I'm very suspicious of Verizon changes

[Brian Runau]

My wife and I have two phones. We are on unlimited service, seems very expensive, but is the going rate. We have 4 year old S10E phones. She plays games and I use it for texting, directions/traffic and music in the car and home using blue tooth and u tube music my library.

Verizon is reducing our discount for auto pay by $5 next month. Guy at the store is telling me we can go to a newer welcome plan, same unlimited data features for $20 less per month. This part confuses me. If they can give it to me cheaper why raise my auto pay cost? We need to upgrade to S24 phone for $15 per phone total one time charge OK. $35 per line $70 to set up the "new " service, new service? Then he wants $40/phone to transfer data from the phone. Using smart switch I can probably do this and save the $80.

My ? what is Verizon getting out of lowering my cost? Has to be a reason they are pushing people to do this?

Thanks.

Brian

[Kent A Bathurst]

The answer to all of you questions is money.

Maybe they need to get everyone migrated to new tech - playing the long game relative to capital investment and maintenance of obsolete systems

Maybe they are losing market share from the current pricing structure.

Maybe their market analyses says total revenues will increase from increased market share due to lower pricing, so get out in front and knee-cap some competition.

Maybe they hear some anti-trust footsteps gaining on them.

Check out their investor news - might be a clue there.

You're right - Altruism ain't in it.

[Ronald Blue]

Usually things like that are competition driven. I think it was close to two years ago that they updated our plan and dropped the cost. We own our phones so we are only paying $83 and change per month for two lines and unlimited data. I don't recall how much it dropped but I think it was in the neighborhood of $15 and it was a limited 10 gig plan.

[Michael Schuch]

I use Mint Mobile. It is $240/year for 15gb a month. I have never ran out of data in a month. (Unlimited is $360/year)

I buy my own phones. I usually get a generation or two old used top of the line phone for 1/2 to 1/3 cost of a new phone.

I don't understand why people stand for paying so much for service and phones. Every used phone I have ever purchased from Swappa.com has looked brand new and is guaranteed by Swappa to not be blacklisted. The seller doesn't actually get my money from swappa until after my phone has been activated.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Sounds to me like the guy at Verizon is switching you out so he can make a commission on making a "new sale", since he is in essence selling you a new plan.
My son worked for Verizon years ago when finding a job anywhere was tough. He told me they did stuff like this.

[Roger Feeley]

Assume that you will be locked into a contract?

quick shoutout to Fairphone. It’s a verypairable phone. You can swap the battery in seconds. To swap out ther parts, takes a screwdriver. IFixit rates the FF top f the heap in terms of repairability. Bad news,it’s not compatible with most US networks. T-Mobile upports I think.

[Bill Dufour]

Several years ago Verizon offered us two free phones as good long term customers. We looked into it and the phones were free if you stayed with verizon fore some few years. But they upped the plan by 20 dollars a month for each phone and you could never go back. I think it would have gone to unlimited plans?
Bill D

[Brian Elfert]

Verizon is apparently making this change to all "legacy" plans that are no longer offered. They seemingly want everyone on their new plans even though in some cases the new plans actually cost less for the customer. Some "legacy" plans include bundled TV streaming services that the new plans now charge extra for. I am buying phone service from Verizon, not streaming TV, so I like the lower pricing.

I am on a family plan with my brother. He periodically changes our plans with Verizon because the new plans are lower cost.

[Curt Harms]

Right now I have internet and phone service from Comcast. $20/month for internet, $20 for phone. The phone service only includes 1 GB/month but that works for me, I use little mobile data. Comcast has many hot spots I could use if I needed to. So far I haven't needed to. I'm sure once this introductory period ends these rates will go up. I have had both Mint Mobile and PureTalk in the recent past. PureTalk uses AT&T's network which I think had better coverage but Mint Mobile (T Mobile's network) wasn't bad at all. The only negatives I've heard about VMNOs is that during heavy use periods post paid customers' calls get priority over VMNOs. I haven't found this to be a problem.

Edit: I was poking around cell phone providers and came across this. I know nothing about the company beyond what's on their web page but they offer something unique AFAIK. In addition to being cheap (for example unlimited talk & text, 5 GB data for $20/month) they offer a choice of the big 3 cellular networks AT&T, Verizon and T-mobile. If you have a phone locked to one of the 3 you don't need a new phone. No association with them but it sounds like a pretty good deal.

https://www.redpocket.com/plans?utm_...kId=4850362758

[Stephen Tashiro]

, same unlimited data features

I'm curious what Verizon means by "unlimited data".
T-mobile gives me "unlimited data", but they mean 15 G of data per month at a fast speed and anything more at a slow speed.

[Bill Howatt]

You have to always read the fine print. The fast and slow trick is not uncommon.

[Pat Germain]

Are you going to an actual Verizon store or a contract/franchise store? It gets confusing, but not all Verizon stores are really Verizon stores and the non-Verizon stores can be sketchy.

I also have two mobile phones with Verizon. Yeah, it's more than I want to pay, but every time I hear someone complain about not having any mobile service, it's not Verizon. My dad has Consumer Cellular and service can be spotty. Mrs. Pat's sister has a Trackphone and her service is even more spotty than Consumer Cellular.

It's the same with Internet service. Lot's of people trying to save money while simultaneously complaining about outages and downright hostile customer service; if they can get through at all.

I'm happy to hear some people are happy with their discount mobile phone service, but I'll stick with Verizon. I never have any issues with it.

[Patty Hann]

You have to always read the fine print. The fast and slow trick is not uncommon.

"What the large print give-eth, the small print take-eth away."

[Brian Runau]

Verizon is apparently making this change to all "legacy" plans that are no longer offered. They seemingly want everyone on their new plans even though in some cases the new plans actually cost less for the customer. Some "legacy" plans include bundled TV streaming services that the new plans now charge extra for. I am buying phone service from Verizon, not streaming TV, so I like the lower pricing.

I am on a family plan with my brother. He periodically changes our plans with Verizon because the new plans are lower cost.

I Think this is what is going on. New phone locked in for a time span . Works better than others for where I live and a little more expensive. Thanks brian

[Jim Becker]

Phones that are subsidized have to be paid for in other ways...and with carriers, that's typically a requirement to retain service for a certain period of time. It's pretty much always been that way The phones are generally "locked" to that carrier, too.

Someone mentioned retirement of legacy plans. TMo and ATT have also done that and it comes in cycles.