Bait & Switch
SebT
Enthusiast - Level 2

After being a loyal Verizon Wireless client for almost 20 years, last September I agreed to leave 2 year contract plans for my family to join the Edge plan. I understood that my bill would increase, but that in return my family's (4) phones could upgrade every 12 months after 12 of the required 20 phone payments were made (60%).

A month after making this switch, Verizon changed the terms of the Edge program to require that 75% of the phone be paid over 24 months, which meant that after exercising my first upgrade, that my family would have to wait 18 months to get new phones instead of 12.

Now, still within the 1st year of me switching to Edge and right before my family is eligible to exercise their 1st upgrade, Verizon has changed the terms and the name of the program once again to require that the phones be paid in full over 24 months at full retail price before you are upgrade eligible.

However, the Verizon website states that if you are happy with your current contract or terms you could keep it;

1. If we exercise our 1st upgrade as per the 60% paid off terms of our Edge plan, do the Edge terms that we agreed to in 9/14 remain going forward (payments over 20 months and upgrade eligible after 12) or will we have to pay off the new phones in full before being allowed to upgrade again?

2. If we paid off the remaining balance on a phone under the Edge program could we then trade the phone in towards a new phone and get a $200 credit towards the new phone?

3. Since Verizon changed the terms twice right after we agreed to change to the Edge program, would you make an exception and allow a long term loyal client to return to 2 year contracts and receive subsidized phone costs, since you are allowing other loyal clients to keep their 2 year contract terms?

(Prior to switching to Edge in 9/14, every 2 years my family would turn in their old phones, get a $200 credit per phone and apply that to get a new phone for free. Why would we leave that arrangement if we knew that Verizon would change the terms of Edge twice to require that we pay full retail price $649-$749 for  all our phones going forward before upgrading?)

4. Apple retail stores just announced their own trade in program that is similar to my original Edge terms (monthly payments, upgrades every 12 months, and Apple care included). Since Verizon is one of the eligible carriers how could I join the new Apple upgrade program going forward?

Please offer fair options at this time since you pulled the bait and switch or I am leaving for T-Mobile immediately!

Labels (1)
Re: Bait & Switch
MiiHere
Champion - Level 3

If your contract says 60% then that is what it is. I had an Edge contract before they started changing the terms and it didn't change my contract.

What does it say when you go and click on one of your Edge phones under your My Verizon account? It should tell you how much you've paid and how much you still need to pay to upgrade.

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Re: Bait & Switch
kaebfly
Champion - Level 3

As far as your question about the Apple program, the info is on Apples website. You would have to make a reservation online to schedule a time to purchase in store. http://www.apple.com/shop/iphone/iphone-upgrade-program

Your online options (which are not the same as this program but are financing options) is either applying for a paypal credit account or the Apple Credit (I think that's by Barclay or Commenity)

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Re: Bait & Switch
rcschnoor
Legend

SebT wrote:

After being a loyal Verizon Wireless client for almost 20 years, last September I agreed to leave 2 year contract plans for my family to join the Edge plan. I understood that my bill would increase, but that in return my family's (4) phones could upgrade every 12 months after 12 of the required 20 phone payments were made (60%).

A month after making this switch, Verizon changed the terms of the Edge program to require that 75% of the phone be paid over 24 months, which meant that after exercising my first upgrade, that my family would have to wait 18 months to get new phones instead of 12.

Now, still within the 1st year of me switching to Edge and right before my family is eligible to exercise their 1st upgrade, Verizon has changed the terms and the name of the program once again to require that the phones be paid in full over 24 months at full retail price before you are upgrade eligible.

However, the Verizon website states that if you are happy with your current contract or terms you could keep it;

1. If we exercise our 1st upgrade as per the 60% paid off terms of our Edge plan, do the Edge terms that we agreed to in 9/14 remain going forward (payments over 20 months and upgrade eligible after 12) or will we have to pay off the new phones in full before being allowed to upgrade again? The new phones would have to be paid off in full before being allowed to upgrade again WITH PAYMENTS. You would be able to upgrade by paying in full up front at any time.

2. If we paid off the remaining balance on a phone under the Edge program could we then trade the phone in towards a new phone and get a $200 credit towards the new phone? After paying off the Edge phone in full, you would likely be able to sell the phone yourself on a site such as swappa.com for MUCH MORE than $200 that you could then put towards a new phone. Whenever selling the phone yourself, you will ALWAYS get more than what Verizon would offer you, market price vs 10%-20% of market price.

3. Since Verizon changed the terms twice right after we agreed to change to the Edge program, would you make an exception and allow a long term loyal client to return to 2 year contracts and receive subsidized phone costs, since you are allowing other loyal clients to keep their 2 year contract terms? Yes, as long as you stay on the More Everything plan, you would be able to purchase subsidized phones on contract. You would lose your Edge discount and be paying $40 line access fees, though. You would also have to pay off your Edge phone in full before being able to do so.

(Prior to switching to Edge in 9/14, every 2 years my family would turn in their old phones, get a $200 credit per phone and apply that to get a new phone for free. Why would we leave that arrangement if we knew that Verizon would change the terms of Edge twice to require that we pay full retail price $649-$749 for  all our phones going forward before upgrading?)

4. Apple retail stores just announced their own trade in program that is similar to my original Edge terms (monthly payments, upgrades every 12 months, and Apple care included). Since Verizon is one of the eligible carriers how could I join the new Apple upgrade program going forward? Go to Apple and sign up for the program. It will end up being a VERY expensive leasing program. You are used to getting a "free" phone every 2 yrs. Now you want to switch to a program in which you will end up paying from $389(16 GB iPhone 6S) up to $540(128 GB iPhone 6S+) EVERY year for a phone you will have to give back after the year is up????

Please offer fair options at this time since you pulled the bait and switch or I am leaving for T-Mobile immediately!