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Sorry if I'm posting this int he wrong place, but for those of you on Verizon who upgraded at the Apple Store/through Apple, did the upgrade fee say $20? I could have sworn it said $20 but my Verizon bill is showing $40. Just want to make sure I'm not trippin' before disputing the charge with Verizon customer care.
What Verizon told me is that if you activate the phone yourself (i.e., you got it delivered from anyone; Apple, Verizon, Best Buy and activate yourself) you get charged a $20 activation fee. If you pick the phone up at the Apple Store, Best Buy, Verizon Store, etc., you get charged $40. I called and complained as I activated both my wife's phone and mine at home but saw an $80 fee on next bill. They deducted $40, so now only a $40 charge. Even that is a ripoff, but they wouldn't waive that. They did waive my watch activation completely though.
 
What Verizon told me is that if you activate the phone yourself (i.e., you got it delivered from anyone; Apple, Verizon, Best Buy and activate yourself) you get charged a $20 activation fee. If you pick the phone up at the Apple Store, Best Buy, Verizon Store, etc., you get charged $40. I called and complained as I activated both my wife's phone and mine at home but saw an $80 fee on next bill. They deducted $40, so now only a $40 charge. Even that is a ripoff, but they wouldn't waive that. They did waive my watch activation completely though.
Wow. They suck. Jesus, I did not know it was this bad. Wow. Making miss Tmobile more and more.
 
It wouldn't hurt to call. IMHO, it's best to call them after your first bill generates, otherwise they most likely won't offer to waive/credit the activation fees. The worst VZW can say is no. If no is the answer, call back and try again.
First email said my order is completed (10/17/2020).
Under each phone line said:
One-time activation fee: $40.00
(Charge and credit appear on first bill)

All 4 phones will arrive tomorrow and will have them activated on Saturday.

When will first bill be generated.
 
What Verizon told me is that if you activate the phone yourself (i.e., you got it delivered from anyone; Apple, Verizon, Best Buy and activate yourself) you get charged a $20 activation fee. If you pick the phone up at the Apple Store, Best Buy, Verizon Store, etc., you get charged $40. I called and complained as I activated both my wife's phone and mine at home but saw an $80 fee on next bill. They deducted $40, so now only a $40 charge. Even that is a ripoff, but they wouldn't waive that. They did waive my watch activation completely though.
So when you do things yourself you need to pay something? I still don't understand how that makes sense and can stand at all, let alone all this time.
 
The fee is only applicable if you activate a new SIM. I've been buying the unlocked iPhone every year, precisely because I don't want to pay for this fee. I simply put the SIM from my old iPhone into the new one. Verizon doesn't charge an upgrade fee this way.
 
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I had no idea swapping SIM's would skip the fee! I guess I'll be ordering SIM-free this year. The activation fees have always ticked me off. I left AT&T a few years ago because they wouldn't waive them, switched to T-Mobile, and the service was horrible at work in Tempe, AZ (so congested I couldn't even get 1mbps down most days), so last year I switched to Verizon and am very happy with the service and speed (I am paying more, however, but it's worth it to have internet access and a signal when I need it).

This will be my first iPhone purchase for a Verizon plan. Glad they're offering SIM-free at launch this year! (Waiting for 12 Pro Max).
 
I've been with Verizon for 20 years and lived all over the country. In the past 7 years I've switched to T-Mobile twice, mainly because Verizon would not give me a discount on a new phone or the fees.

Both times I switched back after one year (when I got a new phone). T-Mobile just did not work well at all. Tons of dropped calls and little, if any, signal indoors. Even worse, T-Mobile somehow let someone change my phone number to their phone, which they then used to reset my bank password and clean out my bank account. (Fortunately my bank was good in getting the issue resolved).

Went back to Verizon after that. I hate their customer service, high prices, and fees. But to me there really is not another option. IMO Verizon knows this, and has zero motivation to lower their prices or stop the fees.
 
The fee is only applicable if you activate a new SIM. I've been buying the unlocked iPhone every year, precisely because I don't want to pay for this fee. I simply put the SIM from my old iPhone into the new one. Verizon doesn't charge an upgrade fee this way.
Ran into it before even when doing that.
 
I've been a Verizon customer with two lines since 2002. I call every time I get hit with this upgrade fee, tell them I'm unhappy about it and they find some way to do a promotional discount or something to offset it. It's a ludicrous thing to charge people for just changing phones like this.
 
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The fee is only applicable if you activate a new SIM. I've been buying the unlocked iPhone every year, precisely because I don't want to pay for this fee. I simply put the SIM from my old iPhone into the new one. Verizon doesn't charge an upgrade fee this way.

All the more reason to get the Pro then. Is this right?

Also if i pick up a sim free phone at the apple store , and put in My own sim...still no activation free right?
 
The fee is only applicable if you activate a new SIM. I've been buying the unlocked iPhone every year, precisely because I don't want to pay for this fee. I simply put the SIM from my old iPhone into the new one. Verizon doesn't charge an upgrade fee this way.

I just activated my new iPhone 12 on my account from my iPhone X. I spoke to a customer service representative over chat to help me switch the phones around and they told me that there is obviously no upgrade fee since the phone was purchased directly from Apple and that there is no activation fee since my line was already active. I even gave the rep the new SIM number that came with my device and they added that on my account. They assured me that there would be no activation fee.
 
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It wouldn't hurt to call. IMHO, it's best to call them after your first bill generates, otherwise they most likely won't offer to waive/credit the activation fees. The worst VZW can say is no. If no is the answer, call back and try again.
I'm back here to report on my four new line activation fee. After multiple phone call, finally got $120 wave from my first bill. $10 per line is not too bad.
 
I bought the Verizon phone from Apple because I knew I was going to need a 5G SIM anyway.

My iPhone "program details" show a $20 "One time Verizon upgrade charge". I looked at my next Verizon bill and I now see a $40 "Upgrade Fee". So... am I paying $60? I'm going to contact them today to get clarification and see if they can knock that down a bit.

Next year I'll go SIM free but I figured I'd eat it this year for the 5G SIM.
 

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I bought the Verizon phone from Apple because I knew I was going to need a 5G SIM anyway.

My iPhone "program details" show a $20 "One time Verizon upgrade charge". I looked at my next Verizon bill and I now see a $40 "Upgrade Fee". So... am I paying $60? I'm going to contact them today to get clarification and see if they can knock that down a bit.

Next year I'll go SIM free but I figured I'd eat it this year for the 5G SIM.
You'll need to check your bill for a $20 issued credit from Verizon to offset the costs. So it should be on your current bill, if not, contact Verizon and they should be issuing you a $20 statement credit.
 
You'll need to check your bill for a $20 issued credit from Verizon to offset the costs. So it should be on your current bill, if not, contact Verizon and they should be issuing you a $20 statement credit.
Thanks. It looked like they were making my bill an extra $40... I was able to talk to them on chat this morning and get it reduced to $20 at least after I told them I had screenshots of the discrepancy. Hopefully next year (if I upgrade) I can just do the SIM-free model and SIM swap.
 
I bought a sim free iPhone 12 from the Apple store. The rep put my old SIM card into the phone for me, and then he gave me an extra 5G sim, no charge, and told me to take it to Verizon to activate it, which I did a few days later. I was not charged an activation fee. If I had been charged an upgrade or activation fee, that would have been unacceptable, and I would insist they waive it. Of course I’m nice at first.
 
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