Verizon Plans to Discontinue 1-year Contracts Effective April 17

[y0manda]

Also, Sprint will pay your current carrier up to $150 for each line to terminate your contracts early.
Sent from my Droid

 

[sb1831]

So everyone is leaving VZW over this.

Sprint - horrible network. 50% roaming per month.
AT&T - no 3rd party Android Apps - small 3G network and good luck with the T-M Merger

How many are really affected by this or really care? There's a small handful of people out there who are voicing their opinion on here and others are reading it going OMG, this is terrible. I looked at VZW accounts for 2-1/2 years and I can tell you there were very few of the 60 plus calls I took 5 days a week for that period of time that had annual contracts.

Lastly, if I have to clean up any more posts because of swearing in here, infractions will be handed out.

Well, this would directly have an impact on them. I'd be a bit ticked off if I were on a 1 year contract. Ive been month to month now for quite some time so i just buy my handsets outright. Quite a bit of difference though when you're talking buying a phone for 300dollars one year and then selling it for 200 the next. Your yearly purchase price after the first year is only 100$.

Now those people are forced to sign contracts or buy their handsets outright. Thats quite a difference. I agree there is no need to use profanity though.

 

[rage151]

The language of business is dollars and cents. They make more money from monthly voice/data plans than they do selling handsets. They want to lock everyone into two years of more profit. Plain and simple.

Next, if the AT&T acquisition of T-Mobile goes through, VZW will no longer have the largest customer base...but locking in folks via 2yr contracts will sure help with retention /churn.

Lastly, they say that 1yr contracts are a small amount of their customer base. I believe it because of the 8yrs I've been with them, 6 of them I had to call customer service to get my contact corrected. I have only done 1yr contracts and the salesmen act like it is so rare, almost taboo. They push everyone into into 2yr contracts because their commission is better. In the early days they would sign you up on a 2yr knowing that you wanted a 1yr...just to get the commission.

Overall, this is disappointing news. Great new phones come out every 4-6 months and they are taking our choices away. It's actually a fundamental disregard of customer satisfaction. I've been with big red for 8yrs because of the network. But having to use a phone that's a generation or two behind definitely makes the compromise of a few dropped calls appealing. Hey VZW, GOOGLE's open stance has worked pretty good, wouldn't ya say? Pay attention and stop being so greedy. Who is the 2nd best network? We can jump ship, boost their customer base/revenue, and watch VZW get swallowed up in a few years. Ahhh, that would be beautiful.

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[johnomaz]

I have a feeling Apple has a hand in some of this.

 

[rage151]

I have a feeling Apple has a hand in some of this.

Why? That doesn't make any sense. < 10% of VZWs total customer base probably has an iPhone. Overall, Google/Android has more weight.

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[bplewis24]

I've been with Verizon for probably 10 years and I never even knew there was a 1 year contract up until 2009. It's always been 2 year contracts so this doesn't bother me at all. I'm not surprised. Verizon is definitely cutting their costs and this is just another way of doing it.

Same here. Oddly enough, I was actually considering getting a 1-year contract for the first time later this year when I upgrade. Now it looks like that may be out the window. And they're ending it on my birthday, no less. Yippee :icon_ banana:

This upsets me, but I'm not leaving Verizon over this. I've discussed my options with friends in my city on every other network and they all suck in comparison to Verizon. As long as they have a phone I want, I'll renew with them.

Brandon

 

[jroc]

That was one of the reasons why I was gonna stay. I was just getting ready to start doing one year contracts.

The end of 1 year contracts is a pro gone off the lists of pro vs. cons compared to the other major carriers for me.

 

[jroc]

And they way Verizon did one year contract sign ups was alot easier than the way I think AT&T does it. With them you have to sign up in a store.

 

[droidlady05]

I was going to start doing 1 year contracts also, to prevent myself from having phone envy. This wouldn't have happened if they wouldn't have redirected me to the smartphone side of the store when my Moto Krazr died last year. When I left the store I didn't know how to use my OG Droid, so I had to go on Youtube, internet, forums and Android sites to figure it all out. Now that I'm aware of these sites, I have phone envy, because the new hotness is always being leaked. I was in Big Red just last week checking out the price difference for one-year contracts. It's $70 more if you're at the end of your current contract. For example, the new hotness would be $249.99 if you're a new customer or eligible to upgrade(20 months), an extra $20 for early upgrade (12 months), which would be $269.99, and $319.99 for a one-year contract.

It would be worth it to me to pay the extra $70 dollars to prevent the phone envy I have now. But, it looks like I will not be able to do that. I know that Sprint still has one-year contracts if you bill a certain amount each month. However, I'm not sure of the amount. If I didn't ever travel Sprint would be an option, but I need to know that I'll have coverage when I travel off the beaten path etc.

This sucks!

 

[MoeDaddy]

VZW isn't stupid they have loads of cash rolling in and since the iphone pretty much ruined the reputation of AT&T's network, fair or not, they don't even have to work for it anymore. VZW is now known by everyone as the BEST network period, I hear people that don't even have VZW say "oh yah VZW is the best network" when they have no real world knowledge of this but due to the media it is taken as fact and will be for some time. They can go back to their greedy controlling ways and ride it out, if they loose customers then they can always reevaluate later and say "oh we are making changes because we listen to our customers" Win, Win for VZW...

VZW has taken away everything that kept me as a customer. I lived with the high prices because of their one year upgrades, easy no worry warranty replacements, VIP pricing, NE2 (which I never even used), and 1 yr contracts. Add to this we are only getting second rate phones and the network alone is no longer enough for me... What is next friends and family taken away too? No more unlimited txt or data, Oh I know why not lease us the phones chargers for 9.99 a month too... yah that will work... enough is enough...

Personally I'm lucky in that where I live VZW and sprint have the exact same coverage as they use the same towers and I won't have 4g for years so I couldn't care less about that. With sprint getting all great HTC phones these days, I'm done with moto, I'll be in a great position to take all my lines and jump ship without any worry.

I'm happy for those that don't care or are not impacted by these changes but for me this is just too much taken away in too short a time with zero in return for us. I could see if they did something to make this more palatable, cheaper phones for 2 year contracts, standard 2 year warranties, something... oh well...

 

[MaelstromOC]

I don't like contracts with a phone anyway, I think it's pretty silly honestly. I bought my Droid X outright to avoid being sucked into possibly having to owe even more money just because something may happen in life where I'm strapped for cash and can't pay my cell phone bill. It's a CELL PHONE, nothing more.

Month to month is how I go (I don't have a problem with phone envy, however).

 

[the901]

So everyone is leaving VZW over this.

Sprint - horrible network. 50% roaming per month.

How many are really affected by this or really care? There's a small handful of people out there who are voicing their opinion on here and others are reading it going OMG, this is terrible. I looked at VZW accounts for 2-1/2 years and I can tell you there were very few of the 60 plus calls I took 5 days a week for that period of time that had annual contracts.

I find this post, from a mod, disappointing. Taking calls at a call center for the span of close to the average contract duration means nothing. Things change and it wouldn't surprise me if things are starting to change with the speed at which these smartphones are being upgraded and released. With the average stability of the current economic state, people are also hesitant to commit so a contract of that length. Who wants to get in to a 2 year contract when you will be wanting an upgrade in a year (if you still have a job by then)?

I get the feeling Verizon predicted this would happen and is starting to see it with OG Droid users looking to upgrade. I do recall that Droid users still make up a very large percentage of Android users on Verizon. I, being a user in that scenario, was looking forward to a one year contract for the Bionic or something by the end of this year. Keep in mind that I have been on 2 year agreements with Verizon for around 8 years (longer if you consider pagers/2ways). The Droid was my first one year contract as I was previously on my third WinMo phone and wanted to be sure an android could handle business use as well. Things change and I would like to keep up with this tech like I do with my computer.

Sprint's service sucks? I should do some research because from personal experience, it doesn't. In October, I went on a road trip with my buddy to California for BlizzCon 2010. He is the owner of an Epic on Sprint. We both are into tech so we were curious about coverage and speeds during our trip. Our "to" rout took us over the rockies and our "from" route took us through New Mexico. What we saw kinda surprised me. He had the exact same coverage as I did the entire round trip. This includes in the mountains. This includes data coverage. Hell, he was consistently getting faster 3G speeds than I was. Oh, and he got to play with 4G as I was driving through Vegas. After that trip, I started seriously considering Sprint.

I was personally hoping that Verizon was going to buy Qwest because I wanted FIOS! I had a hard-on for Verizon and am happy with their service from a coverage and ease of billing point of view. Their customer service has been above decent, for the most part, and I have never had any major issues. I do dislike their in-store pushy sales folks, though. When I see Verizon doing all these things in the quiet and accelerated way they are doing it, I get concerned. The first red flag was when they forced Bing as the default search engine on the Fascinate. I have stayed with Verizon because you get what you pay for and I have been happy. That value is starting to be lost when they begin removing choice and scope from their service.

I do not wish to get an HTC so it may end up being a Samsung on Sprint. This choice is disappointing but I feel that Verizon is making the decision for me.

 

[kptphalkon]

Whoever was griping about the one year warranty phones come with and this topic, be advised that Verizon offers an extended warranty for customers. I feel, like many others, that this is a purely monetary objective by big red.

 

[MaelstromOC]

Not to mention how odd it is, at least in my eyes, that in this day of total market saturation with new cell phones releasing every 3 months in several different flavors from the same manufacturers, they'd want to try and lock you into a two year contract in which you can't upgrade for until month 20?

Maybe they know there's far too many people (like a friend of mine...) that is willing to pay a company over 150 dollars for nothing more than getting out of their current contract AND STARTING ANOTHER WITH THE SAME COMPANY! It's ridiculous!

 

[Vulcan1600]

I find this post, from a mod, disappointing.

Sorry, mod's have opinions too, and I posted mine.

Before switching to VZW in 2005, I had Sprint as far back as 1996 exclusively - back when you got 500 minutes for $50 and no contract. So, yes, I feel qualified to tell you the Sprint network is not what I would ever recommend. Plus, the 50% roaming each month is terrible, and I will also never forgive them for kicking out our military folks off their network for violating the rule.

Even though AT&T hasn't announced similar changes yet, you can bet they'll be doing something very similar. Also those saying they are going to AT&T, remember the data tiered pricing they already have in place for new customers....just sayin'.