A few days ago I bought a phone directly from Verizon (technically 2 phones, but it's pretty obvious I'm never going to see the 'it is free but you pay the sales tax' one) and the whole experience was just bad. Since I only stuck with Verizon because I assumed it would be 'easier' to stay with the same provider I now have massive regrets about paying so much money over the years to get such incredibly bad customer service and I figure I might as well move to a provider that costs far less.
However, it appears that even if you outright purchase a phone from Verizon they still 'lock it' for 60 days. This cannot possibly be legal. I own the phone but Verizon forces me to keep it on their network for 60 days? This is like buying a car and having the dealer tell you 'you can only buy gas from us now.' Verizon obviously isn't going to make it easy but ultimately I suspect they have to. Does anybody know how to make that happen?
Any phone purchased from any carrier is locked to that carrier's network. All carriers have a device unlocking policy of some sort. If you don't want to deal with that, the best option is to purchase a factory unlocked phone directly from the manufacturer. However, unlocked phones will not have all the carrier features on them, so some things specific to a carrier will not work at all on an unlocked phone. Also, no carrier will troubleshoot an unlocked phone for you, so if it acts up, you're on your own.
With it being less than 30 days since you bought the phone, you should be able to return it if you pay a restocking fee.
Going to a discount carrier is your decision, but those companies are cheap because they are all renting network space from one or more of the "Big 3" and the network owner doesn't have to care about the 3rd party customers at all, so it can really be a case of getting what you pay for. Service with MVNOs is anything from "OK" to "does this even work".
"Getting what you pay for..." I pay Verizon quite a lot and I got a lot of headaches and exactly %50 of the phones I purchased. I always assumed that by paying MORE to Verizon I wouldn't have to deal with bad customer service. I was really, really wrong. Verizon wasted 6+ hours of my time and couldn't deliver a single thing they promised at the Verizon store.
The truly amazing thing: It takes a customer to say, essentially, "what did you expect, all other alternatives are [apparently] worse" and there isn't a single reply from any Verizon person.
So what's the worst-case scenario? I leave, have a different, frustrating experience (for which I have paid less) and then choose a new 'Big 3' carrier as a 'new customer' which is they only way to get any kind of 'deal.'
I got a “free” iphone from T-Mobile recently but the service was pretty terrible and I did not get all the promotions I was promised. I ended up purchasing the phone from T-Mobile (i was outside the 20 day return window) cancelled my service with them and brought the device to use at Verizon all within about a month or so span.
T-Mobile unlocked the iPhone for me immediately to use here upon me paying it off so it’s surprising that Verizon will hold your phone for 60 days. Sorry to hear.
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