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

[kptphalkon]

Upgrade fee meh....I was getting stoned when I read this and my brain shut down for a little bit.

But hey...I really do think they will stop offering subsidized prices down the line

 

[loki993]

But hey...I really do think they will stop offering subsidized prices down the line

You may be right and it may not be a bad thing. Sure phone will be expensive, prohibitively so sometimes, and that will suck. However think about it no contracts and get rid of carrier locking. Any phone any carrier. Its how the rest of the world does it.

 

[Tristin]

$30 to have the privilegeof buying a new phone. You gotta' be kidding!! The best way to beat this is to cause an uproar! Send email to Verizon stating you wont upgrade. I sure am glad that phone have a nearly life-time Mean Time To Failure!

 

[nikecar]

New users pay an activation fee of around that amount.

Don't jump ship yet. AT&T raised their upgrade fee to $36 in February. These upgrade fees have been around for many years.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

Not really. online many times waives it, and my rep has waived it too.

I'm wondering for corporate business reps, if they will waive this too.

But this smells of payback to unlimited data plans. They know we are grandfathered in and to leave VZW for someone else without UD is crazy. So they figure we are a captive audience and will suck it up and pay $30.

 

[kptphalkon]

They know we are grandfathered in and to leave VZW for someone else without UD is crazy. So they figure we are a captive audience and will suck it up and pay $30.

I'm not going to lie, when you put it that way I will suck this up and be happy with my unlimited 4G

 

[tgyberg]

Not really. online many times waives it, and my rep has waived it too.

I'm wondering for corporate business reps, if they will waive this too.

But this smells of payback to unlimited data plans. They know we are grandfathered in and to leave VZW for someone else without UD is crazy. So they figure we are a captive audience and will suck it up and pay $30.

This was my thought, keep trying to get the fee waived. I'm sure you can if you really try.

 

[justin82]

Not really. online many times waives it, and my rep has waived it too.

I'm wondering for corporate business reps, if they will waive this too.

But this smells of payback to unlimited data plans. They know we are grandfathered in and to leave VZW for someone else without UD is crazy. So they figure we are a captive audience and will suck it up and pay $30.

exactly .

 

[52brandon]

eh, this doesn't hurt as much as the fact that now you HAVE to wait the 2 years to get a discount on an upgrade... but either way, I don't care all that much. I was thinking about paying for wireless hotspot instead of using the app for rooted phones, but I guess I should save my money for upgrade fees instead

 

[WildcatRudy]

My 2-year contract with Verizon just expired six days ago. If I decide to stay with them and upgrade through them, I will make them work for it. IOW, they'll have to start refunding these little fees they've been overcharging me each month, and waive other fees, or I will bolt straight to the competition. Not like Sprint is any better, but they are the only other serious player in town here with decent nationwide coverage.

I don't buy that my "unlimited 4G" is going to stay that way either. Months ago in this forum, there was talk of them throttling your data speeds for a month if you went over a certain amount of data used. Plus, the fine print most likely has a clause stating that they can end your plan at any time without notice. Look at how banks can change your "fee-free checking" to a $12/month account (Bank of America, anyone?) with nothing more than mailing you a notice telling you it's already a done deal.

Damn it, I love Verizon's coverage and level of service. But I dislike their nickel and diming me to death every month with various fees, these constantly changing policies, the thread of "unlimited but maybe not unlimited" service on my Unlimited account, and now that I think of it, 4G coverage that fails to work about 50% of the time I want to use it. (I can't even get 4G at home and we are in a major metropolitan market; head a mile and a half southeast down to the lake and I get screaming-fast 4G.)

As I mentioned, I'm sick of the games and the growing and uncertain bills every month. I'm shopping it, and they're going to have to work really hard to keep me. I don't want their free phones, I don't want anything...just good reliable service at a fair cost.

BTW, I'm not so certain we will ever see the end of subsidized phones. Most of us here are well off enough that we could probably swing a decent smartphone if we needed it, but there are many others who scrape by, and those "free" or $50 phone deals draw in a lot of traffic for these cell carriers. You can get last year's model dirt cheap or free, and it may not be much off from this year's latest and greatest. It's like the old razor game: Gillette sends you a free razor in the mail, since they know you'll go out and buy the expensive refills. Verizon will give us the free razor (or RAZR as the case may be ) with the stipulation we buy their "refills" (monthly access fees) for two years.

 

[justin82]

i have emailed customer care everyone else should too

 

[swc2001]

Well I encourage everyone to post this on other Forums as well.
I also encourage EVERYONE to write Verizon and tell them exactly how this makes you feel.

Here is an Example: (This is what I just wrote to them.)

I am very Displeased with Verizons Decision to initiate a 30 dollar upgrade fee for exisiting CUSTOMERS when they upgrade to a new device. I have been a loyal Verizon CUSTOMER for many years.
Is this how you repay Loyalty? I believe that if things like this 30 dollar upgrade fee and other ways to scam money off of your CUSTOMERS do not cease..... Me and my entire family will cease to be your CUSTOMERS.
Just my immediate family alone pays Verizon well over 220 Dollars a month. My extended family in which I have great sway over probably spend a combined 1200 a month with Verizon, totalling close to 15,000 dollars a year. I am also very connected on all of the Android Forums and can easily discourage use of Verizons Service.
I hope you get the message.
A very Angry CUSTOMER!!
Steven Camp

You Should also call in. Just dial 611

To write them simply go to WWW.Verizon wireless.com and go to the Contact Us link.

 

[Narsil]

I'm more offended by Verizon's blatant stupidity than I am by their decision to charge the fee. If they want to charge $30, then they should have simply increased the subsidized phone price by $30. Virtually no one would know that the original subsidized price was $199 if the new phone's price was made $229 instead. Instead, they've made the $30 a surcharge which EVERYONE will notice and NO ONE is going to go,
"Hey, what a lovely idea; yes, please charge me $30 to renew my contract and upgrade my phone."

Morons.

 

[npro1464]

AT&T has been doing this for years. IMO, it makes a $300 phone too expensive of a venture. This might just help persuade me to switch to Sprint in a year when my contract runs out. The activation fee thing drives me off the wall crazy.

 

[trter10]

Verizon can go jump

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk 2

 

[Tristin]

It seems that Verizon has pulled the Verizon Forum on this topic off of the VerizonWireless website, and onto DroidLife:
Starting April 22 Verizon Will Charge $30 Upgrade Fee When Existing Customers Buy New Phones at a Discounted Rate – Droid Life

Rather than a long rant I simply said:
$30 for the privilege to buy a new phone. Now THERE's a reason to not upgrade. Great idea, Verizon: Penalize me to upgrade. I think I'll just keep my 2 year old phone another year. Thanks for the incentive.

(Talk about shooting yourself in the foot ...)

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Cheers!