Not really. Tons of images on the site guaranteeing unlimited high speed internet. Plus they themselves in that same article said they guarantee 480p for YouTube.
“FreeMii also reserves the right to monitor, suspend, terminate, or otherwise alter the availability of data and wireless connectivity for those members who excessively consume or abuse consumption of wireless services. The use of the term “Unlimited” in our site or other digital collateral or marketing materials shall NOT be construed or interpreted as Unreasonable use.“
Unreasonable use was the reason given by FreeMii for shutting down two users on the Red network so far.
Nah that’s bs lmao, pretty obvious they don’t have unlimited data. 9 GB for Verizon, 23 GB for AT&T, not sure for pink yet.
Limited unlimited, unlimited limited data are common concepts on cell phone service provider sites, not to mention the right to determine what unreasonable use is.
You can get a refund and find a provider who has truly unlimited data with a liberal unreasonable use policy.
Using 23gb in a day is going to raise flags.
Hi all,
Wanted to give an update, as I've been in contact with David directly, as well as Monika. David was able to re-enable the sim within a couple of hours, and while he confirmed that the 9gb flag is currently an automated trigger, I inquired about whether or not this will be an ongoing thing. Lots of talk here about unreasonable use - but here's the thing: They have not defined unreasonable use, and 9gb in a week in certain industries, like IT where you may have a heavy day of remoting into machines, certainly isn't unreasonable.
More importantly, the platform advertises unlimited and then deprioritization, which is the industry standard. Use 9gb or 22gb, doesn't matter, but once you hit the agreed upon soft cap, we are going to throttle you. Shutting off the service, in my opinion, is completely unacceptable, and isn't discussed anywhere in the T/Cs as it relates to 9gb flags, or daily use policy etc. And by having these loose, vague terms, like reserving the right to suspend or kick someone off of the service at their discretion could be a real liability for them in the long run. They are offering lifetime service for a flat fee, but then if they start removing people from the service by finding something worth kicking them off for, they may have a fair trade violation on their hands. Certainly a legal issue that I could see going in front of a court and costing them, even in just legal fees even if they were to win.
Regardless, let me take it back to positive - I voiced (or rather texted) to David that what I was doing wasn't really unreasonable, and without warning, it's kind of an issue. He understood and indicated that while they have the automated triggers currently, they are hoping to have an automated solution to reactivating your service - I think of it as a temporary halt to let you know that you are pacing beyond your 22Gb, would you like to continue? kinda thing. Wont' be for a couple of months, at least, but for now he says that they will gladly reactivate if it happens, just let them know.
I also asked if other networks, specifically Blue, had this same issue. I got the feeling that Blue wasn't as restrictive, but it would cost me a sim change fee, etc.
So I felt really positive by the transparency and responsiveness from David, and I think he knows that they have to flush out a lot of the details sooner than later - I think many of us that are testing this are much more forgiving than the general public who might wake up to a phone that can't make calls.
Monika's response was much more canned and non-descript: she stated, "Our records indicate that your data consumption may exceed 20-22G within the current 30 day cycle. Generally, during periods of high volume traffic, FreeMii supported networks may deprioritize your connectivity after your consumption of approximately 20G of data."
Which really doesn't answer the total shutdown issue, and also doesn't address that you'll have to have it manually re-added currently... but again, these customer service things I think will improve over time as they are forced to handle more of them.
Anyhow, my services are restored... I think we've solved the hard cap debacle for now, so I'll be interested when I hit 9gb next month, if I do it in longer than a week, or at a 22gb/mo pace? It seems like the auto-shut offs are a trigger set by Unified Signal or VZW, not FreeMii specifically, so no telling what the actual threshold is (9gb per week? per 4 days? etc).
Hope this helps someone - if you have any additional questions I didn't answer, let me know!
Yes I do agree total shut off is not acceptable. All it really requires is a friendly reminder of the 22gb policy.
Thanks for the updates. I would agree the total shut down of all services without warning is a huge no no and is the main problem that should be rectified. And, yes, FreeMii should abide by the standard practice of throttling, rather than completely shutting down, data after the prescribed GB limit has been reached.
Concerning not clearly defining unreasonable use, that seems to be a standard practice with service providers. Some say what is unreasonable is determined by their sole discretion and one provider has stated one definition of unreasonable use is a user who is using much more data and call time compared to other users of their service. And I believe FreeUp Mobile states that by using their service one has agreed not to sue them, or something to that effect. In short, cell phone providers in general have stacked the ToS in their favor, naturally. Also, I would guess most service providers state in their ToS that the service cannot be used for any commercial purposes.
Even with its limitations, FreeMii still seems to be a worthwhile deal, assuming it stays afloat for a good while.
You are 100% right about this being the norm amongst carriers, but here's where I see an issue: With a normal monthly, or prepaid carrier, you pay each month, and if there is a decision made to no longer do business between the two parties, either side can walk away... The user can cancel and stop paying, and the provider can stop providing and stop charging.
In the case of FreeMii, there's this HUGE gray area, where it's a membership that is entirely prepaid. What happens when the company decides to walk away? It's destined to happen... someone will do something illegal or nefarious, or use it to download torrents, or who knows... maybe there will just be a misunderstanding where a kid gets ahold of the phone and downloads too much without the parents permission... what then? Are they owed a refund on the remainder of their "lifetime" service? What does that even mean? Or do they just forfeit it?
The latter is the most likely scenario, but I don't think that would hold up on these same vague standards. For the record, I think companies SHOULD have the right to refuse service or turn off service in a non-descriminatory situation, like abuse, mistreatment of employees, etc. No arguments there... there just seems to be a cleaner break of provider/customer in the conventional marketplace.
I switched my sim into another device which is against the FreeMii rules. If they were going to just dump me and my account they would have done that rather than reiterating the rules and helping me get the service going again. That is likely a warning. I won't take the chance that I'd get a second shot.
What you said about FreeMii having a huge gray area, or risk, is true, although with the advent of the mvnos and others offering one year plans, such plans pose a risk as well. The fact that FreeMii offers a 100-day money-back guarantee somewhat mitigates the risk, but at the end of the day we decided when we signed up that the potential rewards outweighed the risks, and given what we now know about data limits every one of us can bail, get our money back(let's hope) and move on, or stay put as the case may be. I personally will be satisfied if FreeMii sticks around for 6 months to or a year or so, and, if not, I got shorted a little on the deal. In a way it's kind of fun for me.
They’re not advertising limited unlimited? I already know all of this, not sure why you’re defending this when 9 gb isn’t even excessive use by their standards? Plus why mention depri after 20 gb if that also equals unreasonable use
Finally a sensible reply, I just have one question. What’s David’s phone number so I can text him too?
I did not say cell service providers were advertising limited unlimited plans on their sites, as I said they were common concepts on their sites in that unlimited plans are offered followed by the ways in which data on those plans is limited.
I'm not sure why, after discovering FreeMii's lies, unreasonableness, and thinking it a scam, you would want to continue with it given you can get a refund and be done with it. My take is I would like the company to succeed and would consider a deal of 5 GB and throttling to 2 GB thereafter per month for life a great deal for the price paid.
https://www.whistleout.com/CellPhones/Guides/Fact-A-Truly-Unlimited-Data-Plan-Doesnt-Exist
Why are you linking me this or teaching me what unlimited means nowadays? There is an insane difference between unlimited with a hard cap after a certain GB and unlimited with possible depri. I have fully unlimited plans from sprint and AT&T already so i know what’s like. Yeah obviously they have terms for “unreasonable use”( read the terms for any website you’ve ever visited). But i can easily run 1 TB with no issues or slowdowns. There’s no congestion in my area for sprint, and AT&T is lenient about that to begin with.
I’m of course gonna get a refund later anyway for this garbage, I only got it to mess around for the time being and see what it is for my own curiosity. Last year they didn’t even send anything after ordering so I guess the scam has evolved a bit.
I’m just sharing how this is a rip off if you get shut off for 9 GB on red when you’re paying $179(now like $230?) upfront. Don’t expect this “company” to last longer than 6 months and what you pay for that length is overpriced for what you get. If you don’t see that then I don’t know what to say.
I also find it hilarious on FreeMii’s part that you’ve quoted their terms more than their own “Customer support” ever has
This is interesting... Wonder if they were just running into too many issues, delays, refunds etc with number porting. Since they are working through an onboarding partner (UnifiedSignal), you really don't have a direct line to the major carriers when there is an issue...
Thinking through some of the posts here about moving from AT&T to FreeMii Blue, and knowing what kind of complications that probably causes, I would bet they are taking the safe route here. Imagine if you had a number for 20 years and it was lost due to an error in a porting problem. I could see a bunch of headaches.
If you're trying to run lean and stand up a new wireless company, sometimes you gotta trim the fat, I suppose!
I suspect that FreeMii is operating as a business plan reseller on AT&T. I think that might account for not allowing porting in a number.
Re: the beta Verizon (and T-Mobile) option: Obviously, there's a significant problem with plan descriptions. Complete line shutdown (including calls) is not kosher, and needs to be addressed or specifically stated.
Even with a hard cap at 9GB, FreeMii would be a bargain for me if it lasts long enough. Since I don't believe either true 'unlimited' or high-GB allotments are viable on a lifetime basis, the issue for FreeMii will rapidly become one of preventing the high-usage customers from dragging the whole operation down that much quicker.
(e.g., if I use a terabyte of data per month, FreeMii might have a breakeven point of only 3 months for my usage. But if such users force FreeMii out of the market after 4 months, a user of 5GB a month will also lose service-- and the breakeven point is significantly longer than 4 months for someone using 5GB/mo.).
I believe FreeMii should be upfront about what their data consumption policies are: but they absolutely need to have reasonable limits, or they'll be a flash in the pan.
Is this a chat screen to freemii customer service support?
If yes, what is the link?, chat hours?
Thank you
Going off topic for a moment, I want to thank you for bringing that particular piece of information to the table. The last time I tried to find out anything about it, I think the best estimate I could find anywhere was that the "unlimited" monthly plan on the market that gave you the most data before throttling your speed still started throttling at...I think I remember reading 79GB. Clearly, times have changed.
As someone who has historically felt barely inconvenienced by trying to stay under 230MB, I didn't continue to follow the topic closely.