Phone representative accuracy on new plan upgrades...anyone else swindled?

[BILL7718]

Just before Christmas my wife and I decided to upgrade two of my children's phones to smartphones, and add an additional smartphone for our youngest.  Originally we were on the Family Share plane with a fixed price as long as you stayed with in the minutes provided.  We were told that the plan was no longer available, and had to upgrade to the new Share Everything plan.  Mind you, this is on the phone, not through the Internet, so it is being explained to us by a live representative.  Natually, first question that came up was price.  Now, I'm not naive, and I do understand that the price will be greater than what I was paying.  But, with that said, I do expect the rep to know a better ballpark than roughly $50.00 more a month than estimated.  Biggest issue I found on the bill?  She figured in my 20% discount across the enitre bill, not just the plan charge. I have the 10GB for $100 and 5 smart phones at $40/each (with insurance at $10 each)  That is a $350 bill that I was told was going to have 20% reduced ($70) to be a total of $280, and then the taxes will be applied. Instead, I save $20 (20% of $100).

This may not seem a lot to some people, but the point is this: I bought a service at a quoted price.  I had 14 days to switch back to the original plan I had and return the phones that I received.  But the charges on my bill didn't even come up for me to see until 30 days later, well beyond the return point. My old bill was roughly $220/month, and the new (estimated with taxes) will be about $370, so it is an investment. And before anyone thinks that I should complain loud enough and try to get my old plan back, even after the expired 14 days, well, try telling your kids to give back their iPhones they have had for a month and go back to their basic phones.  That damage has already been done.

I do want to say this:  I am NOT stating or claiming that Verizon Wireless as a whole is in the practice of falsifying/lessening quotes just to make the sale as a matter of business methodology.  I am saying that, again, I bought a service at a quoted price.  I should be paying that quoted price.  Not just a for a month, or a year, but as long as I hold that plan without changes.  You go buy a car and agree to pay $400 a month, but you get your first statement and it says $500 a month. Would you be upset? What would you do?

[BILL7718]

I was hoping that someone, anyone, would have some insight into this. Not a single reply.  Nothing like this has happened to anyone else in their dealing with Verizon?  No one has any suggestions?

[Ann154]

This is a peer to peer community forum. Not everyone who reads the posts will answer every single one. There have only been 81 views to your post since it was created. That's not a lot of people reading it compared to the thousands of users registered here.

I don't have a Share Everything plan, but I have read elsewhere in the community about the employer discounts only applying to the Data monthly access plan and not on the line access charge.

[rcschnoor]

Before reading further, this in no way is meant to be a criticism on how you choose to make up your plan, just a 3rd party evaluation of your plan and your expectations.

What would I do? First I would try to take a more comprehensive look at what you have and what you should realistically expect. If I were worried about the price I am paying I would look for ways to lower the bill. SEVERAL jump out at me without thinking too much.

First of all, you seem to be comparing your OLD bill with your NEW bill. The change in price is not SOLELY due to the Share Everything plan. You seem to be emphasizing the price increase SOLELY because of the change to the Share Everything plan. If you think about it, if you were to make the SAME changes and keep your old plan, your price increase would be approximately the same!!!!!!

If you want to be genuine with your comparison, you should compare what your old plan would currently be with all of the phones/data included which are on your current plan. Your old plan was $220/month. You have since added 3 smartphones, each with a minimum $30 data charge. That would add a MINIMUM $100(3 data plans @ $30 each + 1 new line access fee) to your old bill, WITHOUT even increasing the minutes for your plan. This does not even include the insurance on the new phone($10) OR the increased insurance on the 2 lines upgraded from basic phones to smartphones(if those lines even had insurance on them in the 1st place). That could add up to another $30/month to your old bill. So far we are at an increase of your old bill by $130 to bring it up to $350. In addition, so far nothing you have upgraded would have been eligible for a discount on your old plan.

Now on to your discount. How could you possibly think the discount would apply to your insurance payments which account for $50 of your new bill. You should check your old bill. I can guarantee you, your old discount did NOT apply to those payments.

I am not sure if there was any mis-communication between you and the rep on the phone, but it at least seems to me if you were planning to make this drastic a change in your plan, I would have suggested speaking to someone in person. There would have been less chance of a mis-communication in this case.

On to lowering the bill. How many years have you had a cell phone? How many times have you actually used the insurance? Is it really necessary. $50/month($600/year) seems quite a bit steep a price to be paying. You could purchase a full retail price phone once a year with that much in premiums. Do you replace more than 1 of your lines via insurance every year? If so, I would try to be more careful with your phones. Don't forget about the deductibles for the replacements. With 1 replacement, that would bring your insurance cost to over $700/year. Don't forget your replacement phone would be a USED/REFURBISHED phone, not a brand new, possibly newer model phone!!!

I would also look at the amount of data I am using. 10 GB/month seems a bit high, but if you really need it, that is your choice. I personally use MUCH less on my Share Everything plan with 4 smartphones. To each their own, though.

I am sure this is NOT what you wanted to hear, but with the upgrades to your service you had instituted, I would guess the same hardware on your old plan would cost you approximately the same amount you are currently paying in your new plan. Possibly less, but also possibly MORE.

With all this in mind, I am currently paying $234/month on my Share Everything plan with 4 smartphones. I ALSO had a tough decision to make prior to changing to the Share Everything plan AND also upgrading my 2 daughters to smartphones from basic phones, just like you. I knew I would be paying more, but I wasn't going to be comparing my old bill to my new bill UNLESS I also included the increase in my old bill by adding the new charges which would have been there had I made the SAME phone upgrades. I would be lying to myself if I did so. Yes, I use a LOT less data than you, but even if I were to upgrade to 10 GB/month, that would only increase my bill by ~$31/month which. I am assuming you chose the 10 GB value by estimating 2 GB/line, but don't forget you can change that if you see you are not using it. Also, don't discount using WiFi while in your home, if available. It can drop your data usage drastically!

Hope I have not offended you too much.

[rcschnoor]

Oh, and by the way, if I DID upgrade the 2 basic phones to smartphone and keep my old plan, my Verizon bill would be HIGHER than what I am currently paying. I am speaking from personal experience here, and I agonized long and hard prior to making the change to Share Everything. Yes, my bill is higher than what it used to be, but not as high as it would be if I kept my old plan yet still made the same hardware changes!!!!!

[BILL7718]

Thank you for your reply.  I will clarify a couple points for you:  I chose the 10GB plan at the suggestion of the rep because she stated that I used around 1.3GB per the two smartphones I had, and it would create a buffer of about 2GB per line, at which I thought was a sound idea.  I do have wi-fi at home, and at work, and we find that in actuality our first month we used less than 1GB for all 5 phones.  After my wife and I discussed it, we felt that the roughly $30/month savings to drop to 4GB/month wasn't really worth it, kind of a just in case senario (we discovered this after my initial post). It is a good idea to save on the bill.  I DO like your idea of dropping the insurance, though. In the 12 years that I have been with Verizon, I have used the insurance once. And yes, it would save roughly $50/month in fees.  I will discuss with the wife and make a decision.  With my luck, Murphy's Law will ensue directly after though (haha!).

Another thing that I wasn't clear on.  I already had 4 phones on my original plan.  If I didn't upgrade them to smartphones, it would only have been a $10 increase on my bill to add another basic phone. My original plan was only to add another basic phone, not to upgrade all the phone to smartphones on my existing plan. The decision to upgrade was greatly enhanced when the rep told me that the bill increase would only be about $40 more a month by switching to the Share Everything plan then it would be if I were to add a basic phone.

The entire point of my post wasn't to sound as if I didn't look at things realistically.  It was merely to point out that when you are told a bill was going to be in a certain dollar range, then it should be.  I mean, I was talking to someone who deals with prices every day, so they should know, right?  I didn't expect to have to take a step back and think, "Is what she is telling me the truth?  Should I investigate further?"  When she calculated the new plan, she applied the 20% discount across the board, to the total she had given me that included the insurance.  Was that a simple mis-calculation on her part?  Something she simply overlooked when tabulating the final monthly charge before the taxes and varies fees/surcharges? Sure, anything is possible.  But that still doesn't change the fact that a quote is still a quote. I approved the additions and modifications based upon that quote.

I guess I sound naive and one track minded.

I have been with Verizon for around 12 years.  It is a great service.  I never see a roaming signal, and dropped calls only happen in my company's elevator (not Verizon's fault).  I have ZERO issues with the technical service.  My inlaws have another major carrier and experience problems all the time.  I would never even dream of switching.

But the point is still the same:  Don't tell me the car is going to be $400 when I sign on the dotted line, then hold out your hand for $500.

Verizon is a communications company, right?  Then communicate properly...