Amazon deal... Working the system?

[haupman]

I dont think you can do any of these suggestions without triggering Amazons own ETF.

 

[WolfBrother]

Just talked to a sales rep. He said switching over the plans is ok. No issues.

Good to go.

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[BayouFlyFisher]

Just talked to a sales rep. He said switching over the plans is ok. No issues.

Good to go.

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Switching phones from one line to the other is not going to be the issue. Cancelling the two new lines is where the difficulty will come in.

Good luck.

 

[WolfBrother]

Each line must stay active for 181 days.

We ate keeping one extra line for my mother-in-law. Droping the other Droid x to a basic flip phone, with no data.

It works out.


Phones arrive the 18th. (so it says)

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[MissSpiffy]

^^... I doubt that that is his thought process at all??? No one,(no reflection on you! Honestly) but, perhaps an inexperienced child would expect to cancel something based on a purchase without having to return said purchase...
You wouldn't lease or buy a car on a two year loan, cancel the loan and expect to keep the car would you? As he indicated "his and his wife's plans" I'm giving him the adult by default advice


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Well Said Sir, but this line from the OP might suggest otherwise: "Can we cancel the new lines and add are current plans to the bionics without fees for canceling the new lines?"

That would suggest to me that you are giving the OP too much credit.

and to the OP, the short answer is NO. When you get those phones for a penny, you are getting them BECAUSE you are signing a 2-year contract on two NEW lines. If you were to cancel the lines, then would essentially void your contract with them and all the perks that went with it (phones for a penny!).

The best you can hope for is to settle for paying an extra 20 bucks a month by doing what a previous poster suggest (sorry, don't recall the name)...but here are the insider steps you must follow:

1) Get the 2 new lines and get the phones for a penny. (yay! awesome deal)
2) Acquire 2 non-smartphone devices, or even just 2 ESN/MEIDs that are not in use, and place them on the NEW lines - this frees up the new Bionics. If you don't have the phone anymore but know you had one on your line at some point, you can call in and tell them it is in your history and they can copy the ESN right back in, assuming someone else isn't currently using that exact same device.
3) Via my verizon or customer service, simply place those Bionics on your existing lines. The unlim plan will stay as long as you do not place a non-smartphone on there.
4) Pay off lines 3 & 4 for two years, paying 19.98/ month, and don't complain about it because even though that is costing to 480 dollars over the course of 2 years, you just saved a cummulative $700.46. Look at it as getting a really good deal and paying it off over 2 years .

 

[bigkhan]

Not only are you getting a good deal by adding the 2 lines, but now each of you can upgrade every 10 months or so since you can transfer your upgrades to other lines. Ive been doing it for several years. My bionic was a transfer upgrade. I had just got the droid pro back in January on an upgrade, 8 months. Now i can upgrade again with discount september 2012. 1 year.

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[MissSpiffy]

I dont think you can do any of these suggestions without triggering Amazons own ETF.

This is very true, and I hadn't thought of this as I'd completely overlooked it. Several months ago I looked up their contract "fine print" and I learned some important stuff, and if nothing has changed since then I can tell you that they stipulate that you must not alter the plan or even the features for 6 months or they will charge you a fee which is somewhere in the ball park of $250 dollars per line. This might throw a wrench in your whole plan and any plans others have suggested. Go read the fine print. They do this because they know that people out there will try to work the system and they lose money because of it.

PLEASE READ: If you talk to a rep who works with verizon wireless and they say "Oh, it should be fine" please KEEP IN MIND that they can only attest to what happens if you do your transaction within a corporate location. Indirect retailors, EG AMAZON, are allowed to impose their own contract terms in addition to Verizon's. So unless an Amazon representative tells you "yea, you should be fine to do that" then you should proceed with great caution.

and I REPEAT: You cannot cancel a line without an ETF if you are keeping the phone, do you really think that you are smarter than them? The d/c fee on a smartphone starts at 350, and unless a you can talk an employee at the management level to just go ahead and d/c your lines and waive or credit the ETF (haha! good luck) then the system is set up with checks and balances to automatically catch these things and charge you accordingly.

I am just trying to save you money and a real PITA situation.

 

[Signum]

This is very true, and I hadn't thought of this as I'd completely overlooked it. Several months ago I looked up their contract "fine print" and I learned some important stuff, and if nothing has changed since then I can tell you that they stipulate that you must not alter the plan or even the features for 6 months or they will charge you a fee which is somewhere in the ball park of $250 dollars per line. This might throw a wrench in your whole plan and any plans others have suggested. Go read the fine print. They do this because they know that people out there will try to work the system and they lose money because of it.

PLEASE READ: If you talk to a rep who works with verizon wireless and they say "Oh, it should be fine" please KEEP IN MIND that they can only attest to what happens if you do your transaction within a corporate location. Indirect retailors, EG AMAZON, are allowed to impose their own contract terms in addition to Verizon's. So unless an Amazon representative tells you "yea, you should be fine to do that" then you should proceed with great caution.

and I REPEAT: You cannot cancel a line without an ETF if you are keeping the phone, do you really think that you are smarter than them? The d/c fee on a smartphone starts at 350, and unless a you can talk an employee at the management level to just go ahead and d/c your lines and waive or credit the ETF (haha! good luck) then the system is set up with checks and balances to automatically catch these things and charge you accordingly.

I am just trying to save you money and a real PITA situation.

yea, what he said.

 

[alodar1]

Switching phones from one line to the other is not going to be the issue. Cancelling the two new lines is where the difficulty will come in.

Good luck.

Something has to cover the new lines. I got my bionic on Sunday. I asked specifically if I can try the phone for 2 weeks. If I like it, I will port my old number in from another company. He said, no problem. I asked about fees, he said none.

The next day, the Lapdock went on sale for new purchases and a 5g plan. I asked if I could get in on it. He said, no. I would have to return the phone, pay the restock fee, then purchase the phone and dock as a new purchase with new data plan. I kept asking new different questions around this, but the bottom line is....someone has to pay something. The cost of a new Bionic without a plan is what, $600+. You can buy it and move it to your plan, no worries. To purchase a new Bionic for a penny, it requires a new line and new service. To purchase the new Bionic as a upgrade to your existing line and service, cost what, $249...$299.....something like that. The money comes from somewhere........they aren't stupid...

With that said, I just returned my bionic, paid the $35 dollar restocking. My new $0.01 Bionic with the same plan will be here on Monday. I will port my number under the same condition in 30 days...which is the Amazon trial period. I was just lucky enough to have this happen while in the 14 day verizon trial period. My last phone, the sale happened a week after the trial period. Karma.

 

[k1ngr4t]

This is very true, and I hadn't thought of this as I'd completely overlooked it. Several months ago I looked up their contract "fine print" and I learned some important stuff, and if nothing has changed since then I can tell you that they stipulate that you must not alter the plan or even the features for 6 months or they will charge you a fee which is somewhere in the ball park of $250 dollars per line. This might throw a wrench in your whole plan and any plans others have suggested. Go read the fine print. They do this because they know that people out there will try to work the system and they lose money because of it.

PLEASE READ: If you talk to a rep who works with verizon wireless and they say "Oh, it should be fine" please KEEP IN MIND that they can only attest to what happens if you do your transaction within a corporate location. Indirect retailors, EG AMAZON, are allowed to impose their own contract terms in addition to Verizon's. So unless an Amazon representative tells you "yea, you should be fine to do that" then you should proceed with great caution.

and I REPEAT: You cannot cancel a line without an ETF if you are keeping the phone, do you really think that you are smarter than them? The d/c fee on a smartphone starts at 350, and unless a you can talk an employee at the management level to just go ahead and d/c your lines and waive or credit the ETF (haha! good luck) then the system is set up with checks and balances to automatically catch these things and charge you accordingly.

I am just trying to save you money and a real PITA situation.

Yep, that'll be the best way to do it. Depending on how rich you are/how badly you don't want to maintain a new contract, you could also get the two Bionics on the new lines and, assuming the contract voiding fee is the same, pay $350 each to immediately void it. You still get to keep the phones so all you have to do is change them to the old lines. Thus, you don't have two extra lines to pay for and you still saved money from paying retail value on the phones. You could then trade in the two X's and maybe get like $100 give or take to compensate. The other suggestion is DEFINITELY more cost efficient, but technically this still saves you a pretty penny while saving $480 over two years lol. Just sayin...

 

[k1ngr4t]

Something has to cover the new lines. I got my bionic on Sunday. I asked specifically if I can try the phone for 2 weeks. If I like it, I will port my old number in from another company. He said, no problem. I asked about fees, he said none.

The next day, the Lapdock went on sale for new purchases and a 5g plan. I asked if I could get in on it. He said, no. I would have to return the phone, pay the restock fee, then purchase the phone and dock as a new purchase with new data plan. I kept asking new different questions around this, but the bottom line is....someone has to pay something. The cost of a new Bionic without a plan is what, $600+. You can buy it and move it to your plan, no worries. To purchase a new Bionic for a penny, it requires a new line and new service. To purchase the new Bionic as a upgrade to your existing line and service, cost what, $249...$299.....something like that. The money comes from somewhere........they aren't stupid...

With that said, I just returned my bionic, paid the $35 dollar restocking. My new $0.01 Bionic with the same plan will be here on Monday. I will port my number under the same condition in 30 days...which is the Amazon trial period. I was just lucky enough to have this happen while in the 14 day verizon trial period. My last phone, the sale happened a week after the trial period. Karma.

However, this doesn't really apply to the OP, since even with the same number, chances are you won't have unlimited data on the new phones. I have heard of a few exceptions of people still getting unlimited with a new line, but definitely not always.

 

[WolfBrother]

Each line must stay active for 181 days.

We ate keeping one extra line for my mother-in-law. Droping the other Droid x to a basic flip phone, with no data.

It works out.


Phones arrive the 18th. (so it says)

Sent from my DROIDX using DroidForums

Sent from my DROIDX using DroidForums

 

[Nyteravyn]

Yep, that'll be the best way to do it. Depending on how rich you are/how badly you don't want to maintain a new contract, you could also get the two Bionics on the new lines and, assuming the contract voiding fee is the same, pay $350 each to immediately void it. You still get to keep the phones so all you have to do is change them to the old lines. Thus, you don't have two extra lines to pay for and you still saved money from paying retail value on the phones. You could then trade in the two X's and maybe get like $100 give or take to compensate. The other suggestion is DEFINITELY more cost efficient, but technically this still saves you a pretty penny while saving $480 over two years lol. Just sayin...

Hmmm , $480 for two added lines paid at $20 a month till you can drip with no fee... $360 for both lines in 18 mos... And keep both x's as backups... Or spend $700 less ?$ for trade in's immed? Call me frugal... But I've been"working the system" since my first bag phone as a limo driver, lol and I've done fairly well so far...

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[Nyteravyn]

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Haha, sorry but your final post had not posted when I sent my last
Congrats on your new devices!

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[k1ngr4t]

Hmmm , $480 for two added lines paid at $20 a month till you can drip with no fee... $360 for both lines in 18 mos... And keep both x's as backups... Or spend $700 less ?$ for trade in's immed? Call me frugal... But I've been"working the system" since my first bag phone as a limo driver, lol and I've done fairly well so far...

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

Well I clearly said it's DEFINITELY not more cost efficient, as well as saying the other idea was better, but it does still save some money if you didn't want to have to worry about two lines. However I also had posted that before I saw he said he wanted to keep one for his mother in law. And don't even get me started on working the system, especially not here