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Verizon - New $30 Upgrade Fee - Remember the $2 Convenience Fee?

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djnsmith7

Platinum Member
So, as someone who has been a Verizon customer for a very long time (think GTE days), I have to say, their recent business practices are horrendous.

I mean, most recently the $2 Convenience Fee fiasco that we all remember, and now, a $30 Upgrade Fee. Are you F'ng kidding me?

So, I've been interested in the Droid 4 since its release, but decided to wait for the price to drop. So, it "dropped", but didn't really drop as far as they say it did (commercial advertises it as $99 right now, if you buy online).

So, they get you to go online, add the damn thing to your Cart, go through all the screens, only to find a never seen before, "Upgrade Fee" of $30.

I did a search & didn't see anyone else posting this, so here it is. The CSR did say this has been going on for 2 months now & half of the incoming calls are complaints about it. Hope this dies just like their ridiculous Convenience Fee. Until then, they won't get an extra dime & I'll stick with what I have.
 
Assuming your contract is at its end, can't you just ring up and cancel, and then start a new contract?
Or they will offer you a discount.
 
I haven't tried any other configurations or options, but from what the CSR said, Verizon is charging the $30 fee to anyone & everyone looking to upgrade, regardless of contract status. Period.

Nate, if I didn't have the longevity I have with Verizon, with their shady a** business practices as of late, I wouldn't switch to them either, so I don't blame you.
 
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Lonyo said:
Assuming your contract is at its end, can't you just ring up and cancel, and then start a new contract?
Or they will offer you a discount.
Click to expand...

Seems like most services that require a contract with subsidizing require that your contract to have been over for a month or two before they let you sign back up, to prevent exactly this. That's how it used to be, anyway, not sure if it still is.
 
Fmr12B said:
Sprint has a $30 Upgrade fee as well now - started about 9-months ago.

All the carriers have it. Such BS.
Click to expand...

It was $18 and they all upped it to $30.

People are starting to bark a little more on the $30.

Americans like Fees so they keep raising them.
 
Funny how people bitch about this when Verizon finally jumps on board, but doesn't care that others have been doing it for a while now. Where was all the outrage about their shady business practices?
 
I agree with the OP, and I did hear about this a while ago. I have been with Verizon for the past 2 years almost, and reduced my plan, and am NOT upgrading.

The best way to get a company to show you some freaking respect is to stop spending with them, and/or spend as less as possible.

I hope every customer gets on board, stop upgrading, and keep their current phones to show them we mean business...🙄

Customers have more power then they realize. We run these companies by spending money on their services. Verizon is no different.
 
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Well my Verizon contract is coming to an end in a couple of months and in all honesty I was going to keep them as long as I could get a decent price on an upgrade phone. Hopefully I can avoid the upgrade fee by going through Amazon Wireless but if not they'll have two choices: 1) drop the fee and keep me as a customer 2) keep the fee and lose me as a customer. I haven't been a customer quite as long as djnsmith7 seems to have been but at over 10 years with a pretty decent sized bill I would hope to have a little pull, if not oh well supposedly all of the major carriers have decent coverage in the Denver area.
 
dmcowen674 said:
It was $18 and they all upped it to $30.

People are starting to bark a little more on the $30.

Americans like Fees so they keep raising them.
Click to expand...
They really do seem to.

My Verizon 2 year expired earlier this year and I switched to pre-pay with them. Same phone, sure, but my monthly bill actually dropped. I've signed up for the beta with republicwireless.com and may switch this summer to them once my "wave" comes up. It will drop my bill yet further.

I must say though Verizon's coverage in my area is resplendent in every sense of the word. It's literally been years since I ever uttered the word or thought "I don't have a signal."
 
I think they announced this about 3 weeks before it went into effect back in March or April. I ended up just upgrading right then because I didn't want to pay that bullshit fee.
 
blurredvision said:
Seems like most services that require a contract with subsidizing require that your contract to have been over for a month or two before they let you sign back up, to prevent exactly this. That's how it used to be, anyway, not sure if it still is.
Click to expand...

Also a good way to lose your number. Even cancelling service for just 10 minutes doesn't guarantee you'll get your number back.
 
djnsmith7 said:
So, as someone who has been a Verizon customer for a very long time (think GTE days), I have to say, their recent business practices are horrendous.

I mean, most recently the $2 Convenience Fee fiasco that we all remember, and now, a $30 Upgrade Fee. Are you F'ng kidding me?

So, I've been interested in the Droid 4 since its release, but decided to wait for the price to drop. So, it "dropped", but didn't really drop as far as they say it did (commercial advertises it as $99 right now, if you buy online).

So, they get you to go online, add the damn thing to your Cart, go through all the screens, only to find a never seen before, "Upgrade Fee" of $30.

I did a search & didn't see anyone else posting this, so here it is. The CSR did say this has been going on for 2 months now & half of the incoming calls are complaints about it. Hope this dies just like their ridiculous Convenience Fee. Until then, they won't get an extra dime & I'll stick with what I have.
Click to expand...

Learned practice (or maybe negotiated) from AT&T. I think AT&T is $50
 
kind of like how at&t just puts you on month to month broadband without telling you at a higher rate once your contract ends, you know..for your convenience...
 
djnsmith7 said:
So, as someone who has been a Verizon customer for a very long time (think GTE days), I have to say, their recent business practices are horrendous.

I mean, most recently the $2 Convenience Fee fiasco that we all remember, and now, a $30 Upgrade Fee. Are you F'ng kidding me?

So, I've been interested in the Droid 4 since its release, but decided to wait for the price to drop. So, it "dropped", but didn't really drop as far as they say it did (commercial advertises it as $99 right now, if you buy online).

So, they get you to go online, add the damn thing to your Cart, go through all the screens, only to find a never seen before, "Upgrade Fee" of $30.

I did a search & didn't see anyone else posting this, so here it is. The CSR did say this has been going on for 2 months now & half of the incoming calls are complaints about it. Hope this dies just like their ridiculous Convenience Fee. Until then, they won't get an extra dime & I'll stick with what I have.
Click to expand...



I've had my share of problems and issues with Verizon. There is a reason why Verizon is known as "The Devil".

Run away ...
 
so let's see... long ago they gave us a credit of $50-$100 to upgrade toward a new phone... then they dwindled that credit down to near nothing (which is how I upgraded recently)... and now we have to PAY THEM to upgrade? W T F?

I know the economy has changed a lot of business practices, but are these carriers really hurting or are they just taking advantage pretending they're hurting too?
 
rh71 said:
so let's see... long ago they gave us a credit of $50-$100 to upgrade toward a new phone... then they dwindled that credit down to near nothing (which is how I upgraded recently)... and now we have to PAY THEM to upgrade? W T F?

I know the economy has changed a lot of business practices, but are these carriers really hurting or are they just taking advantage pretending they're hurting too?
Click to expand...

They're not hurting, they're being greedy...

Exploiting the needs/wants of the people isn't new to this world.
 
Haven worked in the wireless side of the telecom world for the past three years, I can say that these telecom divisions really could care less about what customers think. Why? Because their retail outlet provide all the evidence they need to justify continuing and increase customer abuse.

When you see customers that can barely cloth and feed their children, will forgo health insurance or any other common sense benefit for the sake of being addicted to mobile communications, they will let it happen and continue to collect large profit weather.

Keep in mind only in the past 4-5 years have the likes of some telecoms actually brought the technical expertise in house and previously were no more than administrative in existence and outsourced everything to the primary vendors at extreme costs while still making more profit than their landline divisions.

Cows are stupid and guess where they wind up? Don't be that cow.
 
Lifted said:
Also a good way to lose your number. Even cancelling service for just 10 minutes doesn't guarantee you'll get your number back.
Click to expand...

just gv your number and fwd it to any new service plan you want.. i switch randomly for new phones all the time... of course i make my work pay for termination fees 🙂
 
BarkingGhostar said:
When you see customers that can barely cloth and feed their children, will forgo health insurance or any other common sense benefit for the sake of being addicted to mobile communications, they will let it happen and continue to collect large profit weather.
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more.

People where I live would even surpass one month's grocery shopping to wait outside an Apple store.

Un-be-lieveable...
 
Back when I was looking at apartments, I remember seeing a "new customer fee" for one of the utilities.

Sure, any business incurs these setup costs, but they just roll them up into their general costs of doing business. Itemizing it like that just makes it feel like they're being dicks about it.

"Oh goddammit, another person wants to give us money. What a pain in the ass."

I'm going up to someone and waving money in their face and telling them to take it.
"Here, take my $30!"
"Sorry, taking your money is going cost you more than that."
 
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