I have had Viasat Internet service since Nov 2022. I live in the middle of nowhere and have little choice.
This month y’all are telling me that I’ve used 270 GB in 13 days. I go over 300 GB almost every month. I call twice a month and get horrible customer service and excuses and hung up on. They cannot and will not tell me which devices used the data. Every month it’s some new ridiculous problem.
The Viasat Shield that I pay $8.99 per month for has NEVER worked. Today, someone finally tells me about this forum. The Shield group is working on the issue with Viasat Shield (didn’t know they existed until today too). I need y’all to tell me why I go from an average daily use of 7 GB to 21 GB. Why does 10 GB of data get used even when we are not home and nothing is connected to Viasat?
I know when we use 40 GB in a day and I know when we absolutely DO NOT. Viasat also abuses data throttling in a way that I’ve never I‘ve seen. There is no such thing as “standard data” with Viasat. As soon as we use all HSD, we have ZERO DATA.
I’m willing to pay a ridiculous amount because I love where I live but y’all are seriously messing with me to see how dumb I am. If I can’t get this resolved I’m going back to carrier pigeons.
Yikes. I don’t want to be feisty with y’all. You’re new to my situation. I am so frustrated.
I bought an additional 30 GB this afternoon. I just got an email telling me that I’ve used it all. I look at the usage and it says I used 25 GB yesterday and 5 GB today. I didn’t have any data all day yesterday and made the humans in my house disconnect from Viasat completely. I went to sleep on MOtHERS DAY without my favorite podcast because I was so pressed and stressed and insane about the way y’all treat people - I refused to buy more data yesterday.
@Inthewoods most of your data usage (as with most subscribers) is streaming video. Question: did you ever use the Video Data Extender when it used to be available? It was disabled for all users April 1. You can read about it here: Should I enable Video Data Extender?. I’m asking because I wonder if your rate of priority data consumption was slower prior to this change. Put another way – did the problem you describe of running through your priority data too quickly seem to get worse in April?
I know that the majority of data is used streaming video. That’s pretty much all we do on Viasat. I have an AT&T hot spot and a Brightspeed account to use for gaming and other purposes.
It did get worse in April but it’s been horrible since December. Compare my usage by month. Look at Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr….how many 45 minute television shows would I have to watch to use 300
GB?
Ok we are trying to look month by month to see if there is anything we can improve. Did the data extender cause buffering/freezing when you were streaming for you? Many complained of this and is the reason it was disabled.
In response to many on this forum asking for the Data Extender to be re-enabled, we have started running a feature experiment with customers who are interested. The experiment includes re-enabling Video Data Extender and providing participants a private category to report problems and issues with the feature. This will allow us to potentially developer a better version of the data extender that saves data without increasing the incidence of so-called buffering. If you are interested, let me know and I can send you more information.
The data extender did not cause any buffering/freezing at all. The only time I get buffering and/or freezing is if I’m out of priority data…I get buffering and freezing for about 10 minutes and then I have NO data.
I would be interested. I don’t want a bandaid. I just want my service to work without y’all telling me that I’ve used 45 GB in a day when I know I didn’t. I have record of the days that we downloaded large files to my gamer child’s PC.
I’ve had 2 good months with Viasat. My bill has run from $300 - $700. It’s out of control.
I need for someone to explain how I used 25 GB of data on Mother’s day when non of my devices were connected AND I had run out of data the day before and I refused to increase it.
Honestly, I think y’all saw a household that uses a lot of data and you’re taking advantage. I think Viasat is intentionally trying to see how stupid I am.
Ok we will focus on this particular day and see if we can’t get an explanation. I will separately message you about participating in the Data Saver Feature Experiment.
The biggest chunk of usage is streaming video (also called “Real Time Entertainment”) to an “Apple Device” and the timeframe is in the afternoon of Mother’s Day. Does that ring a bell?
To be honest, our ability to see which devices and applications are consuming the data is somewhat limited. Best would be if you had a Wifi router with detailed hourly, daily, weekly analytics on devices and applications consuming data. I can recommend one if you are interested.
No. It doesn’t ring a bell. We didn’t use any Viasat data on Mother’s Day. We had run out of data and I was salty about it so I refused to buy more. I live on a mountain in the middle of nowhere. I had NO DATA to use that day. On Monday, I broke down and bought another 30GB. Within 4 hours y’all said that I used it all. When I looked at the data usage graph…it said that I used 25 of the 30 GB of data on Mother’s Day. I didn’t this is fraudulent.
This has happened multiple times.
I need y’all to explain it, prove it, justify it…something.
I just want internet access without this hassle and dishonesty.
Gosh that is puzzling. How about if I ship you a Wifi router that you can plugin free of charge that includes its own data analytics interface? This will allow you to monitor your own usage and will provide a second measurement of the data consumed that is totally independent of your ISP.
I hate to hijack this thread, but I know that you don’t have an obligation at all to provide video compression, but please advocate bringing the data extender back, even if it defaults to off for everyone, and must be manually turned on.
We’ve followed the guides on turning on data savings per app,. but it’s a nightmare. It’s the age of 'the Internet of Things" everything connects. Everything shows videos. Updates sometimes revert the settings back, and some apps just don’t have the option at all. Our kids have school-issue Chromebooks that have some deepfreeze software on them that resets settings every time they turn off the laptops. We have to remember every time to change the settings.
I completely understand none of that is Viasatat’s problem. What is Viasat’s problem, is “How do we build value for our customers”. Dataextender used to be a value add. Until a few years ago, there were no options, but with the advent of Amazon, *link, and a few other new players, the field is getting full with options.
We’ve been customers since 2012. Sure, we’ve gone over our limits several times, but it was never a big deal. Honestly, after compression the cost per GB wasn’t unreasonable for rural. Now, there are far better economical options.
11 years of stable service , so we’ve never contemplated on switching providers until recently. If we do switch, it’s because we have to and not because we want to. Sorry to ramble.
In response to the many who have asked for Video Data Extender to be brought back, we have started running a feature experiment with customers who are interested. The experiment involves re-enabling Video Data Extender for a period of time. We will make a public post on it soon but in the meantime I have been inviting people who express interest. Would you like me to send you more information on how to get started?
Yes. Please send me a WiFi router. What else can we do? I’m telling you that I didn’t use 300 GB of data from April 1-13. I’m asking you to show me that I used that much data. Are you telling me that you can’t? How many hours of streaming video does it take to get to 300 GB.
Where is the resolution in this? How is resolution possible?
Ok I will start a new topic thread on the WiFi router so that is it is handled independently of this issue.
I can share what we are seeing on our side. Do you mind if I share it publicly here on the forum so that others can potentially get the benefit of the understanding? The data will essentially show two things:
the amount data consumed over time from April 1-13 which will show a big spike on April 8.
some information about the content that caused the spike.
If you’d prefer not to, then I can share it privately.
Why did my usage go down significantly on Monday and remain that way thru right now?
Because of the data extender? If so, Viasat needs to reimburse me for the outrageous charges you’ve added while y’all pretend to be a legitimate provider. I’ve paid between $300 - $700 per month with your bogus charges. Y’all need to reimburse me for the $8.99 I’ve paid since November too. Why am I charged for Viasat Shield if it doesn’t work and/or is inaccurate.
Fix this. Come up with a solution. Do something productive to keep me as a customer. Does Viasat want a customer for $300-$400 a month, every month or no customer. Y’all decide and let me know.
Data Extender was disabled across the network on April 1 and then you had it re-enabled as part of the Data Saver Feature Experiment yesterday late afternoon. I do not know off hand the reason that usage went down on Monday but I can look. Its important to keep all of these questions separate so we can answer them and not get them confused or drop anyway. I’m working on answering your other questions.
I hope I can still assume that all of this can be made public because I know you are not the only person with these questions.
