Verizon Worsens "New Every Two"

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SMS 斯蒂文• 夏 - 28 Nov 2007 15:12 GMT

It used to be $100 off an new phone, every two years.

Now, if your plan is $34.99-79.99 you will get only $50 off (you get one
more $100 off if your plan started before 2006, it goes to $50).
Presumably these amounts are before any corporate discounts, since I
have two plans that are well under $35/month.

I wonder how wise it is for a carrier to raise the price of phones, when
the subscriber can easily change carriers and probably get a free phone,
and keep their number.

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Frankster - 28 Nov 2007 16:07 GMT

This is very old news from more than a year ago. Probably 2 years. You just
find out?

-Frank

> It used to be $100 off an new phone, every two years.
>
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> the subscriber can easily change carriers and probably get a free phone,
> and keep their number.

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SMS 斯蒂文• 夏 - 28 Nov 2007 19:55 GMT

> This is very old news from more than a year ago. Probably 2 years. You
> just find out?

Yeah, I just went in to get a new phone and found out. I guess they
didn't send out anything about this change, or if they did then I missed it.

I ended up leaving without a new phone. They only have one tri-mode
phone any more, and it's very low end and doesn't have Bluetooth. Even
though Verizon will likely turn off all their AMPS facilities in 2008,
there are a lot of places I travel to where the rural CDMA/AMPS carrier
will be keeping their AMPS networks on for the foreseeable future.

I ended up buying two V325i phones on eBay for $76. I bid $120 in the
last 30 seconds of the auction so there was no time for the previous
high bidder to outbid me, as in an earlier auction I was outbid in the
last 30 seconds and had no time to raise my bid. The V325i is in high
demand.

I'm going to acquire stock of the V325i so I don't have to extend my
contracts any more. I also really hate the proprietary connectors on
most of the new phones (other than Motorola which is mini-USB on most
phones).

What was _amazing_ to me was that the saleswoman in the Verizon store
was actually aware of the whole AMPS issue, as I overheard her talking
with a couple that was signing up for new service, and she was
explaining about coverage in the mountains and how often you need AMPS
to be able to make a call. No, I wasn't implying that because the
salesperson was female that it was amazing that she understood about
AMPS, just that it was amazing that _any_ salesperson not only
understood, but that was actually informing customers of the advantage
of a tri-mode phone when only one phone model could be used. Actually
she was not totally accurate, as she was explaining about making calls
in the Santa Cruz mountains, where AMPS is provided by AT&T and/or
Verizon, and will probably be turned off in 2008.

If AMPS ever disappears entirely, during my lifetime, I may switch to
T-Mobile.

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Cellguy - 28 Nov 2007 16:09 GMT

On Wed, 28 Nov 2007 07:12:03 -0800, SMS 斯蒂文‧ 夏 wrote:

> It used to be $100 off an new phone, every two years.
>
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> the subscriber can easily change carriers and probably get a free phone,
> and keep their number.

It's all in the coverage. If you need VZW's coverage you're stuck with
them.

I know here in the NE VZW has the best overall coverage of any carrier.

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Pegleg - 28 Nov 2007 16:38 GMT

>It's all in the coverage. If you need VZW's coverage you're stuck with
>them.
>
>I know here in the NE VZW has the best overall coverage of any carrier.

Exactly! I'm not about to give up Verizon's coverage to get some
cheap-a.s free phone that doesn't work where I need it to work!

If the other carriers could match Verizon's coverage (which they can't)
it might be a different story. Until that happens Verizon will
ciontinue to dominate for those that need the best overall coverage.

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SMS 斯蒂文• 夏 - 29 Nov 2007 06:06 GMT

>> It's all in the coverage. If you need VZW's coverage you're stuck with
>> them.
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> it might be a different story. Until that happens Verizon will
> ciontinue to dominate for those that need the best overall coverage.

That's the situation where I am (SF Bay Area) as well as in all of the
urban areas of California. The Verizon coverage is so much better than
Sprint, T-Mobile, or AT&T, that Verizon can worsen their plans and few
people will change carriers. It's almost like Robert Klein's explanation
of the law of supply and demand (as it applied to oil companies)--We
have all the _supply_, so we can _demand_ whatever the f&%k we want.

I'm kind of surprised that AT&T has remained so poor (comparatively) in
terms of coverage.

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Carl - 29 Nov 2007 17:59 GMT

>> It's all in the coverage. If you need VZW's coverage you're stuck
>> with them.
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> can't) it might be a different story. Until that happens Verizon will
> ciontinue to dominate for those that need the best overall coverage.

Well, not "exactly". It's not fair to say, "If you need VZW's coverage
you're STUCK with them." It's a matter of you get what you pay for. It
clearly costs more to provide better coverage. Want more cheap toy phones?
Change carriers. Want better phone coverage? Accept less discount for the
phones. Do you think if Cingular or Sprint gain a better reputation for
service they'll continue to give deep discounts on their phones? I don't.

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XS11E - 28 Nov 2007 16:12 GMT

=?UTF-8?B?U01TIOaWr+iSguaWh+KAoiDlpI8=?= <scharf.steven@geemail.com>
wrote:

> I wonder how wise it is for a carrier to raise the price of
> phones, when the subscriber can easily change carriers and
> probably get a free phone, and keep their number.

We'll find out, won't we? So far, I don't see a mass exodus from
Verizon.

Personal Opinion: I'm wondering about the "New Every Two" program, I
got a new V3M for free when I renewed and it's much lighter and thinner
than my old E815 and has the availability of VZNavigator which I've
never used.

It also has an inferior camera, poorer voice quality, a hideous UI
(before I changed it), very short battery life and in most ways is not
as good a phone for my use so maybe "New Every Two" isn't such a good
thing?

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Cellguy - 28 Nov 2007 19:26 GMT

> Personal Opinion: I'm wondering about the "New Every Two" program, I
> got a new V3M for free when I renewed and it's much lighter and thinner
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> as good a phone for my use so maybe "New Every Two" isn't such a good
> thing?

I agree. I moved from an e815 to a V3M to a V9M. The V9M is practically
equal to the e815 in performance, whereas the V3M was inferior.

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