'Early Upgrade'

[pherson]

So you've paid your bill on time for 10 years and they wouldn't give you an early upgrade?! With all you spend?!

[aheslin]

I have to tell you I am 16 months into a 2 year contract and have been with Vzn since 2001.  I have never missed a payment, always paid in full and kept upgrading my contracts as the contracts changed per the employees recommendations.  I just upgraded my phone in November using my husbands upgrade as recommended by an employee at the store with the promise by the Verizon Wireless employee that I would be able to upgrade my husbands phone in December using my upgrade (no mention of early upgrade to me or edge offer for early upgrade). Today I go into the store to upgrade my husband's phone only to find out that my husband is not allowed to upgrade until Nov of this year.....  Not sure how that happened as I was told 3 months ago that I would be able to upgrade him.  The employee in November lied to me to get me to buy a phone that day so that he could make a commission off of me.  Then I  spend 1 hour on the phone with a rep who suggested that I add another line to the tune of 15$ a month and a 30$ new phone fee and give it to my 5 year old child or an elderly adult that will not use it???  Give my 5 year old or the elderly adult the phone that no longer works (the reason for needing the upgrade in the first place) and get the new phone that we want and change it to his???  Sounds a little sleezy that she even offered that as an option (take advantage of my 5 year old or my poor elderly family).  Never mind that I already have a family plan with my mother-in-law on it, she would know that if she looked closely at my account.  She had all sorts of suggestions for me like to go to amazon and buy a phone and come in to the store and have it activated, or pay full price on a phone, or wait until November to upgrade??? Oh yah, she also told me today that I could get the edge today for MY phone and upgrade to the phone of their choice???  Are you kidding me?  I just bought a new phone!  Why would I trade it in?????   Nice!  She then mysteriously found a "deal" on a phone on early upgrade (paying more than I want) only to have her tell me, "Never mind, you have to call back in 2 months to get that deal", which will probably not even be there when I call back....  The customer service at this company is appalling and very underhanded.  All they want to do is sell you a phone and get you to buy all sorts of accessories and then get you out the door before you realize how they tricked you.  Seeing as how my contract is up in November, I will also be looking for a new carrier. 

[pherson]

You never missed a payment after all these years and they wouldn't let you upgrade early either?!

[tom228]

Loyalty only works one way with verizon

[Loquat]

Sarcasm I hope... 

[Weth]

I have this 30 year contract/mortgage thing with a bank. I am 18 years in and never once missed a payment. In fact the amount of money I have given them is unbelievable, but I have been so loyal, and by loyal I mean just doing what I am supposed to be doing. Now I want to upgrade and they just won't let me out of the contract. I just don't understand, I have been so loyal. I am getting a bigger house and I will pay them even more money. Jeez, where is loyalty these days.

People, the contract is there to pay off the phone that you got a discounted subsidized price on, and the calculation on that payoff is the full 24 months. It is really a loan payment in the form of a contract. Buy out of contract and get the $15 to $25 per month reduction in access fee. That is how you save money and can buy anytime you want.

[abemom]

I will apologize in advance for the TL/DR:

My experience with Verizon has been mostly positive from the beginning.  In dealing with them, you have to understand that they are a business.  You have to determine what is the best thing for you and can you find a place where both you and verizon are happy.

This forum was incredibly helpful to me in making decisions on these lines.  Verizon did offer me the option to upgrade early - after a full 18 months of a contract with never missing a payment (so the beginning of the 19th month).  The option to upgrade was offered as an early edge, online only.  Early edge had been offered sooner - the difference this time is I could upgrade to ANY phone, not just the android promotional phone.  You have to check your account OFTEN to see what is offered - and the best deals are usually online only.

So I went back to my spreadsheet and redid the math.  The phones I am turning in were iphone 4 - worth $15 each as a trade in.  Two had a minor issue that needed repair.  Verizon is VERY clear about what the condition of the phone needs to be on turn in - so I spent $80 to get the phones repaired at a repair store near my home.  These phones were free, so this is all that I have spent on them (not contacting the contracted line price).  I created a spreadsheet with all of the upgrade options - 2 year contract renewal in August, pay full price to get new phone now, or upgrade now with early edge - and doing the edge now saved me over $100 per phone - offsetting the cost of the repair and lost trade in value.  So we got the phones we want now (iphone 6 x 3lines) instead of waiting until August when my contract ended.  And I have committed to a new 2 year contract with Verizon.

I have now mailed the 3 phones to Verizon.  I will update as this moves forward since there are so many negative experiences with Edge returns on this forum - hopefully, I will continue to be as happy with Verizon as I currently am.  I'm hopeful that the people with positive return experiences are simply not posting here. 

Bottom line - you have to find the sweet spot for both of you.  As Weth says, you are signing an agreement - they are basically financing a loan for you when you get a discounted phone from them!  They don't owe you anything.  The coverage Verizon has is crazy good - you won't find this any where else.

[pherson]

Just to clarify, you do not have a two year agreement. When you do edge or early edge it is not under contract, but if you cancel before the phone is paid off you owe the balance. And if you want to edge again when eligible you have to turn in these phones as well. As to why people wish to do this is beyond me. In the long run its costing you more than buying it upfront outright or doing a 2 year agreement. The carriers don't want you to figure this out.

[abemom]

Thanks for the clarification - what I did was let Verizon finance a phone costing $649 over the next 2 years,  Times three.  I did it because I did not want to front almost $2000, and we desperately needed upgrades from the old technology we were using.  It increased my bill by $2 a line each month.  

In exercising this option, I got rid of 5 months of an old contract, pulling my end date of contract life ahead 5 months. That is why it saved my money overall.

The carrier is not hiding anything from me.  I DID THE MATH - this was the cheapest option for me over the next 29 months.

As I said - you have to find the sweet spot in all of the options.  Everyone has different needs and different situations. The most important thing to keep in mind is that Verizon doesn't owe you anything. 

[rcschnoor]

pherson wrote:

Just to clarify, you do not have a two year agreement. When you do edge or early edge it is not under contract, but if you cancel before the phone is paid off you owe the balance. And if you want to edge again when eligible you have to turn in these phones as well. As to why people wish to do this is beyond me. In the long run its costing you more than buying it upfront outright or doing a 2 year agreement. The carriers don't want you to figure this out.

I'm not sure if everyone understands this or not, but you DO NOT have to turn in an Edge phone when making another Edge purchase UNLESS you have not yet completed all of your payments. Simply because you are making another Edge purchase does not mean you have to turn in your phone. If you complete all of your Edge payments, the phone is yours to keep, even when making another Edge purchase.

Edge does not cost your more than buying it upfront outright or doing a 2 year service agreement IF you choose to make all of your Edge payments. In fact, it is the EXACT SAME COST as purchasing upfront outright.