I like Seen, however I want I knew one factor earlier than I joined

Slightly over a month in the past, I made an enormous change in my cellular phone world; after 10 years of being a T-Cellular buyer, I jumped ship and joined Seen. Not totally positive what to anticipate with such a dramatic transition, I’ve been more than happy with Seen up to now. The sign-up course of was straightforward, my service has been nice, and I’m actually proud of the worth I’m paying.

In addition to issues have gone, there was one hiccup that I wasn’t anticipating. It’s removed from a dealbreaker, but it surely’s one thing I didn’t understand till after my first month with Seen — and I want somebody had advised me about it sooner.

Seen has three plans you possibly can select from: Seen, Seen Plus, and Seen Plus Professional. The final two plans are Seen’s extra premium choices, providing options like quicker 5G speeds, higher hotspot efficiency, and extra intensive worldwide protection. The plan you select additionally dictates the type of video streaming you are able to do on Seen’s community.

In case you join the fundamental Seen plan, video streaming is capped at simply 480p SD. Nevertheless, when you have Seen Plus or Seen Plus Professional, video streaming high quality will increase to 1080p HD or 4K UHD, respectively. Easy sufficient, proper? You’d assume so, however that’s not all there may be to it.

Whereas digging by means of the Seen app in the future, close to the tip of my first month of service, I stumbled throughout one thing attention-grabbing. On the Account web page below the Get probably the most out of Seen part, you possibly can swipe by means of to see your varied advantages, corresponding to any World Passes you may have and your smartwatch service. On the finish of the listing is an choice for HD Video.

I assumed this could simply be an informational web page concerning the 4K UHD max streaming high quality that comes with my Seen Plus Professional plan, however lo and behold, there was extra to it — particularly, an choice to allow stated streaming high quality.

By default, Seen plans with HD/UHD video streaming high quality apparently don’t have this function enabled by default. As a substitute, you need to manually allow it your self … in a sub-menu buried deep within the Seen app … one which the corporate by no means tells you about.

I began digging round on-line to see if I had in some way turned this off by mistake when establishing my account, however that’s not what occurred. Because it seems, just a few customers within the r/Seen subreddit have additionally reported needing to allow HD streaming for his or her accounts.

It looks like one thing Seen added pretty just lately (throughout the final six months or so), and as grateful as I used to be to search out that Reddit thread, I actually want Seen had knowledgeable me about this itself. One of many principal causes I selected the Seen Plus Professional plan is for its 4K UHD video streaming, and to have gone a month with out that as a result of I didn’t faucet a toggle Seen by no means advised me about is simply foolish.

In Seen’s protection, it isn’t the primary provider or MVNO to tug one thing like this. T-Cellular had an analogous setting for my outdated ONE Plus plan, and Verizon and AT&T do that, too. It’s annoying and pointless, however from the carriers’ perspective, that’s why they do it. They’re nonetheless offering you with the high-quality video streaming you signed up for; they simply aren’t turning it on for you, they usually’re banking on the truth that you’ll overlook to do it or received’t understand how — thus saving them community sources and cash within the course of.

I suppose I shouldn’t be shocked that Seen additionally does this (it’s owned by Verizon, in spite of everything), but it surely feels at odds with Seen’s in any other case consumer-friendly method to nearly the whole lot else it does. I’d count on an annoying hoop like this from one of many massive carriers, however a part of me thought Seen can be higher. However hey, perhaps that’s what its proprietor, Verizon, is banking on. If that’s the case, you bought me.

Going a month with out the very best video streaming high quality is in the end only a small bump within the street, and as soon as I noticed what I needed to do, it took all of 5 seconds to activate my plan’s HD video capabilities. No hurt, no foul.

Nonetheless, I might have preferred to have recognized about this sooner. In case you’re desirous about becoming a member of Seen or have just lately signed up, at the very least I can provide the heads up I want I had gotten.