Verizon Introducing $20 Fee to Upgrade Your Smartphone

[WigWag Workshop]

I am now paying month to month on a 500mb plan, I am always near WiFi, since I work from home. If they charge me the $20 fee, I will have to switch carries after being with them for 10+ years. I am still on a 5s, only because it does everything I need it to do.

 

[alphaod]

So they want markup money even if you're buying full price?

 

[Rafterman]

Wow, not only do you get to pay Verizon considerably more money for the service and extension of your contract, but you are charged for the privilege of giving them more money.

 

[Luscious]

This is such nonsense, and a shining example of why telecom needs regulation.

Take SIM card out of old phone, insert it into new phone. Go online, and update the IMEI numbers if needed. How does this warrant a $20 fee?

It doesn't. If they are really incurring high customer support costs related to the upgrade then charge those customers who need support a fee and leave everybody else alone.

 

[Sketchr]

So, if I'm understanding this correctly buying the phone outright at Apple is the only way to avoid this fee.

 

[michaelsviews]

Just called the toll free line to ask about switching my data plan for an iPad to a new iPad and she said there's a 20 dollar fee for doing that, but we'll waiver that for you. . TMO is getting better but still has allot of dead spots around us

 

[Junior117]

... why?

It doesn't matter if they're a for-profit company and that they're only in the business of making money (like literally every company ever). Just...

... why?

 

[aloyouis]

This is such nonsense, and a shining example of why telecom needs regulation.

Take SIM card out of old phone, insert it into new phone. Go online, and update the IMEI numbers if needed. How does this warrant a $20 fee?

Needs REGULATION? Hmmmm, NO! Let the market deal with it as it is doing here, now.

 

[MacNerd1239]

Those glaring support costs involved in the POS system automatically activating the device. Scam artists.

 

[terraphantm]

So how do they enforce the "indirect" upgrade fees? Are they going to bill you $20 every time you put your sim card in a different phone?

 

[Supermallet]

I think the next time T-Mobile runs a promo to pay for early cancellation at a different carrier, I'm going to switch over.

 

[Crackzilla]

This is such nonsense, and a shining example of why telecom needs regulation.

Take SIM card out of old phone, insert it into new phone. Go online, and update the IMEI numbers if needed. How does this warrant a $20 fee?

That scenario probably wouldn't warrant it. But the 90% of customers who have never done a backup, insist on having the store transfer content (did I mention they don't know their Apple ID password), and 2 hours later they're still standing there, wondering why Icloud takes so long over WiFi...

That being said, it wasn't that long ago the fee went from $30 to $40, then down to $0, so I suppose we've reached what would be considered a not so happy medium.

 

[Gregintosh]

Wrong. Go to the website and add a phone to your cart.

I get mine at the physical stores. Maybe it's different there.

 

[daijholt]

This sounds like pure robbery. There isn't a single network in the UK that charges a "mandatory" upgrade fee and they seem to manage their support costs perfectly fine.

 

[tizeye]

T-Mobile remains at $0. YES!

I love it when AT&T and Verizon call me trying to woo me to their 'services.' The services they excel at are kicking themselves in the face. Have now been 5 years with T-Mobile, and while there is room for improvement, they have improved significantly since prior account in the 90's and subsequent experiences with Sprint and AT&T. This $20 fee is almost reminiscent of the misguided policy of only offered the best price to new customers with existing customers completing the 2 year contract had to sign another, but at higher prices even without a new phone - paying you to go to their competitor for the new customer price. Staying with T-Mobile as just returned from a month in Europe and didn't have to buy a useage plan for text and data. Great to power an app, like the Swiss train system, and get realtime data anywhere using the local cellular provider for free.

 

[stopthenonsense]

Does anyone know if this new fee applies to people who upgrade at an Apple Store? I've never been to a Verizon Store for any iPhone needs, I am assuming (hoping) that if you upgrade in an Apple Store, there is no additional fee.

Anyone know?

iPhones are easy, backup to icloud, put in new sim, restore from iCloud. I bet this fee is bc of Android users. Moving from android to ios or upgrading an Android phone. It takes FOREVER! There is no backup like iCloud. But charging $20 to everyone! That's BS. Most people can do the switch themselves. They should charge the people that need the assistance if they feel so inclined. Funny how TMo doesn't feel the need to charge anyone.... they have never even charged met he SIM card fee.

 

[ggibson913]

Does anyone know if this new fee applies to people who upgrade at an Apple Store? I've never been to a Verizon Store for any iPhone needs, I am assuming (hoping) that if you upgrade in an Apple Store, there is no additional fee.

Anyone know?

It looks like from the graphic that they are going to charge you an upgrade fee even if you buy your phone from the Apple Store.

 

[shadowmatt]

You're forgetting the profit built into the retail price of the phone. The carriers were paying wholesale and selling retail. So every phone that Apple sells is money out of the carriers' pockets and into Apple's.

I have 2 family members who work for 2 different mobile providers.

From what I've been told, for years now the telecoms industry wanted out of subsidising mobiles. It ties up a ton of their cash in inventory / 2 years to recover costs etc and means losing customers who get better upgrade offers from other providers.

The buy your own handset model gets rid of all that and all the costs involved. They might still get a referral fee from a company providing a financing option for customers to buy mobiles but other than that they want out.

 

[Sketchr]

It looks like from the graphic that they are going to charge you an upgrade fee even if you buy your phone from the Apple Store.

I'm reading it as that if you buy from Apple AND use the Apple Upgrade program you will be charged the fee. It does not mention the fee if you pay full retail at Apple.

 

[steiney]

So you'd rather have another monthly regulatory compliance recovery fee? I don't think we can win other than jumping between carriers.

Well the obvious answer there is to regulate the regulatory fees. The government could make a regulation capping those fees at x% of the monthly bill, otherwise the telecoms are always going to just pass the cost of the regulation on to the consumers that way.
[doublepost=1459522841][/doublepost]

Excellent.

Just means that many more people are coming over to T-Mobile.

I've been with T-mobile for almost 20 years and I have no complaints.

If you don't mind me asking, what part of the country are you in? I'm in the Southeast and I would love to use T-Mobile but the reception here is almost non-existent for T-Mobile.

 

[dk001]

...
If you don't mind me asking, what part of the country are you in? I'm in the Southeast and I would love to use T-Mobile but the reception here is almost non-existent for T-Mobile.

Unless you are locked to an iPhone, take a look at Google Fi. None of this mess and runs on Sprint/TMo.

 

[epicrayban]

-Horrible Verizon branding on the hardware.
-Horrible Verizon bloatware on the software.

And now a dubius upgrade fee. How disgusting and greedy can Verizon get? There is no bottom they won't sink to.

 

[steiney]

Unless you are locked to an iPhone, take a look at Google Fi. None of this mess and runs on Sprint/TMo.

That's really interesting. Unfortunately, I cannot bring myself to use an Android phone. I previously owned a Galaxy S2 and came to loathe the hardware and OS. But I really appreciate your suggestion. Maybe they'll release it on iPhone once it's out of beta.

 

[rickyt07]

Does anyone know if this new fee applies to people who upgrade at an Apple Store? I've never been to a Verizon Store for any iPhone needs, I am assuming (hoping) that if you upgrade in an Apple Store, there is no additional fee.

Anyone know?

I just upgraded to the iphone SE 64gb. and I just found out that they are going to charge me $40 extra a month for doing the 2yr contract deal for $49. If I was to make the payment option they told me it would be $20 extra a month when ordering from apple.com. Verizon even charged me $20 each month for a phone that I paid in full on their website. So these fees are ridiculous and they are leading customers to believe they are paying that nice price for data when in fact as the get further along they realize it is too overpriced. Also I am sending a complaint because I was lead to think that this $40 was just an upgrade fee, which to me I always thought was a one time charge on the first bill. Now all of sudden upgrade fees are monthly? I just switched from Sprint because I was paying over $90 a month, but now it looks like I will be paying the same for 3GB of data instead of unlimited. Very frustrating and now stuck in a 2yr agreement.

 

[lparsons21]

Reading up on Google Fi it does seem pretty interesting. Essentially doing with a broad range of devices what we get with iOS/OSX devices now, but locked to a Nexus phone. The more I read, the more I think it will not ever allow use of an iPhone and probably not even most Android phones.

All that said, it would cut my phone bill in half and that certainly has to be a real consideration. Just have to figure out where to sell my 6+ and what method to sell it.