tduval75 wrote:
Yeah I have that same exact 1400 Family plan and two basic phones and two Smartphones like you have. I will be trying this method although I have not ordered my iphone 5 yet.
My question is why can't the activation to the unlimited plan be done online once hte phone is received? I was also curious as to why it even needed to be activated on the basic phone at all. And what is the deal with these Sim cards. If I buy the iphone 5 for a current basic phone do they somehow program the sim card to that specific number/line even before I actually activate it? We have a lot of kids so I've had to switch phones around quite often and I've always been able to accomplish everything online although if it means keeping unlimited data then making the call will be worth it.
I'm very interested on how this works out for you.
THanks
the sim is tied to the line it was ordered for. when you get a subsidized phone on a new contract, you will at least have to activate on the line that it was ordered for. you are then free do deactivate or activate whatever phones on whatever lines. you'll just have to get a new sim in order to switch the phone to a different line.
i recently upgraded my wife's basic phone to the gsiii and selected the individual 2gb data plan (my line has unlimited data). my plan did not change, except that now it's $30 more per month for her 2gb data plan. there's absolutely no reason and nothing that would prevent me from swapping our phones. i'd simply have to go to verizon and get a new sim for each of our phones and activate them on the opposite lines. (this was actually my intent, until she saw the gsiii and looked at my thunderbolt and said "NO THANKS!!!!" so i didn't actually try it, but there's no reason it wouldn't work)
I'm supposed to receive my i5 on October 5th. Until then I'm just going by the feedback I've received from CS. Looks like many others have been doing this and it works. There's alot of mixed opinions on how the activation needs to work. Many are saying they called CS until they reached a good rep and were able to swith over without changing sims and without ever activating the phone on the basic line. I plan to try that first to avoid that 24 hour waiting period. From what i've read in the forums in a post by ADAM@Xerox, Do NOT Power on the i5 until you call in to activate it on the line you want it on. Sounds like you DO NOT have to activate it on the basic phone line first.
UPDATE:
This worked on the upgrade we did for my wife but she got the S3. Hopefully i'll have the same luck when my iPhone arrives.
Her S3 showed up last night. We did not turn it on or anything. Called straight into CS. The rep went through her process and then had me insert the sim, battery, and power on the phone. Went through all the initial setup steps and walla.....Done. Instantly connected.
Added info, the original rep we had talked to said it was ok to transfer her upgrade to the basic line, upgrade on the basic line, then transfer the phone to her line. DON'T DO THIS. Apparently when you do, when the phone is activated it still renews the line that originally was eligible for upgrade, thus changing your plan and causing you to lose unlimited.Luckily the rep we had last night was able to fix the issue and keep my wife's line on unlimited. Just goes to show, if they say they can't do it, they really can!!
Just remember....CALL IN BEFORE YOU INSERT THE SIM, POWER ON THE PHONE, ETC.....
Make them confirm to you the steps, and make sure to ask, "This will not take away my unlimited, correct?" If they mess it up, THEY CAN FIX IT.
I have another question along this same line that no one seems to have mentioned yet. If you do as has been mentioned--receive the iPhone, you'll activate it on the basic phone line. Then turn straight around and reactivate the basic phone on that same line. The plan will go back to a basic plan for that phone and will leave the i5 open to use on any other line on your plan. Then just transfer your phone line to that phone and you're all set. No change in that lines plan, just a change in phone, thus your unlimited data remains.
My question then is under this scenario, if you have gotten the IPhone 5 at the promotional price of $199, but you are cancelling the data plan because you are changing that upgraded account line back to a basic phone, it would seem that Verizon is "stuck" paying Apple for the full price of the phone but not getting the "locked in contract terms" due to it being cancelled or downgraded? I am surprised that Verizon would be willing to allow this without the 2 year locked up contract period being attributed to either line. Is this true?
Yes and No. Once you move the basic line away from the Data and back onto the basic plan, you're still locked into the two year contract agreement. Period. You're not cancelling your actual contract. You're just changing from Data to Basic. So, yeah Verizon is paying Apple, but I doubt it's the same price we'd pay Apple for the same device. They'll get volume discounts. But, they have you locked into a new 2 year agreement still for the basic line!
Make sense?
The contract is for the voice service and the data plan can removed from the line when activating a basic phone without affecting the contract.
I'm most definitely NOT a VZW employee. If a post answered your question, please mark it as the answer.
After a lot of different customer support people telling me many different things, I was finally able to do this last night. Successfully switched to an iphone 5 while keeping the unlimited data! Worth some of the hassle I had to go through to keep that for sure.
Hi,
I just got off the phone with customer service and they told me that they had
heard at least 5-6 people try to do that but when they got their phone and
activated it on the line they wanted for unlimited data, it would revert to the
2GB tiered data plan automatically. I told him that a number of people on the
verizon wireless forums had indicated that it DID work for them, and that the
customer service people from verizon absolutely said it would work. Now I feel
stuck, as to not knowing what to really believe, because the CSR person I spoke
to was adamant that it will absolutely NOT work at all. Thoughts?
Call back. Keep calliing back until you get a rep that CAN help you. Seems that not all of the reps are on the same page. You can see in many of the other forums that persistence is the key!!
This is exactly what I did for the 4s, except I went to a corporate store and they did it for me. Upgrade the basic phone and then switch it to the unlimited line and reactivate the basic phone back on the original line. My motivation really wasn't for the unlimited data though I just wanted to keep my discount I get on the unlimited data plan that they take away on the tiered plans.
Start a new topic or ask questions in the open forum.
