Verizon Plans to Discontinue 1-year Contracts Effective April 17

[bplewis24]

Great, now I just need to find a wife. This gets better every day.

 

[jseah]

So one question. Does every major cellphone provider now require 2 year contracts to get a phone for less than $300? I think Sprint, TMobile and AT&T all require 2 year contracts right?

All I gotta say is luckily there is ebay, swappa and best buys buy back program.

I always thought that Verizon priced their one year contract handset prices way too low (only $70 more than two year) and am surprised that they said that not too many people opt for one year contracts. Although if you are looking at paying $200 for a handset for a two year contract, and $270 for a one year contract (35% more), I can see how your typical shopper will opt for the two year.

Maybe what Verizon should have done was to leave one year contracts in place, but make it a disincentive to opt for one year contracts. They allow two year contracts to upgrade 4 months early, maybe they should make one year contracts wait out the full year before they can upgrade. And maybe they should reduce the subsidy on one year contracts. For example, the full retail for a TB is $600. Two year contracts can purchase for $200 (corporate discount) or $250. Maybe the one year contract price should be $450, rather than $70 higher than the two year price.

If you compare it to handset pricing in Canada, they really make it difficult to understand why anyone would opt for a contract for less than the three years. Bell Canada has the Motorola Atrix priced at $600 for full retail with no contract and $99 for a three year contract. If you opt for a shorter contract, the one year contract price is $575 and the two year contract price is $550. Why would anyone opt for either no contract, or for a contract less than three years?

About - Motorola ATRIX superphone from Bell Mobility

 

[Breezer23]

That is rather upsetting. Are there any carriers that do one years anymore?

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

 

[the901]

I find this post, from a mod, disappointing.

Sorry, mod's have opinions too, and I posted mine.

Good point.

Before switching to VZW in 2005, I had Sprint as far back as 1996 exclusively - back when you got 500 minutes for $50 and no contract. So, yes, I feel qualified to tell you the Sprint network is not what I would ever recommend. Plus, the 50% roaming each month is terrible, and I will also never forgive them for kicking out our military folks off their network for violating the rule.

I had worked for Qwest around the same time as they are one of our current clients (we are an outsourcing contact center). I was on the phones before I moved in to IT and at the time they used Sprints towers. Nights and weekends that started at 7 instead of 9 is awesome. I never had any complains from customers about the service. Like yourself, all I have to go on is personal experience with their network. Although I never have had their service myself, my trip to Cali gave me some confidence in them. Maybe their service on the east coast sucks? /shrug

 

[Vulcan1600]

I find this post, from a mod, disappointing.

Sorry, mod's have opinions too, and I posted mine.

Good point.

Before switching to VZW in 2005, I had Sprint as far back as 1996 exclusively - back when you got 500 minutes for $50 and no contract. So, yes, I feel qualified to tell you the Sprint network is not what I would ever recommend. Plus, the 50% roaming each month is terrible, and I will also never forgive them for kicking out our military folks off their network for violating the rule.

I had worked for Qwest around the same time as they are one of our current clients (we are an outsourcing contact center). I was on the phones before I moved in to IT and at the time they used Sprints towers. Nights and weekends that started at 7 instead of 9 is awesome. I never had any complains from customers about the service. Like yourself, all I have to go on is personal experience with their network. Although I never have had their service myself, my trip to Cali gave me some confidence in them. Maybe their service on the east coast sucks? /shrug

When I got the Sprint phone, I'm thinking it was more like 1997 or 1998. I worked and lived in the Bay Area and commuted from San Jose to Palo Alto. I had an analog phone from the carrier out there (the name escapes me now), and I was "cloned" and had a huge phone bill one month. That was an eye opener because they said cloning will occur as long as we are on an analog system and when digital comes along that will change everything. So, when Sprint came out with the 500 minute offer for $50 and no contract, I jumped on it because it was my first digital phone. When we moved to western PA in 1999 my wife decided she wanted to keep the Sprint phone and I actually went to AT&T for a couple of years. What a horrible experience that was, and I ended up in 2002 going with a Sprint family plan with my wife. The Sprint signal was marginal but better than AT&T in Butler Co. where we lived. Verizon meanwhile was building an outstanding network not just nationwide, but in all of western PA, and that's when we finally got tired of roaming, low signal strength, silly overage charges (you think the mb charges with VZW were bad), and bad customer service, we switched to VZW and we could not be happier.

Do I think all the changes recently are good - absolutely not, but I do look back at some of the more recent things over the years - most notably for me was the Friends and Family - I never have to even think about checking my minutes anymore. I'm now also on a sweet 5 line family plan and 4 phones have smartphones and we have the $19.99 secondary lines that the data is included. I'll never complain about those two things.

Does VZW have something up their sleeves? I wouldn't be surprised. We just have to all stay tuned. They know retention is very important in their business.

 

[Stelv]

Well it looks like we are caught between a rock and a hard place. I do not think any other carriers offer 1 year phone agreements. I also think it would be a good idea to keep one year contracts, but maybe give less of a discount on a phone. But it all boils down to Verizon trying to streamline the process lol (yea right! The rich get richer). On a good note you can get a phone on a 2 year agreement for $250 and then a year later get a phone on ebay/swappa for $300 or $400 and sell your other phone for about $200, which equals around $300 spent over a 2 yr period. It just sux that we r reduced to this.

 

[Kryptyk]

I think that's the problem people have. They don't like the fact the have to slum for a phone on eBay now since they are tied into a 2 year contract.

Either way, doesn't matter. Their going to do what they want and mean while when we are all complaining in the background, we will keep buying their stuff, using their network.

It would be really nice someday when a corporation really appreciated its customers and listened to them and in turn did what they could to make them happy. Wait, I need to stop thinking these wonderful thoughts before I go into rage.....:icon_eek:

 

[georgek]

If you are on a 1 year contract already will you have to select a 2 year contract when it's time to renew your contract?

Sent from my ADR6400L using DroidForums

 

[soulpatch]

If you are on a 1 year contract already will you have to select a 2 year contract when it's time to renew your contract?

Sent from my ADR6400L using DroidForums

You transition to a month by month contract UNLESS you chose to get a subsidized phone and then you would transition to a 2 year contract. Or you can keep your month to month by paying full price for phone or getting one on ebay

 

[Stelv]

This technology is like cr@ck to us all. We are all addicted and that was VZW's plan all along. Now that we are they can start treating us like crap, withholding updates, changing rules, putting more bloatware in our phones. This is dealing 101! They took a lesson out of Todd Bridges book

 

[kdkinc]

If you buy a "new" phone on ebay does it carry the MFG warranty ??

 

[creaky]

Great, now I just need to find a wife. This gets better every day.

Hilarious!!!!!

 

[zenit]

If you buy a "new" phone on ebay does it carry the MFG warranty ??

if it was ever activated an another account, the warranty is automatically voided when you activate it on yours.

Exception being iPhone, where Apple takes care of warranty support.

 

[Larry_ThaGr81]

Simply put Verizon is a joke.

 

[Larry_ThaGr81]

I'm a personal end user, but I have a corporate discount because of who I work for so does that mean my account is considered to be a major account?