Verizon service and phones too high
ANITA961
Newbie

I have been a Verizon customer for more than 10 years,  have paid countless dollars to have phone service and I know I have signed contracts. There are a few things I don't understand,  Verizon claims to pay so much for the phones and in tern charges customers outrageous prices on phones even at upgrade time. I think that's a crock,  I am sure Verizon pays meager dollars for the phones and makes hefty profits on the phones and monthly bills. I pay 179.00 a month for just 2 phones and a meager 10 gigs a month.  The phones are outrageous and you have to sign a two year contract, even thought over priced phones don't last 2 years and if its before your upgrade time, the want you to use the ridiculous EDGE program, which allows you to have to new phone but over the course of 2 years you will pay upwards of between 600-1000$ for the decent phones.  To me the prices for service and the phones is just too much, esp for customers who have been faithful to Verizon for over a decade, I feel I have paid for phones for the rest of my life, the cost is just to high, O and btw if you have newer phone another way Verizon is ripping you off is the insurance, I pay 8$ a month per phone on my plan and its blitzing out and for me to get another phone which will be used will cost me 100.00 in addition to the monthly insurance and the phone I have I paid .99 cents for when I got it. Makes sense right? I have contemplated leaving Verizon a lot over the past couple years. Believe in Nov when my contract is up, will have to tell Verizon to shove off, too high, service isn't 100% and I feel very taken advantage of by Verizon. 

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Re: Verizon service and phones too high
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep
ANITA961, I truly regret to hear of the frustration you are feeling about your most recent experiences with us. That is certainly never the vision, thoughts or feelings we want you to have. 10 years is a long time and we value your loyalty with us.

Allow me to clarify your concerns for you further. It sounds like cost is very important to you, as it is to me as well. Are you having concerns with your current plan? Are you in need of more than 10 GB's of data? We have many different plan options to accommodate your needs. http://vz.to/16m5M5Z

Additionally, are you in need of a new phone? Are you having any issues with your current phone? We have options to review for replacement if need be. We offer great options to upgrade at the discounted 2 year pricing or if you don't want to be tied to a contract, you can elect to go with our Edge program, where you can the retail price of the phone and divide that price into 24 installment payments. http://vz.to/18hFNL6  Lastly, insurance is a wonderful option in the event your phone was ever lost, stolen or damaged (physical or liquid). Then you don't have to pay full retail which can be $600-700, you will only pay a much lower deductible.

If you have any further questions, please let me know. Thanks so much and have a wonderful afternoon!

KristieQ_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport
If my response answered your question please click the "Correct Answer" button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

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Re: Verizon service and phones too high
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep
ANITA961, I truly regret to hear of the frustration you are feeling about your most recent experiences with us. That is certainly never the vision, thoughts or feelings we want you to have. 10 years is a long time and we value your loyalty with us.

Allow me to clarify your concerns for you further. It sounds like cost is very important to you, as it is to me as well. Are you having concerns with your current plan? Are you in need of more than 10 GB's of data? We have many different plan options to accommodate your needs. http://vz.to/16m5M5Z

Additionally, are you in need of a new phone? Are you having any issues with your current phone? We have options to review for replacement if need be. We offer great options to upgrade at the discounted 2 year pricing or if you don't want to be tied to a contract, you can elect to go with our Edge program, where you can the retail price of the phone and divide that price into 24 installment payments. http://vz.to/18hFNL6  Lastly, insurance is a wonderful option in the event your phone was ever lost, stolen or damaged (physical or liquid). Then you don't have to pay full retail which can be $600-700, you will only pay a much lower deductible.

If you have any further questions, please let me know. Thanks so much and have a wonderful afternoon!

KristieQ_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport
If my response answered your question please click the "Correct Answer" button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!
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Re: Verizon service and phones too high
Snn5
Legend

Phones are paid for in full via the customer either in full up front, on Edge, or by the increase in your bill on a contract.  After contracts end, a customer can go month to month and be discounted $15 for 4GB and less More Everything plans and $25 for 6GB and greater ME plans.  Edge discounts the bill by that $15 or $25 the same.  So see, contract or Edge, you pay for the phone in full.  Verizon also buys the phones and sells the phones, they don't make profit off the phones.  Their profit comes from data use.  That's why, when you receive discounts, it comes off the access fee, not the data charge.  Insurance?  You don't pay for failures due to hardware/software, you pay insurance deductibles on accidental and physical damage as well as loss/theft.  Verizon is high, no doubt, but you get what you pay for.  Think about Sprint,T-Mo,etccc prepaid...maybe you pay half the cost, but you get 3 times less coverage.  It's a ratio of need to budget to value.

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Re: Verizon service and phones too high
stef7
Master - Level 2

I'm confused about the phone cost thing. Right now on Amazon, an LG G3 w/contract is .01. (I think you'd have to pay the additional $30 upgrade fee, but still).

Everytime I've re-upped, I've gotten either my LG Spectrum (for $0, yep), or last time my LG G2 for $30. That's it. Nothing more.

What are you people talking about?

And insurance, is from my perspective NOT a good deal. You never bet against yourself unless you have to?

If you drop/break your phone, I think buying one outright to replace it is still going to be cheaper in the long-run when you also factor in your cost to even exercise that insurance... and your initial investment (again, I paid $30).

Then again, maybe you guys are buying the expensive phones? S6 on Amazon is $199 with contract. No thank you VERY much.


Confused.


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Re: Verizon service and phones too high
Snn5
Legend

Contract phone prices...You pay an amount up front and you pay more for service.

Edge phones you pay x-amount for 24 months, BUT you get a discount of $15 or $25 depending on data plan.

Monthly bills AFTER contract ends can get the month to month discount of $15 or $25. 

See....My G2 on 2GB plan...if it was $199 on contract would be ($15 x 24 = $360) + 199 is $559 or $59 more than the retail cost of the phone ($500), add tax back in and you have $550 + $40 upgrade fee and there is $590.

Edge cost of the phone would be $500 plus tax and = $550.  No upgrade fee.

Insurance is subject to implementation and interpretation.

Now, getting a phone free and paying only the tax and then the upgrade fee might be $199 less, BUT, the Edge plan allows you to pay off the phone and keep it, or trade it...while the contract plan means 24 months regardless, UNLESS you terminate. You pay the ETF, which can still be either a large portion of the phone cost, or if you do the math with the shrinking ETF over a number of months comes out the same cost as paying off the phone on Edge.  The trick is in the "Pay off when you want" or "stick it out the 2 years."  Besides, the cancelling of a contract is just messy and leaves a mark on the account should you ever return.  (not to mention the mess that contract buyout promos create for switchers)

i'm sure someone can better explain the math, but you pay for the phone up front, over time in monthly payments, or in upgrade fees and access/data rates.

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Re: Verizon service and phones too high
Weth
Legend

To get the best deals on Verizon, you need to be an active consumer. The best deals only show up for short periods of time.

For example, I pay the same as you, but have 30GB of data, 3 phones, and 2 tablets on the account.

I am not on any contracts.

Re: Verizon service and phones too high
SuzyQ
Community Leader
Community Leader

You said: "I pay 179.00 a month for just 2 phones and a meager 10 gigs a month."

10GB - meager?  My daughter and I share 2GB a month and usually manage to use 1GB, sometimes a bit more.  She has an iPhone and I have an Android, plus I have a tablet on the account (and two basic phones).  We take advantage of wifi whenever we can, my bill runs ~$170 a month.  But that's 5 devices vs your two.  I think you may be able to lower your total bill - are either of the two lines out of contract?  With a shared bucket of 6GB or more, you can drop $25/line that is out of contract.  And check your data usage, use wifi whenever you can, and you may be able to save on the data cost by lowering your allowance.

Drop the insurance too - and put that money aside to buy a new phone outright if needed.  We dropped insurance a long time ago.

With the new pricing structures Verizon has in place, I'm paying less now than I was a year ago, with more devices on my account, and unlimited minutes vs a set allowance.  And data usage is not an issue - we used to have 2 GB a piece, and never came close, so now we share 2 GB quite comfortably.

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Re: Verizon service and phones too high
rcschnoor
Legend

ANITA961 wrote:

I pay 179.00 a month for just 2 phones and a meager 10 gigs a month.

Meager is only an opinion. I pay $168/month for just 4 phones and a huge 10 GB/month.

ANITA961 wrote:

The phones are outrageous and you have to sign a two year contract, even thought over priced phones don't last 2 years 

Possibly take better care of your belongings. My phones ALWAYS last 2 years. My wife normally goes 3-4 years before purchasing a new phone, although her most recent phone purchase was only 28 months.Smiley Happy

ANITA961 wrote:

O and btw if you have newer phone another way Verizon is ripping you off is the insurance, I pay 8$ a month per phone on my plan and its blitzing out and for me to get another phone which will be used will cost me 100.00 in addition to the monthly insurance and the phone I have I paid .99 cents for when I got it.

.Which is why I never purchase the insurance.

Good luck with the new provider.Smiley Happy

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Re: Verizon service and phones too high
rcschnoor
Legend

stef7 wrote:

I'm confused about the phone cost thing. Right now on Amazon, an LG G3 w/contract is .01. (I think you'd have to pay the additional $30 upgrade fee, but still).

Everytime I've re-upped, I've gotten either my LG Spectrum (for $0, yep), or last time my LG G2 for $30. That's it. Nothing more.

For comparison sake, the LG G2 is now $300 full price on Amazon or free with a contract. If I were to purchase that at full price WITHOUT a contract, I would receive a $25/month discount on my More Everything line access fee. Over the 2 year life of a contract, had I entered into one, I would receive a $600 which means I was made $300 by paying full retail for the phone instead of signing a 2 yr contract. $340 if you take into account I did not have to pay a $40 upgrade fee.Smiley Happy

Total cost over 2 years with contract = $40 (free phone + $40 upgrade fee)

Total cost over 2 years without contract = -$340 or a savings of $340 ($300 phone - $40 upgrade fee which I didn't have to pay -$600 in line access fees which I didn't have to pay)

Re: Verizon service and phones too high
JamesT1950
Newbie

I know how you feel, I have paid over $30,000 dollars to Verizon in the past 25 plus years for just two phones.  I am tired of it because it seems that everythiing I pay into keeps going up in price except my Social Security and pension. 

Today, I was forced to change my phone over to Consumer Cellular, unlimited talk & text with 2gb of data for $28.50 a month plus tax. I can't change my wifes phone over yet because she still owes 3 payments on her phone. When It's paid off, I will add her to consumer cellular for an extra $15.00 a month plus tax. We don't use much surfing when we are away from wi-fi so the 2gb should be plenty. 

So, 2 phones, unlimited talk and test and 2gb combined data for under $65.00 a month versus $159.00 a month. And if you're an AARP member, there is an additional discount.

Some say the coverage for Consumer is terrible. Actually, Consumer Cellular is owned by AT$T and the coverage is very good so there shouldn't be a problem. Everyone I have talked to on Consumer Cellular likes it and 99.9% of them say the coverage is great.

I seriously urge everyone to get out of this expensive Verizon plan and change to something more sensable. 

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