Why does Verizon...

[Crude]

Have no family share plan between 700 and 1400 mintues AND "friends and family?

My wife and I use around 800 minutes a month. And since her entire family uses US Cellular almost 400 minutes a month are out of network. With the 1400 plan we use less then 400 minutes a month because of the "friends and family" With the 700 minute plan it's just not enough? Why does Verizon not allow free incoming calls or some type of perk like all the other carriers?

I'm sure the answer is marketing....but seriously?


Also, why does verizon not have a messaging plan under $10 a month. I use almost no txt messages so I have no plan. I'm stuck paying $.20 a message for some thing that cost Verizon $0? For that matter if my wife sends me a txt we get double billed for that message? Why does Verizon not allow free incoming txt so I'm not paying for the spam and unwanted messages?

 

[copestag]

for the same reason peanut oil comes in 3 gallon jugs now.......

takes about 4 gallons of oil to fry a turkey.......in the past you could buy it in 5 gallon jugs which meant you had 1 gallon go to waste ( it goes rancid pretty quick).......... but now you can only buy it in 3 gallon jugs...... this is not enough to fry the turkey......... so you have to buy 2 x 3 gallon jugs instead of 1 x 5 gallon jug......... and now you waste 2 gallons of oil...... but they forced you to purchase a total of 6 gallons rather than 5 ....... cost them an extra $0.13......... cost you an extra $12.39

sorry......... the forced excess from VZW just reminded me of fryin a turkey the other night

 

[RottnJP]

Wow... I would not have seen the connection between Verizon pricing, and frying a turkey... well played, sir!

OP, I totally agree with you. IMO, VZW is leveraging their #1 position to squeeze more and more out of our wallets. There clearly is a niche for a $5 text plan at 500 or even 250 texts per month. Have you called them to express your feelings on the matter?

Ultimately we all vote with our wallets/feet.

 

[Clementine_3]

I think there is a $5 text plan but it's not listed on the site. Call them and see, there used to be one anyway.
I use Google Voice for texting, it's a different number but it's free. Since I do have the 1400 minute plan I have added my GV to the Friends and Family so I can manipulate more free calls so I don't come close to the 1400...just to annoy me more. lol.
I am waiting for them to add family data buckets, I'm sure they will figure out a way to make using data more expensive for less MB's. That's what the delay is, they are spinning their Verizon math.

 

[RottnJP]

No, they just cancelled the $5 plan like a month ago. It used to be $5 for 500 texts, vs. $10 for 1000.

(Well, it USED to used to be $5/250, or $10/500, and included a free element- I forget for sure, but I think it was like free texting with other VZW members? Then they killed the "free" part but doubled the number of texts. It's just recently they terminated the $5 plan, which was very popular with anyone who isn't a teenager.

 

[Lucky Armpit]

It's true though... wife and I share 1400 minutes a month (same plan the OP was talking about). I definitely use the lion's share of the minutes. 1400 is too much and 700 isn't enough. We tried to downgrade to the 700 minutes/month plan to save a little money but in two months we racked up overage charges that just about equaled the cost of the 1400 minutes/month plan. So we went back to the 1400 minutes/month plan and we just watch those unused minutes go down the toilet. If they had 1000 minutes/month, that would be perfect.

I am, however, holding onto my unlimited data plan for dear life. You best believe that when I get 4G in my area, I'm gonna download the frakkin' planet.

 

[Crude]

I am, however, holding onto my unlimited data plan for dear life. You best believe that when I get 4G in my area, I'm gonna download the frakkin' planet.

That's assuming the nations most reliable network isn't down that day...at the going down vs up time, there's a pretty good chance you'll be waiting to download the planet, heh

 

[dirkbonn]

I am, however, holding onto my unlimited data plan for dear life. You best believe that when I get 4G in my area, I'm gonna download the frakkin' planet.

That's the kind of thinking that will cause Verizon to begin "throttling" the 4G unlimited plans, or some other method to control the bandwidth usage problem.

 

[Eusibius2]

No, they just cancelled the $5 plan like a month ago. It used to be $5 for 500 texts, vs. $10 for 1000.

(Well, it USED to used to be $5/250, or $10/500, and included a free element- I forget for sure, but I think it was like free texting with other VZW members? Then they killed the "free" part but doubled the number of texts. It's just recently they terminated the $5 plan, which was very popular with anyone who isn't a teenager.

I still have the $5 for 250 texts on 2 lines. We HAD free incoming texts so when wifey sends me a text, we didn't get double dinged. That did go bye-bye, so now it's $5 for 250 in/out texts. Sucks, 'cuz now we can barely make it on 250 texts each. I just told her we have to cut down to on necessary sms/mms.

I
I am, however, holding onto my unlimited data plan for dear life. You best believe that when I get 4G in my area, I'm gonna download the frakkin' planet.

This is hilarious! I also said the same thing when we got 4g last February. Never changed our habits, to be honest. Ugh! I did try downloading the internet though... got this instead: