Dear Verizon Wireless

[crywalt]

Dear Verizon,

(I imagine no one from VZW really reads or cares about this board, but what the heck.)

We are long-term Verizon Wireless customers. One of the four phones we have with VZW is malfunctioning. So we're looking to replace it with a new one. My wife has spent over 30 minutes on the phone to determine:

Simply replacing the old phone with a new one will cost us a $30 upgrade fee entirely apart from the cost of a new physical phone. That's $30 for someone at VZW to change some data in your database.

Replacing the old phone also means the loss of the unlimited data plan that phone was on with a new data plan with a 2GB limit which costs one cent more per month than the unlimited plan.

Upgrading the old phone through the VZW upgrade process means not only the loss of the unlimited data plan but an entirely new Shared Data Plan which will cost an extra $40 per month for 2GB even if no one else upgrades their phone. In other words, VZW wants to charge us $40 WITH NO UPGRADE IN SERVICE. In fact, it's a DOWNGRADE, because the unlimited data becomes a 2GB limit.

So, dear Verizon, as soon as possible -- and three of our four phones are beyond the two-year contract limit -- we will be terminating our service with you. Instead of getting an extra $40 a month for nothing, you will be getting nothing for nothing.

I trust Verizon is pleased with this result.

Sincerely,
Chris, new customer of Sprint or AT&T or TracFone or pretty much anyone else who isn't Verizon Wireless

>Last name removed<

Message was edited by: Verizon Moderator

[mdram4x4]

no news here

everyone that pays attention to the news, or reads the forums knows all of this

you can keep your data by paying full price for a phone

or getting a phone from ebay/craigs list

you cannot keep it if you get a subsidized phone

as for the upgrade fee, well verizon was the last company to do this, they just followed what every other wireless provider does

good luck with your new choice, but you will find the grass is not always greener

[crywalt]

The upgrade fee is obnoxious since we are not upgrading, we're merely replacing a broken phone with a working one.  But it's the least of the problems.

Did you note that we priced out buying our own phone and found Verizon will not let us keep the unlimited data plan?  They want to charge us one penny more per month for 2GB of data.

So at a minimum -- just to replace a broken phone -- which we didn't break, by the way, it just plain old wore out -- we have to pay $30 up front and then 1 cent more per month for LESS SERVICE.

The grass may not be greener but at least we won't be giving any more of our money to the greedy idiots at VZW.

[mdram4x4]

crywalt wrote:

The upgrade fee is obnoxious since we are not upgrading, we're merely replacing a broken phone with a working one.  But it's the least of the problems.

Did you note that we priced out buying our own phone and found Verizon will not let us keep the unlimited data plan?  They want to charge us one penny more per month for 2GB of data.

So at a minimum -- just to replace a broken phone -- which we didn't break, by the way, it just plain old wore out -- we have to pay $30 up front and then 1 cent more per month for LESS SERVICE.

The grass may not be greener but at least we won't be giving any more of our money to the greedy ****** at VZW.

you can buy your own phone at full retail and keep your data

you are upgrading your phone whenever you get one from vzw unless you pay full retail

[crywalt]

Also, apparently (deleted content per) isn't an allowed word on this board.  Brilliant!

Message was edited by: Verizon Moderator

[crywalt]

Hello?  We were just on the phone with VZW.  WE CANNOT KEEP OUR CURRENT DATA PLAN NO MATTER WHAT.  Even if we buy our own phone on eBay.

[crywalt]

Also, is it just me or are there a lot of people willing to defend and apologize for huge corporations treating their customers like

(deleted content per) ?  "All the companies do this" and "Everyone knows this already" are not really the point, are they?

Message was edited by: Verizon Moderator

[lingo]

There are two things wrong with your statements so far.

1. Yes you can keep your unlimited data plan if you buy your own phone outright from Verizon or someone else with no contract. YES YOU CAN. Please do not try to correct me as you did the last person. The rep you spoke to was wrong if they told you this. You only lose your unlimited data when you UPGRADE.

2. You are NOT required to go to Share Everything. Even if you did upgrade right now you will not be changed to Share Everything. The only thing required when you UPGRADE is you lose the unlimited data and go to 2GB for that one line.

[crywalt]

We have spoken to three VZW reps on the phone and they all have told us the same thing:  To put a new phone on that number, regardless of where that phone comes from, whether we buy it outright or not, we lose unlimited data.  Period.  If this is not the case VZW has a serious training issue on its hands, and it leaves us with a slightly different problem, which is how can we replace the phone and keep unlimited data if we can't find a rep who will allow it?

Your point number 2 is correct, and I have said as much.  We don't have to go to Share Everything.  We would have to pay one penny more per month for less service, however, which is what I've been saying.

[Ann154]

You can definitely keep your unlimited data plan by purchasing a phone from a third party (secondhand) or full price. I have two smartphones that I have switched between since the Share Everything plans were announced and put in place. I didn't lose my unlimited data plan when I switched from one phone to the other.