What reaction, if any, can we expect from Verizon in regards to the T-Mobile program to pay early cancellations fees? (This is sort of a 2-part question)

[D-Dub]

A brief rundown here...over the last 7 or 8 years, I've had 2 carriers, T-Mobile, with whom I was pretty happy and then Verizon for the majority of that time, due to a friend of mine working there. He is no longer with the company, however. Here's the dilemma. Today, I managed to slam my Samsung Brightside in a car door (jacket pocket, jacket not all the way out) and the sole redeeming feature of that otherwise useless phone is that it took repeated drops to the floor really well. I have probably dropped that thing more than my previous 4 phones combined and maybe squared.

Anyway, the long and short of it is that the Brightside is no longer under the 12 month warranty and it doesn't look like I really have any good options here, aside from trying to hunt down a used one and suffering through another year of a phone I increasingly detest. If I have to get a smartphone, I may as well look at making a move to whoever is going to charge me less for services fees, etc. and right now that is T-Mobile. The basic questions here are: is Verizon going to get to be price competitive and for my particular situation, what can Verizon do for me specifically?

I will be in a Verizon store tomorrow, but a few of the deals that are attractive seem to also be internet only. I am looking to be back in order tomorrow, one way or the other, as my phone is not really functional at all, so if anyone at Verizon has some answers or solutions to keep me in the house of Big Red, I'd love to hear them...quick.

Feel free to email me directly if you want, but don't bother calling...for the reason mentioned. Thanks.

[ttipgem]

Good luck.

[Tidbits]

Name one carrier that does...  I have yet to see a carrier give a subsidized phone because they broke their phone...  Maybe if you were closer to the end of your contract or upgrade date(usually within 2 weeks).

I wish you the best of luck and I hope you don't break your phone with the next carrier or else I'll probably see you there as well complaining about the same thing...

[#4]

D-Dub wrote:

Anon: Frankly, stores and corporate have a lot more latitude than you seem to think.

Sorry but no stores can NOT say "Well we will only charge you half price for your service just to be nice."

[D-Dub]

I wasn't asking for half-priced service, though that would have been nice. In the scenario I mentioned towards the bottom of this thread, I was willing to actually pay more per month in exchange for a concession on a phone as one option. That I have been unable to contact anyone officially from Verizon and they have so far declined to respond to me is telling to me.

My research has indicated that Verizon is the most expensive of all the carriers available to me for smartphone plans and unless that changes drastically, now that my momentary broken phone crisis appears to have passed (no thanks to Verizon), given what can only be described as shoddy customer service, it becomes increasingly difficult to see a reason to continue on with them.

[ttipgem]

You equating Verizon failing to give/sell/provide you with a subsidized phone when you are not eligible for one with "shoddy customer service" is wrong.  Completely wrong.  That math does not work.

Neither does Verizon's failure to respond yet to this thread equate to that.  This is a peer to peer forum.  Verizon reps typically do not answer threads for a few days after they are posted (allowing other customers to chime in first).

Verizon does not currently offer the option listed in your "proposal" below nor the option listed in your post above.  And neither store reps nor call center reps have the flexibility to make it up on the fly and just create an accommodation for a customer.

Either you are eligible for a subsidized phone or you are not.  It's pretty simple.  The "circumstances" are not relevant.

You chose not to have insurance on the phone and that's completely fine.  But when you make that choice, then you become completely responsible for the phone if something happens to it.  You have to take ownership of that choice.

Verizon is not going to "do anything" about TMobile paying ETFs for customers who leave to answer the question in your title.  But again, that does not equate to them not "valuing you as a customer".

YOU are the one who is choosing to break the contract if you leave.  They aren't going to "beg" you to stay by giving you something for which you are not eligible. 

And whether you see it or not, you are, in fact, exhibiting an "entitlement" mentality.

[D-Dub]

The larger implication here is that Verizon is not competitive in the marketplace, whether or not we agree on any sense of entitlement you think I may have. I don't have to stick with the contract, simple as that and frankly, they are giving me reason not to.

You are correct that that equation doesn't add up and is totally wrong, however, I didn't say it was shoddy customer service because they rejected me. I said it was because I was not able to get in contact with anyone at the company within a reasonable amount of time to even begin to discuss it. If I had, the chances, depending on who I got and how interested they are in customer retention and satisfaction, increases incrementally.

As to Verizon not answering me, this forum, as I have mentioned, is one of 4 avenues I took to try to contact them. They have failed on all front and I have seen them answering other threads in this community elsewhere, so there is someone around. That they have chosen not to jump into this one is neither here nor there, but fits the pattern already displayed elsewhere.

To conclude, unless you either work for Verizon or are authorized to speak for them, your comments are not remotely definitive, particularly when my past experiences have been directly counter to what you're stating. Again, I'm not going to argue whether the stores or corporate have that latitude or not (they do, as do all corporations - just have to find the right person); instead I'm offering them the chance to view exactly what it will take, at least for me and frankly, I'm exactly the customer they want as I cost them very little in return for what they get. Now what they elect to do with that information, once again, is beyond my influence, but I think they will do something. The half-assed measures that Verizon has put out there to try to counter T-Mobile's "un-carrier" programs are underwhelming, to say the least, but it shows they're at least paying attention.

If they're wise, they will adopt something like what I mentioned, along with an immediate price cut. I think they can be more than T-Mobile and be ok, but not more than T-Mobile and everyone else besides.

[#8]

D-Dub wrote:

The larger implication here is that Verizon is not competitive in the marketplace,

If they're wise, they will adopt something like what I mentioned, along with an immediate price cut. I think they can be more than T-Mobile and be ok, but not more than T-Mobile and everyone else besides.

As long as T-Mobile and Sprint continue to ignore large parts of the US the only competition Verizon has it At&t. If you want to blame someone for Verizon not being competitive enough blame t-mobile and sprint for ignoring over 1/3 of the US population.

If they're wise? Verizon has more growth and less churn that any carrier and that with being "uncompetitive". If Verizon did actually lower their rates to T-Mobile level both T-Mobile and Sprint would be bankrupt within 2 years because they'd have no customers.

[D-Dub]

They are for now, but Kodak and Blockbuster and Circuit City and Borders and Nokia and Blackberry and even Motorola while we're at it. It's cool if a few commenters want to keep paying more and stay with Big Red. I'm sure they appreciate it. However, I happen to live in an area where there was practically no difference in service and that was a good 6 years ago. I'm not so content and looking at T-Mobile's recent numbers, I'm not alone. As I mentioned, I would prefer not to change, but the extra money is not translating into extra value and again, I don't feel as if they care one way or another.

Here's the thing. It's fine and dandy for Verizon or Comcast or whoever to sit there and collect checks, but if they can't be there when I need them, why keep them around? Case in point, I had trouble with the network router Comcast gave me. Their tech support (India, I think) elected to hang up, after me waiting about 20 minutes for someone, in the middle of my question. I wound up sending a letter to their corporate offices and got a phone call shortly after that and the assurance that they valued my business, valued my patronage (they've been my only broadband provider for years and years) and offered to extend a discount for my trouble. I didn't ask for that, but I said the exact same thing when I told them. If they can't be there to try to help when I need them, then I don't need them, especially since they are more expensive than other providers. That is really what I expect and if they don't want to deliver, it's a small matter to find someone who can.

[ttipgem]

Just curious what you are going to do when you move to TMobile and accidentally smash your phone in a car door and go seeking a new phone from them and full price is the only option they provide.

But again, good luck. I truly do hope you find a solution with them.

[D-Dub]

I haven't heard from Verizon yet and I'm not looking to switch right away, so it might wind up not being T-Mobile. They're the carrier making the most waves and noise right now but who knows what will happen. Verizon may surprise me (and maybe the rest of everyone here) and answer positively. I did receive a message from the owner of one of the stores I visited, so at least someone is listening.

Thank you for your contributions and your well wishes. I've really found this an informative discussion with  varying viewpoints and I appreciate everyone who chimed in.

When I do get a smart phone, I will assess the insurance angle more closely due to the costs involved (my wife is very prone to damaging her phones and has yet to have a single one that has not suffered one affliction or another, whereas this is the first I've had this happen with) or possibly the used market will be such that it will provide a cheaper alternative to insurance. I'm still researching the best approach there...

[#12]

Well just so you are very clear. T-Mobile no longer offers discounted upgrades. You must pay full price for your T-Mobile phones. There is no situation in 2 years where T-Mobile will offer you a phone for $200. Of course thanks to T-Mobile's "waves" ALL carriers will probably abandon subsidized upgrades and make all of us pay $600 for phones in 2 years. Thanks T-Mobile for "saving" me money. When I have to pay full price for phones I'll be getting new phones FAR less often.

[D-Dub]

The way I see it trending is that all of the LTE/4G phones will come unlocked, which will allow Amazon to more forcefully put their weighty foot into things. I get the impression the carriers want to kind of be done with the actual phones part of things anyway...I might be inferring this, but that's kind of how I see it.

I don't know why you don't think you're paying full price NOW. If you go through the Edge program, for instance, you're actually paying more than retail over the life of the phone. Whether they amortize it into your monthly payments or not, you are definitely paying full price, though, whether upfront or not.

[pherson]

Sooo....you broke your phone....you had no insurance....but Verizon has to make it right? The sense of entitlement at its best....wish you the best where ever you go...but I think your postings are done here.

[D-Dub]

I'm not saying I shouldn't have to pay for a new phone and at no point have I said that.  Not sure how that exactly got skewed, but nature of the internet, I suppose. Not sure what you mean by you think my posts here are done, exactly, unless you're someone from Verizon and are intending on banning me or whatever. In point of fact, I did already go buy another unit. The part about my damaged unit is, therefore, concluded.

What I'm saying is a few things. First, I'm NOT paying overinflated full retail for another phone through Verizon or anyone else.   I don't need to do that, so why would I (or anyone else)?I don't see this as entitlement so much as asking if Verizon cares to  help me. If not, then not, but the answer is definitely no without  asking the question. Further, if T-Mobile is going to cover cancellation charges, then I have a very viable alternate, which was the first part of the question of whether or not Verizon is going to respond to this and how. 

The second part is a little different. Cell phone bills are already excessive, so not inclined to add further cost into things for insurance. One broken phone out of 10+ years would not seem to indicate insurance would be necessary or even an especially good idea. Rather, to demonstrate to their customer base that they do care one way or another, Verizon could offer a 50% subsidy (or whatever percentage based on how much is left of the contract on a sliding scale basis) on a new unit or they could offer it once during the life of contract or once a calendar year or whatever or they can just watch people walk away, I guess. My comparison puts Verizon at between $50 - $75 more per month as compared to T-Mobile and I don't see the commensurate value, particularly when I try to visit any of the brick and mortars. Verizon has a definite PR problem in terms of their customer service perception and this would be at least one way of helping that.

To boil this down, when I say Verizon needs to do better, it means that if they actually do care one way or another about their customer base (again, not just me), they are coming up very short on demonstrating it.

[D-Dub]

Just in case someone from Verizon actually gets to this, I will present a scenario, as I think it's in everyone's interests for them to be competitive.

Let's say Friday night had someone at Verizon either answered the phone or responded via chat or even responded to this message OR on Saturday, if someone at one of the 4 brick and mortars I checked out been able to tear themselves away to help me rather than presenting me with absurdly lengthy queues (I don't have 1 hr.+ to wait to be simply seen and will not ever, for any provider - that's entirely ridiculous), what I wanted to see from them was something along the lines of, we can give you X percentage off of smartphones only with an upgrade to the data plan for the remainder of the contract. That helps me and them, as I'm back in action right away instead of having to burn an entire day finding a fix. It helps them as it's a higher bill every month for me and the enticement to drift over to T-Mobile is minimized as I feel they actually care and that my loyalty is valued.

What we have now is me getting a stopgap phone to basically buy time. Being operational again and with this latest experience in mind, I now have incentive to start looking elsewhere.

I'm not here to argue the relative correctness of my argument or attitude but rather to present the marketplace realities and Verizon can respond or not as they care to. So far, it has been not...

[pherson]

Onceagain....The world's biggest SMH....

[dirkbonn]

To answer the OPs topic question, I don't think we'll any reaction by Verizon to T-Mobiles plan to pay ETFs to customers that switch to T-Mobile.  The biggest reason is Verizon has over 2-1/2 times the customer base that T-Mobile has. T-Mobile has to be aggressive in trying to gain more customers. Verizon, with the largest 4G LTE network doesn't need to offer the same things that T-Mobile does. When T-Mobile grows their customer base to 120,000,000 customers, (They have less than 50,000,000 now) then maybe we'll see Verizon do something.

[#19]

Also Verizon is still gaining more customers than T-Mobile so no Verizon doesn't have to do anything. If the 1st quarter shows a reduction in new customers and much higher churn then sure Verizon will do something.

[eaa712]

You don't have time to wait for an hour, but you do have time to go to 4 different stores?  It sounds like you should have just waited your turn at the first store. 

[D-Dub]

Two of them were because stores I actually wanted to go were in the same vicinity, so a couple visits were very brief and more or less just because they were in the same mall. At no point did I get treatment at any that would have enticed me to stay, though. They should be there for me, not vice versa and I frankly will not be treated that way by any business.

[HelenT]

D-Dub:

Sorry about your smashed phone.  If you like your brightside - you can pick up one on Ebay for about $50.  You change the phone card online with the verizon site, and be done with it.  That is how I replaced the kids phones.

I have been with Verizon since the time of the dinosaurs, and with 4 lines. We only have one smartphone - the rest dumb phones. We were planning on buying new phones anyway, because we hold on to them forever. So, I could get 4 smartphones At Tmobile at a savings of $30/mo. No overages - so if they teens go nuts on their data? They slow them down, and don't ding my bill. VERY tempting let me tell you. With no contract if they suck I move on, and sell their phones on Ebay.  My contract ended a while ago, and so that deal with cancellations fees for me is a no issue. 

We have been seriously considering it, because my sister in law has their service with no issues.  I would ask around with your friends to see what service they use, and how they like their customer service.  You may keep your service with Verizon or you may not.