I got a call yesterday from Verizon and they asked me if I wanted to change my plan to save some money. They said they were cutting the cost of my plan (Droid) from $129 to $119. I asked what the catch was and they said no catch. They were just lowering their price. I asked if anything else changed. They said -“Yes, we’re giving you unlimited minutes as well.”
“Sounds like a good deal to me,” I said. “Are there any other changes?” They replied “No.” I asked if there is any downside. They said no. Seems too good to be true. I went for it though and we’ll see if I get screwed. In this day, where every business is screwing the consumer every way they can, this is very unusual.
uh…competition?
You’re still paying too much. I get a 20% corp discount and pay $70 for a bunch of minutes, Blackberry enterprise, and unlimited tethering.
I bet they reset your two year contract date to the date of your change of service. They’ve done that to me before. I consider that a down side.
They forgot to mention that your phone only works on odd number days and in months that end with the letters “er”. Its in the fine print.
Also, you are invited to a semi-annual, mandatory rectal exam at the local Verizon service center.
#2 Corp discount? I have a corporation. How do I get the discount?
You know you are in trouble as an industry when your valued customers treat you with the same suspicion as a guy with a van handing out sweeties at a children’s playground.
Viral marketing using positive word of mouth?
Here in Dallas, Verizon and ATT are in mortal combat! I like.
the scam is you have to pay more than $100 per month to use a cell phone.
There has to be some catch why would they save you money.
I got my Droid at Christmas with $45 for “unlimited data” and $40 for 450 national anytime minutes (add approx $6 for tax/surcharges). So approx. $90 a month for my phone. They have not contacted me about changing (upping to the new $70 unlimited minutes) but I have never used more than 350 minutes.
But I have been loving the Droid. I can get much of the info out on the road on it that I used to break out the laptop for. And the google maps and turn-by-turn directions have been a great help.
My guess is that your contract will be extended, and then next month they’ll announce a brand new plan with more features that you’ll really want, but now it’ll cost you a fortune to pay off your contract.
Marc —- Since it is Verizon (Bell Atlantic by a different name) you are definitely getting screwed. This we’re-going-to-lower-your-price scenario happened to me once at work. I was instantly suspicious since big evil companies don’t do that. this caused me to investigate the phone services I was paying for which hadn’t be reviewed in about five years and was able to save an additional $7,000 per year over their proposed $500 per year savings by changing service providers and with no loss in quality.
After the Alltel buy out, Verizon has called with several offers. They wanted to shorten my contract so I could get a new phone. In doing so I would have lost the much better old Alltel plan. I believe they also charge an account access fee of about $25 with each change.
#5, it needs to be a Corporation that Verizon has negotiated a discount with, typically a larger corp. You can check eligibility at http://b2b.vzw.com/employee/employeediscount.html
Did you read the fine print? Is it $119.00 or $119.009?
Either way now you have $10 more a month for the $.999 cent stores!
This would have been completely normal in my country, Norway. A customer service-guy will call up people after reviewing their phone-usage and maybe suggest a plan that suits the use better (in form of lower bill). They do this, at least in Norway, to make the customer feel better about the company and then rather choose them over the competitors.
@Atluxity
In Canada they ring you up to tell you that they are going to come over and piss on your rug.
They can’t tell you what day or time, so you will have to wait in for them – and they will charge you $40 for the service.
Of course you could switch to another carrier but there are only two and they try not to compete.
don’t you have the INTERNET, Mark? You could search this…and you’d find that it does reset your contract date, and it might preclude you from changing to new services offered, at lower prices.
DUH
You should be more skeptical of any large corporation who offers anything.
T-Mobile did the same thing last year. A ton of customers got a call from T-Mobile and they said they can lower their cell phone bill and it was a big discount.
I still have the SERO plan with Sprint and I haven’t found anything cheaper. Unlimited data with my hacked Samsung A900 too.
I must be missing something.
I haven’t gone for the bling, so I decided to have a phone that I use as a phone.
Cricket. $1.00/day unlimited voice and text. That comes out to $30/month with no contracts or hassles.
I use my Palm for the rest of the stuff.
Either I’m a Luddite or I don’t like being reamed.
It’s just competition. They’ve got the national TV commercial campaign that they’re dropping unlimited talk from 99.00 to 69.00. Looks like they’re working the other plans as well to reduce subscriber churn. Capitalism at work.
#21 – so you have 30.00/mo for voice and text. Now what’s the unlimited data plan cost for you Palm? You have to ad them together to compare. Then you still have the downside of two devices instead of one.
I’ve never heard of Cricket. What’s the coverage like? Can you use it in places that matter (outside of cities)?
#22 I believe Cricket is a prepaid cellphone provider. My sister used to have them when they were in the area but they pulled out. But I think they were unlimited minutes and no contract.
#21 said, “Either I’m a Luddite or I like being reamed.”
Probably the second one.
#19,
A reset contract date might not be enforceable. If a consumer is assured that there is no ulterior motive from the phone company and there is no new agreement signed, there probably isn’t a contract. An enforceable contract requires both sides agreeing to the (new or altered) terms. If one side doesn’t agree to the expiration date then there is no enforceable contract.
Ditto Ah_Yea.
I guess you could say my prepaid phone is unlimited because it’s only limited by the depth of my pockets. It’s a pay per minute plan so if I don’t call I don’t pay. To keep my phone number I have to buy at least $20 worth of minutes every three months. I use on average $20 per month.
The rest I use my Palm TX. Big color screen, thousands of apps, Blu Tooth, Wi-Fi. It’s not a phone so there are no monthly fees. Yes I carry 2 devices but I have plenty of (deep) pockets.
Hey Dvorak, change the title of your blog to “The Life and Times of the great Mark Perkel”
#23 Cap’n Kangaroo.
That’s what I have. $1.00 day when you use it unlimited voice and text.
That works out to about 1/4th the cost of what others here are talking about.
I pay $59 for unlimited cell minutes and unlimited landline VOIP as well.
Who’s getting screwed?
Truly, your experience is entirely different that what most people experience when they are trying to lower their cell phone bill. I wish AT&T had tried calling me after I argued with them dozens of times over lowering my bill – thank goodness prepaid doesn’t take this much effort. I switched over to Net10 and I’m pay-as-you go so I don’t worry about extra fees or contracts – $70 a month is staying in my pockets thanks to them. Even Net10’s customer service is lightyears ahead of AT&T’s nightmare problems – Net10 has actually won awards for their service. Serously though, if your company isn’t calling you to lower you bill, shop around and Net10 might be a great solution.