ok, so i just recently recieved a PM about a certain subject in particular, and thought i should tell you guys my thoughts (as well as VZW policy) on the matter.
The question was about an employee discount. As many of you know, ED's are what make it possible for many people afford being able to have 3, 2, and even sometimes just one cell phone. And...when discounts range anywhere from 8-30% (the extremes of what i have seen), if your cell bill each month is $250, THAT is QUITE a discount!
The senario placed before me was this:
"I had worked for *BLANK* for about 4 years, and they offer thru verizon, as well as other carriers, a significant discount of about 20%. A few months back, my company was going thru some cutbacks, and i was on the shortlisti just recieved my most recent bill in the mail, only to find that i was still recieving my discount! Now i didnt really think much of it till i read your post about retro-active account changes on the forum if verizon does an audit of your account...would this apply to me? i mean it isnt really my fault that they havent taken off my discount yet...right?"
ok, so heres my answer.........it isnt reaally about who's fault it is.
i mean, yea, its great that your still recieving your discount, and i am SURE its helping, especially with the lost job and all, HOWEVER, ....i CAN NOT and WILL not say it is "ok" or condone it. when you sign your life away when you first start your employee discount, they make no bones about it in that paperwork. vzw can and will (although, i will admit that it is in VERRY few cases) take legal action against someone who is falsifying information. and when you sign up, it states clear as day, that when you quit your current employer, you will notify verizon so that they can take your discount off.
this is kindof an ethics/luck situation. lol, if you feel comfortable with screwing "the man" by getting the discount as long as you can, and you want to test your luck...that is your decision.
take this example tho, and i will be done.
when circuit city went out of business (i know they arent gone completely people, but still) and SOOO many people lost their jobs, MOST of the ones that HAD cell phones, had VZW because the discount was somthing like, in this case, 20%. there was one man who worked there, had a family plan, and was getting a significant discount for about 8 months. verizon saw this, and said to themselves "hey...why is this guy getting a discount from a store that no longer exists". they back tracked his account, and found that he had not worked for circuit city for over 5 YEARS! yep, you guessed it....they took it away, and then he went from one month having about $200 bill to the next having about juuust over $3,000 in charges....ALL LEGITIMATE. he, of course, could not pay, and he was then taken to court, and ended up filing bankruptsy.
is it worth it to you....?
This is legit. I have seen it as well.
So have I.
As much as it sucks, better safe then sorry.
While it may appear that short term the discount is helping, the possible long term consequences do not make this worth it.
The User would be much better of having a PP eval done, see where costs can be cut, while still retaining the ability to use the features they like to use, but on a more financially realistic level due to the job loss and whatever discount they were receiving.
If they can't find a happy medium with a new, lower calling plan then the option to suspend w/out billing for a while is always there.
I wouldn't want this to happen to somebody, so it's best to play by the rules.
I saw it on an employee account 2 years the bill I saw was more than $2,000.00. I am not going to say what our discount is, however it was a lot of money. (You vzw guys know what I am talking about)
