Warning to those who used the Best Buy Loophole to upgrade!!!

[ljv]

So I decided to to return my S7 and stick with my S6. That's another discussion...

Originally I I used the BB method and upgraded my 2 lines to the S6 and S6 Edge on Oct 23 to beat the Nov 15 deadline before unlimited data price increase. Got the phones shipped to me. Immediately threw away the sim cards that came in them and installed my old sim card. It used to be new activations were tied to the sim card not IMEI. Well that's changed. Sometime after the 15, Verizon closed that loophole and started doing it via IMEI. Anyway, when I put the sim card back into my S6, it went through activation again and it flagged the imei and switched me to 2GB. I wasn't expecting it to activate again so it caught me off guard. Now I've loss unlimited, and I'm 7GB overage on my data plan. I've been fighting with them all day trying to get it changed back because it was fine before but now it switched. My receipt from BB clearly shows keep existing plan. It did not force me to switch due to upgrade. The last person I spoke with said she will try to get my udp re-instated but it had to go through some "off-line group". I'm waiting for a response. One this is for certain. If they don't get me switched back, eff you verizon, I'll be switching to ATT. There is no reason for me to stay with you if I don't have udp anymore. That's the only reason I stuck around.

One thing I'd like to add is I'm not an abuser of data. At most I use 15gb a month. Sometimes I use only 2 to 3GB. I just like the fact of not having to worry if I'm going to go over. That and the fact I refuse to pay more to get less!

 

[anrichardson]

I did the exact same thing. I have few theories as well but maybe you and I can figure out together to beat the system.

We have 2 lines as well and use about 18gb each more or less. Just streaming audio most of the day while at work.

But theory was my phone was shipped from a best buy store instead of a warehouse like normal.

I would keep on Verizon to make sure they give you it back, I have mine back but when I fought them on returning my UDP they didn't put the work order in like they said. So just call back every day or every other day.

I will try again to upgrade and activate the phone on my line that is not up for upgrade and then switch it back. But white trying this I am thinking about bypassing the whole phone activation part. Far as skipping the setup where you just can play around with phone and OS then pop the old sim in? Just a theory though.

 

[ljv]

I did the exact same thing. I have few theories as well but maybe you and I can figure out together to beat the system.

We have 2 lines as well and use about 18gb each more or less. Just streaming audio most of the day while at work.

But theory was my phone was shipped from a best buy store instead of a warehouse like normal.

I would keep on Verizon to make sure they give you it back, I have mine back but when I fought them on returning my UDP they didn't put the work order in like they said. So just call back every day or every other day.

I will try again to upgrade and activate the phone on my line that is not up for upgrade and then switch it back. But white trying this I am thinking about bypassing the whole phone activation part. Far as skipping the setup where you just can play around with phone and OS then pop the old sim in? Just a theory though.

I've been working with a single person over there and she is supposed to have me switched back to udp by Monday. I have it all in writing through email. Plus my receipt from the original S6 purchase from BB clearly states keep "existing plan". So, it's not a matter of trying to beat the system. It's a matter of a mistake on their side. It's sort of like when they advertise the price wrong in store, unless they put out a correction, they sell it to you at the price they originally listed. Anyway, come Monday, if it's not fixed, I'm switching. Nothing ties you to the carrier anymore since all of them pay your ETFs to switch. And the whole Verizon has the best network thing, that's debatable. I have my boys on T-mo and other family on ATT. I've been in instances where I had weak or no service but they had service. I'm not going to argue though that rural areas, Verizon by far kicks everyone's ass. But then again, it's pretty slow in rural areas and how often do I go into rural areas anymore.

 

[Bad Bimr]

I did the same thing to FOUR line. The one line was not delivered until after Nov 15 ad as soon as I activated the phone UDP was lost. I immediately returned the phone to BB and called Verizon and requested a inactive pricing requests (IPR). The particular phone line was 27GB over, LOL. After a few days UDP was back on the line, I was feeling better. I then was the first person to discover from the BB buying group to find that the 3 remaining lines had a PENDING UPGRADE. Not sure what to do and if I should keep the other 3 phones and hope for the best or take back and pay the extra $20 per month per line. Not wanting to loose UDP I returned the phones. It seems now that PU have been dropping off. But keeping those BB phones n your line it RISKY. Best bet is to sell them! 1 person claimed to have lost UDP after phone upgraded. Not happy paying the extra $20 but better than being stuck with $2GB in a 2year contract!

Google Verizon Upgrade Keep Unlimited Data to find a HUGE thread over at slick deals

BB

 

[ljv]

I did the same thing to FOUR line. The one line was not delivered until after Nov 15 ad as soon as I activated the phone UDP was lost. I immediately returned the phone to BB and called Verizon and requested a inactive pricing requests (IPR). The particular phone line was 27GB over, LOL. After a few days UDP was back on the line, I was feeling better. I then was the first person to discover from the BB buying group to find that the 3 remaining lines had a PENDING UPGRADE. Not sure what to do and if I should keep the other 3 phones and hope for the best or take back and pay the extra $20 per month per line. Not wanting to loose UDP I returned the phones. It seems now that PU have been dropping off. But keeping those BB phones n your line it RISKY. Best bet is to sell them! 1 person claimed to have lost UDP after phone upgraded. Not happy paying the extra $20 but better than being stuck with $2GB in a 2year contract!

Google Verizon Upgrade Keep Unlimited Data to find a HUGE thread over at slick deals

BB

That's the thing. I did this on October 23rd. All was fine. That is until I got my S7. S7 was fine too. But I decided to go back to my S6. Once I put the sim card back in the S6, it reactivated again and flagged it and switched to 2GB. Anyway, I hope it all gets straightened. At least I have in writing that I won't be charged for the overages. We'll see. I've just had crappy luck with Verizon lately. Went through 2 months of back and forth with Verizon FiOS to get my bill straightened out because my connection was ll messed up.

 

[xdadevnube]

Pretty sure the only way to ensure the account doesn't get borked is to activate the phone on someone elses plan. Dunno if you can ever use the phone on your plan due to IMEI.
I suggest upgrading to the phone you can get the most money for, sell it, and buy what you want.

 

[jpennin217]

If you do the Best buy method you can never put your SIM in the phone that was upgraded on your number. Thats why I ordered a IP6 for the wife under my number and she ordered a S7 edge under her number. She does not care of android and I don't like IOS so it works out great. I will never put my SIM in her phone and vice versa or it will revert to a 2gb plan. If you don't have the option to not use your sim in the phone you ordered then you should trade someone phone for phone or sell it and buy the one you want so you won't have an issue. Not saying it is a guarantee though but we have been fine so far.

 

[DFA1]

Can someone fill me in on how this loophole works?

 

[ljv]

Can someone fill me in on how this loophole works?

There is no loophole anymore through Best Buy so don't do it.

 

[anrichardson]

There is no loophole anymore through Best Buy so don't do it.

I will attempt from another retailer. But not for another couple of weeks.

 

[p2kmafia]

Well I'm not entirely sure what you guys did, but I just updated my phone in store at costco by switching my upgrade over to another line on my plan (if you're solo you'll never get this to work). Buying/upgrading through that line. The person should completely activate the phone on the non udp line, then switch the device back to the non udp's actual phone and sim. Sim's no longer fry by doing this. Once the phone has beeen activated and switched back you can pop your old sim into the new device and everything should be golden. The costco lady didn't believe me but I'm flying high with my udp on my s7 edge

 

[anrichardson]

Well I'm not entirely sure what you guys did, but I just updated my phone in store at costco by switching my upgrade over to another line on my plan (if you're solo you'll never get this to work). Buying/upgrading through that line. The person should completely activate the phone on the non udp line, then switch the device back to the non udp's actual phone and sim. Sim's no longer fry by doing this. Once the phone has beeen activated and switched back you can pop your old sim into the new device and everything should be golden. The costco lady didn't believe me but I'm flying high with my udp on my s7 edge

So I have 2 lines that have UDP. My wife's line has an upgrade available.

So if I transfer the upgrade to my line and and the activate it on her line I should be able to keep my unlimited on both lines?

 

[p2kmafia]

So I have 2 lines that have UDP. My wife's line has an upgrade available.

So if I transfer the upgrade to my line and and the activate it on her line I should be able to keep my unlimited on both lines?

If you only have the two lines that won't work. The upgraded line needs a new two year contract and UDP isn't available anymore so one of the lines would lose the data plan.

 

[anrichardson]

If you only have the two lines that won't work. The upgraded line needs a new two year contract and UDP isn't available anymore so one of the lines would lose the data plan.

So my thought now is knowing somebody on verizon that has an upgrade as well and using there upgrade for my wife and using my wife's upgrade for them. that should work right?

 

[p2kmafia]

So my thought now is knowing somebody on verizon that has an upgrade as well and using there upgrade for my wife and using my wife's upgrade for them. that should work right?

Whatever line you use the upgrade on HAS to renew their contract. So your wife's line cannot use the upgrade (unless paying via edge payments i.e. 800$ per phone, but don't quote me on that). You CAN use someone on another plan's upgrade and use their phone after they switch back phone's but then they'd lose their upgrade and be unable to use yours.

 

[anrichardson]

Whatever line you use the upgrade on HAS to renew their contract. So your wife's line cannot use the upgrade (unless paying via edge payments i.e. 800$ per phone, but don't quote me on that). You CAN use someone on another plan's upgrade and use their phone after they switch back phone's but then they'd lose their upgrade and be unable to use yours.

I actually want to renew my 2 year deal because I would rather pay $200 or cheaper then pay the full retail price. I have done this twice before on each of our lines and was able to keep unlimited data by renewing 2 year deals.

Now the only thing is using the upgrade since I have unlimited data and have not yet been charged the extra $20 fee for unlimited data on either line yet. So my plan is to use her upgrade and then use it on my line to activate it or atleast bypass the activation setup and see if my unlimited data stays in tact. If it stays in tact then I will try to put it back on her line to see if stays in tact.

OR

I use somebody else's upgrade which will be just fine cause it's like adding another phone to the line. But when I use my upgrade for the person that gave me their upgrade, now does by activating the phone screw my unlimited data up? That is the biggest question? So I'll I am doing is swapping upgrades. I person upgrades there line but gives the phone to me and I would upgrade my line and give the phone to them. But when I upgrade my line and they take the phone to there separate account, will it take my unlimited data away?

That's the big question. But I will find out when I upgrade her line and have a friend activate it on her line that is a separate account and see what happens.

 

[anrichardson]

Update: I tried upgrading from the costco service and after litterally 4.5 days waiting to get it shipped or some kind of info after they charged me, I finally got another email saying that I had to agree to have my current phone be disconnected in order for the phone to be shipped. So they wanted to activate it like in store before shipping it to me. So I declined and canceled the order.

I already had pre ordered the S7 through best buy originally, but not sure if this happened in the fine print I did not read. But my wife's line never was disconnected at all before the S7 showed up. My UDP was just kicked off when I tried activating it.

 

[anrichardson]

Update #2
I reordered the S7 from best buy and again it shipped from store, not sure if there is any activating on there side or not.
But I bypassed the the activation setup to where you can just use the phone as a wifi device. Then I put a friends sim in the phone from an entirely different account and was able to make calls and nothing happened to my account far as any changes, but when I went to put my wifes sim in the phone, it recognized the sim and # but could not make any calls without activating it on her line.

So I then factory reset the S7 and tried activating with my friends account from bootup and when the phone activated, my account had changed, but here is what happened, It dropped my wifes phone like there was no device on her line and changed my data to 2gb. I tried to put my wifes sim in and still would not take it without activating it on her line. So I put my wifes sim back in her old phone and had to call verizon to get it back up and running and everything went back to normal even got UDP back with no hassle, cause the S7 was never activated on her line. SO...

It technically is doable, but the theory of just upgrading and selling it for retail price will still screw you over because the person that activates it will screw your line up unless they bypass the activation screen and who would take that chance.

SO what you need to do is just bypass the activation screen to where it's just wifi device then pop another users sim and your line will not change, I would recommend doing this only on your account and just swap upgrades.

 

[seshaz]

So I decided to to return my S7 and stick with my S6. That's another discussion...

Originally I I used the BB method and upgraded my 2 lines to the S6 and S6 Edge on Oct 23 to beat the Nov 15 deadline before unlimited data price increase. Got the phones shipped to me. Immediately threw away the sim cards that came in them and installed my old sim card. It used to be new activations were tied to the sim card not IMEI. Well that's changed. Sometime after the 15, Verizon closed that loophole and started doing it via IMEI. Anyway, when I put the sim card back into my S6, it went through activation again and it flagged the imei and switched me to 2GB. I wasn't expecting it to activate again so it caught me off guard. Now I've loss unlimited, and I'm 7GB overage on my data plan. I've been fighting with them all day trying to get it changed back because it was fine before but now it switched. My receipt from BB clearly shows keep existing plan. It did not force me to switch due to upgrade. The last person I spoke with said she will try to get my udp re-instated but it had to go through some "off-line group". I'm waiting for a response. One this is for certain. If they don't get me switched back, eff you verizon, I'll be switching to ATT. There is no reason for me to stay with you if I don't have udp anymore. That's the only reason I stuck around.

One thing I'd like to add is I'm not an abuser of data. At most I use 15gb a month. Sometimes I use only 2 to 3GB. I just like the fact of not having to worry if I'm going to go over. That and the fact I refuse to pay more to get less!

FYI they're starting phase 2 with the udp and will be increasing it regardless.

Sent from my SM-G930V using XDA-Developers mobile app

 

[Tada10]

FYI they're starting phase 2 with the udp and will be increasing it regardless.

Sent from my SM-G930V using XDA-Developers mobile app

Phase 2?

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