Verizon: Please do NOT consider getting a more expensive plan with us

I decided that I’m finally ready to make the move to a PocketPC Phone. This means buying a new phone and upgrading from a $40/month plan to an $80/month plan. But Verizon just does not seem to want my extra $40/month. I re-upped with them for another 2 year contract last summer (there was a mixup which is why my phone’s end date and my contract’s end date are not in synch) and if I want the upgrade discount on the phone I have to wait until June 2007. If I want to upgrade my monthly contract I have to wait until June 2008.

I understand the 2 year contract is a good thing for discouraging clients from cancelling, but I just don’t get Verizon telling me that my options are either to purchase a second plan while continuing to pay for my $40/month plan for another 18 months and paying $250 for a phone when NEW customers that have NO history with them and NO loyalty can get the phone for $79.

Sounds ass-backwards to me.

 

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6 thoughts on “Verizon: Please do NOT consider getting a more expensive plan with us

  1. The only consideration is spending more money!! Verizon would love to see you upgrade your plan. The complication is that they have already subsidized the phone that you recently purchased, and it is hard to ask them to subsidize another phone so soon. I am not a fan of the 2-year plan – it is long time to be locked in. But when you Choose a carrier with good service and a decent plan – it is not so bad. The rub is with the phone and how quickly technology changes. We always want to have the latest toys!

  2. I recently ran into the same thing.In my case, they wanted to charge me the full $429 for the Motorola Q (I’m assuming that’s what you’re going for, since you said $79).I found that I got better results talking to someone in the store rather than trying to go through the phone or (worse) online.The sales people have some room to play with prices when you’re upgrading from a non-data plan to the data plan.Good luck!

  3. Julie,I agree that a live person is more likely to work with you, here is an early upgrade number for Verizon, 1-888-844-7047.I hope you get a good phone.

  4. I upgraded to a Pocket PC/PDA phone with Verizon last fall (Samsung SCH-i730). A few suggestions based on my experiences the last seven months:1.) Although Verizon doesn’t advertise it, you are not required to get the data package with most Pocket PC phones.In my case, it wasn’t worth the extra cost to be able to check my email/read your blog from anywhere. My PDA phone has integrated WIFI, so I just connect to my home wireless network or find a public network when on the road.2.) Be sure that your home is in the Verizon digital service area (Vermont is a spotty at best). Most of the current Pocket PC/Smartphones are digital service only. I lucked out because I live in Burlington, and my commute to Montpelier along I89 each day only has two distinct "dead-zones" around Middlesex.3.) Double check on the current Pocket PC OS version; as well as Verizon’s support for future upgrades. Mine came with Pocket PC 2003 installed; but a free upgrade to WM 5.0 via the Verizon support website. Unfortunately, if Verizon doesn’t offer an upgrade path to future versions of the OS/software – you probably won’t be able to get it in the future. In my case I’ve stayed with the original Pocket PC 2003 OS due to a number of software products I purchased for my preceding PDA that won’t run on WM 5.0. This brings me to #4.4.) Support. My phone started acting up/rebooting itself whenever I tried to power off the screen in January. With my previous “regular” phones, I had simply walked into the main Burlington store for support and walked out later that same afternoon with a fix or a replacement. This time around though, they turned me away, saying they aren’t authorized/trained to support PDA phones – referring me to the 1-800 support number. After an hour dealing with first and second-level phone support folks that had never seen a PDA phone before, much less my model, I finally got through to the PDA/Smartphone support team.Finally, someone who can help… The first suggested "solution" was to wipe my phone clean down to the base firmware/OS and start over… then to re-flash it with WM 5.0; claiming that they no longer supported the Pocket PC 2003 OS. Now, it seemed to me that my issue was related to the hardware – the screen power-switch on the side of the unit, not the OS/software. So, I wasn’t too keen on the idea of needlessly wiping out all of my data to satisfy his request. Besides, his solution would require hanging up to reboot/flash the phone; that conveniently; I was talking to him on. Interestingly, the PDA/Smartphone support team apparently doesn’t have a direct extension/phone number that customers can call. I would have had to wade through the level-one and two tech folks all over again.Plan B…I inquired about shipping me a replacement phone since I was pretty sure it was simply a bad switch. The support technician was nice enough to explain that first I would need to ship my phone to them so they could check out the faulty hardware; where their first step would STILL be to wipe the phone/upgrade the OS. When I asked about my data and applications, the tech claimed that I wouldn’t be able to restore any of my backups from Pocket PC 2003 over WM 5.0 once upgraded, or equivalently, move them to a replacement phone which now comes with WM 5.0 installed by default. Apparently the firmware upgrade utility Verizon provides doesn’t allow ‘downgrading’ the OS either. A quick search on the web turned up several other folks who had tried this very same task without any successful results.So I decided that I would forgo being without a phone for a week (or more), losing all my data and a few applications over a faulty screen power-switch that was really more of an annoyance than a show-stopper. Thankfully the issue went away a few days later. My hunch is that some of our lovely Vermont snow made it into my coat pocket while shoveling out the car one morning; melted; then made its way into the switch on the p

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