No usable service for a week - 3 phones/accounts

[jimc]

Tried posting on Reddit - fail, tried PM or chat on Reddit - VisibleCareTeam not accepting messages, tried to respond email from person at Visible - FAIL ... that brings me here.

Three phones (three accounts) - same location ... I use these for work and have three because I'm trying to not abuse "fair use".   A week ago (either Wednesday or Thursday) all three phones/accounts changed from good service to unusable/unreliable ... monitoring them at 3AM, 6AM, 9AM, noon, 3PM, 6PM and 8PM ... multiple speed tests on each one ... they will all fail routinely fail to connect or have download 1-2 Mbps, upload <100Kpbs ... and often loose connection during the test.  I have spent more that 3 hours a day walking through the same troubleshooting and changes with the chat-support.
At prompting of support - one of the phones was factory reset, and Motorola firmware reinstalled ... that one worked 'good' for about 5 minutes and then (I suspect when the Visible provisioning data was downloaded) it reverted to the unusable state.  This phone we also changed from SIM card to eSIM (downloaded/installed Monday)
I use these for internet ... don't try calling me, I have a hearing disability.   No facebook or X or tweeter ... joined Reddit today and can't make posts or send messages ... 

[DeanKevin64]

No one is going to call you from this site. This is a peer to peer forum and the only way to get a hold of customer service is by chat, Reddit or the 3 social media platforms you don't have. As for Reddit new account I don't think can send messages for a week but not sure. As for posting on Visible's Reddit page the moderators enforced a minimum post/karma count in order to post which means you need to post on some no minimum required subreddits to gain karma.

You didn't say which plans you are on, if it is the base plan on all three you are being deprioritized, you are not getting premium data. Normally the base plan would become usable during late night early morning hours. It has also been mentioned on Visible's Reddit page that Visible has added a soft cap or throttle to those that who use over 450GB of data and speeds will be slowed to less than 3Mbps speeds, it shouldn't happen to all 3 accounts unless all three are over that. How good is your signal? I am in a rural area and I have 3 towers in my area but they are around 8 to 10 miles away in two directions so I only get 1-2 bars and that affects data speeds a lot. If I do a speed test at home with 1 to 2 bars I get less then 10, actually less than 5 on the new plus plan during the daytime, If I head to town where two of the three towers are I actually get 70 to 80Mbps on average and 160Mbps on one trip and 102Mbps on another and that was when I was on the base plan. I switched to the plus plan a couple weeks ago because daytime speeds have gotten bad on the base plan because of de-prioritization and congestion on the towers, speeds were less than 1Mbs, I forgot to check my speeds today to see what premium data speeds gets me when I am within a mile or two and getting 4 to 5 bars.

[jimc]

DeanKevin64 - THANK YOU.  I agree, this didn't seem like the place to post, but I'm getting desperate -  and I really appreciate your response.   Your information is very helpful.   For what its worth -  the 3 devices have one each of the 'vanilla Visible', Visible+ and Visible+ Pro plans ... and I can run speed tests on them side by side and there is no difference in the poor performance.   And I've ran the tests on all three at all hours of the day ... maybe there's some minor improvement at 3AM ... but again, its every one of the three and they all have the about the same values.   The Visible + Pro plan renewed on Monday - it was probably 100GB before renewing ... and that didn't change results either.

I have a Cel-Fi booster, in-house always have 4 or 5 bars - 4G only ... and one maybe two bars outside ... and testing inside vs outside makes no difference either ... watching the speed tests run most of the time it appears the download is capped at about 3Mbps for all the phones.   At 3AM ... I'll occassionally get download 3Mbps and upload of 12Mbps ... which seems to me to be some obvious management of the data stream.

The thing that makes this usuable is that (all three phones) if I repeat the speedtest every minute - in a group of four tests there will be at least one, more often 2 of the tests with download or upload equal ZERO and often times the speed disconnects for 'no connection'.

One of the phones - with the V+Pro plan occasionally will connect to 5G outside and provide 200+Mbps download, one time and then it changes to 4G and has 3Mbps download.

Thanks again, I really appreciate you taking the time to help me.

[DeanKevin64 · Accepted solution]

If the base plan and the two plus plans are getting the same speeds between then I don't think it would be congestion because the base plan would literally be zero. In my rural area I only have 4G LTE and for the last 2 months I have been getting less then 1Mbps in the afternoon when the local(very small town and school) gets out I literally couldn't do much as far as data on the phone. I am coming up on 4 years with Visible and have had a number of times it was this bad but it was intermittent. Since they come out with the new plus I finally gave in and switched 2 weeks ago. My daytime speeds are better at close to 2 to 5Mbps for most of the afternoon into early evening then I get upwards of 70Mbps later in the evening.

It sounds to me like you need to contact them through chat and get your lines provisioned on every line. You can't rule out congestion but it is possible the congestion can be that bad but the base plan should be affected the most during congestion since it is the bottom of the barrel when it comes to priority for data.

[jimc]

DeanKevin64 ... thank you again, I marked your help as a solution.

Your info is much appreciated.   I did follow-up with Visible chat on two of the phones ... one appears they did 'reprovision' and it works (the bottom tier plan).   Another chat session I was told there's issues with particular network I'm using, and my data use on the Visible+ plan exceeding the limit, and that all Visible plans are data limited,  and are deprioritized to prevent further data usage until the plan is renewed.   Apparently this is the 'new plan' ... that's not what I read, I asked that Visible send me an email to identify the specific clause that indicates a the Visible plans are not Unlimited even with deprioritization.   I've not recieved any email from Visible (I'm not expecting one).

Unfortunately the variety of answers and apparent random and poor actions by Visible clearly indicate that I need an alternate service provider ... I suspect that simply signing up as a new customer would fix the provisioning.

Thanks again.

[DeanKevin64]

There has been mention on Visible's Reddit page that they added a limit where speeds are slowed down after 450GB of data usage. If you have not used 450GB of data then when Visible said it is the particular network you are using it could be because the majority of the data you are consuming is on another carriers service if you are outside of the regular Visible coverage area, meaning roaming on another network. I am only speculating on Visible's decision about this from what I have read.

I know the speed slow down is not mentioned on the website but it is in the terms and conditions if Visible sees it as abuse. It just doesn't specify at what amount. I am thinking Visible won't send an email either but if you wish to read up on the T&C about this slow down the link is below and scroll down to the section "Our right to limit or end service..."

https://www.visible.com/legal/terms-and-conditions

You're welcome! Just wish I had more precise answers for you but I can only pass on what I have read on here and on Reddit.

[jimc]

FYI only ... my data use that was claimed excessive was 85GB.   The Visible person said it was 135GB and when I challenged that the phone says 85GB that discussion ended.   As I said - I had 3 phone/plans as my attempt at fair use.   I've seen folks on Reddit and elsewhere claiming 300+ GB on a single plan ... I think my target was to try to be around 100 GB per plan.   My usage was  almost all hotspot type data ... not that I see that makes a difference.

I think the most precise answers are what we get from the Community, its obvious to me that Visible (and the rest) have an uneasy relationship with the truth.

[DeanKevin64]

I have saw that on Reddit also. Even I have used over 100GB and no slow down but then during the day even on now that I am on Visible+ my speeds are less than 5Mbps at times but was less than 1Mbps on the base plan because of congestion.

The only thing I can think of is what I mentioned about roaming, or domestic roaming as it's referred to. I am not sure how to tell if a person is roaming on another carrier though, not sure if the phone displays it when it is roaming.

Hope Visible gets back to you on the reason behind it.