Phone Upgrade Charge!

[Derickbo]

Now not only do you have to sign a 24 month contract to upgrade your phone - there is an additional $30 - upgrade charge for the pleasure of doing it. Really!! Verizon?

[Spiral]

Both easily avoided by paying full retail price for your new phone.  Of course then you are not saving up to $450 on the purchase price.

[Derickbo]

Then of course I can choose to change my provider - except they have you hooked with the phone system. The upgrade charge is new - so rather ridiculous answer. Rather keep it in the price if they must.

[Derickbo]

Sarcasm should be avoided.

[Ann154]

AT&T and Sprint both have upgrade fee. Theirs is higher than Verizon Wireless. Both carriers have had an upgrade fee for years before Verizon added their fee last year.

[Derickbo]

Recently I had some billing problems with Verizon (their mistake). I had at least 4 managers call me to see if I was still happy. Them being concerned! This upsets me more than anything - long term - more than 10 year customer and now I am being stiffed to stay a customer. Generally you have to upgrade to stay with the technology - I can use my phone from 10 yrs ago or even 5 years ago anymore! Why be a follower with this upgrade charge and rather be a leader with no charge. Be loyal to your customers that have been loyal to Verizon. I think it stinks and probably opening oneself up for future problems - like the Premium messaging debacle!

[#7]

The upgrade fee has been in place about 15 months now.  It's part of the price of a new subsidized phone in 2013.  A $650 subsidized phone now cost $230 instead of $200.  It's still a huge discount.  It's really a non-issue as far as I am concerned.

[Derickbo]

Think you miss the point. And you probably have the money to burn - where $30 is a non issue.We see a lot of charge creep from the providers. The issue is not that a $600 phone is subsidized.The issue is that prices are again being faked with hidden or not terribly obvious add ons. This is really an unscrupulous and unfortunate practice. Again i refer to Premium messaging - where this charge was hidden on ones bill as an actual charge from Verizon until they started to identify the provider.  This is all extremely unfortunate and unpleasant!.

[vzw_customer_support]

Dear Derickbo,


Good afternoon. As a customer of ours for 10 years, please know that we certainly do appreciate your loyalty.I know how frustrating it can be to experience billing descrepencies.

We understand that no one is excited to hear the word fee, but devices have become more advanced and have evolved to mini computers. We have kept our upgrade fee low and our two largest competitors' upgrade and activation fees are higher than Verizon Wireless' comparable charges. Verizon has the largest high-speed wireless network in America. That means you get connections from a network you can trust.

We also have a program called Device Recycle program that may help offset some or all of the upgrade fee. For more information regarding regarding our Device Recycle program, please click http://bit.ly/GGnDDC Should you have further questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to us.

Thank You,
Michelle_VZW
Please follow us on twitter @VZWSupport

[PATRIOT78]

I just found out about this fee and am equally outraged.  If I buy a Verizon phone at COSTCO, they will reimburse for an activation fee, but not for an upgrade fee.  Verizon Customer Service told me that the fee is to help transfer contacts to a phone, etc.  I have never gotten help doing that.  I have always done it myself.  My option to avoid this will be to switch carriers when my contracts expire.  I will switch carriers every 2 years if necessary  The fact is that these phone cost pennies to make in the far east and the markup is astronomical.  Unless they want to give me a service credit for this fee, I am walking.