Verizon is Increasing Their Activation/Upgrade Fees to $40

[dgstorm]

What's this? An anonymous tipster gave us this insider tip regarding an increase to Verizon's Activation/Upgrade fee. It looks like Big Red decided to increase these fees to $40. Previously, the activation fee was $35 and the upgrade fee was $30. Now they have achieved parity at this higher level.

What do you think? While the charge is small, it seems like Verizon knows how to work those fees to eke out extra dough from everyone. Maybe they are preemptively dealing with whatever perceived losses they might have regarding Title II classification coming down the pike from the FCC. Or... the bean counters just felt like having another fee increase... Share your thoughts.

The full image of the leaked brochure is in the thread below.

 

[dgstorm]

Here's the full image of that Verizon employee brochure detailing the fee increase:

 

[Ollie]

Activation fees are beyond me. They should be made illegal along with that sim card fee.

 

[cr6]

More often than not they will waive the fee if you ask them. They usually take advantage of this type of increase from folks who don't speak up. Vzw would much rather sign you to a 2yr contract than haggle over an "activation fee".

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Haven't upgraded at a discount in a long time, so I wasn't even aware that there was an upgrade fee. As for activation, similar story. I've never had to re-activate my account and I can't recall having paid one when I first signed up with Alltel.

Still, for all the money they make from us each month, you'd think they could do away with these kinds of fees altogether.

 

[94lt1]

Wait.. Verizon just went on record as saying.. "we're a leader, not a follower".. And then they follow at&t and raise their upgrade fee... Hmmm.

 

[FoxKat]

More often than not they will waive the fee if you ask them. They usually take advantage of this type of increase from folks who don't speak up. Vzw would much rather sign you to a 2yr contract than haggle over an "activation fee".

I agree completely. I haven't paid an activation fee in I don't know how many years, if ever. The thing as, it it's actually discrimination against those who are unaware that they can ask for it to be waived. And if course those that don't ask are more often than not the less wealthy and the minorities, i.e. those who need the discount most.

Sent from my Droid Turbo on Tapatalk.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

I agree completely. I haven't paid an activation fee in I don't know how many years, if ever. The thing as, it it's actually discrimination against those who are unaware that they can ask for it to be waived. And if course those that don't ask are more often than not the less wealthy and the minorities, i.e. those who need the discount most.

Sent from my Droid Turbo on Tapatalk.

True. I live paycheck to paycheck and can't bring myself to haggle.

 

[tgyberg]

Wait.. Verizon just went on record as saying.. "we're a leader, not a follower".. And then they follow at&t and raise their upgrade fee... Hmmm.

Ya, I wish they would follow them off a cliff

 

[dezymond]

Another garbage fee so they can get every penny possible. Just dealt with this with my cable company and their garbage fees. It's insane how companies get away with it

 

[jackiescivic]

I rarely see Verizon compromise on their activation fee since Edge came out. They used to be pretty lenient about it

Sent from my Note 4

 

[liftedplane]

I just found out yesterday that dish network charges $9.99 to give you a grace period and not shut your service off. should be outlawed.

 

[LoneWolfArcher]

Ridiculous.

 

[pc747]

I know we all like to bash Verizon for being the evil carrier, trust me I have had my fun with it as well. But the reality is if you are not making money you are losing money and if you are losing money somebody is either losing their job or not getting a raise. We are all in it to make money that is the beauty of a capitalist society. We hold Google up like they care for the people. Look the reality is Google is in it for the money as well. Google made (and continues to make) their money off of ads. Google's mindset is believing customers are willing to give up some of their freedoms for a cheaper deal. Phones, wireless service, fiber, tv, all so that Google can push their services which they can use as leverage to companies wanting to get their information out there. Google literally can say "we can put your ad in the faces of potential buyers the entire time they are awake. When they go to set the temperature in the house, when they go to check the weather and email, when they turn their tv on to catch sports highlights, when they start their car to go to work, all the way until when they set their alarm before they lay their head on the pillow at night".

So yeah I am not angry that carriers are about their money as long as we as customers have options and we do. Does that mean we may not be able to watch youtube anywhere we want because some areas lack coverage, yup but is it Verizon's fault Sprint, T-mobile, Cricket, etc, do not offer the same coverage they do, nope. In fact that is the point, Verizon offers better coverage and in turn they have the right to set the terms for which customers are to agree to. If the customer disagrees they have the option to go elsewhere and that is capitalism in a nutshell.

 

[Heero121]

I know we all like to bash Verizon for being the evil carrier, trust me I have had my fun with it as well. But the reality is if you are not making money you are losing money and if you are losing money somebody is either losing their job or not getting a raise. We are all in it to make money that is the beauty of a capitalist society. We hold Google up like they care for the people. Look the reality is Google is in it for the money as well. Google made (and continues to make) their money off of ads. Google's mindset is believing customers are willing to give up some of their freedoms for a cheaper deal. Phones, wireless service, fiber, tv, all so that Google can push their services which they can use as leverage to companies wanting to get their information out there. Google literally can say "we can put your ad in the faces of potential buyers the entire time they are awake. When they go to set the temperature in the house, when they go to check the weather and email, when they turn their tv on to catch sports highlights, when they start their car to go to work, all the way until when they set their alarm before they lay their head on the pillow at night".

So yeah I am not angry that carriers are about their money as long as we as customers have options and we do. Does that mean we may not be able to watch youtube anywhere we want because some areas lack coverage, yup but is it Verizon's fault Sprint, T-mobile, Cricket, etc, do not offer the same coverage they do, nope. In fact that is the point, Verizon offers better coverage and in turn they have the right to set the terms for which customers are to agree to. If the customer disagrees they have the option to go elsewhere and that is capitalism in a nutshell.

the mentality of "if you're not making money, you are losing money" is exactly what has gotten us in the hole we are trying to climb out of now. As I agree with most of what you said, that one line is highly inaccurate. Once , oh i dont know, 80 million, in profits (PROFITS, surplus, money made after having to pay for infrastructure, fees, salaries etc) is made, and its a growing sum that piles up every quarter, then there is no need to choke the consumer. The view of having to always increase your profits, when you already have a HUGE profit margin, only increases the economic disparity of our ecosystem. Widening the gap, and perpetuating the " too big too fail" mantra will only make things worse. R >G. rate of return is greater than growth. Richer can get richer easier, than the disenfranchised. People should not be afraid of the corporations, Corporations should be afraid of the people.