Verizon Kicks Thousands Of Customers To The Curb Over Data Usage

In the business of providing customers with wireless internet, it would seem that carriers no longer consider customer service a pertinent part of the industry. Verizon showed how little regard it had for its clients in a recent kerfuffle, for example, when it gave over 8,500 customers the boot over data use. Granted, the company did provide them with a warning, but it’s still indicative of a firm that values profit over people.

This isn’t the first time that Verizon decided to cut off thousands of customers from their data as the carrier did the same thing back in June, Ars Technica reports. Now, it’s doing it again and the unfortunate targets include users from states like Alaska, Idaho, Wisconsin, and 10 others.

According to a spokesperson for the company, the affected customers are being given until October 17th before they lose their connection completely. The company is accusing these customers of using too much data and instead of simply downgrading their plans or just suspending them, the carrier decided that the best course of action is to press the nuclear button.

"These customers live outside of areas where Verizon operates our own network," the spokesperson told Ars Technica. "Many of the affected consumer lines use a substantial amount of data while roaming on other providers’ networks and the roaming costs generated by these lines exceed what these consumers pay us each month. We sent these notices in advance so customers have plenty of time to choose another wireless provider.”

Oddly enough, some of the customers who did get disconnected were on unlimited plans. In fact, there are those who claim that they never even exceeded 50GB of data a month. When the company was asked about these cases, Verizon decided to shrug it off and say that their customers aren’t impacted if their data usage amounts to what they pay.

Aside from the customers themselves, local wireless services are also outraged over this development, BGR reports. Many of them partnered with Verizon because they believed that the company would not alienate customers this way, which would impact costs of operation and infrastructure.