Verizon Will Start Charging a $30 Upgrade Fee Starting April 22nd

[TisMyDroid]

If I upgrade at Costco - will I still get my "unlimited data" grandfathered over? My plan was up for a new phone last year (still using the original droid) and I was told by corporate that whenever I chose to upgrade I would be grandfathered over. I see that Costco sometimes offers not only lower pricing, but accessory packages that make it attractive to upgrade there. Not sure if they will charge the $30.00 fee - but if I stay unlimited I will (reluctantly) pay the fee. At the present time, VZW is offering me a $50.00 discount on a new phone - I'm considering the Razr Maxx which will cost me $249.00 (after the $50 discount). Essentially - it becomes only a $20 discount after paying the $30.00 upgrade fee. Which, hopefully, Costco doesn't charge.

Can anyone enlighten me on Costco upgrading? Or are they only new contracts? I apologize if it's been mulled over - but I would like to get past this $30 fee if I can - but not at the risk of losing my unlimited data grandfathering over..

Thanks all!

Yes, you will keep your unlimited data. I bought my Samsung Charge thru Costco last year. They work the same as Verizon and were great, as well as excellent prices. Costco, unlike Amazon and Wirefly, do not require you to keep the phone on the upgrade line for 6 months. You can do anything you want with the phone once you buy it...move it to another line, sell it, deactivate it, anything and they will not charge you a penalty. Amazon and Wirefly will charge you a penalty if you move the phone off the phone number.

I'm not sure about the $30 fee but you will not lose your unlimited data and you can purchase new or upgrade through Costco.

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[SupraRZ95]

Costco will grandfather you. Don't worry. If not call Verizon. They have too per their rules.

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[TisMyDroid]

Also, from what I understand, the $30 fee does not start until April 22 so if you order soon you should be safe for that also.

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[MissionImprobable]

Likely it's already been mentioned, but it's interesting that US Cellular has just released a program that rewards customers for being loyal, yet AT&T, VZ, and other carriers are charging loyal users. Just slightly backwards.

When I sold cameras we included free classes for the customers, only charging them for the classes if they bought their camera elsewhere. All buyers had the option to participate if they liked. It's ridiculous that VZ is going to charge everyone to provide these so-called workshops when only a handful of customers may utilize them. Offer people the option to pay to participate in them if they wish to, or, here's a thought, make your customer service reps knowledgeable enough that they can give buyers an overview of the device and answer any questions that may come up down the road.

The fee is ridiculous.

 

[???]

I didn't read all 16 pages so don't know if this was brought up, but from what I've been reading the last few months, for every iPhone the carriers sell they lose money because apple requires them to buy them high and sell them lower. so the profit per phone is a loss for the carrier and profit for apple. where the droid phones make them money. It almost drug att down, is killing sprint and hurting even verzion's numbers that the stock guys use to judge weither to buy or sell.

apple strong arming the carriers pricing is directly responsible for capped data and these type of fees. I guess the contracts they sign won't let them charge iPhone people only higher fees so they charge them across the board.


at least that's what I've taken away from reading about sprint and verizon stocks coming up short of expectations even after the 4s set record sales numbers.

 

[Vulcan1600]

I didn't read all 16 pages so don't know if this was brought up, but from what I've been reading the last few months, for every iPhone the carriers sell they lose money because apple requires them to buy them high and sell them lower. so the profit per phone is a loss for the carrier and profit for apple. where the droid phones make them money. It almost drug att down, is killing sprint and hurting even verzion's numbers that the stock guys use to judge weither to buy or sell.

apple strong arming the carriers pricing is directly responsible for capped data and these type of fees. I guess the contracts they sign won't let them charge iPhone people only higher fees so they charge them across the board.


at least that's what I've taken away from reading about sprint and verizon stocks coming up short of expectations even after the 4s set record sales numbers.

You are the first person to mention this, and you know what, I think there is a lot of substance to what you say. It's about the most intelligent post as to what the reasoning would be, and makes sense to me. There was a reason VZW didn't take the iPhone initially and AT&T did, it was the pricing that Apple wanted (demanded), and VZW said nope but AT&T did. Overall I believe it hurt AT&T financially but they sure got a lot of sales numbers. Not a good corporate decision because the goal is to make a profit per person.

 

[t35rk]

Link?


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[jntdroid]

Link?

Sorry... 2 hours sleep humor workin' here...

I too would like to read up on this, though - to Google...!

 

[pdroid]

Link?


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Apple's subsidy makes iPhone a nightmare for carriers - Feb. 8, 2012

 

[???]

Apple's subsidy makes iPhone a nightmare for carriers - Feb. 8, 2012

yeah, something like that. i read it on my news widget, so not sure if it was the cnn one or not. but same idea.



apple in a around about way making money off all of us, even if we have a different brand of phone.

 

[jntdroid]

The irony of all of it is that the iPhone is really what most of us hope for in Android, especially in the Nexus - a vanilla experience controlled mostly by Google, not the carriers.

 

[???]

in a way i guess, but its not the vanilla experience thats costing money, its selling a 750$ phone for 199. where i'm sure samsung isn't charging that much, and i paid 299 for mine and was happy to do it.

its all backwards, in the long run, it would be better for us all if we paid closer to cost on the phones, (which i think us higer end android buys do, and microsoft covers the windows costs right now)and kept our unlimited data and not a bunch of fees. but we don't have that option

 

[52brandon]

The irony of all of it is that the iPhone is really what most of us hope for in Android, especially in the Nexus - a vanilla experience controlled mostly by Google, not the carriers.

I disagree. I don't want the locked down, one-style-fits-all iOS experience. I got the Nexus because it has quality specs and I can put whatever ROM/kernel on it that I feel like having. Not to mention, 4G is another HUGE advantage the Nexus has over the iPhone

 

[metalspring]

I disagree. I don't want the locked down, one-style-fits-all iOS experience. I got the Nexus because it has quality specs and I can put whatever ROM/kernel on it that I feel like having. Not to mention, 4G is another HUGE advantage the Nexus has over the iPhone

Well for now 4g is something iphones don't have but they will soon... What wont change is the locked down noncusomability

 

[jntdroid]

And in all honesty, 4G will likely be more reliable and consistent on the iPhone 5 (as well as newer Android devices) thanks to the new chipsets. But, oh well... we're all VZW's guinea pigs for LTE anyway.