Upgrade Fee
frustrated75
Enthusiast - Level 1

I have my mom and dad on my plan and they are in their 70's. They don't need or would they use the internet and other technologies on their phone just a simple phone is all they need. I upgraded my mom's phone last year and the speakers went out of it so I upgraded her phone again with my dad's upgrade. They wanted to charge me the ridiculous $30 upgrade fee. I asked them specifically what that is for. All  they could tell me was that it was for services such as transferring contacts and the cloud.I asked them isnt the cloud what I pay my monthly fees and all she could say was no.  Plus they said they have a recycling program as well that I could get money back for the phone. So I asked them them so you need the old phone back and I will get my $30 back they said no. I also said that her contacts wont automatically transfer over she will have to go into a store and have them transfer her contacts for her and they will charge her a fee there. I asked them that it did not make sense. I asked her if it costs verizon that much to transfer services from one phone to another and she told me no. I could not get a reasonable explanation for what the fee is. I even spoke to a call center supervisor she just told me the exact same thing and said that all the other companies charge the fees as well as if that justifies the answer. While I was talking to the supervisor on the phone her supervisor "Teresa" from SC calls me. I did not answer it but I called them back. She said that her employee gave me a justified answer. I asked why she called me back to tell me that I was given a justified answer. As if to say that I was wrong for disputing the charges and asking what the reason for the charges. She then said "well Miss" then said to her colleague next to her "what is her Name?" I said you dont even know my name and she she told me to have a nice day and hung up on me. I consider that to be very unprofessional and  to call me back and tell me that I am wrong for questioning the fees and the so called reasons for the charges and to call me while I am on the phone with another representative  and not even remember who you are talking to. I can understand the fee of $10 that would be much more reasonable, but not $30. @

Labels (1)
5 Replies
Not applicable

You are wrong. And I don't work for Verizon.

If you purchase any device at a reduced cost, there is a $30 fee which has to be paid. Period. Makes no difference what the fee is used for.

Now if you paid full price for your device there is no fees charged.

And you would have no contracts. But you took the cheap way out and paid peanuts or zero for a new device and now cry about the savings.

All the carriers do this is a correct statement and they charge much more. You see pretty soon all carriers will require you to purchase at full price, then folks will not be crying about the upgrade fee of $30.

Good Luck

0 Likes
rowdyonez
Enthusiast - Level 3

Hello @frustrated75,

Breathe deep and slow for this because what I am about to say you may not like, but it is 100% truth. I truly believe cell phone companies in whole are moving towards these fees to serve the "Technology Bubble" better.

Upgrade fees are in fact 100% justifiable even if you get a basic phone.

Upgrade fees cover 3 things:

-#1- Technology Development. Services such as Backup Assistant and Cloud (+all the other services they are working on that are for the short term future) as they told you. No, this is not what you pay for monthly. Read through the customer agreement or download a full copy of a bill and you will notice Verizon Wireless charges you for exact things. Each charge has an associated title. Your monthly service price is for voice/text/data only and not all the new free digital services they offer like My Verizon Mobile, VZ Cloud, VZ Protect amongst others. W@hat you feel the price of that should cover is not what you actually agree to pay for. The taxes you pay are taxes. The surcharges are FCC mandates to cell phone companies that they cell company, then decide whether or not to charge us, the actual customer for. There is nowhere where it says your monthly service price covers things such as Verizon Cloud. That is a "free" service where in actuality contracted customers pay for it's maintenance and build with upgrade fees. Back in the day there were no upgrade fees because their was no real upgrades in terms of phone service just voice and text, but with the introduction of smart devices/ data devices that needed to change because all the services required to be up to date from a technology standpoint. I call the upgrade fee a Technology Development Fee. If it doesn't get charged there is no argument we could have if for example there was a new phone capability and Verizon did not offer it to us such as cloud storage. They did not charge us directly when they built their 4G and 3G footprint which spreads all across the US vastly, nor did they raise price for their soon be built networks like 5G and technologies like VOIP that they are currently working on. You may say, wait hold on, I pay for data. When you pay for data you pay for just that, Gigabytes used, not what they are currently working on. You may say, wait hold on, I do not care about or even use these things. Well, someone has to pay the bill, it makes most since to charge someone who is getting a new device whether its a smartphone or basic phone this fee as they are most likely to be using the services for the next 2 years of their contract when the services are actually up and running at full capacity. Plus your basic phone is capable of most of the things discussed, which why it almost always the smartest thing, to get a smartphone at time of 2 yr contract upgrades unless their is a deformity/physical condition that would make it hard to use one. Other than that you should shop around for a upgrade fee waiver promotion, but that almost never happens because of the Technology Development discussed. It is like a technology investment/ assurance fee.

-#2- Keeping The Price of Phones Purchased With 2 yr. Term Low. When you purchase a smartphone they average around $600 now at full retail price. Basic phones maybe $300. For new high end basic and smartphones you can $100 to those numbers of average price. Early Termination fees are $175 for basic phones and $350 for smartphones. This is important so keep this in mind for what I am about to explain.

Believe it or not cell phone companies make almost no money from selling phones. The vendors like Amazon, Best Buy, or the random cell phone store that is not a corporate location make profit, but not the actual cell phone company. They make all the profit from the services of Voice/Text/Data which is why they need you for 2 years. So, they purchase them full retail price from manufacturers like Apple, Motorola, Samsung, and Sony and you are going to be wondering why because that would not seem to make since. Well, they do this in agreement with the manufacturer to guarantee future phones on their service. It is a business deal. So for example, Verizon purchases a new IPhone 5S for $650 from Apple then Apple guarantees them the IPhone 6 will be released on Verizon, and full Tech support and training to be available to Verizon at no additional cost to Verizon other than the standards. That is right, no additional cost. Meaning you can either pay Apple some 100 of million dollars for them to make a phone compatible with your service, which would enable you to sell the phone at your price. Or you can buy the phone at the MSRP from the manufacturer and pay virtually nothing for them creating a phone to work on your service and the warranty and tech support needed for longevity. It is much much more complicated that this, but I am trying my best to make it understandable, because business is very complex. Just try to remember when IPhone was only available on the other guys network to get what I mean.

So back to the point of #2, they get this phone for $650 from the manufacturer then enable you to get it for $200 with a 2yr contract. That is a $450 loss initially, which is only paid off at about 2 yrs into your contract because remember your monthly service price of voice/text/data covers only that. This is why the early termination fee reduces with each month of completion of contract and the reason that there is an early termination fee at all. It is because they purchase phones at full retail. Notice how when you purchase a phone either on the EDGE program, Full retail, or at custom price off the street you pay no upgrade fee. That is because there is no loss to the cell company at that point. It's only when there is a  2 YR contract phone from the Cell Phone Companies store or their affiliated Vendor that uses their logo/brand to sell things under contracts.

-#3- Keeping The Price Of Phone Service From Raising. You ever notice that with things like internet and cable the prices are steadily rising for faster speeds/ more HD and selection? Well with cell phones the prices are actually going down for more service. Most people say, hey I used to get unlimited data for $30 now only 2GB, that's a ripoff. Well keep in mind that when you paid $30 for unlimited it started on 1X/3G networks. Now we are nearing true 4G networks (about 50% there right as of now speed wise). 4G on Verizon is at least 5x faster than 3G and this is a fact. Now with the cost of implementing a 4G network one of the only ways to make some money back from that multi-billion dollar bill was to create tiered data. Profits would be marginal with unlimited mobile data on 4G. And remember profit is necessary to pay the bill of technology development. Luckily for the consumer, 90% of consumers use less than 2GB of data monthly although that number is rising which is why 3GB is now offered for $60 on share everything family plan where as it use to be 2GB for $60. I say all that to say it may be hard to comprehend, but you are actually pay the same thing you always paid in fact it is now cheaper. Before you could do a single line plan of 450 min with 2GB and unlimited text for about $100. Now you can do Unlimited calling + Text and 1gb for $60. Tiered data is actually heaven-sent for those who can learn to be frugal when they are not on WiFi. Some people don't get it and ask why is home internet is usually unlimited but wireless is tiered with overage cost. It is because mobile/wireless data has less bandwidth capacity and therefore gets taxed much harder than wirelines. It may always be this way.

So back to the upgrade fee in relation to phone service price, Prices has actually stayed the same in some areas and went down in others(family plans). I remember a family of five with unlimited talk and text and smartphones with data plans use to pay at least $350. Now it's in the high $200 range. With the upgrade free of $30 every 2 year upgrade, Verizon makes some profit in another avenue and does not raise the price of phone service yearly like cable and internet companies do by charging you for faster speed or more HD channels.

So all in all if you ever buy a phone with contract price you should be prepared to pay whatever the price is to "upgrade". The word fee bothers us all, but would you rather them layout the fee then raise the price of phones by $30 or $50(because phone tax) and you not know that your phone could be $30 cheaper. For basic phones you could actually find promos to get them without the fee, but with all the explaining I did I hope you now find the fee justifiable and are only upset they did not break it down for you.

I did allot of research and this is the best, most explained answer you may ever get.

Hope you are satisfied with my math and read through it all! -rowdyonez

frustrated75
Enthusiast - Level 1

Rowdy you must be one of them. I said I don't mind paying maybe 10 dollars but 30 is ridiculous. And the technologies fees is not a good reason because they are not the ones making the phones and you can not tell me that they don't get heavy discounts for these phones. Verizon does not pay the same retail price that we would have to if we bought the same phone at best buy. It is just an over inflated fee. Yes it would be fair to charge one but make it a reasonable fee.

LRVassar
Specialist - Level 2

I don't agree with it, either, but if you want to play ball with Verizon, it's required.

0 Likes
2025finally
Newbie


i caught them in the same lie! In the end, the employee told me it was money making thing. You  just need to take  your phones over in the corner of the store place your new and old phone next to each other and your new phone will walk you threw the process of transferring between them using Bluetooth. 
After, I exited the Verizon Store (official) to look up more on the $30.00 trick Verizon was charging people to find Verizon was just penalized 10 million that day on misleading promotes AGAIN! 
Pretty bad after being with the company for 26 years or any others ๐Ÿ˜ž

0 Likes