I have been a customer of Verizon Wireless since I got my very first cell phone right after I graduated from college in 1999. That makes me a loyal customer of 25 years. Last time I upgraded my phone they refused to give me any deal on a new phone, saying that a free phone was only being given to new customers. I wasn't even expecting a free phone, but for 25 years, 12 months per year, I have paid my bill to Verizon Wireless 300 times. I wish I could even begin to estimate what the total amount was for 12x25, but I'm sure when I first got my phone, my bill was much less because there weren't smart phones then, so the bill was much lower, and the phones were always upgraded for free so I only paid for the service and wasn't forever paying a phone off on top of my monthly service bill. I know that the phones today are much more sophisticated then back then, so I know the cost of them is much greater, but when I went to renew my phone the last time a couple of years ago, I asked them about any deals on a new device. I was willing to turn in the current phone I had which was only a couple of years old and worked fine, and to sign another contract, but I was told there was no deal. I told them I had just seen a commercial on TV that if you did those two things I mentioned you could get a brand new phone. He told me, "That's only for new customers." He then said that if I wanted a new phone for no cost, I could close my account (and lose the number I had for well over a decade) and sign up for a new account as a "new customer." I declined because I didn't want to lose my phone number that I had for so long. I bought the phone, only having just finished paying of my previous phone, and enjoying a one month reprieve of a bill with just a charge of the service and not the additional cost of paying off the phone, but starting right back over again.
I called support when I got home from the store to see if there was something they could do. No, I wasn't a new customer, but did it mean nothing that I have been a customer for 25 years? Did they care so little for the people who have remained loyal when I could have walked away a long time ago when years after first signing up with them, other companies had come onto the scene and offered cheaper priced plans, just as good service in the area I lived, and better rewards for current customers, especially long term ones, as opposed to just new ones. After an hour of back and forth, the support person said he could offer me a bit of a discount of what I paid on the phone, but in order to do so I had to agree to sign up for unlimited data. I had literally just been on the phone with another VW agent months before and, although I didn't have unlimited at the time, I had the plan right below it, she told me that based on the amount of data I used, I could downgrade to lower. So now in order to get a discount on a new phone, I had to agree to a data plan two tiers up to where I had just switched down to. So to get a discount, I had to pay more for something else. And when all was said and done, I think the discount, with the addition of data, ended up making a big fat monthly discount of a few dollars.
Now here I am, May 2024. If I pay off my current phone in monthly payments it will take a long time. I only have about $300 left, and I am in a financial position that I can pay it all off this month. But when I went on the Verizon website to see what my upgrade options were, I saw that the only way to get a new phone with no monthly payment, I would have to add an additional line, or just like last time, I would have to cancel my current account, lose my number, and sign up as a new customer. I am not married, don't have children, so I DO NOT need an additional line. I also shouldn't be forced to give up an account, a phone number, that I obtained while being a loyal customer, just to get a discount on a $800 phone, that over the years I have paid for a zillion times over. Verizon Wireless only cares about getting people in the door. Once you are in, you are forgotten, treated as an afterthought, and picked dry to the bone for every cent, with no incentives. So Verizon, you'll give me a free phone if I choose to get an additional line that I don't need, and then pay for two lines for the next three years? Doesn't sound like that phone is going to be all that free. Sounds like another way of not paying for a second line I don't need, and just paying off the new phone every month on top of my service bill yet again. I think it may be time to walk away from this company that I have stayed loyal to for more than half of my life, when they have shown absolutely no loyalty in return.
