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

[HNettles]

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.

My understanding is that it should be more compact (3g and 4g 2-way radios implemented in one chipset instead of two), more reliable, and more energy efficient. The last I heard the new all-in-one chipsets were due in the 2nd half of 2012. I remember reading a lot about this during the lead-in to the iPhone 4gs introduction. The smarter, more tech-savvy analysts were saying that the iPhone 4gs would not have true 4g LTE because Apple was going to wait for the new all-in-one chipsets.

 

[Laur3nNewm4n]

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.

A vanilla / AOSP experience is just one part of why most people love the Nexus. The ability to EASILY unlock the boot loader and flash a ROM is the other big piece and why I like it better than iOS. Sure, you can jailbreak an iPhone, but sometimes it's a tethered jailbreak, and you have to run software exploits, etc. With the 'Google phone', you just run a quick command prompt command and it's done.

 

[52brandon]

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

agreed. That's why it was only briefly mentioned after my main point. I've had a few iPhones over the years, and immediately got rid of em. Also converted more than a few iPhone fans to android. And they don't even root theirs. I consider it a better system as a whole, but the ability to root/ROM makes it even better

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.

of course it will be. Every smartphone is better than the last generation. But at the time being, the Galaxy Nexus is better than any Apple phone available today in every aspect

 

[Mule65]

No more "new every two" + $30 upgrade = keep my phone longer than planned.

 

[jerkwad]

No more "new every two" + $30 upgrade = keep my phone longer than planned.

Well you are still going to pay it eventually ;-) and in the mean time you will be operating an (even more) outdated phone... Only we lose in this deal, no matter how you slice it.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[geoff5093]

No more "new every two" + $30 upgrade = keep my phone longer than planned.

That's what they want, they lose money when you buy a subsidized phone.

 

[musclemilk]

I am calling the rep now trying to get it waived.

the guy at the store didn't waive it.


Anyone else get it waived?

 

[musclemilk]

No luck and unfortunately the Rep was extremely rude!

 

[Droid Kain]

What gets me about this (never mind that Verizon is the last to implement, this goes for all of them), is now we have a 'penalty fee' for wanting to upgrade to the latest and greatest phone at end of contract.
Its no longer good enough that we are going to dump $250-$300 toward the purchase of a new phone. No longer good enough that we're going to continue paying you for a guaranteed 2 more years (if your cell phone bill looks anything like mine does, thats about $4700 over a 2 year contract term). Nope, now we wanna charge you a premium fee to put your old phone down and have this AMAZING DO EVERYTHING [PHONE NAME HERE].
Seems to me that this cost could have been absorbed somewhere.

 

[Vulcan1600]

What gets me about this (never mind that Verizon is the last to implement, this goes for all of them), is now we have a 'penalty fee' for wanting to upgrade to the latest and greatest phone at end of contract.
Its no longer good enough that we are going to dump $250-$300 toward the purchase of a new phone. No longer good enough that we're going to continue paying you for a guaranteed 2 more years (if your cell phone bill looks anything like mine does, thats about $4700 over a 2 year contract term). Nope, now we wanna charge you a premium fee to put your old phone down and have this AMAZING DO EVERYTHING [PHONE NAME HERE].
Seems to me that this cost could have been absorbed somewhere.

Then when your phones are up for renewal, cancel the lines and go back to landline I guess. I believe corporations are in it to make money. I'm not happy with the fee either, but it won't stop me from upgrading, and no I won't jump to an inferior cell phone company either, because they do the same freaking thing for even more than $30. And, I have 5 lines with 5 smartphones on it, so I see a nice bill too.

 

[osirhis]

Eh... I stopped crying about cell phone companies' practices. You are going to have to pay for it all in the end... Might as well just get used to it now.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using Tapatalk 2

 

[adwohc]

Waited three years to qualify for an Upgrade just to find out it will cost me...V ...should be paying me to stay with them...I sold my shares of V and am looking toward ATT as my new world provider of service...thanks for the returning the loyalty Verizon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Vulcan1600]

Waited three years to qualify for an Upgrade just to find out it will cost me...V ...should be paying me to stay with them...I sold my shares of V and am looking toward ATT as my new world provider of service...thanks for the returning the loyalty Verizon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then in 2 years you'll be crying the blues that AT&T is right now doing what VZW just enacted. I don't see how the grass is greener, especially going GSM. If your point is to protest the upgrade fee, then why choose the carrier that did it before VZW? Makes no sense, but hope you enjoy it.

 

[georgenazar]

So because Satan does it, it makes it ok for Verizon?

New users pay an activation fee of around that amount.

Don't jump ship yet. AT&T raised their upgrade fee to $36 in February. These upgrade fees have been around for many years.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

ATT is evil incarnate.

iPhone and all that Apple iCrap are the spawn of Satan.
(Can you tell that I purchased Motorola Mobility Stock before it converts to Google stock, take that tip to your broker)

People who are with ATT are either ignorant or live in an area where ATT is their best signal choice. Notice I said SIGNAL choice not Service choice.

If you are with ATT you are you a Lemming holding shiny metal boxes. (God, I hope you get that Police reference to Synchronicity II, if you do not then you are an ignorant lemming who knows not his music history, but I digress.)

ATT does a lot of things because they can get away with it. So, what you are saying is that if everybody at ATT decided to shove their iPhone up their butt, it would be ok and you would be compelled to do the same with your Droid Bionic?

I have been with Verizon since before Verizon existed when, here in Los Angeles, they were AirTouch in 1995. I have an original phone number when the 310 area code was created. Verizon is the best and most expensive choice to make as your cellular carrier.

So, I expect more from Verizon. I expect them to do the RIGHT thing not copy the Devil (ATT) and align themselves with Satan (Apple, when they started distributing the handset of the ignorant who are too stupid to make a choice, the iPhone, back in 2010.) So, Verizon is making some bad choices.

Nobody I know has Verizon and pays what I pay per month for my cell phone. But then nobody has a Purple DroidRAZR that gets 14 MBPS 4G either. Verizon is the best and I will defend them, but if they continue down this path, they are in for a lot of people going to Boost Mobile for unlimited everything for $50 a month.

I am grandfathered in with $69.95 Unlimited Talk, Unlimited Text + the good ol' $29.95 Unlimited Data and I was surprised when I upgraded from my Moto Droid X2 (the un-rootable bastard child of the Droid family that I only had for 9 months) that they moved me over to 4G with my same plan, and I did the upgrade order all online. I had my Droid RAZR rooted and the WiFi tethering hacked to share Internet signal for free in the first 3 hours of having that pretty phone in my hot big hands!

Verizon listens to their customers. I know this. When you are charged your $30 upgrade charge, argue with the customer service representative until you wear them down and they either transfer you to a supervisor or give you a one time miscellaneous credit of $30. I have never been charged a late fee, upgrade fee, over my plan minutes charges (back in the day before I had unlimited.) You just have to know the right words to say to get your Verizon representative to give you a credit.

Here is where my rambling pays off (if you have read this far):

If you ever are charged for going over your plan, just ask the Verizon representative for a few hundred bonus minutes. If they argue, just say "ATT has roll-over" and you will get between 100 - 500 minutes that are good for 60 days. Now this only works if you do it BEFORE YOUR BILLING DATE. If you are stupid and are not watching your minutes then you will not get your minutes credit and are unobservant and deserve all the extra money you pay for being unaware and detached from the minute (every pun intended) details of your life.

I guarantee you that in 22 months (or less) when it comes time for me to upgrade my smartphone handset, I will either be able to talk Verizon into a $30 credit or the fee will no longer be in place. Verizon let me upgrade to my 4G DroidRAZR after only 9 months into my contract. Now that might be because they want to move people off the clogged 3G network or because I have been with them 18 years, I do not know. What I do know is if we all make a big stink about the upgrade charge, Verizon will listen. If they do not listen, we will wear them down until we get our $30 credit.

For me it is about principle not the money. I would pay more than $30 for the signal and service I get from Verizon, but then again I do telephone customer service myself and know how to take control of a conversation and manipulate people. For me it is about right and wrong + winning.

It is wrong for Verizon and any company to charge MORE to their existing customers than they charge new customers.
That statement is right, true and in the cable TV industry, against FCC regulations.

The cell phone companies get away with it by a loophole by selling you EQUIPMENT. I will bet my last dollar that on your statement it will not say Upgrade Charge it will say Upgrade EQUIPMENT Charge. Either way it is still wrong.

I am right.
And I, like Charlie Sheen will always be WINNING with Verizon.

 

[Zooterpust]

What about the Wal-Mart network?

Verizon is really pissing me off. It has always had the most hostile policies toward its customers but it's the only carrier whose signal I'm sure covers everywhere I drive through and go to, which is why I switched to it. But now that Verizon has started charging us to upgrade rather than thanking us for it, I have the urge to bail on them. Wal-Mart has a cellular service of some type. I hear they now also have smart phones and offer Web access too. And there's no contract period.

So what's Wal-Mart's network like? Whose towers do they use for cell service? How good is their coverage? Has anyone here tried it?