Not all in-store Verizon folks are idiots, and why an Edge plan saves money

[BigMcGuire]

I'm on the edge plan and can vouch for this. I had a 12 GB plan when the Edge Plan came out and was invited to do an Upgrade on every line on my plan even if an upgrade wasn't available because I was such a long loyal customer. The pain and suffering I had to go through to get the Verizon stores to recognize this was insane... They had no knowledge of an "edge" plan and could not verify that I was given free upgrades even if an upgrade wasn't available. After hitting two stores and being severely offended by an uncaring Verizon rep --- we found a store (far from home) that knew what an edge plan was, accepted the upgrade printout, and made the whole process super simple/easy (and we all got upgrades).

You have to have >= 10GB of data on your plan to get $25/mo off (for the life of your line) EACH line that does the Edge Plan. Under 10GB is only $15 (or $10?)/mo off.

So my Note 3 was $29/mo - so I'm paying $4/mo for my Note 3. And yes, after 50% of the balance is paid off - I can upgrade. I can pay the balance directly if I want - via the Verizon Website.

My wife opted for the iPhone 5s 64GB and she's paying considerably more. We pay $12/mo for her iPhone 5s 64GB (After the $25/mo discount).


About the Verizon Stores - they vary so much it's amazing. You look at Yelp or other reviews, these stores send a lot of paying customers to other carriers because of how terrible their reps are. The first two stores I went to offended me so bad I was very close to hitting Sprint and giving them our business. The last store I went to helped mend that - It was the best experience I've had.

Honestly, I'm done dealing with uninformed reps that try to push accessories on you - I'll do everything online from now on.

 

[117micc]

Yeah. Because of how much data I use, they told me they would give me all the deals of a more everything plan plus 20% off my whole bill. Then I said I already have 20% off through a worker who worked there years ago. They said it would add on top of that. So 40% off plus what ever more eveything. But given how much data I use, wouldn't do anything for me.

my boss what's con'd into switching off his unlimited plan. I was like are you crazy??? He said on average he only used 2gb a month haha. why the hell did he get the plan anyways? Turns out he saved 40$ a month plus got an employee discount of 20% a month and got the Iphone 5s. I told him sounded great till you brought up the phone that should not be named lol! I showed him the S5 and all the features and how superior it is to the 5S, but he was to deep in Apple's game, iTunes, the cloud, etc. Plus he didn't want to learn how to use a new phone... I'm thinking to myself, how the hell did your dumb ass end up being my boss? haha

 

[droidstyle]

my boss what's con'd into switching off his unlimited plan. I was like are you crazy??? He said on average he only used 2gb a month haha. why the hell did he get the plan anyways? Turns out he saved 40$ a month plus got an employee discount of 20% a month and got the Iphone 5s. I told him sounded great till you brought up the phone that should not be named lol! I showed him the S5 and all the features and how superior it is to the 5S, but he was to deep in Apple's game, iTunes, the cloud, etc. Plus he didn't want to learn how to use a new phone... I'm thinking to myself, how the hell did your dumb ass end up being my boss? haha

Lol :good:

 

[anticloud]

Here is where they do make money...

Yes some are bone heads but some aren't. Here's my recent experience.

I have 4 phones on my account with a 10 gig shared data plan. My daughter wanted to move from Sprint to Verizon so my wife and I went to a Verizon store to help her through the transaction. One of the first things I do when I talk to one of the CS reps is state my position and what I want from this conversation with him/her. I like to see what they know or don't know. My rep, John, saw that I wasn't an average clueless customer and he immediately shifted into a smarter mode. Kudos for that.

So, my daughter decides on a Moto X. He runs the numbers and quickly figures out that it's much cheaper for her to join our family plan. No problem, we'll do that. She now pays us monthly for 1/5 of the total bill.

Then he pulls this one: "I'd like for you to look at the Edge plan for that Moto X." Ok, I'm not dumb, I've read all about the Edge plan. Yes it's no contract and yes you can switch to a new phone after a year but you pay for the phone as you go. I've looked at the numbers and it never makes sense to get Edge unless you just can't wait to upgrade phones. But boy do you pay for it.

Right now my opinion of John is changing. He's trying to pull a fast one. So I object saying, "I'm not interested in Edge." He comes back with, "What if I can prove it saves you money?" "OK, wise guy," I'm thinking, "do you take me for an idiot? Show me how smart you are, bonehead." Instead, I say, "Really? How?"

And he shows me. The way the Edge program works is that the monthly cost of the phone on an Edge plan is retail cost divided into 20 months. In the case of the Moto X it's $400 retail or $20 per month. Turns out if you have a 10 gig, or higher, data plan they discount the Edge program by $25 for EACH phone on the Edge plan. So, in her case the $20 plan minus the $25 discount reduced the plan by $5 compared to a 2 year subsidized contract. "So," I thought, "this guy really knew what he was doing."

Other advantages to Edge: The phone can be upgraded after 60% of the retail price is paid off. That's 12 months. If you want to trade it in sooner than 12 months then pay the difference to get up to 60%. This is a trade-in, you don't keep the phone. However, if you do keep the phone for 20 months it's yours to keep, no trade in necessary.

The break even point is phone that retails for $500. At that point the monthly payment is $25 and the discount is $25.

An HTC One and LG G2 are break even on Edge. A Note 3, S5 and LG G3 are only $5 more on Edge. All in all, it turns out, Edge is a pretty good deal if you have the 10 Gig plan.

In the end, my daughter was happy, I'm happy and it was a great experience. So, not all CS reps are idiots.

They probably have a healthy refurb market right - of course they do. so here is one side of it:

They take your old phone from you - resell it as a refurb; they have to spend a bit of money on it e.g. put new casing etc and refurb box, but they had taken it from you for free, and sold it for 50 - 100 less than retail (or similar)... remember, if a person buys a refurb with contract they do get it for less, yet if they buy a refurb not on contract, which people do, they make almost double or more...

In the 10gb / month plan, you are right - it'd appear that you are saving money (keep in mind you just threw down 2400 in data over 2years for 240GB - and you won't use all of it), but. look what happens:

if you are on less of a data plan you pay more for the edge phone / month, yes? this now does not become savings. Lets say you are at 20.00 month for the edge phone and 6GB data, that 480.00 / 2yrs (almost full price, yes) and a 6GB plan may be 60 month / 2yr (1440). 1440+480=1920.00 (ouch)...

not everyone gets a 10GB plan to offset the cost (in one hand) but gets raked over in data (on the other hand) without using all of it. lets say you do not use 2GB / month, that's effectively 240 / 2yr - throw that cost onto of the price of your edge phone(s)...

But - isn't it time we fight back -

2yr contract, 10gb / month @ 100.00 = 2400.00 yes? for 240GB

I pay 99 / month (no contract) to comcast, for 105mbps (which is really 123/mbps) up to 250GB usage / month (before they ask questions). so, over a 2yr period 250*24 = 6TB for 2400.00 vs. 240GB for same price - we are getting screwed by carriers and the NSA captures it all...

 

[jimmiem]

That's not true, the only loop hole they are closing is that if you add a new line to get a smartphone you have to keep the data plan on that phone. You can still use an upgrade on another smartphone line then transfer the SIM, or if you have an upgrade on your unlimited, transfer it to another smartphone do the upgrade then swap the SIM cards(this is what I just did a couple of months ago). So basically I have an unlimited line and my wife has a tiered plan, we both get to use our upgrades, we just have to do the transfer gimmick.

Wait, can you walk me through this a little slower? I have three lines. Galaxy Note 3/unlimited data , iPhone 5C/unlimited data, feature phone/no data. Let's say I want to upgrade the iPhone 5C to an iPhone 6. As I understand it, I could only use the upgrade on the line with no data. What is the loophole around the new policy of not allowing any upgrades on a contract without killing unlimited data on all lines?