I put my SIM card from my Verizon 6s in my 7 when I activated it this year and I never got charged. I got the 7 from Apple.
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Verizon Raises Smartphone Upgrade Fee to $30
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Guys, just call support or chat online and ask them to waive the fee.
I do this with AT&T every single time. It sometimes takes a few tries with different reps, but if I'm doing the chat I can just do other things and keep hammering them until they waive it.
Granted, it helps that I've been with them for years, and I remind them of that every time, but if you're persistent, you can get it waived. The reps are definitely empowered to do it.
Is it terrible that they charge these fees? Yes, but make a little effort and you can ditch the fees.
I do this with AT&T every single time. It sometimes takes a few tries with different reps, but if I'm doing the chat I can just do other things and keep hammering them until they waive it.
Granted, it helps that I've been with them for years, and I remind them of that every time, but if you're persistent, you can get it waived. The reps are definitely empowered to do it.
Is it terrible that they charge these fees? Yes, but make a little effort and you can ditch the fees.
As an AT&T customer, I can confirm paying in full for my 6s and 7 and just swapping my SIM, I was never charged the BS fee.
I guess I haven't kept up with Verizon and CDMA technology, but in the past you had to call Verizon to have your phone number switched to a different phone right? I guess now you can swap your SIM, but doesn't that just apply to data? Isn't the phone number itself tied to the handset itself, and have to be transferred over by Verizon on the backend? (ie they would have to be involved for you to switch to a new phone and know to charge you the BS fee)?
I guess I haven't kept up with Verizon and CDMA technology, but in the past you had to call Verizon to have your phone number switched to a different phone right? I guess now you can swap your SIM, but doesn't that just apply to data? Isn't the phone number itself tied to the handset itself, and have to be transferred over by Verizon on the backend? (ie they would have to be involved for you to switch to a new phone and know to charge you the BS fee)?
It's not bad enough these carriers rape us with the cost of service, now lets raise how much we charge you just to upgrade your phone. I think it's utterly BS.
done!
done!
Doesn't quite work nearly as well with Verizon as it seems to with AT&T.
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Swapping works fine, it's more about where the phone was obtained and how. If it was a full price purchase, and especially outside of Verizon, then you are all good to go, but if it was a subsidized upgrade or financing of some sort then the fee generally gets applied.
You'll still get hit with the fee. Happened when I got my 7 Plus last year. Pure greed.
Went to cricket as well, NHL mobile sucks in many areas right now. just be sure to test.
Oh 200GB that's very generous - unless you bittorrent on your phone, that should be a very hard limit to reach.
I live in a big city (right outside Chicago), and Verizon still rules supreme here. Working in IT, I have a phone with AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon service for various reasons. I get no service in the building here with T-Mo/ATT, but Verizon has 5 bars of LTE. Same at home, 1-2 bars of 4G with AT&T, 3ish with T-Mobile, full LTE with Verizon. Sometimes, one just has to choose whatever works best for them. I switched to Verizon after being with AT&T for 15 years on my personal line, and the service difference is night and day.
The will not charge the fee as long as you just swap SIM cards. I purchased a phone at the Apple Store, refused activation in the store (which would have used the SIM card that was included in the new phone, and would have cost $20). Then once I got home I just took the SIM card out of my old phone, plugged it into the new phone, and all was good.
FWIW: The first apple store I went to wouldn't allow me to leave without activating the phone. The second one had no issues with it.
why not just go directly with ATT prepay with no cap throttling. I pay $43 for the 3GB. They offer other prepay plans.
As others have said, if you can find someone to sell you the phone without activating it then you won't have to pay the upgrade fee. Just swap the SIM out and you will be good to go. Eventually Verizon's website will even figure it out and your new device will show up there instead of your old on.
However, in my experience, even if you pay full price at Verizon they will insist on activating it and charging you the fee. Also if you order a Verizon phone from Apple online (at least during the pre-order process) they will also make you pay the fee.
One thing people need to check is their corporate discounts though. With my corporate discount I get 20% off my data plan and that is is. My wife's corporate discount gets 18% off the data plan, 20% off accessories, and free activation. So we use her discount instead of mine since it ends up giving us the best deal in the long run.
However, in my experience, even if you pay full price at Verizon they will insist on activating it and charging you the fee. Also if you order a Verizon phone from Apple online (at least during the pre-order process) they will also make you pay the fee.
One thing people need to check is their corporate discounts though. With my corporate discount I get 20% off my data plan and that is is. My wife's corporate discount gets 18% off the data plan, 20% off accessories, and free activation. So we use her discount instead of mine since it ends up giving us the best deal in the long run.
It is probably a means of offsetting the "interest free" financing for purchasing a new device over 24 months. So not technically "interest free" you are paying $30 upfront. Or $40 or $20 depending on which week you do it
No the number is tied to the SIM. You can actually switch devices online yourself for no charge providing you have a device to switch to. Log into your VZW account.
This extends to BYOD devices. Call Verizon and ask for the fee to be waived. I get the sense that they know it's nonsense and didn't put up an argument for me.
Yeah I read that. Kind of odd to pay an upgrade fee for the privilege of getting a phone at full price lol. I think like I said before, I will either stick with my old phone. Or find the phone I want somewhere else (like swappa etc). That way all I do is stick my sim in that phone.
Of course you can also do a second thing. This requires decent credit. If you are willing to constantly finance $1000 for a phone. Find a credit card with zero interest, pay full price for your new phone on that credit card. Sell your old phone, use that towards your new phone. Pay of balance, profit. No need to sign any contracts that way, no need to pay upgrade fees.
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Lucky you, the Apple Store I went to forced me to activate on my Verizon account. Told me I couldn't use my existing SIM card (I just signed up for Verizon two days prior, the SIM card was two days old) and they still forced me to get a new SIM card then bam upgrade fee that Verizon didn't even lift a finger to do.
[doublepost=1484140681][/doublepost]My ultimate problem with Verizon was I signed up for service , brought my own iPhones and an iPad. Got charged the usual activation fee. Then within a week I decided to get new devices , two new iPhones (from Apple) and a new iPad from bestbuy. Bam upgrade fee. They charged me $60 on activation fees and literally in a few days later (2 days for iPhone and a week for iPad ) charge me upgrade fees. My bill had $120 dollars of just fees. Total bs. I called them and complained , the lady pissed me off and basically said you came to verizon for our superior service and those fees are legit . I told them newsflash your service isn't superior and your customer service is awful. I threatened to cancel and then they finally refunded half the fees ..... hate Verizon. T-Mobile yes not the best coverage in certain areas but they make up for it in customer service.
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I thought I remember reading somewhere that Cricket only uses like 2/3 of the ATT toweres and if you are in a high traffic area you get slow data speeds dropped calls and failed texting. I think I read the same thing about the prepaid carries who use Verizon towers. Maybe something to research before switching. It would appear like you get what you pay for.
Lol it makes total sense now that they only have sales people in stores. My brother just got an iPhone SE for Christmas to upgrade from his 4S. My dad was still under the impression that he had to go into the store to complete the upgrade, even though I told them they didn't. So brother went the 26th and probably got charged an activation fee. They supposedly couldn't even help him move over his contacts or restore a backup of his old phone! Lazy bastards. I will have to seriously weigh continuing to stay on my parents' plan with an old phone but good service or join my fiancé on T-Mobile and trade a newer phone for spotty service when we travel.
I'm not a T-Mo fan, being here in the PNW with holes bigger than some of the smaller states in their coverage and plenty of mountains too. If I were you, however, in Kansas T-Mo would get a pretty good look from me along with Cricket Wireless. USCC and T-Mo signed a LTE Band 12 interop agreement last year with ATTWS, supplementing T-Mo's own LTE Band 12 buildout (http://maps.spectrumgateway.com/t-mobile-700-mhz-spectrum.html). I'm spending time with my mom in rural WA, and my brother pops in from time to time - he's from Sitka, with GCI that roams on T-Mo's network in the Lower 48 and his two iPhones (work and personal) have had a pretty nice boost in reception since the roaming agreement kicked in; I know where the nearest ATTWS antenna array is as I helped install it years ago - I tell him where to stand and which leg to stand on to get a decent signal.
Check that Band 12 Map, and consider one of those T-Mo test drives - with a phone that has Band 12 built in - like the iPhone 6S line and not the 5S they were pawning off last year, or use your own compatible handset.
FWIW, I use a weBoost eqo with an external patch antenna too. These hills around here make reception a bit of a PITA…
I'm not a T-Mo fan, being here in the PNW with holes bigger than some of the smaller states in their coverage and plenty of mountains too. If I were you, however, in Kansas T-Mo would get a pretty good look from me along with Cricket Wireless. USCC and T-Mo signed a LTE Band 12 interop agreement last year with ATTWS, supplementing T-Mo's own LTE Band 12 buildout (http://maps.spectrumgateway.com/t-mobile-700-mhz-spectrum.html). I'm spending time with my mom in rural WA, and my brother pops in from time to time - he's from Sitka, with GCI that roams on T-Mo's network in the Lower 48 and his two iPhones (work and personal) have had a pretty nice boost in reception since the roaming agreement kicked in; I know where the nearest ATTWS antenna array is as I helped install it years ago - I tell him where to stand and which leg to stand on to get a decent signal.
Check that Band 12 Map, and consider one of those T-Mo test drives - with a phone that has Band 12 built in - like the iPhone 6S line and not the 5S they were pawning off last year, or use your own compatible handset.
FWIW, I use a weBoost eqo with an external patch antenna too. These hills around here make reception a bit of a PITA…
The part about T-Mobile that has me wary is that we do like to drive to Chicago to see family, and Iowa is full of dead spots along I-35, and service even in Chi-town can get spotty (granted the last time we were there my fiancé was using a ported over AT&T 4S). Although Verizon went completely dead in the Ozarks when we drove through last summer while T-Mobile roamed onto AT&T.