MacDailyNews Take: “Verizon’s definition of “advanced device” is whatever iPhone-lookalike-not-workalike they’re dangling this month (LG Voyager, HTC Touch, BlackBerry Bold, Samsung Omnia, BlackBerry Storm, Motorola Droid) in order to dupe the ignorant.
Munchbach reports, “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.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: So, should you double your risk on this month’s iPhone-lookalike-not-workalike or should you just make the smart choice and get an iPhone? Apple and AT&T Mobility have to be smiling at this news. Verizon Wireless just shot themselves in the foot yet again.
“Verizon’s definition of “advanced device” is whatever iPhone-lookalike-not-workalike they’re dangling this month to dupe the ignorant.
Um Yeah Except That
It Isn’t Really Their Fault
They Don’t Have iPhone
Someone’s shit scared and determined to stop iPhone migration…
WOW! That will certainly keep people from making any choice in case it is a bad choice. I know, anything other than an iPhone is a bad choice, so no need for anyone to say it! But seriously, that will make you think twice about being stuck with a POS for two years.
@Haihu – Um, yes it is their fault they don’t have the iPhone, since the turned down the initial offer by Apple.
To stem the tide of customers leaving for greener pastures, i.e., iPhone, Verizon will also be implementing the following “customer retention” techniques.
1) When you call to terminate, an ear-piercing noise will come through your phone making you deaf and unable to use an iPhone or any phone.
2) Your final Verizon will contain a bunch of charges for calls to 900 sex numbers that will cause your spouse to divorce you, thereby making you too poor to afford an iPhone.
3) Verizon will have one of the Soprano boys personally deliver your final bill, who will also teach you the multiple uses for a baseball bat.
Verizon’s new motto: #1 in customer satisfaction, or else.
So, basically, if you’re thinking of leaving Verizon, you’ll want to do so before November 15th.
Wonder if they’ll see a spike of departures between now and then.
I’ve got Verizon and I’m long past my contract date so…..I’m OUTTA here!
iDon’t like my customers…?
This is to stop people from purchasing expensive smartphones at their heavily subsidize contract prices and paying the ETF in order to get the handset cheaper. Something ATT would’ve been smart to do when so many customers used the same method to rip them off and get cheaper iPhones. Verizon is simply learning from those mistakes and planning accordingly.
If this was to stop customers from leaving for the iPhone then it would be the new standard ETF for every phone.
Sounds like their new contracts will be 3 years long…
360/36 = 10
On the 36th month the charge is removed so then it is 35 months x $10 = $350
iDon’t…:
– like my customers
– know how to stop hemorrhaging my customers to the iPhone (might as well punish them for leaving)
– want any new customers
– know a good thing when I see it
– understand why the Storm wasn’t an iPhone killer
– understand why the Droid or Storm2 still won’t be an iPhone killer
– know what it is like to use data and voice at the same time
– know why Apple is still refusing to give us the iPhone… we only demand a vVerizon sticker on the device, Vcast, and $3 ringtones!
@ R2
Wrong, why target the “advanced phones”? Because those are the revenue generating phones, like iPhone. They do NOT want to loose their top paying customers to AT&T;. Verizon seriously miscalculated Steve Jobs and his luxury priced items that generate MORE income per purchase than ANY other phone manufacturer. PERIOD. Would you leave if you had to pay 350.00 to terminate? NO, I think not. This is lock in to buy them some time until they can gauge Droid uptake. PERIOD
Absolutely ridiculous.
As an example…
I own an extremely good home alarm system. I was able to keep it after the contract from ADT expired. However, when I purchased a new house, it already came with an alarm system in place. I’ve been using this system for over 5 years now, because the company did not make me sign a contract.
Even if a product isn’t as good, I’m more inclined to do business with a company that doesn’t require a contract. Verizon is going in the opposite direction. Crappy products, crappy contracts.
I’m Canadian, so I’m interested to see what Telus has to offer in terms of contracts tomorrow (Nov. 05).
strikeout. funny. Sums up Verizon and the Dodgers, perfectly.
Call me crazy, but in the UK the early termination fee is equal to the number of months remaining * your monthly fee. So like AL said, that must be a 36 month contract at $10 a month? Either that or those in America are getting screwed even further than they already are! Seriously if I lived in the States I’d use a cup and string
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On various message boards and blogs, like MDN, I see post after post of how great Verizon is and how they have the best coverage, blah blah blah. But now after a stunt like this, why would anyone want to pay money to a company with so little integrity and such obvious contempt for their customers? ATnT may not be perfect, and the iPhone may not be flawless, but they sure don’t have to double their early termination fees in order to retain customers.
In other words, Verizon sucks.
There’s another way to look at this: Maybe “early termination” also applies to when someone chooses to upgrade their phone to something different — such as going from a Blackberry to an iPhone before the Blackberry has been paid for.
If I’m Verizon, I implement the new charge a few months before I start selling iPhone so that I can extort my existing customers who want to stay on the Verizon network but wish to move to the iPhone from whatever crappy handset they’re currently using.
Fingers crossed . . . . . .
Stupid. Faced with a possible $200/$300 termination fee, many are going to forego Verizon’s crap phones and limited function CDMA network for something else.
This is nothing more than a reaction to all those willing to pay the heretofore $150 termination fee, and switch to ATT in order to get the iPhone. Apple and ATT are winning this war.
The price seems high, but the transparency is welcome. The customer now has a clear sense that the cost of the device is *subsidized* up front, effectively being paid off in installments. (In a way, it makes the Verizon data plans $10/month cheaper.)
Had AT&T;been this straightforward, there would have been much less confusion (and perhaps much less outrage) earlier this year with iPhone 3G users purchasing new iPhone 3G[S]s before their 3G subsidies had been paid off.
(Of course, you can still argue that the companies are charging way too much for plans and/or devices. I wouldn’t disagree.)
iWill never forgive or use Verizon service after 10 years of them fscking around with their rate plans and i got jammed for $100 in phone calls because i was roaming on an analog tower that was NOT Verizons.
The rate plans were more complicated than the test to become a nuclear engineer for the Navy.
this has zero do to with iphone – it has to do with bogo offers where people sign up for 2 lines and get an extra device free, then cancel the extra line, sell the extra device on ebay and end up with a free device. they are trying to protect themselves from this type of scam. the world does not revolve around cupertino despite this blog’s belief.
I suppose customers don’t ALWAYS win when companies compete.
Kind of makes you wonder what AT & T are gonna charge once iPhone is available anywhere else. All these phone companies tend to have similar charges it seems.
@ idiot
The verizon announcement does not limit the cancellation to only those who get 2 phones / lines. If they are trying to protect themselves from the bogo scam then they should restrict it to that.
@idiot:
this ain’t no blog and the world actually does evolve around Cupertino when it comes to technology