I was just wondering if anyone was lucky enough to have their upgrade fee through Verizon waived when upgrading to the iPhone 6 or 6+. I didn't pay much attention to it when I purchased my iPhone 6 directly from the Apple.com store, but when I got my bill from Verizon today I noticed the fee and it kind of ticks me off. I have been a Verizon customer for years, always pay my bill on time, and paid for the phone (although it was subsidized). I plan on contacting Verizon today and asking for the upgrade fee to be reversed. I will update you all as to what happens.
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Any Luck Having Verizon Upgrade Fees Waived?
- Thread starter BMW535i
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Call, complain, state all the facts you just stated, mention you are thinking about terminating service. They'll waive it.
Just a quick update... I spoke with a representative through Verizon online chat and after a great deal of persistence and reminding her a few times how I am a loyal Verizon customer they offered to credit me half of the upgrade fee ($15). When I sad that wasn't acceptable I was offered a $15 credit and 500MB of extra data per month for 12 months. I declined as I never go over my data allowance. Ultimately the representative agreed to credit my account for $30, the entire amount of the upgrade fee as a "common courtesy".
After being polite, indicating that I was considering a competitor for a variety of reasons (including waived upgrade fees), and insistent with a VZW chat representative and after she noticed that I had been a customer for 10 years and always pay my bill on time, she waived 1 of my $30 upgrade fees (said she could waive mine, but not my wife's).
It is far less common than with AT&T, but despite what some reps say, it IS possible.
It does suck. It is pure profit. There is probably little to no cost incurred by Verizon in the upgrade (and any internal costs are probably more along the lines of $1.50 or less per customer). A fee of $5 or $10 would be a little more respectful and less gouging. But what can you do -- its a big corporate behemoth. If you complain loud enough they would probably remove it. But I have better things to do than spend 2 hours on the phone with Verizon customer service drones over $30.00 (and they know that too , which is why they charge the ridiculous fee).
Actually it was more like 10 minutes on live chat while watching TV. In all honesty, I don't care about the $30. It's about standing up to corporate greed. If more people did so, bogus charges like this would be rescinded.
I used to work for Verizon in a call center. I would get these calls constantly. We were told to never credit the upgrade or activation fees. However, we could just give a general credit on the account to offset the fee. Then, they implemented a software system that "helped" reps make decisions when a customer is asking for credit. The amount you could offer was based on many factors about the customer, including billing history, how long they've been a customer, how much their bill is, how often they receive credits, etc, etc. If it said you could give them $0 credit, you couldn't issue a credit without a manager approval, and even that was looked down on.
The representative has to meet a lot of matrixes to perform with VZW, and credits are a huge factor in it. These scores on the matrixes affected many things including, the hours you're eligible to "bid" for, the amount of your bonus, the size of your raise, and even to keeping your job. These types of calls put the reps in a bad place because if they don't issue the credit, they risk getting a poor survey score, or the customer to call back and if they do issue the credit they risk having the average credit amount be too much.
I could go on forever but for the TL;DR version: I'm glad I quit Verizon.
The representative has to meet a lot of matrixes to perform with VZW, and credits are a huge factor in it. These scores on the matrixes affected many things including, the hours you're eligible to "bid" for, the amount of your bonus, the size of your raise, and even to keeping your job. These types of calls put the reps in a bad place because if they don't issue the credit, they risk getting a poor survey score, or the customer to call back and if they do issue the credit they risk having the average credit amount be too much.
I could go on forever but for the TL;DR version: I'm glad I quit Verizon.
Yeah good luck with that
They will tell you that just to get you off the phone and then you will try again the next month when you see the fee was still charged and not removed and next time again and again till you give up trying or get put on 3 hour holds till you hang up
You probably haven't been with Sprint for a long time if you don't know how their customer service works by now
Same here. I called up for an unrelated topic, and before getting off the phone I said
'I have one more quick question- is there going to be an upgrade fee?'
The service rep looked and said 'No, since you've been a loyal customer since 2006 you won't be charged any upgrade fees'
I've always had good luck with Sprint, though.
Yeah good luck with that
They will tell you that just to get you off the phone and then you will try again the next month when you see the fee was still charged and not removed and next time again and again till you give up trying or get put on 3 hour holds till you hang up
You probably haven't been with Sprint for a long time if you don't know how their customer service works by now
Try 13 years of great service (I know crazy right?)
anyway I got my IP6 on launch day, of course apple site said I would be charge a fee, but I never was (I have since received my first bill with my new phone)
With sprint?
I'm really sorry for you
What can I say, I have great LTE data in my area, a good price and unlimited data.
hard to leave i guess.
Verizon waves the upgrade/activation fee if you upgrade with the Edge plan. If it's a 2yr contract? Not so much. Is it possible to get the fee waived? Sure it is. It's all about who and (this is a biggie that a lot of people seem to overlook) HOW you talk to people. Calling Verizon and telling them that you've been a customer for 13,000 years and acting like a big shot (I seriously hate when customers pull this) and demanding stuff may not work. Calling verizon and threatening to leave may not work either and it would be pretty dumb too. You're pissed off about paying a 36 dollar activation fee so you're gonna leave Verizon, cancel your contract, pay an expensive ass ETF fee, go to another carrier that you're probably gonna hate (who's gonna also charge the same activation fee)..and why all this? B/c you didn't wanna pay the original 36 dollar activation fee in the first place.
My advice is to simply call verizon, be polite, ask if the fee can be removed. If they say yes, awesome! If they say no, oh well at least you tried. At that point, just pay the fee and move on with life # #
My advice is to simply call verizon, be polite, ask if the fee can be removed. If they say yes, awesome! If they say no, oh well at least you tried. At that point, just pay the fee and move on with life # #
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I mostly agree. It also helps if you're off contract and not risking an ETF. This is generally why I try to negotiate, as I'm offering to sign up for another 24-month stint.
What can I say, I have great LTE data in my area, a good price and unlimited data.
hard to leave i guess.
If you're on their LTE then its not that bad.
Its just the people that are stuck on their cdma 3G that suffer the most.
Device activation fees will be waived if you finance your device through Verizon Edge or AT&T Next has the same thing too. Some times you also get a discount on your line connection charge so it's better to finance and it's also less up front cash (just pay the taxes) and you can upgrade in a year which is nice. I would consider Edge or Next in the future and see if it works out better financially.