Verizon data plan questions

[gloriousnumber1]

I have a few questions that I am asking a Verizon employee by email too, but want to throw out to all of you.

1. When will the end of grandfathering happen? I figure we will all be watching to see, so not a good question.

2. Will this only affect upgrades or also phones bought for full price?

2.5. I got an extra line (ghost line) 4 months ago so that I could get the Rezound without waiting for my April upgrade. I am up for an upgrade now, and my contract is up in a month. Will I lose my unlimited if I don't renew my contract?

3. What if I upgraded soon, but then immediately had my old phone activated again, waited until it dies, and then had my new, unused upgrade activated in a couple years (assuming technology doesn't change so much that it won't work anymore), would I lose my unlimited then?

4. Can I transfer my phone number and unlimited data to my extra line and dump that phone number and take over the remainder of that contract once mine is done?

Anyhow, I don't expect all of you to be Verizon policy experts, but I'm pretty sure you know more than me. Thanks!

 

[BrianJB]

I have a few questions that I am asking a Verizon employee by email too, but want to throw out to all of you.

1. When will the end of grandfathering happen? I figure we will all be watching to see, so not a good question.

2. Will this only affect upgrades or also phones bought for full price?

2.5. I got an extra line (ghost line) 4 months ago so that I could get the Rezound without waiting for my April upgrade. I am up for an upgrade now, and my contract is up in a month. Will I lose my unlimited if I don't renew my contract?

3. What if I upgraded soon, but then immediately had my old phone activated again, waited until it dies, and then had my new, unused upgrade activated in a couple years (assuming technology doesn't change so much that it won't work anymore), would I lose my unlimited then?

4. Can I transfer my phone number and unlimited data to my extra line and dump that phone number and take over the remainder of that contract once mine is done?

Anyhow, I don't expect all of you to be Verizon policy experts, but I'm pretty sure you know more than me. Thanks!

Thats alot of questions, its REALLY hard telling what VZW is going to do. My personal best case scenario is that verizon allows us to keep things the way they are until our contracts end. Then we have to choose a tiered data plan. Which honestly I think my monthly usage is right around 4gbs.

 

[gloriousnumber1]

Shoot, then that would mean I need to upgrade soon before its too late.

 

[AntimonyER]

I have a few questions that I am asking a Verizon employee by email too, but want to throw out to all of you.

1. When will the end of grandfathering happen? I figure we will all be watching to see, so not a good question.

2. Will this only affect upgrades or also phones bought for full price?

2.5. I got an extra line (ghost line) 4 months ago so that I could get the Rezound without waiting for my April upgrade. I am up for an upgrade now, and my contract is up in a month. Will I lose my unlimited if I don't renew my contract?

3. What if I upgraded soon, but then immediately had my old phone activated again, waited until it dies, and then had my new, unused upgrade activated in a couple years (assuming technology doesn't change so much that it won't work anymore), would I lose my unlimited then?

4. Can I transfer my phone number and unlimited data to my extra line and dump that phone number and take over the remainder of that contract once mine is done?

Anyhow, I don't expect all of you to be Verizon policy experts, but I'm pretty sure you know more than me. Thanks!

1. CFO said sometime this summer. It will PROBABLY leak a little while before it goes active.

2. & 2.5 That is a good question. The question will be what will Verizon do with lines which are out of contract, but not being renewed. Techinically if there is no contract, Verizon can make whatever changes they want. But it costs money to have CSRs go over every single customer's file, looking for out of contract lines to change the data plan type. Common practice in the past is to leave those customers alone, for fear of losing them if they force them to change. I would say chances are decent that as long as you already have an unlimited plan with a 4G phone, you will keep it as long as you don't use an upgrade.

3. Again this goes back to #2, there is nothing to prevent you from doing this, and you will be guaranteed to keep unlimited for at least two more years with the new contract. After that... its up to Verizon.

4. No. You can't transfer phone numbers or grandfathered data plans. I have a similar situation, and have inquired into this exact thing.

Hope this helps.

 

[gloriousnumber1]

Well if they are afraid to lose me if I'm out of contract soon, maybe that gives me leverage on the store level. However, if corporate overrides that and says "anyone out of contract loses unlimited and gets put on tiered", I'm in trouble. I don't see how I could be put on tiered without signing up for it though, they wouldn't know which data amount I want. Without singing a new contract, there is no reason for me to make any changes.

 

[ylexot]

I'd guess that they would switch you to the 2GB plan.

 

[gloriousnumber1]

But don't I have to sign something first? I don't see how they can do that. It would be like trading in my car at the dealer and have them pick the next one without me.

 

[LoyalServant]

But don't I have to sign something first? I don't see how they can do that. It would be like trading in my car at the dealer and have them pick the next one without me.

Nope. They can change your terms any time they want to but they have to tell you.
What they do is put a piece of paper in the middle of all the advertisements in your bill or write it in such a way that you don't understand.

Regardless..... if they inform you that your terms are changing you can call up and tell them the magic words that you don't agree with the change and you want out of your contract.

I have done this once before... they did not like it but had to do it.
They usually try to talk you out of it or tell you that you cannot do it for some obscure reason. In that case you need their boss.

Ball is in their court.... you have very little rights especially with the binding arbitration clauses they have.

 

[dirkbonn]

But don't I have to sign something first? I don't see how they can do that. It would be like trading in my car at the dealer and have them pick the next one without me.

My guess is all Verizon would have to do is send you something in the mail that on such and such date, (say 2-3 months later) they are going to switch you to a tiered/shared data plan of 2GBs. If you want a larger plan fill out the enclosed paper and mail to Verizon. Or stop by your local VZW store and make the changes there. If you do nothing, we will take this to mean you are agreeing to the 2GB plan.

Or something to that effect.

 

[Old Man]

Similar but slightly different question. Our Droid 2 and Droid X are up for upgrades and we figured it looks like a good time to look at 4G phones. When I log into our account and go to upgrade the phones they show the tiered data plan options with the current double data offer, but also show a "Unlimited Email & Web for Smartphones (Personal Email)" option. I assume the unlimited data option relates to our current unlimited data plan, but since that was tied to 3G phones, would that option actually be unlimited 4G LTE data with the new phones?

And while I realize this is simply guessing at this point, if that is unlimited 4G data then would it make sense to select that option if they might potentially change it soon or might it be better to go ahead and tie into the double data offer? I'd hate to have unlimited for just a couple of months and then be stuck with less data or higher rates after that.

Added: From other threads, I get the impression that the unlimited data would cover both 3G and 4G ervice and that the status of granfathered unlimited data plans is neulous and tenuous.