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A glaring reason to not buy a Thunderbolt or any 4G phone for the time being.

I just spoke with a Verizon rep at their customer loyalty office and was informed of a rather disappointing piece of information. Apparently If one upgrades to a Thunderbolt they will loose any promotional pricing they may have on their existing plan.

My wife and I have a Motorola droid X and an HTC droid incredible. I got in on a promotion for two phones on a family share plan that saved me $20 a month on the two data plans. Why would I be forced to give this up to buy a phone that doesn't even have 4G capability in my location yet? Furthermore, why should buying this handset ever effect my current billing structure if im only using 3G to the same capacity as I am now? This makes no sense to me and I would love for someone to tell me what I heard is wrong as at this point (eligible for my last new every 2) I may never renew and the thought of a new carrier sounds like an option.

Comments

Baseballdude

I spoke with customer retention last week and they told me that if I got a 4G phone I would have to change my plan but when I went into the store I was able to keep my plan and the subject never came up.

escapeplan

Have you checked if anything changed automatically on your plan? In the same phone call I learned that my 2 year upgrade eligibility had not been reinstated since I had previously bought and returned a D2Global inside of the 30 day trial window a few months back. Too many inconsistencies here with big red for me lately.

Baseballdude

At the top of my ungodly long receipt it clearly shows my existing plan but I understand your caution.

escapeplan

Are there any Verizon representatives on this board that would care to enlighten us on this subject?

annoni

The plans that offer the 9.99 credit are for a limited time (24 months, I think) and are tagged to the specific device purchased under that specific promotion. In other words the promotional price plan is the mechanism for the monthly credit.

I'm guessing it would be possible to activate a replacement for a defective device (as long as it's the same device) and not lose the promotional plan. If someone wanted to activate an older phone so they would not be required keep paying the 29.99 data plan, they would only be able to do so by dropping the promotional price plan.

While it's frustrating that the same requirement applies to the purchase of another smart phone, it is a feature/ requirement of the promotional price plan.

TEDKORD1968

I spoke to a rep at the Verizon promo phone number, about this issue today. When I got in on the "Talk and Text plus Data" promo a few months back, I specifically asked what would happen if I waited a few months to upgrade to an LTE phone. Would the promo be knocked off? I was told then that upgrading to a 4G phone would NOT kick the promo off. I got this answer from 4 or 5 different reps at that number.

After reading this thread, I called back today to see if they had changed the story, and was told again that as long as the 4G data plan is unlimited for $29.99m the new phone would not affect the promo.

She also stated that they have had a problem with the promo getting knocked off for a variety of reasons, so they have set up a separate system to reinstall it for for folks who lose it for invalid reasons. (This applies too this promo only)

If anyone loses it due to phone upgrade, call 1-877-873-3278 to get it cleared up.

escapeplan

So people can get a plan that includes unlimited 4G usage for 29.99 until the tiered pricing plans are released? I guess that’s a pretty good deal if 4G is coming your way in the near future. I'm still a little baffled as to why I can’t just keep my plan that I just enrolled into about 4 months ago and not have any 4G connectivity added.

Chubbs

This is not because of the type of phone you purchased, it's because you signed a new two year contract for the phone and are now under new terms. Any company/affiliation discount will still apply though.

ibanez737

Chubbs wrote:
This is not because of the type of phone you purchased, it's because you signed a new two year contract for the phone and are now under new terms. Any company/affiliation discount will still apply though.

I don't think that's the case The promos allow you to switch between different phones (even phones purchased with contract pricing) as long as you keep the unlimited data package. The system has a certain feature code for each data package (whether it's a smartphone, blackberry or feature phone). When you switch to a 4G phone, the feature code is completely different for the Tbolt (and didn't exist in the system when the Talk and Text + Data / Smartphones Talk Free promos were running). So if you do switch, I would think it would drop off, but again there are systems in place to get it reinstated. I haven't seen anything official barring 4G phones, but I will have to double check when I go back in to work. Haven't seen this situation pop up yet.

escapeplan

So I just spoke with someone at the customer loyalty office again who was completely baffled as to why I was told my promotion would be revoked if I bought a Thunderbolt. They also said that if you sign a new contract that you are entitled to maintain that renewal date price structure for the extent of that contract term unless you (customer) make changes. I mentioned the following (from Verizon’s contract) after I was told this to make sure I was getting the straight scoop:

Our Rights to Make Changes

Your service is subject to our business policies, practices, and procedures, which we can change without notice. UNLESS OTHERWISE PROHIBITED BY LAW, WE CAN ALSO CHANGE PRICES AND ANY OTHER CONDITIONS IN THIS AGREEMENT AT ANY TIME BY SENDING YOU WRITTEN NOTICE PRIOR TO THE BILLING PERIOD IN WHICH THE CHANGES WOULD GO INTO EFFECT. IF YOU CHOOSE TO USE YOUR SERVICE AFTER THAT POINT, YOU'RE ACCEPTING THE CHANGES. IF THE CHANGES HAVE A MATERIAL ADVERSE EFFECT ON YOU, HOWEVER, YOU CAN END THE AFFECTED SERVICE, WITHOUT ANY EARLY TERMINATION FEE, JUST BY CALLING US WITHIN 60 DAYS AFTER WE SEND NOTICE OF THE CHANGE.

The Verizon rep basically told me that everything I heard from the previous rep made no sense to her. The confusion continues.

androidcatdog

Please stop offending my delicate sensibilities...
"Loose" does not equal "lose." It's everywhere online...
Your wife is loose....don't lose your wife to another man...or woman. Thank you. That is all.

BakerGeckos

I can confirm that after purchaseing my T-Bolt My $20 dollar discount for data per line is still intact. No Issues with me losing my data pricing... :smileyhappy:

bobfireman

I bought my Thunderbolt a month ago,and NOTHING changed on my contract...same text, talk and data plans across all lines. Same employer discounts, etc. Still unlimited data for $29.99, etc....

Wildman

Chubbs wrote:
This is not because of the type of phone you purchased, it's because you signed a new two year contract for the phone and are now under new terms. Any company/affiliation discount will still apply though.

I was wondering if this was going to be pointed out, this is exactly correct.... What happens when you sign a new contract is that your plan will fall under the terms and plans that are valid at the time of the new contract. The plan you was placed on is most likely none existing any longer so they usually change your plan to the closest plan avalible in price at that time, this ia a regular practice by Service Perviders.

I hope this helps some...

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