I recently found out that you can no longer upgrade your phone for free, Verizon has decided to charge $30 even if you have finished your contract agreement with them. So despite me being a customer for nearly 15 years and paying nearly $150.00 a month for my two year contract, just to make phone calls, I have yet another fee to pay for no other reason than that I decided to buy a new phone after using my old one for two years. It also doesn't matter that I have to purchase the phone separately, Verizon has decided to bleed another $30 out of everyone anyway.
Congratulations Verizon, you have moved yourself into the customer appreciation category that cable companies have been in for a number of years now; don't care about the customer because we know they have no choice but to use our service, just throw on some more fees and they will pay it. Of course those companies are starting to realize their mistake now with the number of people moving to netflix and hulu. I wonder if something like that will come available for cell phones soon? Hopefully.
After almost 15 years and always talking to my friends and coworkers about how happy I am with Verizon when they complain about their providers, I will be switching providers. And I will be sure to let all of those same people know why.
The $30 upgrade fee is only charged if you take a subsidize phone. If you pay full price there is no fee. Its the price you pay for getting a phone at 1/4 of the cost.
If you have unlimited data and get a subsidized device you also lose that also. So you pay another $30 for a 2 GB of data.
Good Luck
Don't be surprised when you go to another carrier and they have the same charges...I mean you get a phone for a fraction of it's real cost. What more do you want?!?! Smh
In Europe you pay full price for your phone and about 1/4 of what we pay
for monthly useage. They roll the cost of phones into your plans. That is
why it costs $100/month just to make phone calls, before you even pay data.
I would rather buy my phone for $400 and pay $30 a month to use it. It
would only take me 6 months of my current 2 year agreement to break even.
Even if you err in the favor of Verizon, they are making a 100% profit off
me at one year of my two year agreement for "the fraction of the cost" I
pay for the phone.
And btw, Sprint does not charge you to upgrade, haven't checked AT&T yet.
And that's where you're wrong sir. Sprint and ATT charge to upgrade unless you do the plan where you are financing your phone over a time period. Who would want to finance a phone is beyond me. You're always gonna have a cell. Who cares about a contract?
All carriers charge an upgrade fee. Sprint charges $18 last I checked, but rumors were they wanted to raise it to $30.
With that said...
Europe's landscape is different. Here in the US carriers pay for their stuff. In Europe governments pay the majority. They heavily subsidize the networks there(they pay astronomically less to maintain their networks). Also the sizes of the network pales in comparison to any US carrier. Also regulation plays a role too. Carriers pay a large amount just to license spectrum compared to Europe for example.
Carriers in Europe charge extra per minute to call landlines. Their full Monte plans still charge that extra and are comparable in price after conversion.
So comparing two different networks in different countries is comparing Apples to Oranges.
I wish all carriers followed T-Mobile in terms of transparency. Separate the service plan from the subsidy.
Tidbits wrote:
All carriers charge an upgrade fee. Sprint charges $18 last I checked, but rumors were they wanted to raise it to $30.
With that said...
Europe's landscape is different. Here in the US carriers pay for their stuff. In Europe governments pay the majority. They heavily subsidize the networks there(they pay astronomically less to maintain their networks). Also the sizes of the network pales in comparison to any US carrier. Also regulation plays a role too. Carriers pay a large amount just to license spectrum compared to Europe for example.
Carriers in Europe charge extra per minute to call landlines. Their full Monte plans still charge that extra and are comparable in price after conversion.
So comparing two different networks in different countries is comparing Apples to Oranges.
I wish all carriers followed T-Mobile in terms of transparency. Separate the service plan from the subsidy.
I think I have been reading over the last year that Sprint's upgrade fee is $36 or $38. Before they changed the way they handled phone purchases, T-Mobile had a $18 upgrade fee.
I'm most definitely NOT a VZW employee. If a post answered your question, please mark it as the answer.
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