The saga of Millenicom continues - we've been hearing ongoing reports of problems with billing, usage tracking, and slower speeds from former customers who switched to a direct plan after Verizon took over all Millenicom accounts.
Here's a wrap-up of the issues we've heard about, and what solutions or lingering problems folks are reporting.
Usage Tracking & Overages
One of the biggest issues is usage tracking.
Former Millenicom customers who took the Verizon transition deal to keep their 20GB plan at $99.99/month ($20 more than Millenicom charged, but still cheaper than other Verizon plans) have not been able to log into their accounts and get an accurate summary of their cumulative data usage.
Instead, they get a feed of individual session usage, and have to manually add up how much data they have used.
To make matters worse, customers who enabled notifications to be alerted when they are reaching their cap have been getting erroneous alerts. And some are even getting billed for overages that they can't account for.
According to communication some customer have had, Verizon has been 'working on the issue' since they started transitioning the accounts back in November. However, to date, no improvements have been seen and customer service representatives who had once been helpful are now saying the issue isn't likely to be fixed.
It seems to be a problem with the former Millenicom accounts having been setup as business accounts in the backend, but the customer portal interfaces being for non-business accounts.
Regardless of the cause, it's become an annoying issue for former Millenicom customers who were promised a seamless transition.
Verizon representatives seem to be now telling those wanting accurate usage reporting to switch to a Mobile Everything shared plan, with increased monthly costs.
However, doing independent tracking is also an option if you're willing to monitor your own usage, compare your logs to your monthly bill, and ask Verizon for a refund of erroneous overages on a monthly basis should they occur. Thus far, Verizon has been very willing to refund overage charges due to the lack of usage tracking available.
Some tracking options include:
Calling Verizon periodically and getting them to tell you your current usage.- The 'My Verizon Mobile' smartphone App is apparently reporting fairly accurately, even though the Verizon website does not:
- Apple iOS: My Verizon Mobile
- Android: My Verizon Mobile
- Using independent tracking tools, including via a router like a WiFiRanger or PepWave SoHo, or via other methods as discussed in the 'Managing Bandwidth' chapter of The Mobile Internet Handbook.
Places to get more information:
Boyinks4Adventure Millenicom-> Verizon Blog Post
Escapee's RV Network Forum Thread
Sporadic or Slower Data
Other former Millenicom customers have reported that their service has inexplicably slowed down since Verizon took over, using the same hotspot and SIM card. It doesn't seem to matter if they transferred to the $99.99/month special Millenicom deal, or to a regular Mobile Everything shared plan.
Customers widely report comparing their former Millenicom hardware and plan against an equivalent non-Millenicom associated Verizon plan in the same area, and seeing dramatic speed differences.
The solution to this problem seems to be obtaining a new SIM card for your device from Verizon. Customers have reported that Verizon has been happy to either ship them one, or issue a new one in Verizon owned corporate stores. There is no cost for the new SIM card.
With the new SIM in place - speeds are reportedly back to normal.
Have questions or experiences to share... MIA members can leave comments on this post, and we also offer our RV Mobile Internet Facebook Group.
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