolution before we turn on the Internet Rage Machine(tm).
- epochwolf 13y agoYou didn't read far enough... > I called them up again, reaching for technical support after dialing in my MDN number. I got a representative who this time said the 'promotion' was cancelled January 14th.
- baldfat 13y agoJust Verizon being a bad citizen again? Nexus 7 LTE not allowed on their network (Even though they were suppose to with the spectrum they leased from all of us who are US Citizens the spectrum we all own to the carriers through the US Government) I don't give money to Apple and I don't give money to Verizon. I also blocked from my DNS CNET and HuffingtonPost. All Bad Citizens
- pasbesoin 13y ago(Even though they were suppose to with the spectrum they leased from all of us who are US Citizens the spectrum we all own to the carriers through the US Government) An important point not to be missed. Repeatedly, these organizations make agreements in order to gain benefits, and then proceed to bald-facedly renege on their portion of the agreement. And... no one holds them to account! At this point, I think they should be investigated criminally and prosecuted for fraud. If and as it becomes apparently they entered these agreements with ill will and with the intention to renege, this is no longer a civil matter.
- deepblueocean 13y agoChromebook owner here. I haven't been able to convince the data on my machine to function on the free plan yet this month, but I'd chalked it up to the 3g modem being mostly iffy anyway. Looking forward to watching this.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- crazygringo 13y agoDoes anyone know... what would the best-case legal outcome be? Do you take Verizon to small claims court, calculate the cash value of the service, and have the judge award you that? Can you sue them for false advertising? Can they face any kind of punitive damages? Do you form a class-action suit for everyone who bought a Chromebook and then didn't receive the service? At what point does/would Verizon choose to settle instead, and just provide the service after all? I mean, this seems like exactly the kind of abuse that laws are designed to prevent, no?
- colechristensen 13y agoPunitive damages or even small claims court are excessive, the only group which owes you something is Amazon, and it seems to be a straightforward case of failing to update the product description in a timely manner. You might be able to compel them to provide you with the service as promised, you might not. You could probably get a return from Amazon plus a little extra something if you're nice about it.
- FireBeyond 13y agoDoubtful - he bought the device in January -2013-, went to activate it in January -2014-, only to be told they'd just discontinued the activation of new services.
- btian 13y agoYou can only sue if you incur any loss due to lack of the free 3G service subjected to terms and conditions of the service. In this case, it's not worth it. Just return the chromebook back to Amazon. You can probably sue Amazon for false advertising (again, subjected to Amazon's terms and conditions), but good luck proving that you have incurred any loss. I don't believe you have any ground to sue Verizon.
- valleyer 13y agoIsn't the fact that he bought something that wasn't then delivered upon a "loss"? I.e., if I buy a year's worth of coffee from you for $5,000, and you only give me a month's worth, I've lost 11/12 of $5,000, right?
- nkozyra 13y agoA little premature to declare that the service has been rescinded based on that conversation, no?
- noname2 13y agoI'd like to say I have just been informed by verizon that they have recinded my free 100mb service midway through the 'contract'. they gave me some jargon, that I did not retain because I was fuming. To my knowledge there was no 'expiration date' on the free 100mb THAT CAME WITH THE CHROMEBOOKS.
- mendicant 13y agoOkay, but the guy says he bought it in Jan of 2013 and waited over a year to try and activate the offer. Many of these offers are time bombs and sometimes for good reason. I'm not so sure I'm ready to pick up my pitchfork if this is the case.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- jrockway 13y agoOr get your favorite journalist involved.
- kbar13 13y agoNote that OP says he purchased in January of 2013, not 2014.
- coreymgilmore 13y agosounds like a telco being a telco....lots of fine print. the free lunch of data plans wasn't going to last forever.
- xster 13y ago+1, sounds like getting a credit card with '0% interest' and believing them
- x0054 13y agoPerhaps an alternative is T-Mobiles 200MB/m free offer. It works great and is truly free.
- clauretano 13y agoIf you have an account with a Simple Choice plan (their postpaid offering). You can also buy day passes if you need to use it beyond the 200MB. Also worth noting this is for "select devices" only, i.e. some tablets. They may not allow using said device as a hotspot.
- jotm 13y agoWow, 100 MB/month for a Chromebook - that's amazing! That's like 30 whole articles from Hacker News or Reddit or Feedly! But seriously, it's pathetic, even if it's free.
- noname2 13y agoYea 100mb's are a pathetic come on, but I think I need to see the fine print since that is the ONLY reason I bought the chromeb, now I can only call it a crumb. Some were talking about Amazon. The seller should not be liable. How can they just pull your promised data. A contract is a promise to pay or give a service. They broke a contract. Where is the fine print. I want to see it. I told them I would be calling back.
- noname123 13y agoI have the Samsung Chromebook WiFi and it works great! My thinking is that if I ever needed 3G/4G, I could either a) root my phone and tether on the DL, b) buy one of those USB dongles that the carriers sell that enables it and get the right drivers for my rooted Chromebook.
- noname2 13y agosounds like a class action. I'm in. The only reason I bought TWO chromebooks was for the 3g. I haven't even activated the other one. They owe me about 3gb and they also changed their rates, eliminating 3gb for $35. Now it is 2gb for $30
- natch 13y agoThen in three years the Google data charges start. Sigh. I never saw how people think these non-computers are a good deal.
- ytjohn 13y agoMost of these are $200-$400 in price range. These are full computers (just with limited storage). If Google starts charging in a few years, you can convert it over to a full desktop with [Crouton](http://www.howtogeek.com/162120/how-to-install-ubuntu-linux-on-your-chromebook-with-crouton/ http://www.howtogeek.com/162120/how-to-install-ubuntu-linux-...).
- mukundmr 13y agoFrom the article, the device was purchased in January 2013 (more than a year ago) and the Verizon plan activation was attempted in January 2014. This puts the device outside the return window of the reseller (Amazon). The only problem is the vendor website still showing the device as being sold with the plan.
- nsp 13y ago. ]
- mh8h 13y agoLooks like Amazon updated the product details page. It doesn't show the free two year wwan any more.
- mh8h 13y agoLooks like Amazon updated the product details page. It doesn't show the free two year wwan any more.