No unlimited data for s4?!?!

[TuBitMittens]

No you won't.

What they'll do is use your upgrade on another line so you can get the phone at the subsidized price. Again, once the s4 has been upgraded to another line they can transfer the phone back to your line. You're essentially activating and signing up for a new contract on another line and then the phone and new contract gets transferred to your line. Just like transferring phones to another line, an upgrade(which includes the s4, in this case) can be dealt with the same way.

could you tell me how I would do this? I was told I could only do this at an "authorized dealer."

 

[eddie7]

This is so old news. If you want to upgrade and keep your unlimited data you have to pay full retail price for the phone. If you want the discounted price you will lose your unlimited data. You can add as many GB's of data you want if 2 GB isn't enough.

 

[dezymond]

could you tell me how I would do this? I was told I could only do this at an "authorized dealer."

lol I've pretty much explained/summed it up twice, but I'll try it again.

So you want to upgrade YOUR phone to the s4 correct? And Verizon is telling you that if you want to use your upgrade you'll have to move to a tiered plan, correct? Well here's how I upgraded my Nexus to the s4 while keeping my unlimited data AND paying for the new contract/subsidized price.

I am on a family plan, 4 phones, all with data plans, and two of those lines have unlimited data. A few weeks back all lines were eligible for an upgrade. So here comes the explanation...

1. I had my upgrade transferred to line #2 which was already on a tiered plan (2gb).
2. The s4 that was I was using my upgrade on was then activated on line #2.
3. Once the phone was activated on line #2 it was then transferred back to my line which is an unlimited data line

So I was able to keep my unlimited data while using my upgrade on line #2.

Verizon reps basically do this to trick the system into thinking that your upgrade was never used on your line. Once activated on another line the phone is transferred to your line as if you bought it without a new contract.

As you mentioned you also have other lines at your disposal to use, you can do the exact same thing. Doing this does not effect whoever else's line you're using other than having their phone deactivated for a few minutes as you are activating your new phone. Once the new phone is transferred to your line, the rep will activate the old phone on the line again.

 

[TuBitMittens]

lol I've pretty much explained/summed it up twice, but I'll try it again.

So you want to upgrade YOUR phone to the s4 correct? And Verizon is telling you that if you want to use your upgrade you'll have to move to a tiered plan, correct? Well here's how I upgraded my Nexus to the s4 while keeping my unlimited data AND paying for the new contract/subsidized price.

I am on a family plan, 4 phones, all with data plans, and two of those lines have unlimited data. A few weeks back all lines were eligible for an upgrade. So here comes the explanation...

1. I had my upgrade transferred to line #2 which was already on a tiered plan (2gb).
2. The s4 that was I was using my upgrade on was then activated on line #2.
3. Once the phone was activated on line #2 it was then transferred back to my line which is an unlimited data line

So I was able to keep my unlimited data while using my upgrade on line #2.

Verizon reps basically do this to trick the system into thinking that your upgrade was never used on your line. Once activated on another line the phone is transferred to your line as if you bought it without a new contract.

As you mentioned you also have other lines at your disposal to use, you can do the exact same thing. Doing this does not effect whoever else's line you're using other than having their phone deactivated for a few minutes as you are activating your new phone. Once the new phone is transferred to your line, the rep will activate the old phone on the line again.

I think I understand LOL but what I am trying to ask is what would be the actual steps I'd be doing on the myverizon site? Or did you have this done in the store. Would I be first be doing the upgrade on MY device then doing the transfer??

 

[dezymond]

I think I understand LOL but what I am trying to ask is what would be the actual steps I'd be doing on the myverizon site? Or did you have this done in the store. Would I be first be doing the upgrade on MY device then doing the transfer??

I did it at a corporate store.

Again, you'd be using your upgrade on another line if that's available.

 

[TuBitMittens]

I did it at a corporate store.

Again, you'd be using your upgrade on another line if that's available.

You're lucky. I REALLY hope they'll let me do this... I'm not even gonna try doing it myself because I know I'll **** something up.

 

[dezymond]

You're lucky. I REALLY hope they'll let me do this... I'm not even gonna try doing it myself because I know I'll **** something up.

You really can't do it yourself unless you have access to the system anyway. And it's not luck either, just a simple transfer of upgrades then transferring the phone.

The only other way I thought of doing it was upgrading another line through Amazon and then going to Verizon to get it activated. Would've saved like $100, but I was impatient and wanted the phone the day of the upgrade.

 

[NACPEYE]

I probably shouldn't care but would verizon cared if I do this? My parents pay for the phones and I'd have to try to explain all of this to them, maybe even bring it up at verizon. Is this supposed to be like a trick?

Not a trick, but a loophole that Verizon has not closed as of yet because they probably will lose a lot of customers when they do close it. You can't go into Verizon to do this because they will deny that it can be done. You can buy the phone through them as long as you have another phone that can be upgraded that does not have unlimited. Once the phone is on the account you can switch it to any other number on that account without losing or changing any plans. There is an entire thread on android central talking about this for the last 2 years. As I said, I did this last Thursday. Ordered the phone online, activated it on the "dumb" line, then switched it to my line where I had my Thunderbolt. My wife's dumb phone went back on her line and I got the S4. Once you activate the phone on the master account, it can be moved to whatever line is on the plan. Just make sure that you check your account online with My Verizon afterwards that everything stayed the same. And again, do a search on Android Central for keeping unlimited and read what has been going on for over 2 years. The thread is about 30+ pages long. It also tells you about transferring your upgrades to another line that does not have one. Good luck!

 

[TuBitMittens]

You really can't do it yourself unless you have access to the system anyway. And it's not luck either, just a simple transfer of upgrades then transferring the phone.

The only other way I thought of doing it was upgrading another line through Amazon and then going to Verizon to get it activated. Would've saved like $100, but I was impatient and wanted the phone the day of the upgrade.

I meant lucky if they'd let me do it. Anyway I went to my corporate verizon store today and they told me I could do the alternate upgrade thing, HOWEVER, I would lose my warranty and my mother and sister would never be able to upgrade again. How do you get around this?

 

[m3incorp]

I'm still really confused. If I upgrade using their line I'll end up paying 650 bucks. Only my line appears to have a "discounted" upgrade right now. Can somebody further clarify how this works? I called an "authorized" dealer and explained what I was trying to do and they told me it's doable but complex.

Ok, so now you are saying only your line has an upgrade available. That changes things. I suggest you go into a Verizon store and ask what your options are. Go with your mom and sister, so that all of you will receive the information at the same time.

 

[dezymond]

I meant lucky if they'd let me do it. Anyway I went to my corporate verizon store today and they told me I could do the alternate upgrade thing, HOWEVER, I would lose my warranty and my mother and sister would never be able to upgrade again. How do you get around this?

They're pulling your leg. They should have no issues with transferring the upgrade available on your line to another line, unless for whatever reason the upgrade on your line has some special promotion going on or whatever.

As in my case, they were easily able to transfer the upgrade on my line to another line and activate my s4 there. Once activated they just moved the phone back to my line.

Maybe try an authorized dealer and see if they'll do it in store. Sometimes they're more willing to cooperate.

They're not wrong about the warranty however. For whatever reason in their policy, if a phone was changed out on your line the warranty on that phone is void. However,I have been told that in 99% of cases Verizon overlooks this and handle it like the warranty is still valid.

 

[EyeOWA]

Another way to do this is add a line. Did this last month.
Buy the S4 for $200. Best Buy is where I got mine. You will be adding a $30 data package to this, but this will come off.
Take an old dumbphone and then activate the dumbphone on your newly added line.
This will take off the $30 data you added.
You will have to pay $10 extra a month for the new line but you get the S4 AND you get to keep unlimited.

 

[Tony_NYC]

I am still currently subscribed to Email & Web Unlimited on my Verizon Wireless account. My plan has not changed going as far back as my Blackberry Bold > Motorola Droid Bionic > Samsung Galaxy S4.

When my contract was up with the Bionic and I tried to upgrade to the Galaxy S4 through the website, the website stated that my plan was no longer offered and gave me options to change it. I selected the 2GB data option to process my Galaxy S4, but as of present, my bills for the last two months have reflected the same plan [voice/data/text] from 4 years ago.

Guess I am one of the lucky ones. While I am not a power data user, I do listen to music streams daily from my phone.

 

[pyro6128]

I meant lucky if they'd let me do it. Anyway I went to my corporate verizon store today and they told me I could do the alternate upgrade thing, HOWEVER, I would lose my warranty and my mother and sister would never be able to upgrade again. How do you get around this?

If the store is really giving you a hard time and there are no other stores available, have your parents either call verizon or go to the store and have the upgrade transferred to another line on the same account (assuming it does not have unlimited data too otherwise the same problem exists). They shouldn't fight you on this at all since moving upgrades to different lines is perfectly acceptable, and you can leave it at that. Once thats done, you can do everything from the my verizon website. Use that upgrade on the new line it was transferred to. When you receive the phone, activate it like you would a regular upgrade. Then once its activated on that new line, you can go back into the my verzion website and swap the s4 onto your line, and then move the original smartphone back to its original line.

All that being said, you can also just switch it to the new line and upgrade right there in the store, and then when you get home switch the phones on verizons website. They really shouldn't be giving you trouble with this though. Upgrades are allowed to be moved freely between lines as long as they're all on the same account.

 

[tjrssibelle]

You can also transfer your upgrade online to another line using Verizon's website. I have unlimited and once my upgrade date came I was able to transfer it to my sister so she can update her phone.