

Verizon rescinds service to Samsung Chromebook 3G owners - nashashmi
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/chromebook-central/ip9eVs-p0N0

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mendicant
Okay, 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.

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crazygringo
Does 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?

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btian
You 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.

~~~
mpchlets
You can sue for any reason whatsoever - does not mean you will win.

I am sure that Verizon was smart enough to put a limitation on the time that
one had to activate the service. They have very many lawyers that would never
allow a deal with no end date.

But again, you buy something over 1 year ago and only activate now? Did you
really need this service?

Anyhow - you should not expect people to have a special offer that never
expires, you must activate it to get the benefits.

But honestly, sounds like you are crying over nothing if it is really 1 year
ago that you purchased this. You are being unreasonable.

~~~
mark-r
Shouldn't said lawyers have made sure there was an expiration date on the
original wording of the offer? If not on the packaging then somewhere in the
fine print? In the absence of one you might successfully argue that it was
open-ended.

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nkozyra
A little premature to declare that the service has been rescinded based on
that conversation, no?

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noname2
I'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.

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jeremymcanally
Bummer. 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
Worst 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
Wow, 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.

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jrs235
Tell 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
They 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.

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kbar13
Note that OP says he purchased in January of 2013, not 2014.

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mukundmr
From 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.

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ascendantlogic
Lets 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).

~~~
baldfat
Just 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
_(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.

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x0054
Perhaps an alternative is T-Mobiles 200MB/m free offer. It works great and is
truly free.

~~~
clauretano
If 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.

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deepblueocean
Chromebook 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.

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natch
Then in three years the Google data charges start. Sigh. I never saw how
people think these non-computers are a good deal.

~~~
ytjohn
Most 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-...](http://www.howtogeek.com/162120/how-to-install-ubuntu-linux-on-
your-chromebook-with-crouton/)).

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noname123
I 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.

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jotm
Wow, 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.

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noname2
Yea 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.

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coreymgilmore
sounds like a telco being a telco....lots of fine print. the free lunch of
data plans wasn't going to last forever.

~~~
xster
+1, sounds like getting a credit card with '0% interest' and believing them

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mh8h
Looks like Amazon updated the product details page. It doesn't show the free
two year wwan any more.

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noname2
sounds 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

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nsp
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