Verizon Makes Customers Wait Longer for Upgrades

[MacRumors]

U.S. carrier Verizon has changed its phone upgrade policies, making customers wait longer between upgrades. Until now, customers with a two-year agreement could upgrade at 20 months.

Now, customers will only be able to upgrade at 24 months, when their contract is up. The first customers impacted by this change are those whose contracts expire in January 2014.

In alignment with the terms of the contract, customers on a two-year agreement will be eligible for an upgrade at 24 months vs. today's early upgrade eligibility at 20 months. This change aligns the upgrade date with the contract end date and is consistent with how the majority of customers purchase new phones today. The first customers impacted by this change are customers whose contracts expire in January 2014. As always, customers may purchase a new phone at the full retail price at any time.

Verizon's main competitor, AT&T, allows customers to upgrade after 20 months, with an "early upgrade" allowed at an earlier time with a larger initial payment. Sprint offers upgrades after 20 months as well.

T-Mobile recently rolled out its new "uncarrier" plans, allowing customers to buy an iPhone 5 for $100 down plus 24 monthly payments of $20. Customers can buy a new phone at any time, but they will still be responsible for the monthly payments on prior phone purchases.

Article Link: Verizon Makes Customers Wait Longer for Upgrades

 

[GeekLawyer]

This is an excellent idea...

... to push even more people to AT&T, Sprint, and Tmobile.

 

[bwillwall]

Verizon I am SICK of you. I get unusable 3G speeds every day in the afternoon and when it does work I get about .3 Mb/s down .05 up in my town. Now they are going to do THIS? I pay them good money every month for my service and I am SO ****ING DONE

 

[ECUpirate44]

If only sprint didn't suck I'd be done with Verizon.

 

[Tiger8]

There you go verizon lovers

first they force you to re-subsidize full-price phones to keep your unlimited data plans...

Then this... Enjoy! you deserve it!

 

[Number 41]

"Can you hear me now?"

"Not for another 4 months."

 

[wvmb]

Consumers are sheep....

..including me, as I have a Verizon contract. When did this switch happen that allows companies to act like they are doing us a favor by allowing us to give them our money?? Seriously, they have language in their contracts that allows them to change the term mid stream, but we are stuck with whatever they decide to dish out. They know our only recourse is a class action lawsuit, and I think we all know the legal and ethical problems associated with that solution. Unfortunately the only thing that would work is to say enough is enough and just let our cell phone accounts die. I've already done that for cable and a couple of other things, but do you think that in this entire country we could get enough people together to make a company like this even notice? We are sheep.

 

[Xavier]

Verizon, what good are you doing for the customer nowadays anyway?

 

[dfnj123]

It's pretty hard to justify a reason why anyone should have Verizon (other than the few people who live in areas that do not get coverage with other carriers).

 

[rdlink]

This is kind of dumb, if you ask me. One of the benefits for the carrier on allowing the early upgrade is holding a carrot in front of the user that will get them to re-up before their contract is up. Now, they're going to put me in a position to make my carrier decision without any hindrance of the contract.

Cutting their own noses off to spite their face, IMO

 

[3282868]

Only in North America.

 

[Shanpdx]

Good for ATT

I guess. They have been great to iPhone users ...

 

[jroadley]

Rubbish!

 

[Stella]

You'd think that Verizon would want to compete against T Mobile?

 

[inlinevolvo]

This really doesn't effect me at all. I'm sure everyone and their cousin will lose sleep over it though.

 

[BJMRamage]

don't worry, Soon AT&T will announce the same thing.
rather than get potential Verizon escapes, they will be greedy and gouge their current customers.

 

[NT1440]

While this seems like a trivial matter, the bigger question is this:

Why in the "land of the free" are the telecoms allowed to charge the outrages prices they do, in ways which are actually illegal in the rest of the world?

For example, in India they aren't even allowed to charge a penny per text, because that is a markup in the 1000%+ range. In this country, they still get away with charging many people plans that cost $20 per month for "unlimited texting". That is outrageous.

In addition, these companies are many times larger than the landline phone companies were during the big breakups. Because they got congress to pass a law saying wireless carriers didn't have to adhere to the same rules of the landline companies, we've allowed these companies to not only consolidate with others making multinational juggernauts the size we've never seen before (literally the holders of the keys for communication and information in large swaths of the world).

T-Mobile is trying to change the game, but not towards consumers. It's interesting that immediately after many of the big companies tried to merge and were blocked, that the dissenting members of the FCC suddenly stepped down. Something in rotten in the state of Denmark.

 

[Number 41]

Sprint, Verizon, AT&T.

All serving crap, just prepared slightly differently in each case.

 

[Burton8219]

don't worry, Soon AT&T will announce the same thing.
rather than get potential Verizon escapes, they will be greedy and gouge their current customers.

This. That's usually how it goes... Think with their wallets, not their heads.

 

[iVoid]

Sadly I get poor reception with AT&T at my home and work, so Verizon is my best bet.

Although 4G LTE may make that a moot point.

This makes me want to go away from Verizon when I get my next iPhone.

Nice marketing job, Verizon!

This is a curious way to respond to T-Mobile's no subsidizing plans. Stick it to your customers more.

Probably they hope this prevents people from jumping ship 4 months earlier. Short term profits over long term customers... not a good combination.

 

[maclaw21]

I'll wait to see the official notification, but methinks this sounds like a material alteration to the service agreement. I hope VZW is ready to let me out of my contract!

 

[tsduke]

So if I have 7/2014 renewal date currently I will see it change to 11/2014? How can they do this in middle of contract.

 

[likemyorbs]

Verizon may have the best service but I still won't switch to them, and I have nothing holding me back. T-Mobile is moving forward, apparently Verizon wants to keep moving backward. I wish T-Mobile didn't have such horrible service in my area.

 

[Small White Car]

I've said it a million times:

AT&T is inept. Verizon is evil. Take your pick, but they are different!

 

[KdParker]

so, they are just changing the policy?

Wouldn't it be fair to apply this to new 2 year contracts, so they know the terms of the upgrade policy when they sign on?

Still blows either way....