Verizon Wireless retiring New Every Two's Early upgrade option?

[Anubis]

Exactly. They were charging $200 for nice featurephone sbefore. Those featurephones used to run for $400 on eBay or so. Now you want a $600 smartphone for the same price. Good luck.

killing NE2 only saves them like 40$, they haven't been giving you shit for credit for years

 

[Cuda1447]

this is how i was going to reply

How do you figure?

Customer buys a subsidized phone. They make the money back by charging more per month. They make that back within a year while having the customer on contract for 2 years. If the customer cancels prior to contract expiration, customer pays an early termination fee.

They can't lose.

You're assuming that if the customer isn't under contract, they are going to leave Verizon. This simply isn't the case. A lot of people ( A LOT ) are on Verizon simply due to vastly superior coverage. It's certainly not because they have the most enticing phones, the cheapest bill, the fastest internet (yet) or the best customer service. In fact, they are probably one of the worst in all of those departments. T-Mobile is much cheaper (more Android phones) faster internet and better customer service. Sprint is better customer service and much cheaper. ATT has the Iphone and comparable coverage. The ONLY thing Verizon has over everyone else is better coverage. Tell me that if T-Mobile didn't have as large a footprint on Verizon they wouldn't have 70mil+ customers.


So at the end of the day, people are not only willing to endure shitty customer service, expensive phone bill and a tyrant for a carrier... but they are also going to stay even if they are out of contract, because they need their damn phone to work in their house.


And guess what, Verizon would LOVE it if they decided to get an unlocked phone from Ebay so they don't have to subsidize it. The customer is most likely going to stay with Verizon anyway and they know this.

 

[Anubis]

there will be some prob a good amount that when faced with a 600$ phone purchase are going to look to another carrier

 

[boomhower]

there will be some prob a good amount that when faced with a 600$ phone purchase are going to look to another carrier

Won't they still be under contract though? Yeah, it will suck that they can't get a new phone in the 13th month but they are still under contract for another year. With VZW crazy ETF they aren't going anywhere.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Two main reasons I'm still with Sprint:

1) Plan pricing
2) New phone ever 12 months

To me, if you take away one you have to lower the price/increase frequency of the other in order for it to make sense for the customer. Increase my plan price? Better charge me less for my phone or give me more frequent upgrade credits.

What's the ETF with Verizon if you're on a 24 month contract and cancel after completing month 12?

 

[Anubis]

Won't they still be under contract though? Yeah, it will suck that they can't get a new phone in the 13th month but they are still under contract for another year. With VZW crazy ETF they aren't going anywhere.

yes they will be under contract for another year but when their contract is up i suspect some will look elseware


FWIW ive had VZ for like 8 years and ive never upgraded at 13 months, hell the last time i upgraded it had been 4 years and i called them and complained so they gave me 2x credit for new every 2

 

[sswingle]

yes they will be under contract for another year but when their contract is up i suspect some will look elseware


FWIW ive had VZ for like 8 years and ive never upgraded at 13 months, hell the last time i upgraded it had been 4 years and i called them and complained so they gave me 2x credit for new every 2

But when their contract is up they CAN get a new subsidized phone. Hell, 4 months BEFORE their contract is up they can get a new subsidized phone. Like you just said about yourself, not that many people actually get a new phone every 20 months.

 

[drbrock]

Can you do the early upgrade on sprint? I have a tour right now that is starting to fall apart(screen is losing pixels by the day). Even though I am still under warranty they are still going to charge me 35 to replace it.

I would be interested in a EVO but they keep telling me I have to wait for my two year contract to be up. Are there any phones equal to the EVO without the 4g? I can really care less about 4g. I just like the form factor.

 

[s44]

Are there any phones equal to the EVO without the 4g?

No. Sprint's strategy seems to be to put as many people on the 4G surcharge as possible. So they're never going to release a high-end Android without 4G. There was a rumor about a non-keyboard, non-4G Galaxy S (basically a Sprint Fascinate), but that won't happen (if at all) until the Hummingbird with 800*480 is already outdated.