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Verizon Wireless has seen some success getting their off-contract customers who have stubbornly refused to upgrade their phones to jump on board the smartphone craze… by lowering their prices.
The entry fee for smartphones on most carriers includes the up front cost of the device (often $199 for the most coveted phones) and a $30 monthly mandatory data plan. That’s a price too high for many consumers to pay in this economy, and the result has been an increase in the number of customers letting their two-year contracts expire.
AT&T has tried to reduce the bite with a paltry $15 monthly plan that only includes 200MB of usage per month, which is nearly pointless for smartphone users who want to really use the multimedia features the phones were designed to provide. Verizon responded with a holiday season promotional offer charging $15 a month for an even lower 150MB per month, with widespread speculation the “limited time only” part of the offer will soon become “available every day.”
But for most smartphone customers who plan to regularly use data-hungry applications, neither “budget plan” will suffice. That leaves one alternative for Verizon customers — the $29.99 unlimited plan. Ouch.
To prod price-sensitive customers, Verizon has offered family plan members the option of upgrading their old phones to new smartphones, and has sweetened the deal with a $10 price break. While technically a credit on the “additional line” charge, some Verizon employees pitch the discount as a reduction in price for the mandatory data plan. Where $30 a month sounds obscene, $20 a month sounds somewhat better.
The offer has proven sufficiently successful that Verizon has now extended it until Jan. 30 (note just prior to next month’s iPhone introduction) and any customer who has not upgraded their phone in the last 180 days qualifies. A new, two year contract is required and the offer is good if you want to add a new secondary line.
Unfortunately, the offer does not extend to the primary line. Verizon would probably see an even larger number of upgrades if the offer extended to every legacy phone on a customer’s account.
The $9.99 credit applies for 24 months. Over the life of the contract, that is worth $240 in savings per smartphone, which isn’t bad from America’s Cadillac wireless carrier.
The only issue is that apparently a great number of us who took advantage of this “promotion” are once again being screwed by Verizon. With in days of upgrading, etc. the cost of $29.99 shows up on your bill. However, for a large number of Verizon users the “credit” does not. After three phone calls with “Verizon customer service” (needs a new name) the only thing that I have that is guaranteed is that there are so many complaints about this that it is driving the agents insane, that most of the requests to add the promotion to the line… Read more »
The credit should be for $9.99 x the number of phones you upgraded, with the exception of the primary line, which does not qualify. (If you have to, switch the non-upgraded basic phone to be the primary line on the account so the other phones all qualify.)
This sounds like a classic billing error. I’ll have to review my bill and see if it shows up and then get into it. I’ll see if I can dredge up an exec customer service number you can call.
Here is what the credit looks like on the bill:
Thank you for the response. I was also in the belief that it was a simple billing error when I first saw the bill. I believed that a quick call could get the error corrected. The information you provided is also what the customer service told us. We have their confirmation electronic letter from the enrollment into the promotion. However, that is not what is going on. According to Verizon’s own customer service the promotion was not actually added to the line in question – the data plan has been added without the promotion. Per Verizon CS they can not… Read more »
I’m having the same problem. The 9.99 fee is being charged and not being credited. Went into Verizon store and the customer service rep. called in. They repeatedly said I was ineligible because the primary line wasn’t a smartphone. Not only can I not find this condition in any of the promotions literature, after checking, I confirmed that the main line is actually a smartphone.
I would cancel, but 1st bill came after 2 week return policy.
Any luck getting this resolved from anyone else?
Verizon screwed me too! I checked the bill yesterday and the $9.99 fee was still on the bill for the eligible phone. I called Verizon to ask what the issue was, and they COMPLETELY denied that I even called customer service to have the Smartphones Talk Free Promotion applied to my phone.
Has anybody had a problem and/or resolved their issues with the promotion?
I got hit the with same scenario — but on 2 lines (both secondary lines that purchased their first smartphone, so they both should qualify). When ordering the phones online, there was no mention of the $9.99 credit during the checkout process. We called into Customer Service to confirm that we would get the credit after we ordered the phone. The CSR asserted that we’d qualify and that we would get an email stating the same after the order was placed online (a little bit disconcerting). In the end, we placed the internet order, and did receive the email as… Read more »
Just wanted to close the loop on my story (above). My Inactive Pricing Request was ultimately approved. They credited me for the prior months and added the promo to each of my secondary lines that qualified.
I to am having the same problem with VZW. Have been denied a couple of times when requesting this issue be corrected. I have since contacted my state’s Attorney General’s office and am waiting to see what they say.
Am also thinking of publically shaming VZW by calling a local news outlet and reporting this clear case of “bait and switch” to so many.
Actually Verizon conducts what would be in a small private business called “fraudulent business” on a pretty regular basis. But they are correct that no state or federal official will ever press criminal charges against officers of a public utility nor even a corporation with gross revenues over $100 million per year (which Verizon greatly exceeds). AT&T is pretty much the same way although they seem to be simply souless rather than evil…although it might just be a calculated fear of snipers should they get to far out of line. LOL Lawsuits drawn out for years is the worst they… Read more »
I finally got tired of talking to customer service and sent Verizon a “demand letter” formally asking them to honor the promo. Under my state’s consumer protection law, you start with the demand letter and if after 30 days there is no reply you can sue in Small Claims court for triple damages. Sure enough, three weeks after I sent my letter I got a letter back from an attorney at Verizon saying the promo had been added to my account.
Look up your state’s Small Claims Court rules, it’s all there including the right format for the demand letter.