destructor wrote:
Maybe you have an infinite amount of money to spend, but I do not, EVERYTHING is about price. And no I know carriers will not give you a break for buying your own device, but they should, since we're not paying for the subsidy.
i don't have an infinite amount of money. however, data on the go is a convenience for us. you can get dumb phones and calling plans dirt cheap. wifi is available everywhere and there's some pretty nice wifi tablets out there. nobody HAS TO have the new $600 data phone. when people decide that these devices and data plans are unaffordable and REALLY start to speak with their wallets, you'll see prices drop. however, we have all made them a priority in our lives. it's simple supple and demand and we have nobody to thank for this issue except ourselves. 2 years ago i had an lg envy and it was just fine. i accessed email and the internet from my pc at work or at home (between the 2 places, i spend 90% of my life there). i didn't NEED a smart phone, but i wanted one. now i do everything on it. i stream netflix on an asus tablet. i email, shoot and share family videos, facebook, etc, etc, from my phone. it's all a convenience to me and i pay for it. if i couldn't afford it, i would simply use my internet at home or work for the exact same things. we have this mindset that we have to have this stuff. we simply don't.
destructor wrote:
EVERYTHING is about price.
Then Verizon is not nor ever has been the place to be.
techguru wrote:
PJNC284 wrote:
AZSALUKI wrote:
NO carrier has ever given you a break for buying your own devices. it doesn't make sense.
Tmobile does or at least did.
Also virtually every European carrier. In fact, most won't sell you a phone at a discount at all. Now that we are all moving to LTE with SIM cards in the US, I wouldn't mind a similar model here. (in fact, Verizon used to let you bring other CDMA phones onto the network, but that stopped about 12 years ago).
Alan
i don't count europe as our model is TOTALLY different. i'd be thrilled to do things the way they do it. you buy your own phone and choose your plan. period. no contracts, subsidies, blah, blah blah. i also believe that much (direct tv over there anyway) of their television is "a la cart" so to speak. you select the channels you want and only pay per channel for the ones you want. but we want bundles of junk. we want a discounted phone and we want 1 million channels, etc, etc
lewisr13 wrote:
destructor wrote:
EVERYTHING is about price.Then Verizon is not nor ever has been the place to be.
Well I realize that now. And that's one of the main reasons I'm going prepaid once my contract runs out (no I will not pay the ETF and give them more money). And I'm sick of them tacking on fees for every damn thing (fees to charge us more fees it feels like sometimes). And this BS over the data plans is the last straw.
AZSALUKI wrote:
PJNC284 wrote:
AZSALUKI wrote:
NO carrier has ever given you a break for buying your own devices. it doesn't make sense.
Tmobile does or at least did.
i tend to forget about them since i honestly don't know a single person who uses them....lol.
Awww, if you're ever in the DC area, we should meet! T-Mobile's Even More Plus plan was what attracted me to them in the past. The new Value plan is not as good, because it still requires a contract.
AZSALUKI wrote:
destructor wrote:
Maybe you have an infinite amount of money to spend, but I do not, EVERYTHING is about price. And no I know carriers will not give you a break for buying your own device, but they should, since we're not paying for the subsidy.
i don't have an infinite amount of money. however, data on the go is a convenience for us. you can get dumb phones and calling plans dirt cheap. wifi is available everywhere and there's some pretty nice wifi tablets out there. nobody HAS TO have the new $600 data phone. when people decide that these devices and data plans are unaffordable and REALLY start to speak with their wallets, you'll see prices drop. however, we have all made them a priority in our lives. it's simple supple and demand and we have nobody to thank for this issue except ourselves. 2 years ago i had an lg envy and it was just fine. i accessed email and the internet from my pc at work or at home (between the 2 places, i spend 90% of my life there). i didn't NEED a smart phone, but i wanted one. now i do everything on it. i stream netflix on an asus tablet. i email, shoot and share family videos, facebook, etc, etc, from my phone. it's all a convenience to me and i pay for it. if i couldn't afford it, i would simply use my internet at home or work for the exact same things. we have this mindset that we have to have this stuff. we simply don't.
I only use mine for GPS capabilities and apps related to that, reading RSS feeds or websites when I'm somewhere bored with no PC access, texting, occasional short term gaming when I'm somewhere bored, and occasional phone calls. I don't have Netflix or Hulu, or a tablet, I don't take videos or pictures much (maybe 5-10 pictures a year if that, and next to no videos in a year).
But you're right about us not needing it, I don't need it, but it's nice to have. It's not worth $600 though (hell I don't think they're worth $200-300 either but that's the price you have to pay if you want one). And Wi-Fi is not available everywhere where I live. I have it at work & home, but that's not the point. Let's say I ditched my smartphone and went back to an old flip phone, since all I do on my phone I could do on a Wi-Fi only tablet as well (other than phone calls). I still would have to shell out $200+ for said tablet. I'd still have to pay for the calling plan on the flip phone (not sure how much that is). So either way I'm still going to spend the same amount of money. I guess I could also go to the no phone route and just use pay phones but there are so few of those these days, plus you generally only need one when there's none around in my experience.
no....you'd pay A LOT less. 450 minutes and 1000 texts is $50/month. and you can typically get a free basic phone on a contract. so take the $200 you would have spent on the smart phone and get a tablet. you're never going to spend as much with a basic phone as you will with a smart phone and data plan. and with what you save per month, you could get a garmin or something if you use gps often. we occassionally "need" to call or text and we could do that with a cheap plan and free basic phone. we "like" to have these for (as you stated) when we are bored and want to entertain ourselves.
Seconding destructor.
You don't get a discounted rate if you bring your own phone.
You don't get a discount after the 2 year contract rate which supposedly includes a surcharge for the carrier to recover the discount on the phone at signup, renewal or upgrade.
Plus MSRPs on phones are highly inflated, because they include a profit for the manufacturer and reseller.
Add in fees to become a customer, upgrade a phone, add a line ...
Now take away any perks, mandate unlimited voice & texting to people with no need for those while taking away their precious GB of data ...
And the customer ends up paying extra at every turn to keep status quo or even pays more for less.
again, this time louder. YOU DO DON HAVE TO CHANGE TO THE SHARE EVERYTHING PLAN, is just an option for those that may choose it.
lewisr13 wrote:
again, this time louder. YOU DO DON HAVE TO CHANGE TO THE SHARE EVERYTHING PLAN, is just an option for those that may choose it.
And if you want to to a subsidized upgrade and keep your Family Share, along with having 2GB of data per smartphone, you can still do that.... They will not take that away from you.
Start a new topic or ask questions in the open forum.
