The five stages of grief for all-you-can-surf data

Verizon Wireless today made it official: it is getting rid of all-you-can-eat wireless data plans for new smartphone buyers.

Customers immediately and publicly started working through the five stages of grief.

First there was denial:

Reddit and 4chan got the jump on the game more than a week ago when word leaked out about the change. Users of those sites organized a protest called “Operation F*ck Verizon.”

People had similar reactions elsewhere, bemoaning the loss of data-hungry applications, especially streaming video players:

“If I’m ever forced into tiered data from #Verizon, it will be the end of @Crackle @netflix @playontv @SHOUTcastRadio @tunein @winamp for me!,” tweeted bluejacketsTNT.

“Verizon is limiting data plans. NO MORE UNLIMITED DATA???,” posted one commenter on Tumblr. “That means….NO MORE UNLIMITED TUMBLR ON MY PHONE. CEO of Verizon, I am coming for you.”

Despite their efforts, Verizon Wireless—a joint venture of UK telecom Vodafone and US-based Verizon—went ahead.

Then came the next stage: anger, with a lot of expletives.

Over on Imgur, the image-hosting service favored by Reddit users, someone posted a simple graphic with words of wisdom: “They are capping our data at a few gigs and making us pay out the ass for more.”

“Fuck you Verizon,” Kidd LaJaunie put it succinctly at Facebook. “i’m NOT paying extra for a service that only fucking works when it wants to……. looks like i’m going to AT&T.”

That’s not a very sensible reaction, of course, since AT&T stopped selling unlimited smartphone data plans last year.

Next stage: bargaining.

“A little scared by the end of unlimited data pricing,” LeahRosin tweeted. “I should just buy #Verizon stock and then I might feel more optimistic ;)”

Followed by depression, and perhaps a little empathy.

“Wow I feel sorry for the verizon people out there that no longer have unlimited smartphone data that sucks,” wrote Bryan Nave  on Facebook.

“And now… Verizon has data caps. Its a sad day,” tweeted jordanstaniscia.

“Wow I feel sorry for the verizon people out there that no longer have unlimited smartphone data that sucks,” wrote Bryan Nave on Facebook.

Finally came acceptance.

“We knew it wouldn’t last,” tweeted Dodson_Realty.

Yay @sprint unlimited data!” added robterakedis. (Sprint is, indeed, the last major carrier offering unlimited data.)

And on Facebook Steven A. Vaughn actually seemed to rejoice.

“…may quit using all this electronic crap and go back to that which works. But, unlimited data use on Verizon and AT&T has come to an end. Hopefully we’ll see less personal oral diarrhea. Maybe less texting and other rude behaviors with phones are in our future. Hurrah!!!!”

There were of course, those who just simply skirted the whole problem: Verizon grandfathered in those who already had existing plans.

Man Leung wrote: “So I switched over to verizon yesterday to be grandfathered into the unlimited 4G data plan. Two words: awesome + fast!”