Confirmed: Verizon Wireless to charge up to $350 early termination on “advanced devices”
Here’s what Big Red is working with: they’ve offered up a BOGO sale on all new BlackBerrys for the holiday buying season, and where some see a great deal, others see a great opportunity. Why not play a game of Flip My BlackBerry? Why not open a second line, get a brand new Tour or Storm 2, pay the cancellation fee on the new line of $175, and sell the device on eBay for $300 or more? Well it looks like Verizon has finally caught onto our the little game. A new connect has emerged with a few documents and it looks like starting on November 15th Verizon will be charging up to $350 as an early termination fee on “advanced devices.” This new “improved” fee does have a minute silver lining (if you can even say that): for every month of service completed, the $350 sum will decrease by $10. No word yet on what an “advanced device” constitutes but we can use our imaginations to figure it out. What do you think? Anyone considering abandoning plans to buy the DROID after hearing this news, or are you just going to get yours before November 15th? Or will you actually be an honest person and actually honor the contract you sign?
Thanks, GetOverIt7!
@ Protege
Blunt, to the point and exactly correct.
Everyone always complains how long Verizon takes to get cool devices or to make changes. They are currently in front, I’m sure other wireless carriers will follow suit.
Think about this for a minute, can i borrow $600 i will pay you right back $200 so I only owe you $400 and then I will pay installments of $10 a month for the next 5 months after that I will change my mind about paying you back (the reason dosn’t matter even if you feel you were wronged) but since we had a deal I will give you $175 and I will keep the money you gave me and we’ll call it even? Sounds good right?? Guess what, you just lost $175. If you do that 50,000 times in a year you just lost $8.75 million dollars. Are you really leaving because you feel that big business is some how cheating you?
The only real question is how much the carriers are paying for the phones vs what they say it costs. You can buy a basic no contract phone for $10-20. Do these advanced phones really cost that much, after all, you can buy a laptop for $500-600. I suspect that the scam is that the actual cost of the ETF is far more than cost of the phone to the carrier.
BINGO!!! We have a winner!!! I used to know an engineer that worked for Motorola out of Belvidere IL. According to him, they closed the plant down because they were never able to get their raw production costs into the range that they needed them to be at. I’ll give you a hint… It was well below $1 per phone. The prices of phones are artificially manipulated for one reason and one reason only… TO KEEP YOU IN CONTRACT. If they were sold at fair market price, you would pay about 100-150$ for a Blackberry. But then… you would buy it outright and wouldn’t have to indenture yourself for 24 months.
ETFs are for people that are morons. Just honor the contract. Look you liked the phone that you got for a reason whether its a droid or an iphone or a razr or env env2 env3 etc etc. Honor the contract and ETFs don’t exist.
So what that a new phone comes out. It’s a phone people if you can’t live without the latest and greatest phone you have other issues.
As you fret over ETFs I’ll be waiting for the Iphone to come onto VZW. I was with ATT (att, cingular, & new att), that service is just crap. God forbid you need to talk to a customer service rep from ATT they suck!
ETFs don’t exist if you honor a contract. And if you can’t honor a contract then don’t even sign one just pay the full price and go month to month or get a 1 year deal.
I’ve had the LG Chocolate for 2 years and then switched to the LG Env. Come mid December my contract will be up and I’ll just wait until I see either an Iphone on VZW or whatever.
And whenever I get the next phone I’ll honor that contract.
When I was with ATT/Cingular I honored their contract until my contract was up and then I switched to VZW will never ever go to ATT again no matter how popular one phone can be.
Good things come to those who wait and have the patience!!
peace,
Liked.
+7
You’ll be waiting for a LONG time for Verizon to get an iPhone. Who ever started that rumor was genius! AT&T helped create and develop the iPhone. It’s NEVER coming to Verizon. Good luck with that. Me and my husband are BREAKING our contracts with Verizon to buy each other iPhones for Christmas…Merry Christmas to us! He has a BB Storm, I have a Palm Centro.
You realize that Apple came to Verizon first with the iPhone, right? And Big Red turned them down? It’s Apple’s phone; they developed it; they support it; they can do whatever they want with it.
The Palm Centro Sucks and so does the Iphone. Droid Rules, dont waste your time and frustration on Att&t, Bad coverage and phones that loose signal. Great, now youll have an Iphone you get dropped calls on, all the time.
droids just not worth it sure you can get it for say 200 usd then VZW doesn’t tell you all the hidden charges that come along with it like data IM text that add up really fast suddenly your droid is racking up to like 75 usd a month. all this data IM and text should be included but if you know them very well activation costs money data costs money IM will cost money and text will cost money
What you mentioned about ATT, I am SO in agreement with you! They don’t have a clue about customer service. Their people are trained to repeat the same six phrases over and over and over and over….You will talk in the same circle until you are blue in the face, but you will not make headway with most of them. And good luck trying to get a human being on the line in the first place! Telephone nazis!
BTW lets take the BB storm 2 for example
if you get a 2 year deal the phone costs you 179
a 1 year contract the phone costs you 249
month to month the storm 2 costs 539
If you are the type of person that needs to get a new product often then the 1 year contract is for you. You only pay $70 more for the phone then the 2 year contact. with no contract at all you will pay 290 more for the phone than a 1 year contract or 360 more for the phone than a 2 year contract
Ahhh I wonder where the 350 ETF number comes from??
Again ETF doesn’t exist for those that honor their contracts whether 2 year or 1 year!!
Peace,
it seems to me they’re doing this because their plan with Apple backfired and they are going to be carrying a full Droid line, sans-iPhone by next year. They don’t want people pulling out left and right when Apple doesn’t hit Verizon stores in February of 2010…. it would be the absolute end of their network!
but hey, that’s what they get for turning down Apple the first time, right? pity they had to learn the hard way. And I was actually thinking that I might be able to get the best phone on the best network coverage in the near future…it was definitely too good to be true!
Your an idiot.VZW has been fine with out the I phone all this time what makes you think that VZW not getting it would shut down a network of 87 million users… yup your an idiot! The I phone is a smart phone for stupid people who do not know how to use a REAL smart phone. Try the HTC Imagio on.. if you can figure it out.
Verizon turned down the IPHONE when it was presented to go to them first not AT&T ,after they found out that the Battery was not removable ,that was one of the main reasons get ur ducks in a row. told to me by a head gy within Verizon
charge 1000$ ETF and give me the phone free.
Does anyone know if this counts as a change in the terms of service, thereby allowing Verizon customers currently under contract to bail on their existing contracts without paying the ETF?
No, this new ETF applies only to new customers. VZ isn’t dumb enough to let folks out of existing contracts.
The subsidy thing is really screwy. Causes strange things.
I upgraded to the New HTC Touch Pro 2( I-phone killer) on 10/15 but was still grand fathered under my $50-500 Family minute plan, now they just notifed change in terms , lowest family Plan now is $69-700 minutes if they start charging me this , they will not charge me ETF, if I decide not to go along with this change according to new terms. other than this most new contracts for 2 YRS , you will incurr ETF, this is not smart for these companies, up and coming carries like Metro PCS (Still expanding) would love for VZ& ATT to do dum dums like this, competition is the name of the game. looks like they are jumping on the band wagon like banks & trying to nickle & dime you out of every last $, instead of using common sense & better pricing/service. I would like a expensive car but I stay within my budget, if VZ & ATT can’t stay within competdators pricing & my budget , I’ll have to switch.
What about the prepay phones now. You know what you got then. no contract, phone are not expensive?
I paid almost 500 dollars for a verizion cell phone and took it home and no service. Took it back within 1 week couldn’t get a refund. I lost about 500 dollars and had to pay for service for 6 months before I got out of contract. I believe in prepay and throw the phone away when you don’t want them.
Its up to the people to stop this maddness, NO CONTRACTS! They have no HOLDS on you. Lets fight back!!!
SMH @ all these people saying “Why do you need a smart phone anyway?”
If thats the case, why do we need a color tv? Why do we need a pc running windows 7 and higher? I mean Windows 95 works just fine right?
Theres NOTHING wrong with wanting cutting edge technology. Who wants to carry around a cell phone, mp3 player and camera all at one time, when they can everything in one?
Anyway, ETF or not, verizon sucks anyway. All they have is good coverage. Their plans are too expensive and their phone selection(with the exception of the new android phones)SUCKS.
T-Mobile, here i come!
Ok was with you at first.. but then you said T-mobile here i come… wow really, so you want no service and ugly phones… At least go to AT&T. P.s Look agian at VZW’s phone selection, and yes it is more expensive but they always say you pay for what you get.
HA! go to T-mobile and you’ll see ur self talking to some overseas retard that you dont understand at all and you talk about the service sucks for verizon ur nutz.. Tmobile has the worst signal of all cell carriers! The etf fee is for all advance devices. which include the env touch droid blackberry or any device that requires a data package at launch …so in others words if you call verizon and they tell you that we are required to add a connect or data package there is a 350 etf fee and it doesnt matter if you are existing or new customer once you launch the device count on the etf fee! IM sure that att and sprint will be right behind verizon soon!
T-Blowbile sucks like you will when you terminate your Verizon connection.
This is an interesting discussion, and kinda shows the mentality of the country as a whole right now. When did we become a society that thinks we are entitled to whatever we want, when we want it, we don’t want to pay for it, and our word means nothing? If you honor your contract, you have nothing to worry about. If you want a new phone every few months, get service without a contract or do a 1 year contract. $175 has been the standard ETF for a long time, and with retail prices of smartphones pushing $600, they could raise the prices you pay for the contract, make the contracts longer, or raise the ETF. Raising the ETF effects the least number of customers so it is the proper action. And I bet you will see AT&T doing something similar soon.
I dont really see AT&T doing something like this.. For the fact that it was just last year when they implemented the declining ETF per month after the 1st year of completed in the contract from the $175 rate. So I seriously doubt AT&T will follow suit.. especially since alot of people havent been too happy with their Iphone service. I know alot of people disagree with what I’ve said and truth is.. I really dont care for the fact that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I really dont think the morality of this subject has to do with a certain carrier or phone flippers(who would careless if people tend to flip phones) I think it mainly boils down to the fact that its just point blank ridiculous for any carrier to up the ETF. I personally would rather pay more for the phone and cancel if I decided 6-9mos down the line that I am unhappy with someone’s service and pay the standard $175 ETF vs buying the phone cheaper and paying $350 for the ETF. I think we all know that it takes more than 30days to really thoroughly decide if we like the phone(If its one that has alot of gadgets) or maybe like the service(we may have great coverage where u live but if your like me and like to travel or you being someone that has to travel alot) and you dont get good service any places that you travel which a normal person wont travel excessively in a 30day period so I think it really takes longer than 30days to really figure out if you like the phone or its service. If you think of it at that aspect. One should agree that the bottom line a consumer should not have to pay that high of an ETF.
So do pay more and have less restrcitions. You can always go with the 1 year contract price or the no contract price. It allows you to pay more and get less of a subsidy. The ETF is not a price that should be contemplated as part of the TCO of a phone. It’s supposed to be a penalty for ending a loan early.
Based on news reports about AT&Ts issues with receiving profit from the iPhone I would expect for AT&T to follow suit with at least some adjustment, maybe not as high.
Most eloquently put my friend. That’s the most reasonable way that I’ve seen it explained.
The ETF is the price you pay for getting a cheaper phone. Me personally, i like freedom. Im willing to pay more for the freedom.
I will never go under a contract again….Especially with Verizon. The most crooked phone company of them all.
Actually a 2 year contract is the price you pay for getting a cheaper phone. An ETF is the price you pay for relieving your self of the contractual responsibility.
Good for you for not using contracts. However have you looked at the TCO numbers for going without contract. Is it cheaper to buy the full phone and pay rates without contract? I would expect you are probably paying the uplift to cover the phone subsidy anyway so the freedom is costing more in the long run.
I honestly don’t know and would be interested if it is cheaper in the long run to purchase the phone outright.
I think that if you know you have full intentions on stay with a company for forever.. Like if your in your mid 30s and up then it is cheaper to do the full two year term. But paying the retail cost which.. can ranger from $100-$200 above the companies actual cost price for what they pay for it to sell to the consumer. I would suggest to find a friend that works for whatever company that has the phone you want.. usually authorized retailers have a better change at bringing the retail price down of the phone to damn near the price of what the store pays for it. In my experience being that I’ve worked for corporate and authorized dealers.. Still to this day that I no longer work for a certain companies that I use to work for in the wireless industry. I still maintain my relationship with co-worker in the authorized retail stores and buy my phones outright at the cost price. It particularly helps when the stores cost price is affected and drops down if the store has had it on the shelf unsold in the stock room/safe for too long that is usually a good time to buy a phone outright. something like that you would need to know someone on the inside. Something like this is really hard to determine what would be cheaper because its not always the same for everybody. I do hope that the exec’s of verizon are reading all of our post and maybe reconsider leavng the ETF how it originally is.. Or at least drop the 350 to 250 and with the $10 decline
The ETF is a penalty for not fulfilling your contractual obligations…people found a legal way to buy a phone, cancel service, pay the etf, and sell the phone and make a profit. That sounds like honest people making honest money. Or, people realizing that they are not really stuck with a phone that they do not like and did not return within the 30 days. The real problem is why…are people on ebay paying so much for the phones without contract. Credit issues are probably the biggest issue. Verizon needs to see that a consumer can buy the phone contract free, cheaper than on ebay. If the phones don’t sell in mass like they do on ebay, people don’t make the money, it all comes to a close. Raising the etf’s as a scare tactic is STUPID.. This is an excellent opportunity for Sprint, T-mobile, and especially AT&T to really drag some Verizon customers over and slow Big Red’s growth IF…they don’t follow suit and do some good creative advertising. Sprint and T-mobile are driving prices down on services, Verizon is taking this ship the wrong way.
I don’t see Verizon losing many customers for a number of reasons – the first being that so many people don’t even read their contracts. Second – the coverage is incredible – whenever I am out with someone with another carrier I spend a lot of time listening to beeps as they lose service – I also end up using my phone to get movie times or find a restaurant because I’m the only one who’s browser is really working.
Finally, they will keep customers because of the free mobile to mobile. I know 6 different (large) families that all stick with Verizon so they can speak to each other free. Now that Verizon has added the talk free to any 10 numbers landline or mobile in addition to that, I don’t see it ending soon. I end up spending a lot less just because I have been able to lower my voice minutes even though I have 2 other lines on my account for my Mom and Husband. Also with the new Droids you can lower minutes even more using Google Talk.
Ok, So Im back on this again when I thought that yesterday was the end of this blog. I was looking over VZW rate plans and they dont even offer early nights and weekends. And they are going to up the ETF.!!! Come on Verizon you gotta give the consumers alot more if your upping the ETF.. I think I for sure might stick with AT&T you can buy better unlocked gsm phones than what VZW has. If you dont believe me go check out for example Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 or Satio. VZW should spend more bucks on Research and Development to thoroughly know there phone competition throughout the world and not just in the US instead of spending a bundle on commercials
Verizon is bleeding customers!!! I will be porting 5 lines of service out on Nov 14th. FYI with AT&T you can buy your own device at retail, or off ebay and do a 0yr contract. This eliminates all problems. I will not give verizon another dime
You can do the same exact thing with Verizon, you have the option to purchase the phone at retail without a contract or on ebay or off a friend. So there is no ETF with this option. Just like you plan to do with AT&T so I am not sure the point of posting that.
People were doing BOGOs with netbooks and blackberrys and cancelling lines paying the $175 and selling these devices for 300-600 dollars. So people doing this scam the system, and make a profit from doing it.Some of the phones on the list for the higher ETF don’t make sense but not all of it can I guess.
you can do the same at most carriers knuckle head
I went into Verizon and used the Driod!!! Remember the old Dominos commerical AVOID THE DROID!!! Im sorry but my contract is up with Sprint this month and Ill be getting the Iphone. The Iphone will not be the greatest phone ever, but it is now!!! Even the VZW rep told me that it has its hiccups and there is a new software upgrade coming out in 2010.
What “hiccups?” I did a lot of research before buying and used both phones (at home) extensively this weekend. The only hiccups I’ve seen is the learning curve – the Verizon reps were clueless about the phones and it took me a little while to figure out how to use them. The Eris was a bit easier to use but I prefer the Droid.
Thats was “avoid the noid” a#$hole. Good riddens. Hope your iphone will feed you too, since you won’t be able to eat after the money spent on your plan and extras.
I am with AT&T right now with an Iphone3gs, and like a lot of subscribers, the biggest annoyance are the drop calls. I also like the Droid, although I don’t believe that its going to topple the Iphone. With all the new smartphones that coming out late this year, you know Apple will respond next year with a revamped Iphone. I don’t think I will switch yet till I know whats in store for the Iphone next year. I am not a dedicated user on the Iphone and will switch phones if something else comes along that suits me better. The Nokia N900 interests me, but the only carrier support is Tmobile which has even less of a coverage and subscriber base. It can function on AT&T but can’t use the 3g band, so until then, I’m sticking with the Iphone for now. Its not great as a phone, but can’t beat the apps, and Itunes which the Droid doesn’t have yet.
Jonathan
I have AT&T as well but Im a berry user. For the past week, since it became closer to the Droid being released, I considered the phone greatly and I kept checking youtub constantly for updates on reviews. So finally saturday and sunday I went into a Verizon location and got some hands on the device and to me, Its not all what the Noah from phonedog or any other tech savy guru person made it out to be. Yes, the major point the droid has that it is opened to developers like the blackberry and hands down the google navigation is awesome. But Im sure you can relate as well as others who reads this post. Regardless of VZW commercials displaying untrue facts about AT&T’s 3G coverage(I use to work for AT&T) we know that AT&T still has a few tricks up their sleeves. We both know that the turnout for the release Droid wasnt as great on opening day as VZW thought it would of been. Right now it may seem that VZW has the upper hand with the droid phone.. We all know that although AT&T and Dell are coming out with an android based phone. We know that its not going to be their best phone simply for the fact that AT&T will still be testing the waters and when they knew for sure the android OS is at its toppest shape then we’ll see AT&T roll out with some pretty good to die for devices with the ANdroid OS that will beat VZW Moto Droid. Maybe AT&T will adopt the European version of the Droid named “Milestone” One thing is that a person should never switch carriers just because of the phone. Think about it. why switch to a phone that doesnt have a sim card that helps double in keeping your contacts stored with you and not have to worry about finding some online software to back up your contacts or wait in line at a VZW store so they can transfer your numbers over.
On another note. I am considering leaving the blackberry family. I thought I wanted to get the new Onyx(Bold 2 9700) but there isnt much of a difference between that and what I already have on my Bold. so although I was never fond of any touchscreen phone without a physical keyboard. The iphone is starting to appeal better to me. I went to apple to play with it for a bit. on the 3Gs and I know when the first Iphone came out, you could only use like the apple bluetooth if you wanted bluetooth earpiece. So I was wondering two things. Like all other phones, can you use any type of bluetooth branded device? And are you allowed to goto freesites like myxer.com and download free ringtone on the device or must you have to purchase all ringtones thru itunes and without the hassle of going thru a ringtone maker application on your computer? Let me know and Thanks
Congratulations to Verizon for finding a way to screw the consumer again! Congress mandates that carriers have to discount the termination fee based on how long you stay with the company. So what does Verizon do? JACK UP THE TERMINATION FEE. Now they can discount you based on how many months into the contract you are so they aren’t breaking the law, but by the month before the end of the contract you are still liable for $120 dollars if you decide to break it.
Screw you Verizon!
just honor your contract or pay full price and you have no worries.
Honor your contract: the contract terms include the ability to terminate it early for a fee. So those who terminate the contract early and pay the EFT, which the contract gives them the right to do, are still honoring their contracts. They haven’t done anything outside of the contract.
So if you added 2 lines and got the BOGO storm 2’s and then switch your two storms over to the original numbers that had regular phones. Then cancel the lines that had the regular phones, then switch the Storm 2’s off and add the regular phones back, wouldnt you only pay the 175 per line?
get a job instead cooking up scams to get high end electronics for nearly nothing to sell on ebay
not cool Dio, watch what you type ‘ they’ know where you live dun dun dunnnnnnnnn
Can I bring a date?
Dude, thats some powerful Kool-aide youve been drinking. What does this have to do with the article, I don’t get it? You came on here, and posted a comment just to berate people. You travel, good for you. I travel as well, and I have never had a problem with my service. You sir, are a tool. Go tell mommy to get you some more muscle milk or something, the adults are trying to talk.
Liked.
+5
Im starting to think that you and AT&T have a lot of butt fucking. Thats all you ever do talk about how great they are.