Last night as I was hanging out with some friends - most definitely not listening to a podcast - I got an alert from my phone that my data was at 90%. About an hour later I got an alert that my data was maxed out (I just have the 1gig plan). I just checked out my data usage and almost every last byte of it is as a result of the Joe Rogan Podcast - one big 1gig spike over the course of an hour or so. Color me confused. I haven’t even looked at that app in months.
So … I’m just curious if anyone else has ever experienced anything like this.
It’s an Android - S4 (I think). Yeah, I know about the background data usage I’ve just never seen 1 gig in an hour on an app I hardly ever use.
I’ve deleted the app, but that doesn’t really solve much. I think I’ll shoot over the Verizon store tomorrow and see if there’s any recourse (but I don’t really expect any). My data plan ends on the 20th every month. That’s a long time to go with no 4G.
I’m quite near my limit for the first time, because I changed phones and downloaded a bunch of app updates & data that didn’t get transferred. But my panic ended when I realized that they don’t rip you off - it’s seems they only charge $10 per Gb for overage.
Verizon is going to stop charging overages on all of its plans and offer everyone unlimited data for no charge. After you use your allotment of 4G data, you’ll continue having data at 128 k/sec until your plan recycles. 128 k/sec is pretty slow, but it’s better than no data. If you absolutely must have 4G, you have the option to purchase more Gb.
The whole point of podcast apps is that they download all the episodes in the background. If your app is not set to only download over wi-fi, that can really run over your data.
Also, by my calculation, 128k is enough to watch the lowest quality of Netflix. That’s pretty generous.
I have, due to a weird combination of events, my gf, son, and daughter all on my Verizon phone account. Things have gone smoothly, with warnings for being near my cap happening infrequently and only a day or two before the end of a billing cycle.
Verizon recently sent me one of these warnings and offered to increase my data limit significantly for no additional charge. Not seeing a downside, I accepted their offer.
Yeah, Verizon are somewhat all-over-the-shop with their “plans”. They seem to change monthly, and it’s hard work to see how current offerings compare with what you have, or what extra charges might be. I always start off skeptical that the opacity is deliberate, that they are trying to hide charges and rip you off - but I think it’s just a disorganized mess rather than sinister. I’ve had the same strange experience, where they actually called me up proactively and offered me the exact same service for $20 less per month on a plan that didn’t exist when I chose my plan 6 months earlier. My skepticism that there must be a “catch” has been unfounded.
I think the overriding principle with cell companies and internet/cable companies is this: just try to keep things as simple as possible, and have as few interactions with them as possible, because you can never speak to the same person in customer service twice, and every interaction with them to change anything or to correct any charging error will result in an hour of time wasted.
Quite honestly, I’m sure that this is what they want too - hiring competent human beings to interact with customers is expensive.
I have a 4GB data plan and J Rogan has eaten it up in just 24 hours!!!
Another 5 GB was provided by my company, and he’s eaten that in the same period of time as well (With the app being closed, just as yours was).
This has left me with no data for the month and I cant work out why this app uses so much background data compared to all other apps I have installed. The way to prevent this in future is to select the “Restrict background data usage” option for the app, which stops anything running apart from when on wifi. Although I’m still none the wiser as to what this 1 app in particular uses so much background data. If anyone else knows please tell me!
