Verizon Wireless ends contract extension policy for changing plans

Good move by Verizon.

 

Hope other carriers will follow. They will probably have to.

 

The plan that I want to see is: Buy a phone at the real price and be able to walk whenever with no termination fee. Of course if one does walk they are still stuck with a phone that will only work on Verizon. That is a whole other problem.

 

I am glad Verizon is doing all of these things, this is a very good idea & I really hope the other carriers follow "Hint AT&T" I think this helps make them look like a better company to deal with as a end user.

 

What do you mean by "real Price"???
Also, Verizon probably already is the most lenient when it comes to termination fees, as Verizon prorates them as you are further and further into your contract your early termination fees get smaller and smaller. None of the other Big carriers do that.

 

On this topic, though, I would like to say that, within the last year or so, Verizon has done many things that will benefit us as consumers...It was NOT something like early nights, more minutes for your money, but other things where Verizon is one step ahead of other carriers - Free Backup Assistant, Prorated Early Termination fees, etc.

I am part of a small group that works with Verizon Wireless to improve Verizon Wireless and I am glad to see that the things we, as a group, have asked for are becoming reality.

 

If real price is equated with full retail, I would like to see full retail pricing and no contract as an option. The current setup is a downer for new customers... even if you bring your own phone and initiate monthly service, a minimum one year contract is required, unless you choose the ripoff (imho) easypay service. I dont complain about the ETF fees since I was made aware of this when I signed up for service.

Nevertheless, I applaud this move by Verizon. I have a question: if you are already out of contract and you change plans, will you remain out of contract?

 

If you are out of contract, change your plan, you will remain out of contract.

Also, sadly no carrier offers the option of bringing your own device and not siginig a contract as far as I know. Cingular used to offer it before merging with AT&T Wireless, but that's all over now too.
When it comes to Early Termination Fees and Changing Plans, Verizon is now the fairest carrier.

 

T-Mobile is starting to offer this, sort of. You can do this through their Flex-Pay. I have not seen a lot of advertising, but it is an option. I think that the carriers are finally STARTING to listen to consumers. Verizon and Alltel have anytime plan changes. Verizon prorates contracts. All carriers offer hybrid prepaid plans with more minutes and less cost than the European contract plans. And T-Mobile has Flex-Pay that lets you get ANY plan contract free. So far American wireless carriers offer more bang for the buck, and more fairer (is that a word) service than other countries.

I sort of wish that the carriers would allow you to unlock phones, but I don't see it as a problem because you can already buy unlocked phones at Wal-Marts website. I have personally seen phones sold UNLOCKED and AT PROFIT from major retailers in the UAE for less than $40 USD. Of course this phone can only do talk and text, but it is still a high quality, Nokia that is well built. An educated consumer with an unlocked phone, and competition should move the market into providing fair service.

I think it will be a few years until things finally get to where we would like. Remember that in ten to fifteen years Verizon should be on board with the worldwide standard, and hopefully be using SIM cards. I believe consumers will be looking to buy service without contracts because it seams that everyone I know has been burnt by ETF's. With money is to be made and four national carriers, two huge regional ones with many more smaller regional ones, we still have plenty of competition out there. The carriers will have no choice (as long as Uncle Sam blocks any future mergers with the BIG four) but to play fair. Yes, big business will play hardball in order to milk as much money as possible, but hopefullyas long as there is competition and money to be made, the industry will start to play nice. No business feels like making all their customers bitter and angry because that would mean self suicide to any corporation. After all, our money is the reason that they survive.

 

Huge KUDOS for Verizon.

Here is the original press release from Verizon.

 

Other carriers follow? I think Verizon was the only carrier with a contract extension policy when changing plans. All I can say is: About time!

 

If one is made to pay "full retail" for a phone, they should get an uncrippled and unlocked phone. Part of the reason the carriers can justify contracts, termination fees and locked devices is because they are subsidizing the cost of the phone. If they are not subsidizing the phone, then they should not be locking it.

 

Actually Alltel does let you activate a line with your own equipment without signing a contract. Granted it does have to be an Alltel CDMA E911 handset but at the very least that keeps you free from dealing with contracts. I am sure there are some other smaller carriers out there that do that.

 

I guess I should have been a little more clear. I am not surprised ALLTEL lets you do this as they generally are very consumer friendly, but what I meant is that none of the big national carriers let you do this anymore.

 

Nice to see carrier's possibily starting to return to the old customer friendly policies that we used to have back in the day.

I can remember when Sprint:

1) Didn't charge an activation fee for any upgrade and also let you do ESN swaps online for free.
2) Gave the same low prices on new handsets to everyone without requiring any rebates or contract renewals.
3) Let you change your plan any time and didn't require any contracts at all.
4) Had very reasonable prices on handsets so buying a new phone any time you wanted didn't drain your wallet.

 

T-mobile still does this. Switching to any plan with unlimited nights is considered promotional and a contract extension is required. They have plans that don't have nights, and do not require an extension, but you have to ask for them as they are not advertised.

 

Sprint does it too, but you have 6 months after you sign your contract to change your plan and not have to resign.

 

Didn't it used to be 3 months? Did they change it recently?

 

That depends upon how one looks at it. American networks to tend to offer more free minutes than networks in the UK, for example, and for a lower cost, but that doesn't necessarily mean one is getting 'more bang for the buck'.

A huge allowance of free minutes may look good on paper, but if one doesn't actually fully utilise them then one is effectively paying for something that one isn't using, which seems rather wasteful. I'm not suggesting that a smaller allowance of free minutes is better value, merely that a large allowance of unused minutes isn't necessarily good value.

It is worth mentioning, in my opinion, usage patterns. Most UK tariffs probably don't offer as many free minutes as their American counterparts, but then I think Britons tend to speak less on their mobiles than Americans. Now whether this is a reaction to or the cause of smaller minute allowances I'm not sure although I would err on the side of the former.

Another point to note is that there is no direct charge for incoming calls in the UK, however, outgoing calls do tend to be more expensive than in America. I think it's worth mentioning because some American tariffs deduct incoming calls from one's allowance of free minutes, so one doesn't necessarily have the full allowance to make outgoing calls with.

Your reference to fairness is interesting because it can be a subjective issue. For example, T-Mobile USA has a tariff called Individual Supra, which costs $129.99/month and offers a large amount of free minutes. T-Mobile UK has a similarly priced tariff called Flext 75, which costs £70/month (approx $143/month), butt which gives a monetary allowance each month to spend as the customer wishes i.e. on any combination of calls, texts, etc. The amount of the allowance, in terms of free minutes, is substantially less than the American tariff, but, in my view, the distribution of the allowance is more fair because it does not constrict the customer as to how the allowance is to be used.

A further comparison between T-Mobile USA and T-Mobile UK reveals another difference: handsets. T-Mobile USA seems to be much more expensive than T-Mobile UK when it comes to handsets. A T-Mobile Wing costs $299.99 with the afore mentioned Individual Supra tariff; the RRP of the Wing (the HTC P4350) is £284.95 or just over $582. The Nokia N95 is free on the afore mentioned Flext 75 tariff, the RRP of the N95 is £379.95 or just over $776 dollars.

As I started out by saying that this is a matter of perception so I will end on that note. By all means the US tariffs do tend to be cheaper than their UK equivalents and they do tend to offer larger allowances of free minutes, but whether that is good value or not is down to how one, as an individual, uses such allowances. There is also the matter of how such allowances work in practice and how they are distributed and controlled to consider as well as additional costs, such a handsets, to take into account.

 

Yeah, they changed it about a month or two ago.

 

Really? I'm surprised! Cingular/AT&T never required a contract extension when changing plans. More recently, though, they try to make you believe it is required, but it isn't. The only time you are forced to get a contract extension is if you're changing from a grandfathered plan to a new plan, to a current plan, for instance, if you are still on a former AT&T Wireless plan or one of the old Cingular Regional plans want to change to one of the new plans with Rollover, etc., then you have to get a contract extension. However, if you have a current 900 min plan and want to change to a 450 min plan, it's not required to restart/extent your contract.

You mean Sprint now:

1) Charges for ESN swaps?
2) Extends your contract whenever changing your plan?

I thought this was only a Verizon thing!

 

Sprint doesn't charge to change plans (aside from contract extensions), and it is easy to get them to waive the ESN swap fee.

 

Sorry, that was a mistake in my post. I have fixed it.

 

That is true. I have even called in sometimes to make ESN swaps because I wasn't around a computer and have never been charged or threatened to be charged. They reserve the right to charge you for over the phone ESN changes, but online is always free and takes a matter of seconds.

 

Oh geez! and I though AT&T was bad....:lmao:

 

I never have any luck doing it online I have to always call.

 

I agree Sprint needs to get with it and change these policies to be more customer friendly. At least waive all ESN swap fees and I think that would make a lot of customers happy. They did reduce the fee from $36 to $18 but that's still not good enough IMO.

Also they should get rid of the rebate eligibilty clock thing and come up with something a little better. Who wants to wait 22 months for a $150 rebate? That's what I'm doing right now (March 1, 2008 is when I can get a new phone with the rebate).