Let me start from the beginning...

I've long used Verizon to connect my Apple laptop to the Internet, with a separate T-Mobile account for my cell phone.

Recently, I decided to buy an iPad and iPhone. I figured I might as well stick with Verizon, so I upgraded my account for my iPad2 and the Android phone a Verizon salesman talked me into buying.

It's been a total disaster. The service was unbelievably bad; I seldom got straight answers to my questions. I asked a salesman how much my first bill would be, and he said "$120," an increase from the $100 I used to pay (after they told me I'd get a discount).

In fact, my first bill was for $200...plus over $500 in overusage charges. But when I visited Verizon's website, there was no way to monitor my usage. My understand was that I shouldn't worry about it until after I got my first bill.

The final irony is that my service is far worse than before. My Internet connections are often very slow, and I often can't connect to the Internet at all.

There's no way I'm going to pay more than $120, so I may have to abandon Verizon. But what are my options?

Since I purchased the Verizon iPad version, am I stuck, or is there a way to connect it with other carriers? I originally wanted to connect it using my cell phone's hot spot - but that's another mystery I could never figure out; the Verizon salesman never gave me a straight answer.

Anyway, if I switched my cell phone to AT&T or some other carrier, could I then use the phone's hot spot to connect to the Internet?

Of course, the other problem is that I have a Verizon phone, so I might have to buy an iPhone after all.

This whole experience has been so unbelievably bad, I can't understand Verizon can stay in business. Is AT&T this bad, too?

Thanks for any tips.

One way around your problem might be to purchase a MiFi portable WiFi hotspot. These are small sized units whose sole function in life is to provide a WiFi hotspot via a 3G connection. So they connect to the local cellular provider - say AT&T - and then broadcast a WiFi signal to which you could 'connect' your iPad. There are several models available and if you search this Forum you'll see plenty of discussions of the pros and cons of the various units available.

Let us know how you get on.

On a separate note, though, I would pursue Verizon over this poor service. Write to them and let them know you're posting your experience on iPad Forum. The thought of that negative publicity on the largest iPad Forum website in the world might convince them to take your complaint a little more seriously than they seem to have done so far.

Tim