I called today. I have 2 lines. One is ready to upgrade. I was told that in order to get the BOGO deal I had to have both lines available for upgrade. Gee, that doesn't sound free to me. It sounds more like "Promise to pay me $4200 over the next 2 years and we have a deal".
Anybody else run into this, or am I just a naive nub.
No, it's quite reasonable. These are subsidized phones, discounted in consideration of your agreeing to a 2-year contract/extension per line. In this case, they have a promotion whereby you effectively get a double discount on the upfront cost of some very nice hardware if you want to extend the contract on two lines, get two new phones/lines together, or extend one and get a new one.
I just upgraded for me and my wife, both coming from Incredibles. She really wanted to hold out for when Verizon would eventually get the iPhone, which was still unconfirmed at that time. But after I had mine for a month she was won over, but then it was on backorder for a month. So her line isn't eligible for discounted upgrade for another 40 days. So we're having to do some horse-trading on what line is on what phone, and I'm going to end up having to keep a line on an old non-smart phone for another $20/mo.
So I will end up paying $480 over two years, but I'll have a spare phone that I can carry in my bag (I work all over the state, sometimes in not-too-good-signal battery-killing areas, and the phone is critical), as well as having an extra available to send out with the 10-year-old on occasion, who doesn't get his own phone for a couple more years yet.
I asked if they could give me some leeway on the 40-days, and if they did I probably would have just dropped the extra line and saved the $20/mo. and kept my fingers crossed that the MAXX will live up to my expectations. It would have been nice, but it's their offer. Sometimes an offer comes along that is a perfect fit for your situation, sometimes you have to see if you can make it fit in an imperfect but still overall beneficial way. Other times, you wait for the next deal or even the next bigger and better phone.