If you’re a Verizon customer planning to upgrade your phone, don’t be surprised when you’re charged an extra fee: as of Monday, April 4, the carrier will charge customers $20 to activate upgraded devices, even if they don’t buy the device from Verizon. Customers who get their phones elsewhere simply get the fee added to their next bill after the upgrade.
Macrumors was the first to share the news, and CNN confirmed it with a Verizon spokesperson. The only way around the fee appears to be to buy your own compatible device elsewhere, then bring it to a Verizon corporate-owned store to have it activated on the network.
Last November, Verizon began charging a $20 fee for new lines on payment plans, and now they’ll be charging the fee on whenever you upgrade a phone, whether you buy it on an installment plan or at full retail. Yes, that includes the iPhone Upgrade Program at the Apple Store.
To cheer you up, via Re/Code, here’s a video of some puppies unboxing Verizon’s new LG G5 smartphone. Sure, it’s also an ad for a smartphone, but the puppies are so cute that you almost forget about the $20 fee you’ll have to pay when upgrading to this phone. Or switching to Verizon for it.
Verizon Introducing $20 Fee to Upgrade Your Smartphone [MacRumors]
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist
No comments:
Post a Comment