My original plan has taken a new form.
I was able to get an Verizon customer service representative on the phone to do an edge up on my non data line, replacing my Maxx at the one year anniversary, with the new Droid turbo. The plan was to keep it on that on the line for at least 24 hours, and then move it off of that line and onto my unlimited phone line. What I didn't realize, was that I missed out on the $100 trade in value for a Droid 2 that I had laying around. So I reached back out to customer service and they said that if I took the phone that will ship to me into the Verizon phone center store in an unopened box , they could reverse the edge up, then I would edge up in the store and trade in my D2 and get the $100 credit.
Once I got to the store and started thinking about it even more, I realized I only had about $250 left on my edge program for the Droid Maxx, and if I trade in the D2 that brings my out of pocket expense to buy the Droid Maxx out to just about $150, so I decided instead that I would simply reverse the edge up for the Droid turbo, buy out the Droid Maxx, and then do a new edge for the Droid turbo rather than edging up. Then I would either sell the Droid Maxx on the open market and make some money or keep it and maybe hand it down to someone else who might need it in my family.
Well unfortunately the best laid plans of mice and men as it were, it didn't work. What happened when they reversed the edge up program is that it froze my account and prevented me from doing any edge programs because the system said there is still an existing loan on the account and we could not add another loan. This was strange because of course by reversing the edge up program it put the old Maxx phone back on its original edge program and I should have been able to buy out the Maxx.
Well unfortunately, it takes time for their servers to cycle through all that mess and so it would let me buy out the Max either. In fact after several communications with multiple representatives including customer support over the phone and two managers in the store and the regional manager over the phone, they informed me that I would have to wait till the end of my billing cycle which is the 22nd of November before this whole mess could be unraveled.
So there I was looking at the phone that I had just brought in in the FedEx box, now sitting behind the counter, and looking at the new turbo that they were going to replace it with sitting there on the counter as well, and feeling like I was going to have to leave the store without a phone all together.
Well, I guess you all know by now I didn't give up. So what I did instead was got on the phone in the store with customer service and said hey guys, I'm missing out on this $100 trade in of the D2, & I need a phone so how do we resolve this. What the representative on the phone did was go to the Verizon trade-in program appraisal site for my Droid 2 and get the appraised value, $1, and said he would credit my verizon phone bill for the other $99. I was okay with that as far as the trade in was concerned, so next step is how do I get that Droid Turbo sitting on that counter in that beautiful little black box back into my grubby little hands.
In an epiphany, the representative said why don't we just add another phone to your friends and family plan, use that subsidized price feature that we have for that phone right now, you'll get the phone for $249 instead of $649, and we'll just move it to your unlimited plan data line. Then we'll put a non data phone on to the $9.99 per month line and remove the data plan from it. He assured me that he could do this without eliminating my unlimited data, and so I told him that if it happens I'm going to call him to the mat and together we're going to get this mass cleaned up. he assured me that it wouldn't happen and that he be watching the system all the way through the transaction to make sure that everything went smoothly.
So I sat back and thought, do I want to spend $27.08 a month to edge up to the Droid Turbo and give back my Droid Maxx or do I want to spend $9.99 per month and have a brand new Droid Turbo and not have to get back my Maxx but instead buy it out. I chose the latter.
Fast forward to the end, I'm standing there with the Droid 2 in hand, I now have my beautiful Droid Turbo in hand as well, and he says now let me process that upgrade for you. At which point he takes the Droid 2 out of my hands checks it to make sure it runs and then proceeds to shoot me a $100 Verizon gift certificate. Wait a minute, didn't I already get a 99 dollar credit on my service? Yes, I did.
So what I've got now is two upgrades for one Droid 2 that I traded in at the store. So my out of pocket for the Droid turbo was $249, but I got a $99 credit on my bill, and a $100 gift certificate at the counter, which brings my out of pocket expense for the Droid turbo to a whopping 50 dollars.
Now I don't have to pay $27.08 per month for an edge up program on the Droid Turbo, instead I own the phone outright and I'm only paying $9.99 per month over the same 24 months to keep the non data line live on which this purchase was made.
I call this the Verizon FoxKat up program.
So what I'll tell you is that apparently the ability to add a non data line and use it for the subsidized purchase is still possible at the store but it has to be handled carefully and the rep has to be knowledgeable and willing to do it, and has to understand how.
