Verizon Adds Yet Another Activation Fee For New Wireless Customers Because They Can

http://ift.tt/1WUIk3r

You know what the best thing is about mobile phones? Countless fees! Wait, no, that’s the worst thing, sorry. My mistake. But Verizon seems to have the same confusion, because the nation’s largest-by-far wireless provider is now adding even more fees onto their customers’ bills, because they can.

It’s not the new $20 monthly bump in the cost of unlimited data, for those who have it. Nor is it the $20 monthly fee Verizon charges customers just for having a smartphone on any given line (on top of the data charges). No, it’s another new, different $20 fee.

This one is for anyone who activates a phone on a monthly payment plan on Verizon’s service… so, basically, the vast majority of their new customers (which seems to include existing customers who upgrade their phones and therefore become “new”).

So what does that $20 get you? It’s an activation fee, so basically it’s for the time that it takes from the Verizon employee turning on your new phone, with activated SIM card inside, to the time it takes the network to reply that it’s got you, and the phone is legit and can use the Verizon network.

The folks at Droid Life who first heard about this one say it will start on November 15 (this coming weekend), which is the same date that unlimited subscribers are seeing their new bill bump as well.

Verizon to Introduce $20 Activation Fee on Device Payment Plans Starting November 15 (Updated) [Droid Life via DSL Reports]

by Kate Cox via Consumerist