Help Purchased Pixel from Google, but it has Verizon bloatware and no WifI hotspot on the phone

[zetroc]

2. I do (as someone mentioned above) have a grandfathered unlimited data plan and I do NOT have "WiFi hotspot" included as an add-on to my Verizon plan; however, that never stopped my Moto X v2 and Moto X Pure Edition from having a working WiFi Hotspot right out of the box. Having the WiFi hotspot option blocked is new (to me) with the Pixel and it seems odd that going from a phone made by Motorolla which was mostly "pure" to one made by Google (both on the same carrier) would actually cause me to lose my free WiFi Hotspot. I didn't make any changes to my actual Verizon plan when I purchased the Pixel or when my wife picked up her new SIM.

Agree with @lunatic59. It's well known that grandfathered unlimited plans don't get tethering/hotspot by default. Even when unlimited plans were offered, hotspot was an additional feature. You can no longer add that feature to your plan even if you have a granfathered unlimited plan. Welcome to the trade off of keeping your unlimited plan in an age of data buckets. I'm sorry, this is probably not something you were hoping to read

 

[vzwuser76]

I didn't do anything but install the sim and turn the phone on. I got no notifications to install any apps.

I booted the phone with my sim in it and it came right up. I didn't have to engage Verizon in any way which is exactly what I was hoping for.

Verizon knows that I'm using a Nexus because it shows under my account.

One possible wrinkle is that I'm a prepaid rather than a postpaid customer. Prepaid are considered second class citizens in Verizon Land and maybe that's to my benefit.

I don't know how they could push apps to Pixels either. On my Maxx 2 they used that insidious crapware DT Ignite which I disabled immediately on my Maxx 2.

Leave it to an American carrier to ruin the new phone experience!

There is a difference between the 5x (or the 6p in my case) and the Pixels. For one thing, the Pixels will give you full access to Verizon's features, which wasn't available on the 5x or 6p. For example, while I did have access to VoLTE on my 6p (by enabling Enhanced 4G LTE Mode) I didn't have Advance Calling show up in the settings and didn't have access to WiFi calling either. While Verizon whitelisted the 5x and 6p for use on their network, it was unsupported. The Pixels however, are supported by Verizon and therefore have access to those features.

You may object to them installing apps on your phone when the sim card is installed, but really it's only 3 apps, all of which can be uninstalled. That's much better than any previous unlocked device on Verizon. I'm picking one up because it will give me access to WiFi calling while still getting pure Android and hopefully fast updates. I live in a low signal area, and therefore had to use a Network Extender to make calls in my house. The problem is they aren't the most reliable, the frequently go down and when that happens I have no call capability. But I have strong WiFi in my house and could eliminate having to deal with them.

 

[AZgl1500]

I live in a low signal area, and therefore had to use a Network Extender to make calls in my house. The problem is they aren't the most reliable, the frequently go down and when that happens I have no call capability. But I have strong WiFi in my house and could eliminate having to deal with them.

I too once used a Network Extender in my home because there were no VZW sites anywhere near my home. That made getting/making calls out problamatic...

The extender solved that issue. It created a separate problem though, if a call was initiated/taken in the home and you continue to talk as you drive away, the call is dropped when you get out of range of the Network Extender... the reason being, there is no local cell site to hand the call of to. With the Network Extender, all of my calls would be traced back to Los Angeles, CA even though I was in the Tulsa, OK area.

Just an odd feature of using Network Extenders... try it sometime, look up your IP address while using the extender....

http://whatismyipaddress.com/

https://www.whatismyip.com/

 

[badcatz]

There is a difference between the 5x (or the 6p in my case) and the Pixels. For one thing, the Pixels will give you full access to Verizon's features, which wasn't available on the 5x or 6p. For example, while I did have access to VoLTE on my 6p (by enabling Enhanced 4G LTE Mode) I didn't have Advance Calling show up in the settings and didn't have access to WiFi calling either. While Verizon whitelisted the 5x and 6p for use on their network, it was unsupported. The Pixels however, are supported by Verizon and therefore have access to those features.

You may object to them installing apps on your phone when the sim card is installed, but really it's only 3 apps, all of which can be uninstalled. That's much better than any previous unlocked device on Verizon. I'm picking one up because it will give me access to WiFi calling while still getting pure Android and hopefully fast updates. I live in a low signal area, and therefore had to use a Network Extender to make calls in my house. The problem is they aren't the most reliable, the frequently go down and when that happens I have no call capability. But I have strong WiFi in my house and could eliminate having to deal with them.

Just to be clear no apps were ever installed on my 5X. As I previously stated I actually used the My Verizon app on my Maxx 2 and found it useful. My distaste for their bloatware stems from the 12 or 15 apps I had to disable on my Maxx 2 starting with DT Ignite. Almost all of this crap can't be uninstalled and the user is just forced to deal with it. At least they can be disabled.
I understand what you're saying about the added features but I really don't care about WiFi calling. I'm also on a prepaid plan which automatically makes me a second class citizen as far as Verizon is concerned. That's Ok because I knew that going in.