Verizon is Ruining the Value of Edge Effective May 31st

[jackiescivic]

Just spoke with my Verizon account manager and he confirmed it, if you are in a 2yr contract and want to just pay it off so you can get another phone, you WILL lose your current phone number

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[FoxKat]

Just spoke with my Verizon account manager and he confirmed it, if you are in a 2yr contract and want to just pay it off so you can get another phone, you WILL lose your current phone number

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Pay off to get another phone? Do you mean with the same carrier?

If so that doesn't sound right.

 

[PereDroid]

Agree. You pay the ETF, why can't you stay and get a new subsidy? Seems odd.

TapaTurbo

 

[jackiescivic]

FoxKat, correct, new phone, same carrier.

PereDroid you can get a new subsidy, but you'll have to get a new phone number as well.

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[Mike.757]

Not really. Real estate customers do it all the time. You pay a fee to terminate your old contract and enter into a new one. Just think of it as refinancing your phone for a better deal.

 

[FoxKat]

FoxKat, correct, new phone, same carrier.

PereDroid you can get a new subsidy, but you'll have to get a new phone number as well.

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Agree. You pay the ETF, why can't you stay and get a new subsidy? Seems odd.

TapaTurbo

OK, so I understand the entire question now. I agree that the rules are that for there to be a subsidy it has to be a new contract, and the subsidy is tied to activation of a new phone number. There are certain ways around that but only a few of the Carrier's CSRs even know how to do it, and even less are willing to.

Verizon has been trying to close the loopholes but some are so deeply integrated into the entire infrastructure of certain pricing plans and even in some cases the entire cellular program, that it's technically impossible to remove. This is one of the reasons why pricing plans are retired. The carrier will identify a loophole in their POS and IT informs them there's no way to decouple it without completely disassembling the pricing plan.

Fortunately for consumers who are lucky enough to work with a creative CSR, and unfortunately for the carrier, when old loopholes are closed and older flawed pricing plans are retired sometimes the "fixed" or new plans create new loopholes and those creative CSRs will eventually find and exploit them. The more complicated systems get the more exploits are created and some are eventually discovered. Just like with Android and the ever present attempt to find exploits to root phones and unlock bootloaders, and the manufacturers' seemingly never ending attempts to prevent them.

So often times when we see a pricing plan change and think it's due to a desire to actually either increase profitability or reduce expenses, instead the real underlying reason is to plug a gaping hole leaking profits.

 

[RETG]

Strange thing is, when I left Verizon for AT&T (probably a bad move), they told me that if I changed my mind my old number would remain available for six months if I decided to COME back to Verizon. AT&T told me when I purchased the phone, my old number could be brought over, but I didn't want it.

 

[FoxKat]

Strange thing is, when I left Verizon for AT&T (probably a bad move), they told me that if I changed my mind my old number would remain available for six months if I decided to COME back to Verizon. AT&T told me when I purchased the phone, my old number could be brought over, but I didn't want it.

And from my experience with Verizon going back 21 years (I have the same three phone numbers I issued to myself when I was a Bell Atlantic Mobile 'BAM', agent in 1994), both are true. The carrier is smart to "suspend" the number rather than resigning it because if things don't work out with your new carrier the former can "hit a switch" so to speak and basically put you back the way you were before you left, making it feel like "coming back home". I had my email account with another carrier still active for an entire year after leaving just by calling and asking if I could for " business purposes ".

Transporting the number after the fact can be done but it's far more difficult. And again most CSRs don't even know it can be done let alone are willing to do it, and for that exact reason above.

 

[mountainbikermark]

It is true that as long as you terminate the contract in good standing, you can transport your phone number to any valid carrier of your choice. The cinch in the rope is early termination fees, outstanding balances and any fines or penalties thereof. If the carrier isn't made whole they are not obligated in my understanding, to allow the number to move as it's viewed as Tangible Property with value not yet reciprocated.

When you port your number it takes effect then that triggers your former carrier to send a bill for the etf. When I left Verizon I didn't tell them squat in advance or the day of, just paid my next bill that had prorated amount.
Same when I left T-Mobile from Verizon top go to AT&T. I didn't have an etf with either but from talking top 611 weeks before I left Verizon they said that's how it'd work, whether I owed etf or not.
It did take Verizon 9 months to stop sending me a "final bill" every month for $0. It was month 9 they included a check for .83 , or something like that, for a fee I'd been overcharged at some point during the last 21 years. I didn't cash the check, haven't gotten anymore bills or correspondence of any kind since.

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[PereDroid]

The subsidy is not tied to activation of a new number, its tied to signing a 2 year.

I'm not debating how it works, I've been informed here, but I don't get it.

If I am dying for a new phone on a contract price, I should be able to call VZW, pay my ETF, sign a new 2 year and get a new subsidized phone.

TapaTurbo

 

[jackiescivic]

The subsidy is not tied to activation of a new number, its tied to signing a 2 year.

On not debating how it works, I've been infirmed here, but I don't get it.

If I am dying for a new phone on a contract price, I should be able to call VZW, pay my ETF, sign a new 2 year and get a new subsidized phone.

TapaTurbo

And you absolutely can, but it's going to require you to lose your phone number (which I really don't understand why they would do it that way)

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[FoxKat]

Ok folks, direct from Verizon supervisor at their tech support number. In order to get the full subsidized price of a new phone you must activate a new phone number AND a new 2 year contract. You can attempt to bypass the system and l port your old phone number to the new number contract and move the new number over to your old phone number contract, at which time you can pay the ETF and final balance on the old phone number and terminate it but it does require activation of a new phone number.

However, what the supervisor told me was that in this process sometimes the system catches this and what it does instead is it reinstates your old phone number if it's within 50 days (essentially as if you simply suspended the service), refunds you the ETF fee on that original number, puts you back into your old contact, and then terminates the new number (and if after 14 days charges you an ETF on the new number), and then charges the balance of the full price of the new phone on your subsequent bill so you lose the subsidy on the new phone. So in other words, Verizon is wise to this and they are putting systems in place to circumvent it, another loophole like I described earlier that they're trying to close.

I was told that the only way to be 100% sure to prevent this phone number activation / deactivation reversal is to continue paying the monthly fee on the new phone number as though it were your old phone number and of course continue paying on the new phone service as well. Obviously this means paying for two lines of service which really makes this far more expensive than the EDGE program, the preferred phone subsidy process for existing or new subscribers from Verizon

As was described to me, the subsidized price of a new phone is tied to a NEW LINE OF SERVICE. A Line Of Service is described as a new phone number AND a new 2 year contract, not one or the other. This is not a system to reward existing lines of service, by simply signing on for two more years and simply keep the same number of users and move sideways in revenue at an added expense. That's a job for retention and if you talk to retention they can provide some incentives but it's not going to equal what a new line of service will bring.

This incentive is designed to increase the number of active phones and monthly revenues by bringing in new customers off the street and from other carriers, and increasing the number of lines existing customers carry as their families and number of devices grows. To do what is being suggested earlier in the thread would be a sideways move and a net loss as they are banking that you'll stay anyway. Why reward someone for doing what they're already doing without additional rewards?