I have the nationwide plus canada plan. Have been a customer for 7 years. I was disgusted to find that Verizon has limited the number of "basic" phones one can purchase without an expensive data plan. There are phones that are between a smart phone and a basic phone, that up until recently were available with out data plans or with the 10 dollar plan. I just want a slim brand name phone that has picture and video, like the sway I got 3 years ago. These phones are still being made, however, verizon has classified them as smart phones in order to make more money from data plans, or force people into buying data plans just to be able to buy a decent phone. I feel I'm already paying a premium for the service I get. It is bad enough that they nickle and dime their customers with absurdly high overage fees, this is going too far. Verizon, when will you offer something other than 10 year old technology for people that dont want data plans?
there's 11 basic phones:
6 of these have full qwerty keyboards, 4 of them have touch screens, and all of them have picture/video capability. how many do you feel would be an acceptable amount to chose from? the samsung brightside looks pretty nice to me. those $10 plans didn't work out because people get the basic phones (they used to call them "media" phones) and then start downloading apps, using the web, email, etc....and go over their small data allowance. they tried to give us an in between type of option but it was a nightmare. i was actually thrilled that they did away with them because i could finally get my wife and son a non "flip phone" without having to pay that $10/month for each of them. people wanted these phones but didn't want to pay $10/month....or they got them and went way over their data and threw fits. now you can get them without the $10/month and it's a bad thing? if you want an 8mp cam, hd video, etc, etc.....you have to pay for it.
Have you tried other carriers?
I agree with the poster. I pay for data and a smart phone for my husband, but I don't need it. If I need the internet I have my choice of a desktop, a laptop, a netbook, a tablet, or my wii for Goodness sake I don't need my phone to be online too, especially if it costs an extra $30 a month.
There used to be advantages to Verizon: good customer service, high quality phones, reliable service, good signal. Now pretty much the only ones that are true are somewhat reliable service and decent signal.
The bottom line is:
EVERY OTHER WIRELESS PROVIDER OFFERS A $50 UNLIMITED EVERYTHING PLAN.
When's Verizon going to get caught up?
I've been a Verizon customer for 14 years, but I think I'm ready to leave. I have 4 phones on my plan, 1 smart phone and 3 non-smart phones. Our bill is $179 a month. If I switched to ANY OTHER PROVIDER we could all have smart phones with internet for only an extra $21 a month. But I stick with Verizon because every year they promise me that a plan like that must be just around the corner, but you know what? It's not. And now that they've limited data on my husband's line, and have no decent non-smart phones for our other 3 lines to upgrade to, I'm really searching for a reason to stay.
I just can't help but notice that non-data phones 5+ years ago were getting compact and sleek like the Motorola krzr, the LG Chocolate 3, or had unique features like the LG ENVY that you could use the full keyboard to text or set it on a table to watch movies on the nice sized screen and good speakers, or the Samsung Alias II with dual flip hinge and eink keys that switched from alpha to numeric depending on which way you opened the phone (my favorite phone to date).
Half of the available non-smart phones today are flip phones that are very thick and clunky and seem so simple that they must be designed for small children or for grandma half of those have regressed so far that the front screens are only black and white. They have horrible battery life and dismal reviews. The other half of the non-smart phones are pretending to be smart phones but without the full functionality the girth seems unnecessary. Also bad battery life, bad signal, and bad reviews. And here's the kicker, the price for most of the non smart-phones (even with a 2 year contract) is MORE than that of several of Verizon's smart phones.
I just want a nice compact flip phone with color front and interior screen. If it has a dual flip hinge and eink keys like the Alias II, awesome. It should have good battery life and good signal. It should be cheap.
Alternately, Verizon could introduce a family plan that included shared data, so say $50 a month for 5 GB shared data instead of $30 per line so that those of us who won't use the data but are being forced into buying smart phones can at least feel that we haven't been raped quite so badly.
4 are masquerading as smart phones when they're not.
2 are old fashioned bricks
5 are old school flip phones, the best choice of which is constantly of stock
Of those, 2 have physical qwerty keyboards, one has a "virtual qwerty keyboard".
If the writer was in the same situation as me, they didn't want data at all, but were grudgingly "OK" with paying $10 for an unused service if it meant the phone had a good set of features or was compact.
It's not that we want smart phones for free, it's that we're wondering what happened to the neat, compact, long battery life, good signal feature phones of a few years ago? Why did Verizon regress and make customers choose between smart phones and technology from 1999? What happened to the reasonable "in between"?
HillaryOliver wrote:
The bottom line is:
EVERY OTHER WIRELESS PROVIDER OFFERS A $50 UNLIMITED EVERYTHING PLAN.
Non-Prepaid plans? Better check again. Nobody forces you to buy anything.
HillaryOliver wrote:
Alternately, Verizon could introduce a family plan that included shared data, so say $50 a month for 5 GB shared data instead of $30 per line so that those of us who won't use the data but are being forced into buying smart phones can at least feel that we haven't been raped quite so badly.
not sure if you missed their announcement, but they are moving to shared, tiered plans this year, so those of you who have been wanting it are getting it and those of us who would have rather kept our unlimited data for $30/month are losing it. they haven't said anything about rates but i would suspect a tier of about 5 gb's for about $50-70 per month.
the fact is that fewer people buy the basic phones as more and more people buy smart phones. they supply what we demand. it's economics.
Yep, I double checked last night before composing my post, non pre-pay Sprint and T-Mobile advertise their unlimited family plans at $49.99 a line up front. I even went all the way thru to the checkout procedure to verify that they wouldn't add nickle/dime features along the way making it more expensive.
AT&T isn't on my list of eligible providers as they don't provide signal in large sections of Phoenix, AZ.
Yes, there have been rumors indicating family data for 3 years.
If you look for verification of that from Verizon staff, (as recently as last week) both in store and on their phone line, Verizon doesn't know what I'm talking about.
They offer a tiered data plan, it has nothing to do with families, it's still per line, and the rates are more outrageous than the unlimited rate already was.
I'll believe in their family data plan when they actually offer it.
In the mean time they swear that as long as you don't change you plan on the line with unlimited data, you should be able to retain your unlimited internet at the same rate (They say of my husband's line, which currently has that plan). Unfortunately that means you can't buy a new smart phone at a 2 year discounted rate, because that would mean signing a new contract, which apparently qualifies as "changing your plan".
The post-paid Sprint plan is not unlimited everything for $50 a month. In fact, with the add-on for 4G, now needed for all smartphones, Sprint's lowest-minute plan is the same price as Verizon's. What you're looking at is either prepaid or the data plan hasn't been added. But I think you are correct about T-Mobile offering this deal.
Start a new topic or ask questions in the open forum.
