Verizon Set to Alter their Upgrade Policy

[Detonation]

All of this is now official on Verizon's website:
Answers to FAQs

What is Annual Upgrade?

Annual Upgrade was a marketing program available to customers who signed up for a two-year plan of at least $49.99 or higher. Enrolled customers were eligible to upgrade after one-year.

New lines of service will no longer be enrolled in the Annual Upgrade program. If you are currently enrolled, you may redeem your Annual upgrade one more time after fulfilling 13 months of your two-year term or you may wait until after month 20 to redeem your New Every Two credit. (Please see New Every Two for additional details on that program.)

And for NE2:
Answers to FAQs

 

[vzdroid13]

i dont think this is going to be as bad as it sounds. i think instead of just allowing anyboady to upgrade to any phone, there will be more specific criteria. Just like what ATT did with the iphone: they offered all previous owners and upgrade if they would be eligible anytime that year, even though this wasn't 'official policy'. Verizon did the same thing when they offered anyon with a droid1 an upgrade to D2 or DX if they were eligible anytime in 2010. I think (and hope) we will start seeing alot more of these type of promotions, we'll just have to be on the look out.

 

[AuxiliaryPie]

All of this is now official on Verizon's website:
Answers to FAQs

And for NE2:
Answers to FAQs

The way that FAQ makes it sound is that they're just dropping every upgrade incentive? Are they trying to get rid of customers?

Sent from my DROIDX using teh interwebz

 

[DESERPENTOR]

Wondering does this mean the upgrade that I already have plus an additional $30.00 off will be taken away?

 

[STIDRIVER]

^^ Unless somethings changed in the last few days... No.. I'm in the same boat. If you are due for an upgrade now its not going to go away. Now for the next phone after that? Who knows....

 

[TimChgo9]

If I understand this correctly, I should not have been allowed to upgrade. But, I was allowed to, just picked up a D2G after my Original Droid failed about a week and a half ago...

 

[joker402]

If you had an annual upgare pop up, then you can still use it any time but its your last, my brother just got one but it will be his last.

 

[loki993]

So I guess I'm confused, why does it seem like Verizon is doing everything they can to make themselves worse when everyone else is making themselves better.

Between this, their tiered limited 4g pricing, the throttling, something else I cant remember ATM and they're already expensive prices when everyone else seems to be trying to lower theirs I don't get it. The whole we can do whatever we want because of the network gets tiring after a while.

 

[wctaylor79]

So I guess I'm confused, why does it seem like Verizon is doing everything they can to make themselves worse when everyone else is making themselves better.

Between this, their tiered limited 4g pricing, the throttling, something else I cant remember ATM and they're already expensive prices when everyone else seems to be trying to lower theirs I don't get it. The whole we can do whatever we want because of the network gets tiring after a while.

Yes we that have been with Verizon are numb to the hits that they give year after year... yet we still stay.. I went as far as emailing corporate and posted it all in another thread.. it was about the lack of communication with the consumer, the changes in policy, etc.. They called me this morning and they thanked me for letting them know about the frustrations with the new policies. They really don't care even up to the corporate level.. but yet we are still faithful.. we all bash people and call them sheep for Apple.. well guess some of us are sheep to big red...

 

[hookbill]

Yes we that have been with Verizon are numb to the hits that they give year after year... yet we still stay.. I went as far as emailing corporate and posted it all in another thread.. it was about the lack of communication with the consumer, the changes in policy, etc.. They called me this morning and they thanked me for letting them know about the frustrations with the new policies. They really don't care even up to the corporate level.. but yet we are still faithful.. we all bash people and call them sheep for Apple.. well guess some of us are sheep to big red...

Well, say what you will but IMHO, they have the best coverage and I will still say that their customer service is one of the best things going. Now when it comes to technical issues, and keep in mind here I'm talking about phone support not in store, they may only be as smart as me. But in regards to being polite, helpful, not losing their patience and willing to make adjustments when you're in the right, they are far better then what you get out of other customer service departments. Like try calling a cable company and see what you get there. It's horrible.

Here's an example. I took a DVR back to Time Warner 2 weeks ago. When I asked how come the bill didn't go down they said they could see that I had returned something, but they didn't know what it was and unless I had the receipt I would be responsible for $400.00 for a DVR. Amazing.

OK I went off topic but I'm just giving an example. This is what you typically get with most customer service. Apple use to have good customer service over the phone but that's gone completely downhill. That's why I stay with Verizon. And I don't think that the new return policy is unreasonable. I do feel bad about losing the new every two, but even with that there is going to be a replacement, just not as sweet.

 

[wctaylor79]

Well put Hookbill. I didn't mean to make it look like a bashing of Red.. I have been with them over 10 years now and yeah I wouldn't still be there if ultimatly I wasn't a happy customer. A lot of my frustration is self inflicted. I am the one that reads all the leaks, and rumors, and like someone said in another thread. The general public doesn't even know what is coming or the depths of what we all know in these forums.

As far as the upgrade policy my issue is being one with my final annual upgrade and wanted to take advantage of BB for free buy back. Before the changes went into effect BB system would show the dates for people that have annual upgrades. Since the change the system will only show the 20 month upgrade date, and this is why we are being rejected at BB and told they can not do annual on the TB. I used the annual upgrade to get my D1 and per BB and Verizon policy it is up to the individual retailer to decide if they will allow the annual upgrade casue somewhere in the chain BB won't make a profit rather break even doing it this way. My store does them, but the system has to show the date. It won't cause the programming was made to pull the 20 month date off the 2 year contract. Well I am not going to be the one guy that BB decides to re-write the programming for.. so other then that I am good with the 20 month wait if neeed be.. will try for a one year, but not sure..

 

[jfreddy77]

Was just informed on 2/20 at my local verizon store that I will lose my annual early upgrade that I was eligible for in Dec. on Mar. 16th. In Jan. I called customer service three times because I was worried that I would lose my upgrades do to the new upgrade policy and was told that I would be able to use this upgrade until the end of my contract. Why has this changed?

 

[Gremlin]

Why has this changed?

My guess would be (someone can correct me) because of the iphone.. People would buy new iphones when they come out..

 

[jfreddy77]

the Iphone is already out. I could upgrade to it now if I wanted to. Doesn't explain losing the upgrade if I don't use it by March 16th.

 

[tmal2]

I called Verizon customer service 3 times to find out when I was going to lose my NE2 credit and I got 3 different answers. The first gave me a date in July, the second said June and the 3rd said never.
On the day the iphone came out I went into my local store to speak to someone in person about this and get to the bottom of it. I spoke to a division manager who was there for the iphone release and this is what I was told.
You have 6 months from the LAST time you were eligible for an upgrade to use your credit. Not 6 months from when they made the changes. I was available for a NE2 on 8/16/10 so my $100 NE2 credit was going to expire on 2/16/11 which was only a week away at the time.
Since there were no phones that I wanted I used my NE2 to upgrade my wife's line and I'll use her upgrade when a new droid finally arrives that appeals to me.

In my opinion, Verizon really messed up this change by not letting us know exactly when we would lose our credits. I was lucky enough to get the right answer in time but I'm sure many others will not and lose their credit.
My advice to anyone that still has a NE2 is to find out exactly when you were eligible for it and add 6 months to that date so you don't lose it