Verizon wants you to switch to another carrier

[s44]

OK, maybe not, but I fail to see how syncing the contract and the upgrade cycle would NOT have that effect.

 

[Red Storm]

Meh haven't used an upgrade since they stopped the unlimited plans. I'll continue to stick with Verizon for as long as my employer is willing to pay my bill.

 

[JAG87]

Mannn, stop complaining! In Canada we have three year contracts and 30 month HUP cycles.

 

[dguy6789]

Frankly Verizon is a better deal to me than ATT, Sprint, Tmobile or any prepaid because their network makes up for the price premium and contract bs you have to put up with.

I don't care about other carriers having more lenient/no contracts or cheaper monthly plans or more frequent subsidized phone offerings as long as the caveat of spotty coverage with unreliable/inconsistent service still exists on all of the alternatives. I get 3G in places where ATT gets Edge and I get LTE in places where ATT has HSPA.

 

[Fingolfin269]

I need to give someone else a try anyway as my 2 year is close to ending. AT&T + Nexus perhaps?

 

[Zargon]

I never understood how contracts and upgrades werent the sma etime period

great I upgraded at 20 months, and now have a contract for 28 months with my next upgrade at month 20......?


all you do is build an upgrade/contract gap.

 

[Red Storm]

I never understood how contracts and upgrades werent the sma etime period

great I upgraded at 20 months, and now have a contract for 28 months with my next upgrade at month 20......?


all you do is build an upgrade/contract gap.

The way I've understood it, if you ugprade at 20 months then your contract would then end after 2 years, not add on 24 months to the remaining 4.

 

[Zargon]

ah that would make more sense

I've never really noticed since by 24 months Ive generally upgraded via ebay or forum so I go off contract for a wihle

and I had a work phone for a few years thru the gov and verizon begged us to take phones for almost free

 

[AznAnarchy99]

4 months? Meh. Plus until another company has unlimited internet that is as good as Verizon's 4G I wont be switching.

 

[Bateluer]

NE2 ended in 2011, they're scrapping the NE2 credits. If you're still holding onto a phone upgrade credit from 2011, upgrading to a new phone clearly isn't on your priority list.

 

[Geekbabe]

Frankly Verizon is a better deal to me than ATT, Sprint, Tmobile or any prepaid because their network makes up for the price premium and contract bs you have to put up with.

I don't care about other carriers having more lenient/no contracts or cheaper monthly plans or more frequent subsidized phone offerings as long as the caveat of spotty coverage with unreliable/inconsistent service still exists on all of the alternatives. I get 3G in places where ATT gets Edge and I get LTE in places where ATT has HSPA.

Agree, what the hell good are all the so called incentives if the damn phone doesn't work when you need it to?

 

[Thegonagle]

This is royal BS. Lots of things wrong with that move. First, they're apparently altering the upgrade date of people already in an existing contract. (Bad dog!)

Second, this will hurt them when people no longer have a reason to re-sign their contracts early.

That said, Verizon effectively took away subsidized upgrades from me already, because I intend to keep my unlimited data plan.

To make up for having to pay retail for my upgrades, I cancelled my Comcast home internet at ~$60, and subscribed to Verizon's "Unlimited 4G Mobile Hotspot" for $30 on top of the unlimited data plan.

I'm using around 50 GB a month. If they ever tell me they don't like that, I'll take my $110 per month elsewhere, because there's no way they lose money off me. They might not make as much profit from me as they'd like, but they're still raking it in.

 

[Thegonagle]

Thinking about it, the Verizon CEO has hinted that he thinks T-Mobile might be on to something with the subsidy-free model.

Verizon might be taking small steps to see whether more people are willing to upgrade at full price. If this results in Verizon eventually offering an interest-free installment plan for phone purchases (like T-Mobile is now doing), I might take them up on it (as long as I get to keep my unlimited, unthrottled LTE, that is).

 

[Anonemous]

I might take them up on it (as long as I get to keep my unlimited, unthrottled LTE, that is).

Goodluck with that.

 

[notposting]

I used my last NE2 credit back then before they added the offsetting "upgrade fee". Kept my unlimited data. Sold the phone on here. Profit!

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I just see this as them needing to secure more funds as smartphones are more costly for people to keep getting dirt cheap upgrades. I'm sure AT&T burned a bunch of funds letting people upgrade iPhones every year until the 4S. They put an end to that crap finally. It got a bunch of users on, but now the carriers are scraping the bucket. Trying to get every dollar back.

And this is the frustration I have with the US subsidy model. People think their phones deserve to be free or at max $199. You're not getting a $600 phone for nothing. The carriers make it back through you monthly, so you gotta pay up somewhere. They used to let you pay it back 20 months, and now you need to pay it back through 24 months. Big deal. It's either that or you see a price hike.

 

[dingster1]

I'm with DGuy and AZN. I buy my phones on eBay so this isn't a big deal for me. I need my coverage.