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

[blacksoxing]

Wait wait wait wait just one second. This is some very bad news that leads me to believe a few things.

So, they got rid of upgrade discounts last year. Big whoop, I can handle that. So, from what I read, a new customer can walk in and get a phone for the 2 year contract price. But an existing customer who wants to resign their contract and upgrade has to pay an extra $30? This is ridiculous and lacks all logical thought. Before I go on, this immediately points to an increase of every phone's contract price for any user, new or renewing.

I have a conspiracy theory that they will try to stop offering subsidized phones in the future, but unless Sprint and ATT were to do the same it would be a catastrophic failure. ::Groan:: ATT, here I come...

So you're going to leave VZ...for a company that publicly acknowledges they'll slow down your unlimited data plan (well that won't apply to you) but has the same high costs and is seemingly MORE restrictive on user-control????


That's on you!

 

[xeene]

and will probably charge more for upgrade, just give them time.

 

[Thalinor]

I talked to Brenda R. VZW's PR Rep last December and she said that sometime this year (she was not specific, but I assume quad cores) new devices would not work with old grandfathered unlimited data plans. We all know when they say will not work it means Verizon's going to make them not work, which is their way of getting rid of grandfathered unlimited data. I'm still waiting to see when the quad core phones come out what will happen but I am fully expecting that soon Verizon will try some sort of trick to get rid of unlimited data plans. Brenda made it very clear that they were not sticking around forever.

I just talked to a Verizon rep about this fee and argued with her for about a half hour. She told me it had nothing to do with online programs rather it was increasing the number 4G towers etc. Whatever BS they want to spin, I am so sick of big corporations nickel and dining their customers to death, especially Verizon.

 

[Quicksilver7714]

I talked to Brenda R. VZW's PR Rep last December and she said that sometime this year (she was not specific, but I assume quad cores) new devices would not work with old grandfathered unlimited data plans. We all know when they say will not work it means Verizon's going to make them not work, which is their way of getting rid of grandfathered unlimited data. I'm still waiting to see when the quad core phones come out what will happen but I am fully expecting that soon Verizon will try some sort of trick to get rid of unlimited data plans. Brenda made it very clear that they were not sticking around forever.

Not sure who you talked to but most reps have absolutely no clue as to what an android phone cna really do. And it's not possible for a quad core phone to just not work with an unlimited plan. She was just spitting BS.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

 

[rbw62]

That is pretty lame. Throw money away and that justifies VZW new upgrade fee, how about the price of gas, every thing that moves goes up with the price of gas, but that is ok because VZW is going to charge a new fee.

Sent from my ADR6400L using DroidForums

 

[Thalinor]

Not sure who you talked to but most reps have absolutely no clue as to what an android phone cna really do. And it's not possible for a quad core phone to just not work with an unlimited plan. She was just spitting BS.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

She is the head of VZW's public relations / media dep and knows a lot; whether she tells you or not is another story.

First off, she is not someone you're probably ever going to be talking to unless you get both creative and a little lucky with their internal company voice mail system. Secondly if you manage to get a hold of her she's not going to tell you anything. The only way I was able to get the above information out of her was to first bait her and then severely piss her off; basically she slipped with what amounted to a childish "haha you are going to loose your unlimited".

You know it's funny I posted on the Motorola forms well before it was announced that VZW was dropping unlimited data and somebody came out and said something very similar to what you just said. I'm beginning to think that Verizon has people posting on forms to try and prevent leaked information from going mainstream.

Not going to bother wasting my time further with replying to you. As it is I can't stand "PG" forums where mods basically defend big co's screwing customers. I wonder how many free phones Verizon offers for "review" to keep the disgruntled populous quiet on the forum? Just like video game review sites. Modern War 3 - IGN 9.5, Meta Critic average user review 2.5; I wonder how much infinity Ward paid IGN for that positive review?

Anyway expect it is coming soon and that's not out of some stupid cs reps mouth, its coming straight from the horse herself. I expect it by the end of the year if not before; unless something drastically changes like AT&T offering unlimited again.

 

[jntdroid]

Ok let's relax a bit...

First off, we only wish Verizon offered us test devices. Unfortunately that's a pipe dream. :tongue:

Secondly, we pride ourselves on being family friendly, and yes that means keeping things PG - I'm sorry if that's an annoyance for you, but being as big as we are now, and having as wide a range of ages as we do, we feel it's more important than ever.

Third, if you peruse the forum you'll see there are both sides to the "we hate verizon" argument, all over the place, clearly stating their opinions about whether or not Verizon (your big co. in this case) is screwing anybody. I think we have maybe one Verizon employee on staff on all of our forums - we have no vested interest in defending them, and some of us get just as frustrated as the rest of you with some of Verizon's actions. As mods of a family friendly forum, it's our job to keep things from getting hateful and rated R in the language department - that's the only time you'll see us try and "prevent" anything...

Lastly, it's common knowledge that Verizon employees (a lot of them, not all), spew info they don't know, and aren't in the know most of the time. It's quite possible QS was thinking along those lines, not realizing you were talking about someone higher up as you mentioned.

So please, before you jump to a lot of assumptions and start insulting us, try and have a discussion about it first.

 

[Quicksilver7714]

She is the head of VZW's public relations / media dep and knows a lot; whether she tells you or not is another story.

First off, she is not someone you're probably ever going to be talking to unless you get both creative and a little lucky with their internal company voice mail system. Secondly if you manage to get a hold of her she's not going to tell you anything. The only way I was able to get the above information out of her was to first bait her and then severely piss her off; basically she slipped with what amounted to a childish "haha you are going to loose your unlimited".

You know it's funny I posted on the Motorola forms well before it was announced that VZW was dropping unlimited data and somebody came out and said something very similar to what you just said. I'm beginning to think that Verizon has people posting on forms to try and prevent leaked information from going mainstream.

Not going to bother wasting my time further with replying to you. As it is I can't stand "PG" forums where mods basically defend big co's screwing customers. I wonder how many free phones Verizon offers for "review" to keep the disgruntled populous quiet on the forum? Just like video game review sites. Modern War 3 - IGN 9.5, Meta Critic average user review 2.5; I wonder how much infinity Ward paid IGN for that positive review?

Anyway expect it is coming soon and that's not out of some stupid cs reps mouth that's coming straight from the horse herself.

For starters I do not and have never worked for verizon.

Secondly if I could never talk with this "rep" how did you?

Third, there is no way verizon could make unlimited data not work with a quad core phone. The data is just a packaged service whether it's tiered or unlimited it all has to use the same radios, hardware on the phone, to transmit data. So it's ubsurd to think that unlimited data will not work with a quad core phone.

The only way I can think of verizon forcing you out of an unlimited plan is to change the contract terms when you buy an new phone and sign a contract. Not sure if they can do the but it might be possible. If that does some how happen the only way I can see getting around it would to be, buy a new phone for full retail and let your contract expires to a month to month plan. Then verizon can't do anything.

And lastly verizon reps are notorious for spewing info they know absolutely nothing about.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

 

[mmiillkkaa]

Here's how to lower the fee: say "oh, then how much does it cost to shut this down and move to (carrier)?"

 

[blacksoxing]

I'm not a financial expert....but Verizon's best opportunity to rid of the grandfathered plans were when they turned on their LTE network.

They COULD have went "unless you buy this Thunderbolt or the next LTE phone....unlimited only applies to 3G".

Yet, they held firm to their word. Probably because they want EVERYONE possible using it.

And, if it becomes unbearable to them that a small fragment is using so much juice....they'll just slow 'em down to 3G speeds or slower LTE speeds. Maybe even EDGE. Kinda like what TMO and ATT do.


THEN AGAIN, Sprint basically ensured that nobody would be able to use an updated phone with their SERO plan that some folks still have (around $30 a month for near unlimited...) So it's possible Verizon might go "Eh, after X phone...no more upgrades if grandfathered in". But that would require a plan change to be justified....

 

[t35rk]

Verizon offers better and cheaper phones than ever before. $50 for the Rezound! An extra $30 is okay I guess (I did just order a Lucid for .01. so better luck next time Verizon. Haha).

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[Thalinor]

First off if you buy a new phone at anything less than full retail price from Verizon you must sign a new contract. This is how they were able to get rid of the every two discount and early upgrades. The only exception to this rule is if you buy used equipment from Verizon through an un publicized program they do/did offer. You won't find this program on the vzw website, and to be completely honest I don't even know if it's still around. The only reason why I know about it is because a few years back I had a warranty equipment replacement issue where they could not replace my device for two months due to backlog of that model. One of the supervisors ended up selling me a different (used) device from this program which was later returned/refunded once they were able to process the warranty replacement.

As for how was able to talk to Brenda already spelt it out for you. I called their corporate headquarters after hours, used their VM dial by name feature and tried to looked up every upper level executives name I could find. She was the highest level person in the voice mail system I could find out all of the profiles on Verizon's corporate website. She too was very curious how I got her phone number (it's unpublished) and I'm pretty sure the first thing she did when she got off the phone with me was a go grab an IT guys and take her name out of the VM system.
Anyway how I do what I do is really my own business not anybody else's you don't want to believe me that's not my problem, nor my concern. I'm very good at tracking people down that don't want their phone numbers released to the public and my favorite pastime is ruining CEOs days in their Wheaties with early morning nasty-grams. Serves them right for being arrogant who think they own the world.

@The Mod. Your forum, your rules. No worries. In my opinion the webs gotten a little to kid friendly. Lastly some irony for you, Verizon uses the excuse that there are a few people who tether their devices and suck 100+ gb of data a month as the reason they got rid of unlimited data. What do you think the age group is of the people using that much data? I'm willing to bet 9/10 of those people are the ones posting asking how to teather their Xbox 360/PS3 to their phone. (IE their parents took away the Internet because they were a brat child, and now they're looking for way to circumvent the punishment). That's why we don't have unlimited data anymore; that and corporate greed.

 

[swc2001]

Sign the Petition!!

Sign the petition to Stop this Scam fee!!
http://www.change.org/petitions/verizon-wireless-discontinue-30-upgrade-fee#

 

[jntdroid]

Verizon offers better and cheaper phones than ever before. $50 for the Rezound! An extra $30 is okay I guess (I did just order a Lucid for .01. so better luck next time Verizon. Haha).

Sent from my ADR6300 using DroidForums

You know, that's a good point, and a good perspective. I guess that's one positive side effect of all of these great devices coming out so quickly, one after the other.

sent from my phone

 

[t35rk]

You know, that's a good point, and a good perspective. I guess that's one positive side effect of all of these great devices coming out so quickly, one after the other.

sent from my phone

Thanks.

I bought my original Droid for $150 on a BOGO deal 9 months after release. The Lucid was $80 on release day and the Incredible 3 should be no more than $150 when it comes out (the original Incredible was $200 for the longest time). I'm okay with this trend.

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