I too would like to first think the Verizon reps here for taking their time to answer questions. I've been following this thread since the beginning, and I think it's great to see you guys here helping customers outside of your normal work hours. That's really unique, and characteristic of not only great employees but great people in general.
Now, as for my question...
My mother and I are looking to get my brother a smart phone for Christmas. He currently has some POS feature phone, and I feel terrible for him whenever I see him with it. While he was considering a smart phone previously, my dad went and used the available upgrade on his line to replace my youngest brother's 5th (!!!) broken phone in a span of two years. Yeah. He did this without consulting anyone else, but needless to say, my mother and I weren't too thrilled to hear that the upgrade was essentially wasted on yet another worthless texting phone instead of a big smartphone monster.
The next upgrade for anyone on our family plan comes up January 8th, 2011. This is on my line. While I was planning on using that for the HTC Merge if/when it ever is released, I can wait for the next upgrade (August).
What we want to do is use the upgrade approaching for my line to get my brother a Droid Incredible. However, we want to purchase it at Best Buy by Saturday, as they have a promotion until then where the Droid Incredible is free on contract. Compare this to Verizon's B1G1 offer, and it's clear to see why we'd prefer to do it at Best Buy.
The problem now is that the upgrade isn't up yet, and we want to get this by Saturday. I went to Best Buy earlier, and the gentleman there told me that I'd just have to get early-upgrade authorization on the account by Verizon. He told me I could just call Verizon and tell them I wanted to upgrade early, but not tell them that I wanted to purchase it at Best Buy, and then (presumably) I'd tell them I'd prefer to purchase the phone in-store and not over the phone, so then they'd add a note on the account.
I went to an actual Verizon store later this evening and told my story to the gentleman there and asked if there was a way to authorize the account for early upgrade. I did mention we wanted to get the phone at Best Buy. He told me that they didn't do that, and that while it was possible corporate would authorize an early upgrade over the phone, it was highly unlikely.
Truth is, if we can't take advantage of this deal at Best Buy by this weekend, we probably won't get him a smart phone right now. It would be pretty foolish of Verizon to demand that we purchase the phone from an actual Verizon store in order to take advantage of the early upgrade. After all, this is a new 2-year contract and $360 in data fees yearly that we're talking about here.
So, my question is: Will corporate authorize an early upgrade on my line if I call them? Should I say anything about wanting to purchase elsewhere? Should I not say anything? What would the best course of action for us be in trying to obtain early upgrade authorization?
I mean, ffs, it'll be 2/3 weeks early. Not like we're trying to upgrade 4 months before the end of the contract or anything. Why not just budge in the spirit of Christmas and more data revenue?