Verizon to do away with upgrades
 

Verizon officials have confirmed what SmartMoney was told by Verizon sales reps at a number of stores around the country: The company is ending its popular "New Every Two" program, which offers Verizon subscribers a credit of $30 to $100 toward a new phone every two years. As of Jan. 16, the company will stop offering the credit to new customers and won't re-enroll current customers in the program after their next New Every Two upgrade. The cell carrier is also putting the brakes on its permissive early upgrade policy, store representatives confirmed.

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home...odbye-upgrades


Quite honestly this annoys the crap out of me. My contract expires in September and I was looking forward to using my upgrade amount to get a new phone.

Also have to love that later on in the article Verizon's "reasoning" is that people will "spend" the money for the phone. I'm sorry, I have no desire to spend $300 bucks on a phone. I'm not made of money, I don't have a money tree growing in my apartment.

I've been with Verizon for 6 years now. What a great way to say that I'm a valued customer, taking away my upgrade. Awesome.

I think I might be looking into another company come September, that is if other companies don't start shafting their customers as well.
:mad::mad::mad:

I am SO pissed right now.

Verizon is bringing its policy more in line with other carriers. Their New every 2 was WAY more permissive than AT&Ts which was closer to 18-20 months from the 13 months that I think Verizon started from. They've now switched/reverted to a similar time-frame. Additionally AT&T lets you get a phone at the "with a contract price" if you can renew but no extra upgrade credit.

So in reality, Verizon is ending a program that made them 'better' than other carriers, but is not currently 'worse' than other carriers in these regards. As someone who switched from AT&T to Verizon recently, this is not enough to make me upset about it.

Right there with you.

Ok, I'm still upset, but less so as this article says those under contract will get one more upgrade when their contract ends. A grandfathering of sorts.

http://www.smartmoney.com/spending/t...1294961486075/

My bf works for Verizon, so I'll definitely grill him about this next time I see him. ;)

I was supposed to be eligible for an upgrade in September (or earlier, possibly). Maybe I still am, according to Kappamd?

Kinda off topic, but I'm gonna throw this out there. I have Sprint, and I get $150 towards an upgrade every year. Sure, most of the non-smartphones aren't as good as other networks but they have some cool smartphones. I have the Evo and I love it! Their plans are priced much, much cheaper than any other phone company (I did the research). I wouldn't switch off of Sprint, even to get an iPhone or something like that because I get a phone upgrade every year. It's worth it to me, at least. I'd definitely recommend looking into it if you're switching off Verizon because of the issue.

^^ is that $150 off of the "new contract" price? or $150 off the sticker price?

I guess it would be off the sticker price. For Example: The Evo is $450, but with all the discounts applied it's $200. It would be the same if you were opening up a new contract or upgrading. That's the most expensive phone though. Most of the cheaper ones you can get for free, or very cheap.

Gotcha, and that's basically what you get with AT&T and what you get with Verizon AFTER the change. Basically they were saying that with the current deal people would be able to get an iPhone for $99. With the new deal current subscribers who re-contract and new subscribers who contract will both get the same price for $199. I don't know any other carrier that would offer the $99 deal (or equivalent for any other expensive phone).

Hence why I'm not that upset about it. No one else actually offers a better deal anyway and current subscribers will still get the benefit for the rest of their current contract (upon renewal it's a new contract and thus they don't have to offer you an out to your contract without an ETF for being adversely financially impacted.)

I wonder if this is somehow connected to the iPhone?

That's unfortunate.

I have Verizon, and I'm not under contract, but I have no plans to change carriers - Verizon's coverage is just too good. Last spring, I was at a wedding (which was pretty much a full-weekend retreat) in some godforsaken corner of Connecticut, and only the Verizon customers could get a signal. My husband (who uses a T-Mobile phone his company pays for) kept stealing my cell phone.

I don't care that my phone is old. Who needs an iPhone? If I want to listen to music, I have an iPod (two, actually).

I think it is. Even when I "upgrade" (I think in March but I'm really confused with Verizon right now) that I will probably just get a Droid phone

That's what is sounded like in the article. I guess because AT&T customers are willing to pay the sometimes ridiculous prices for apple products (and some of the prices are ridiculous, at least to me), that when the Iphone comes to Verizon, Verizon customers will do the same.

My upgrade is in September, I was planning to use my upgrade to get the Iphone, that ain't gonna happen now, unless what Kappamd says is true. Might be giving Verizon customer service a call for clarification today.

I just used my verizon upgrade 2 months agp. thank goodness!

I won't get anything but Android phones (until something newer and greater comes along, if it does) after having a Droid for over a year now. I'm loving Android too much and there hasn't been an Iphone with a slide out keyboard yet, right?

They would like me. I was eligible for an upgrade like a year ago (I have AT & T) and I looked at what I could get, and replied, "These are ugly and too complicated. Just give me a battery for my old phone."

That sounds like my dad. He is just now (right this minute lol) upgrading his phone for the first time since he got the phone when I was in 9th grade (it's a Razor if that clarifies old).
And he's only upgrading now because he wants to use his credit and because his phone is so old that the charge is impossible to hold. It is continually plugged in.

hahahaha. I have a Razr too. When I got it (after holding out for a long time) one of my friends was all wow, I'm so jealous, you got the latest thing, it's fancier than mine! By now of course, she's probably gone through five phones to my one.

I tried to do that with my Treo - just get a new battery - but you wouldn't believe the amount of hassle that is in Dubai. I finally gave in and got a Galaxy 5 and after a couple months can finally use the swipe function to send a text in a reasonable amount of time.

But here, people generally don't get contracts, they just pay for minutes, and regardless, phones are not discounted off full retail for any reason. The only downside is not being able to use the internet, but seriously, how much access do I need? Besides, my husband does have an internet-connected phone (work pays), so if we're out and arguing about who starred in what movie, he can look it up.

I'm with Sprint too and that's one of the reasons why I stay (upgrade credit).

Why doesn't Verizon just make the iPhone ineligible for the upgrade credit instead of punishing everyone? Not everybody wants an iPhone. I know personally between by blackberry and nook color (which is rooted for Android apps) I'm happily well connected and wouldn't switch.

Because it's not just about the iPhone. Verizon's removal of their additional credit is putting them IN LINE with Sprint, not putting them BEHIND Sprint. I honestly think it's about making themselves more competitive with every smart phone they sell and not losing so much money on the phone that they have to make it all up with the contract cost/ETF fees etc.

Yeah that is a huge difference between U.S. cell phone companies/users and those abroad. When you're in Europe everyone just pays per minute and most have a rather basic phone. It's not the same way of life at all when you think of how there are a good deal of Americans glued to their BB/Droid/iPhone. The same with internet, but that could have just been in Italy (where I was). It's much more of a luxury than a necessity like it seems here.

Internet definitely seemed a lot less available when I was abroad too.
It was sometimes actually hard to find a computer to use, and then I had to buy minutes. No hotels had wireless in rooms, which is practically necessary here in America.

But I love my gadgets, so I think I'll just enjoy our addiction to the internet/cell phones

First of all, the iPhone is very reasonably priced compared to competitors like HTC and BlackBerry, honestly.

Second, the iPhone is part of the issue, but not for whatever reasons you're thinking - Apple gets a large cut of every phone and subscriber, and they keep tight reins on pricing. Basically, giving away iPhones (and other smartphones) like they do their other, throw-away garbage phones would be insanity.

Haha it was so cool. I was so jealous because I had a phone that DIDN'T EVEN TAKE PICTURES *gasp!* (I thought I was so deprived hah) and my old can't work a computer (love him :)) Dad had a camera phone. Oh, I was saucy about that.

I'm so unhappy with Verizon.

I've been with them since 2000ish (I was previously an Airtouch Cellular customer). I'm seriously thinking about switching. I don't give a hoot about smartphones. I just don't want to pay $200 a month for two phones with spotty service and only 1,400 shared minutes.

Why are you saying it puts them in line, and not behind, Sprint? From what it sounds like, they've always been behind Sprint. I've been with Sprint for 10 years, and their policy is as follows for CURRENT customers (who usually get the shaft from all the phone carriers): they give $75 off the price of a new phone one year into a two-year contract, $150 off the price of a new phone after two years in a contract. But if you've been with them a while and pay your bills, they reward you with being in their "Sprint Premiere" club; I can't remember how you exactly get into it, but one of the benefits of it is that you get $150 toward a phone upgrade after just ONE year of your contract. So if you wanted a phone that is normally $200, you'd get it for $50. I also have the HTC Evo 4, and I LOVE Android.

ETA: iPhone vs. HTC Evo 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL7yD-0pqZg

Because when I asked above, someone said that the sprint discount was identical to that of signing a new contract, if it's not then I correct my statement. I CAN say that the change puts them in line with AT&T's policies (which have been the same for ever) and I can't comment on TMobile.