Verizon, or when is $120 the same as $175? (a rant)

[lparsons21]

I'm very mad at Verizon. Took a 'loyalty' discount of $10/month for 12 months which incurred a 1 year obligation. So far, so good. But then later I found it came with a $175 ETF! Nice math on Verizon's part and kind of explains why in the same conversations about Verizon they get praised and cussed by the same people.

All this wasn't a big deal until I decided to turn on internet sharing on my phone while on a trip. Wouldn't turn on, said it was unavailable. I'm on a single line plan whose web page showed at the time that internet sharing was part of the deal. That page, of course, is now gone replaced by a very uninformative page which tells you almost nothing, and the price is higher now.

So I call VZW to get internet sharing turned on. Told no dice, not part of deal. Much verbiage commenced but in the end no internet sharing. Switching to 'more' plan was only option which was $30/month higher for literally the same service.

In the meantime I had forgotten about the ETF and contract and decided to pay off the EDGE contract phone and switch to prepaid. $45/month ulimited talk/text, 500mb data and you buy Bridge Data that expires every 3 months @$10/1Gb or $20/3Gb. That really fills the bill nicely.

Unfortunately that pesky ETF is still there and wants to be paid if I make the switch. I'll probably do that because of all the options to get internet sharing, it costs the least by doing that.

But I'm damned sure not happy about it!

 

[Ramy]

My wi-fi sharing still works. What plan are you on?

 

[lparsons21]

OK, the rest of the story...

I was on the $60/month single line plan they started in August. At the time the web page showed mobile hotspot as part of it. But that webpage is long gone and mobile hotspot never worked with it. VZW denied it was part of the deal at any point as has been noted in many forums that discuss VZW. So I called VZW, chatted with them and discussed in the forum, and the answer was consistent that the only way to get mobile hotspot was shifting the a 'More' plan that is about $30/month higher.

So being the kind of guy I am, I emailed the CEO about it. They contacted me and told me the current $75/month single-line plan did have mobile hotspot and I agreed to switch to that plan. They also gave me some other incentives because of the hassle and misinformation I got along the way. Now with the compromise, I'm much happier. In the end VZW came through, but it should have been dead simple. The support people SHOULD know their product, but they really don't. And the corporate store reps are even less knowledgeable.

If you go to the current page about the single line plan for $75/month, even now it doesn't show mobile hotspot as part of it. Hell, that page is so much marketing fluff, with real info being pretty scarce.

Bottom line with Verizon is that they want you on a 'More' plan and either on contract or paying for an Edge plan. They only recently even had links to the Single-Line plans.

Take a look at plans. If you bring your own phone and don't go prepaid, there is no discount at all on any plan.

When my obligation to them is done, I'll switch to VZW's prepaid plan because it is the cheapest way to get it all. Here's rate and and example:

$45/month - unlimited talk/text, 500Mb data included.
$5 - 500Mb data which expires in a month
$10 - 1Gb data which expires in 3 months
$20 - 3Gb data which expires in 3 months.

Single line plan w/2Gb = $75/month

Prepaid line w/500Mb = $45/month
3Gb per month = $20
Total = $65 per month if you buy 3Gb every month.

Note that I've been told that the prepaid is $45/month total. No additional 'because we can' fees added. Makes it even cheaper in comparison!

 

[Neutron]

They pissed me off today about my wanting to Edge up my line. The store says I can't due to some snafu with the sub account on our account being past due. This was my sister in law's two lines and they screwed us over. Our responsibility so we paid it this morning. We ask about upgrading my line and am told no problem as its on the main account and isn't affected by the sub account. Two different CSRs confirm this. I went to the store tonight just to be told that I can't as I'm not eligible. CSR on the way home tells me that the sub account is the reason. Argh!!

 

[Juan]

Ever hear of foxfire?

 

[king3pj]

Today I got an email to discount our ridiculous $270 More Everything plan. This is a plan with unlimited talk and text and 3GB of data to share. We have 6 lines on this plan. We have 3 smartphones and 3 basic phones. Two of the smartphones are under contract but the rest of the lines are month to month.

They offered $10 per month off each of the basic phones and $15 per month off the smartphone that was out of contract. They also bumped us from 3GB to 4GB and reduced the base plan by $10. This gave me more data than I had before and a total of $55 per month in discounts. These discounts remain on each line until they take a subsidized upgrade to a new phone.The best part of this is that they emailed me about this discount without me having to ask for it.

$215 per month is still a lot of money but considering that we have 6 lines on our plan it's not completely unreasonable. Verizon is also the best network in the spotty coverage area we live in and they are they only provider that works reliably at our lake cabin in Northern Michigan. Some of the prepaid pricing options are tempting but we have been with Verizon for 15+ years now because of their network. As long as they keep that network quality up and keep their pricing at least somewhere close to the other guys we will stay with them.