Don’t be This Verizon Customer Whose Bill is $700 Because He Doesn’t Know What a WiFi Toggle Is

The animation in the image at the top of this post is subtle, but most of you can probably see the difference. For those missing it, the difference is a toggle between WiFi and LTE. That minor icon change almost cost a Verizon customer an additional $700 on their bill.

What’s the story here? A Verizon customer took to reddit this week looking for help from the Big Red subreddit, which is filled with actual Verizon employees who regularly share useful insight into the company. The customer stopped by there looking for help because they had run into an issue that caused an excessive use of data over their 5GB data limit, jumping their bill to the $700 status I noted above.

What was the issue? At “at some point this month,” they began, “me or someone else turned off my wifi on my phone.” That’s it. Their WiFi got turned off and didn’t notice for days or weeks or a month and ended up using 46GB of data, raising their bill to $700. Think about that for a second, take a look at the image at the top of this post again, and then feel free to shake your head some.

Now, to be fair, not everyone in the world is super tech savvy and has a great understanding of all phone icons. This person also said that they recently made the switch from an iPhone to a Galaxy S9. Things certainly change from one phone to the next. But come on, man! You have got to know if you are on WiFi or not! You have a limited 5GB plan – worrying about data usage should be a never-ending itch in the back of your brain. I have unlimited and I still (for some reason) care whether or not I’m on WiFi or LTE.

In the end, this customer did the right thing by stopping by the Verizon subreddit. A number of people recommended he call Verizon and see if they would let him change his plan to an unlimited option before the billing cycle ended to wipe away the charges. Sure enough, Verizon did just that, saving him hundreds of dollars and allowing him to enjoy a vacation with the family instead of stressing over $700 in overages.

A WiFi toggle. A freakin’ WiFi toggle.

// reddit