I have been a 5-line Verizon customer since our first cell phones in 2002. Verizon knows this and is soaking us with very high bills ($500-$700+ per month) and now super high termination fees. Every time I ask, the price to terminate gets higher. I feel extremely trapped. Whenever I ask for something I want, agent says "no" but you can pay another fee and get an unrelated service. Verizon agents are well trained to sell sell sell. They must look at my account and see I have not disputed a single inflated bill so I must be a buyer. One agent told me my phones will not work on another network. I walked down to AT&T store and they put in their sim card in my phone and it worked. But the honest AT&T agent said this may not be the same on all my phones.
Where can I get straight answers?
I Would look at this in 2 parts. First is how can you get your costs down, and second what is a termination costs. Choice 1 could very well be cheaper and your best bet.
Tell us what plan you are on and what you are paying for to get a $700 bill on 5 lines. Even if all are still under contract, switching you the My Verizon plan will cost $280 plus about $10 tax at most. How are you getting up to $700?
Termination fees can be expensive and 5 lines could add up,to $1500. Your best bet is sticking around and getting the monthly cost reasonable.
Weth wrote:
Tell us what plan you are on and what you are paying for to get a $700 bill on 5 lines. Even if all are still under contract, switching you the My Verizon plan will cost $280 plus about $10 tax at most.
I would be curious how you are reaching this $280 number without knowing what sort of data allowance is needed for the account. 5 lines under contract would equal $200 by themselves leaving only $80 for data. What if they need a 30 GB data allowance for $225/month alone, bringing the monthly bill to $425??? What if they need an even larger data allowance???
You can calculate your ETF by the following which is available in the customer agreement:
If you cancel a line of Service, or if we cancel it for good cause, during its contract term, you'll have to pay an early termination fee. If your contract term results from your purchase of an advanced device on or after November 14, 2014, your early termination fee will be $350, which will decline by $10 per month upon completion of months 7–17, $20 per month upon completion of months 18–22, $60 upon completion of month 23 and will be $0 upon completion of your contract term. For other contract terms entered into on or after November 14, 2014, your early termination fee will be $175, which will decline by $5 per month upon completion of months 7–17, $10 per month upon completion of months 18–22, $30 upon completion of month 23 and will be $0 upon completion of your contract term. If your contract results from your purchase of an advanced device prior to November 14, 2014, your early termination fee will be $350 minus $10 for each full month of your contract term that you complete. For other contract terms entered into prior to November 14, 2014, your early termination fee will be $175 minus $5 for each full month of your contract term that you complete. Cancellations will become effective on the last day of that month's billing cycle, and you are responsible for all charges incurred until then. Also, if you bought your wireless device from an authorized agent or third–party vendor, you should check whether they charge a separate termination fee.
With 5 lines, you ETF would be AT MOST $1750 and ONLY if you have signed ALL contracts in the past 6 months. Any contracts signed 7 months ago or earlier will have already started decreasing the ETF by at least $10/month for each month going forward.
MovingToT wrote:
Where can I get straight answers?
What straight answers are you looking for? Whether or not your phone would work would depend on the phone and what cellular bands it is capable of accessing and which provider you choose to go with and what cellular bands they use. Not all phones have the same capability and the different providers all use different bands.
As Weth has stated, if you provide your information such as which plan you have, your data allowance, your data usage, your minute allowance, your minute usage, your texting allowance, your texting usage, whether or not you have insurance or need it, etc... we may be able to help you understand why your bill is so high and/or how to reduce it.
As a comparison on what some others may be paying Verizon, I have 4 smartphones with Verizon and a 15 GB/month data allowance. I have a monthly bill of ~$178 including taxes/fees.
MovingToT, we absolutely do value you as a long term customer and want you to have the straight story. Please review the Private Message that I have sent so that I may assist further.
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I would be curious how you are reaching this $280 number without knowing what sort of data allowance is needed for the account. 5 lines under contract would equal $200 by themselves leaving only $80 for data. What if they need a 30 GB data allowance for $225/month alone, bringing the monthly bill to $425??? What if they need an even larger data allowance???
Your're right, I wasn't specific. The example I gave is the XL data plan with 12 GB on My Verizon. More data may be needed, but looking how to control data can be a large fist saver if cost becomes a factor.
you probably are on the device payment plan early so have tyo pay remaining balance off the phones on device payments and early termination fees for 2yr contracts before you early upgraded on edge
Yeah, that is it. Every phone is at least $120. Even an old iPhone 4S phone with an available upgrade is $120. One phone is $585 that I got in March. Another is $360 that I got last december. None of these phones are worth the price to get out of the contract even at list prices. I would easiiy recoup the $1521 in less than 10 months with a better carrier. But I am afraid that Verizon will do something so I can't use the phone if we pay off the $1521.44 now. I feel trapped.
I am on a family plan with 15GB shared, unlimited talk and text. We get so many roaming charges and overage fees. It used to be about $367/month. My last bill had something about a discount expiring so now it will go up more than that. One guy said they could sell me a service to control overages. I am not kidding. Pay more money to give me less service? There must be a switched flipped on my account that says , "stupid customer - will buy anything". AT&T quote of 15GB + 5 lines would be $189.99 with insurance on all lines, unlmited talk and text. I may waive the insurance to lower this to $160 since I only have insurance on two lines now and never used it. I don't think AT&T is that much worse service than Verizon, but I am going to have to find that out myself. It looks like one more month with Verizon because of all the hassles to get out of this plan.
Oh, I forgot to mention that I offered to return all the phones because they are all in perfect working order if they would waive the $1521.44 cancel fee. Of course that is not possible.
Since I can not cancel this month, I am curious how much it will go down next month to cancel. My cycle ends in a few days, so I will let you know here. I have already been warned by Verizon that this months bill is in excess of $500 . I cancelled the auto-pay to get some control over this. I have been online for hours trying to turn off and cancel everything possible. without accepting more service fees.
If you are a long-term Verizon customer, my advice is to watch your bill and don't be trapped by upgrading your phones. Ask often what the fee is to cancel your contract. It could be they will only target extra fees and overages on the ones who are trapped like me.
Customer Agreement | Verizon Wireless
If you cancel a line of Service, or if we cancel it for good cause, during its contract term, you'll have to pay an early termination fee. If your contract term results from your purchase of an advanced device on or after November 14, 2014, your early termination fee will be $350, which will decline by $10 per month upon completion of months 7–17, $20 per month upon completion of months 18–22, $60 upon completion of month 23 and will be $0 upon completion of your contract term. For other contract terms entered into on or after November 14, 2014, your early termination fee will be $175, which will decline by $5 per month upon completion of months 7–17, $10 per month upon completion of months 18–22, $30 upon completion of month 23 and will be $0 upon completion of your contract term. If your contract results from your purchase of an advanced device prior to November 14, 2014, your early termination fee will be $350 minus $10 for each full month of your contract term that you complete. For other contract terms entered into prior to November 14, 2014, your early termination fee will be $175 minus $5 for each full month of your contract term that you complete. Cancellations will become effective on the last day of that month's billing cycle, and you are responsible for all charges incurred until then.
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