Why do we pay an upgrade fee?

[Frugile]

Yes, I understand all companies charge an upgrade fee and Verizon's is the cheapest.  Okay we pay for our monthly bill, we pay for the price of the phone we upgrade to but a fee even though we are already loyal customers. This is just another way to have your loyal customers leave and go with a NO contract type of phone service. We, continue to be charged for being a customer when the phone companies should be giving loyal customers incentives to extend there contracts.

[mdram4x4]

if you pay full price there is no upgrade fee

[rcschnoor]

You can also go with a no contract type of phone service with Verizon.

It is because of this contract that you receive a $400+ discount on the price of a phone, though. Kind of like a signing bonus. It seems you are just angry that your signing bonus has been dropped to $370+ because of the $30 upgrade fee. That is fine, you are entitled to your opinion and should definitely go with a type of service which best serves your needs.

Good luck.

[dimap52]

Well as to WHY, the answer is simple. They charge it because they can. Some bean counter said, Hey, other Tier 1 carriers charge this fee, so why are we leaving money on the table? We should charge it too!! So they did. Last April 28. Loyalty is nice and all, and not charging fees other carriers charge is a great price differentiator, but $30 x 110 million customers every 2 years just too much $$$ gravy to let flow down the drain to an investor-driven profit-motivated corporation like Verizon.  The days of $100 "advanced devices" credits, $100 New Any Two credits and discounted loyalty plans are either gone or going fast. Not to mention ditching unlimited data for these paltry super-expensive overage-driven Share plans.

Seems our only options are to eitehr hold on to what we've got, suck it up and get reamed on upgrades, or go elsewhere.  Too bad too, because the service is great, just the business model that sucks. At least for the paying consumer. For the investor and CEO, they're all laughing all the way to the bank.

[rosajazl]

If you upgrade with a new 2 year contract, you are getting the phone at a huge discount. The upgrade fee is charged to allow you to get that discount, but there are a lot of other free services that Verizon offers that the upgrade fee goes toward also, like the free MyVerizon website and free workshops to help you get to know your device.