Please Explain the Verizon Upgrade Policy to Me.

[ipodlover77]

Hey guys,

Reading around the tech sites, the new changes to the upgrade policy seem to be getting people pretty pissed. so my understanding is this, if you purchase an iphone 4 on verizon come february 3rd, you won't be able to upgrade to the iphone 5 (lets say it comes out NEXT summer) for a discounted price right? you'll be stick until the iphone 6?

cause i realized thats a big shaft for loyal verizon users. AT&T allows good customers to upgrade or at least get discount pricing after 12 months which in other words allows iphone users to upgrade every year. just wondering if i got the right idea on what those changes mean?

do you think verizon will allow SOME customers to get the discount pricing after 12-13 months or are they firm on that 20 month time frame.

btw, not a verizon user. just found it to be crud that theyre trapping customers when they know iphone users love upgrading to the newest version every year.

 

[jacollins]

1) You assume people won't spend the cash anyways to upgrade. Verizon's in it to make money, not be a charity. Beancounter thinking: We needed the plan before to help stop people from switching to the competition to get a phone we don't have. Now that we have it, if people will spend the cash anyways and it's still cheaper than switching to the competition, you don't need to discount.
2) You assume they won't change the program again later.

 

[Wicked1]

1) You assume people won't spend the cash anyways to upgrade. Verizon's in it to make money, not be a charity. Beancounter thinking: We needed the plan before to help stop people from switching to the competition to get a phone we don't have. Now that we have it, if people will spend the cash anyways and it's still cheaper than switching to the competition, you don't need to discount.
2) You assume they won't change the program again later.

To add to the this Verizon doesn't allow you to upgrade as often, and yes they are very strict about your upgrades, in fact they charge you to upgrade early even if you are only 30 days from the end of your two year contract. When I was on VZ they charged my wife $10.00 just to upgrade 3 weeks away from her upgrade Date.

One thing I see really different is the fact anyone can sell and get good money for a GSM iPhone, that will not be the case with a Verizon iphone 4 on 3G, so I do not think there will be a large after market for iPhones that are not GSM, I see this as one really big Negative point to CDMA and VZ.

 

[whiteyanderson]

I for one have sold EVERY used CDMA phone that I have listed on Craigslist here in L.A. Never had an issue and sold them very quickly, within 24-48 hours. And I have sold them for enough to recoup pretty much all the money I had to spend on an eligible upgrade. There are plenty of people that are looking for a phone who are not wanting a contract, have lost their phone and didn't have insurance, or are upgrade ineligible, etc that want to save some money on a "new" phone. Of course the phone needs to be in decent shape.

Also I live in L.A. where there are a high number of Verizon customers.

All that being said, Verizon is very strict on upgrades and I'm a bit miffed that they won't allow me an upgrade early for the iPhone. But, I'll get it at retail (16GB), sell my Droid and accessories and recoup a little of the cost. Then, if they release a new one in the summer, I'll be eligible in October, will pick it up and sell this iPhone. I expect I'll get a good chunk of my money back on it too. YMMV.

 

[Interstella5555]

Hey guys,

Reading around the tech sites, the new changes to the upgrade policy seem to be getting people pretty pissed. so my understanding is this, if you purchase an iphone 4 on verizon come february 3rd, you won't be able to upgrade to the iphone 5 (lets say it comes out NEXT summer) for a discounted price right? you'll be stick until the iphone 6?

cause i realized thats a big shaft for loyal verizon users. AT&T allows good customers to upgrade or at least get discount pricing after 12 months which in other words allows iphone users to upgrade every year. just wondering if i got the right idea on what those changes mean?

do you think verizon will allow SOME customers to get the discount pricing after 12-13 months or are they firm on that 20 month time frame.

btw, not a verizon user. just found it to be crud that theyre trapping customers when they know iphone users love upgrading to the newest version every year.

I love how people complain about contracts like you don't know what you're signing. If you want the next iPhone at a discounted price, wait. If you want the current phone at a discounted price, buy it. If you want both phones for a discounted price because you're such a loyal fan of a corporation that they owe it to you....well, let me know how that works out for you.

 

[ipodlover77]

I love how people complain about contracts like you don't know what you're signing. If you want the next iPhone at a discounted price, wait. If you want the current phone at a discounted price, buy it. If you want both phones for a discounted price because you're such a loyal fan of a corporation that they owe it to you....well, let me know how that works out for you.

edit.
nevermind.

 

[Travisimo]

Have we got any confirmation on whether Verizon will offer the iPhone 4 with a 1-year contract like they do the rest of their smartphones? That would be the way to go for those who like to upgrade every year.

Here are some thoughts for those who are considering the iPhone 4 on Verizon:

- IF you are upgrade eligible right now, you have to decide whether you want to buy the iPhone 4 now or wait until summer to see if the iPhone 5 comes out on Verizon. I doubt we will know for sure until Apple announces the new iPhone (presumably) in June.

- IF you buy the iPhone 4 in February and sign a 2-year contract, you won't be eligible for discounted upgrade pricing again until October of 2012. At that time, you'd be eligible for the (presumably) iPhone 6.

- IF Verizon offers the iPhone 4 with a 1-year contract, you'd be eligible for upgrade pricing in 10 months, which would be December of 2011. You could then either buy the iPhone 5 (if it's on Verizon by then) or wait for iPhone 6 in 2012.

- IF you are NOT currently eligible for upgrade pricing, you could always sell your current phone and just buy the iPhone 4 at full retail price. Yeah, it's a lot of money, but you should be able to recoup nearly half of that by selling your current phone (assuming it's a relatively recent smartphone). THEN you'd still be eligible for upgrade pricing again when your current contract expires.

So it's really all a matter of timing. As a current Verizon customer with a Droid X and a 1-year contract that is upgrade eligible in May of this year, I'm considering two options at this point:

OPTION 1 - Buy the iPhone 4 in February at full retail price and sell my Droid X. Then I would still be eligible for upgrade pricing this summer of the iPhone 5 comes out on Verizon. This is still a big unknown because we don't know if AT&T and Verizon will stay on the same iPhone release schedule or if AT&T will get the iPhone 5 first. Heck, we don't even know for sure that Apple will stick with the July schedule for iPhone 5. And finally, we don't know how much of an upgrade iPhone 5 will be anyway; it may not be quite acceptable to skip the iPhone 5 and wait for iPhone 6 anyway.

OPTION 2 - Wait until summer to see what happens. If Verizon has the iPhone 5 at that time, I would use my upgrade pricing to buy it on a 1-year contract if possible. If not, then I would either do the 2-year or just buy it full price and sell my Droid X as in Option 1.

I suppose the smart thing to do is just wait until summer to see what happens. But my desire to go back to iPhone may get the best of me and I may just buy the thing in February! LOL.

By the way, I know the FAQ at Verizon's site says you can buy the iPhone 4 at full retail price. But does anyone know if that will be possible on February 4th or will you have to wait until February 10th to buy it that way?

 

[sarcosis]

In a nutshell here is what everyone is complaining about. Verizon's "New Every Two" program gave customers a credit ($30 to $100 based on phone i believe) to put towards a new upgrade at the promo price after 20 months. For example, one has an old school BB and want's to upgrade. They are in the 20+ month window. They go in, see the new iPhone 4 priced at 199.99. Instead of the new customer price of 199.99, they pay 99.99 since they are upgrading their BB.

Flash forward to now and now that's credit is gone. Verizon customers are allowed on a two year contract to upgrade their phone on the new customer promo price (+upgrade fee) after 20 months. Effectively, the only thing that changed is the credit that they have received the last few years. This basically ends up to being what every other carrier does has i believe. I know AT&T does this. You can still upgrade and get the subsidized price. You just can't get the credit that they were doing. That's all that changed.

 

[dizmonk]

thank you... that's very helpful....

In a nutshell here is what everyone is complaining about. Verizon's "New Every Two" program gave customers a credit ($30 to $100 based on phone i believe) to put towards a new upgrade at the promo price after 20 months. For example, one has an old school BB and want's to upgrade. They are in the 20+ month window. They go in, see the new iPhone 4 priced at 199.99. Instead of the new customer price of 199.99, they pay 99.99 since they are upgrading their BB.

Flash forward to now and now that's credit is gone. Verizon customers are allowed on a two year contract to upgrade their phone on the new customer promo price (+upgrade fee) after 20 months. Effectively, the only thing that changed is the credit that they have received the last few years. This basically ends up to being what every other carrier does has i believe. I know AT&T does this. You can still upgrade and get the subsidized price. You just can't get the credit that they were doing. That's all that changed.

 

[Aatos.1]

I'm currently a happy AT&T customer, i was using an iPhone 4 & an Android phone.

Since my iPhone 4 was great as a hand held computer but bad as a phone, I called Verizon. They were very eager to sign me up as a new subscriber & gave me the upgrade price on the iPhone. I'm very pleased.

Now I have a great Android on AT&T and hopefully the iPhone on Verizon is improved compared to the original iP4.