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Waive upgrade fee

I am looking to buy a new Samsung Galaxy S10 plus at BestBuy. The phone will be activated upon purhcase. They tell me Verizon will charge me a $40 upgrade fee. I have been a Verizon customer for over 10 years. Does anyone know if Verizon would waive the upgrade fee if I request it? Of course the request would come after the fact that is after I had already bought the phone. Any suggestions or words of advice will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Comments

rcschnoor

No they won't. If you don't want to pay the upgrade fee, you need to get the unlocked version and simply insert the old SIM card from your old device into the new device. I'm not sure if Best Buy sells the unlocked version, but you can purchase it directly from Samsung.

bearone21

probably not if you buy from best buy!!

TAMSEL9

No, they will not waive the fee! It's a one-time charge that everyone has to be pay.

JohnsonPyle

Speak with "chat" and they'll waive 50%.

scififan1

Yes, they did that for me. But, the whole concept of an upgrade fee, when the old phone was listed in my account as "eligible for upgrade" is disgusting! If there is a fee for it when it is eligible, what happens when it is not eligible? Really wacky system in place.

Doggo

@scififan1
wrote:
Yes, they did that for me. But, the whole concept of an upgrade fee, when the old phone was listed in my account as "eligible for upgrade" is disgusting! If there is a fee for it when it is eligible, what happens when it is not eligible? Really wacky system in place.

Upgrade eligible these days means you can finance the phone instead of paying full retail up front. This isn't unique to Verizon, all carriers do this.

Complaining about it and the cost of new phones is the equivalent of complaining about steak costing more than a pack of ramen. No one is forcing anyone to upgrade.

Don't want to be charged the fee? Buy an unlocked phone at retail. Don't want to pay full retail? Finance and deal with the fee.

Reps aren't supposed to credit and could get in trouble if done frequently. Unless you're willing to support them, stop wasting their time asking to credit a valid charge.

topaz126

Agreed. Service with Verizon has really declined. I'm going to look into Sprint.

Verizon_Support

We would really hate to lose your business. Your satisfaction is our number one priority. Please tell us more on how we can turn things around?

ChristianP_VZW

Timothyjcarson25

Spoken like a true Verizon sales person

if you want to save some of the upgrade fee by the phone online through chat and they will waive 50% better than nothing... What a rip off...

shaneswartz

A valid charge - are you serious? I'm being charge the upgrade for replacing a stolen phone that was already on Verizon. I replaced an iPhone 8 with an identical iPhone 8 and Verizon wants to charge me an upgrade fee for the replacement phone. Nothing like getting robbed twice!

How does Verizon consider calling this an upgrade fee when I am replacing a stolen phone that was already on Version with an identical phone? No upgrade in hardware or capability.

Very sad to see a company try to use the words "upgrade" for "replacement" to siphon money from customers.

jay75009

Yeah its pretty disgusting.

I owned my previous phone outright. Unlocked, didn't even come from Verizon. I decided I wanted a new phone 1 fudging month into my contract from a "bring your own phone".

Walked in and bought a 11 Pro MAX outright for cash at $1356.00. The guy in the store did literally NOTHING other than bring the box out, scan it and take my money.

Now I have a $40 fee? For what? I didn't even get a new simcard. heck I put the simcard in my self in my car lol Charge me $1356 for a brand new phone, the same month I already paid an activation fee, and then Charge me $40 for literally nothing lol

oh...they'll be waiving it lol Or ill be returning the phone and going to another company. Seeing as I own the phones outright, can't really charge me a disconnect fee Reward customers who spend thousands by charging them mystery fees lol

rcschnoor

You should have purchased the device from Apple and gotten the unlocked version of the device. Then you would not have had an upgrade fee.

Why people insist on doing this I certainly don't know, but if you choose to purchase a device from Verizon you will be paying an upgrade fee. If you purchase online without human interaction, it is only $20. If you purchase in a store from a person, it will be $40.

The easiest way to not pay the upgrade fee is to purchase an "unlocked" version of the device directly from the manufacturer or from a 3rd party retailer which offers "unlocked" devices.

Keep in mind when/if you switch providers that the phone you purchased from Verizon is locked to Verizon for 60 days before they will unlock it in order to work on other providers.

https://www.verizon.com/about/consumer-safety/device-unlocking-policy

TonyinOhio

Nothing but a money grab for V.

Been with them for 27 years. 5 lines and iPads. Ave bill is $200 a month so that totals $60,000+ over the life. Add in the device purchases and we've spent over $70,000.

Their response ... "everyone does it."

Yea ... thats customer service for ya.

STICKYBIKER

So I just added a new line to my plan. The sales guy told me to wait 14 days and then call into customer service and ask to have the $40 activation fee waived. He literally told me, "don't worry, once they see you've been with us for 23 years they won't even argue about it".

Well they certainly argued and refused. I even gave the woman the name of the rep who told me that and his location. I was again told "no-sorry. You weren't told this'". Yea, I made this up and put it on my calendar to call because I made this all up in my head. Then I was asked some condescending questions like "Is this your first time?" Uh- in 23 years? no.

Very disappointing. I've got 3 wireless lines and a jet pack on my plan (was going to upgrade it all to unlimited data in the fall too) but now I'm now looking into other carriers and considering cancelling the whole smash.

Verizon_Support

I'm sorry for this experience, STICKYBIKER. We appreciate your feedback, and we will use it to improve our processes moving forward. I apologize if you were provided any misinformation. The last thing we want is to lose you as a customer. The upgrade fee is $40 when you upgrade at the store. You can save $20 if you upgrade your device online. You can find more details on the upgrade fee using this link. https://www.verizon.com/support/upgrade-device-faqs/#:~:text=You're charged an upgrade,a store or by phone).

We recommend using our Verizon Up program. It's a great way to earn device dollars that can be used towards your next upgrade and cover the upgrade fees. Here's more information on our Verizon Up program: m.vzw.com/m/UpSocial

GersonG_VZW

Doggo

@STICKYBIKER

Store reps are liars and honestly every time they try to pawn fees off on CS, it should be taken from their commission.

Just an FYI, a rep can't even credit as little as a dollar now without approval because of the millions of invalid credits given out.

Either pay $40 for working with a rep, $20 for uprading yourself online or buy an unlocked phone.

mik237

Valid charge!? How much are they paying you to say that? garbage!

TJ___

No. The upgrade fee is strictly a way for Verizon to make you pay more. Upgrading a phone costs Verizon nothing at all. Do we pay an upgrade for a car, refrigerator etc...? No. Verizon does not care about customer loyalty. Many years go they did care. Unfortunately, the CEO wants his multi-million dollar bonus.

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