Electronics Pondering

Status
Not open for further replies.
Doesn't it just come out to the full price of the phone?

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

Yes and paying $700 for the price of the phone PLUS your monthly service bill is insane.
 
Here is a decent article on the Edge program
http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/18/4...hone-upgrade-plan-same-bad-ripoff-as-att-next

Verizon today matched AT&T and T-Mobile with a new program called Edge that lets customers get new phones faster by paying an additional monthly fee. Under Verizon's plan, the full retail cost of a phone is divided into 24 monthly installments, and you can upgrade every six months if you pay 50 percent of the device's full retail cost. On paper that compares favorably to AT&T's Next and T-Mobile's Jump programs: Next splits the retail cost into 20 monthly installments and allows an upgrade only every 12 months, while Jump allows upgrades every six months but requires a down payment and additional monthly device payments.But scratch past that surface layer and the Edge plan is just the same shell game as AT&T Next, designed to sucker customers into paying both the device subsidy built into Verizon's already high monthly fees and the full retail price of their phones. (Like AT&T, Verizon discloses that the subsidy exists in its SEC filings, but declined to divulge the exact amount when I asked.)
EDGE IS JUST THE SAME SHELL GAME AS AT&T NEXT
So here's the math for the $650 Galaxy S4, based on widely held industry estimates of a $20 / month subsidy built into Verizon's standard plans. Under Edge, you'll pay $27 a month for a new GS4 on top of whatever plan you already have. That means at six months, Verizon will have collected $282 towards the price of that phone: $162 in Edge payments, and $120 in subsidies from your plan. But Verizon doesn't count the subsidy towards the retail cost of the phone, so if you want to upgrade at six months, you'll have to pay another $163, since you can only upgrade when 50 percent of the phone is paid off. That means Verizon will collect a total of $445 towards a $650 phone if you trade in that GS4 after six months, and it'll get to resell that phone and start the cycle all over again.
The math tilts even more favorably in Verizon's favor if you don't trade in your phone every six months. At 12 months, Verizon will have collected $565 towards that $650 phone: $325 in Edge payments and $240 in plan subsidies — and you still have to trade in the phone. By month 18, Verizon has collected $846: $486 in Edge payments, and $360 in device subsidies. That's $196 in pure profit — money that would have otherwise gone to subsidize the cost of the phone.
IF YOU WANT TO GET REALLY MAD, JUST KEEP THE MATH GOING TO 24 MONTHS
If you want to get really mad, just keep the math going to 24 months, at which point you'll have paid $650 in Edge payments for the phone and Verizon will have collected $480 of device subsidies built into your plan. Compare that to Verizon's standard two year contract, which would have cost you just $199 up-front and then nothing additional monthly: the built-in plan subsidy would have paid off the phone in the background, and you would simply walk away with the phone in hand. It is the clearest proof that Edge is designed to keep Verizon's prices high while making you pay for phones more directly.
In the end, what AT&T and Verizon are doing is simple: the cost of device subsidies eats into their bottom line, and they're taking advantage of consumer desire for new phones faster as a way to keep their plan prices high while directly passing on the full retail cost of the phone to customers. This is bad — you can argue about the specific details and which plans might be better at each point in the road, but the final result is that instead of competing to provide better service at lower prices, the two major carriers in America are competing to find innovative ways of maintaining their historically inflated prices while boosting their revenue and providing substantially less value to their customers.
In fact, the simplest way to understand all these new plans is simply to ask whether you need an accountant or an engineer to explain the value of anything Verizon or AT&T do. If it's an accountant, you're getting screwed.
 
I could see this leading to a class action suit if Verizon continues charging a subsidy fee without providing a subsidized device. Is that even legal? Charging for a service that you're not providing?

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

It sure is since one is opting in for the service knowing full well what is involved.
 
Has anyone looked into Ting? It sounds like a good provider, but I can't see paying full price for a phone.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk
 
It sure is since one is opting in for the service knowing full well what is involved.

yup. On the surface it may sound good, but really you end up paying a ton to a avoid a contract. If one really wants to go that route, buy the phone on ebay or someplace else. It also makes the Nexus devices much more appealing for an unlocked phone.
 
yup. On the surface it may sound good, but really you end up paying a ton to a avoid a contract. If one really wants to go that route, buy the phone on ebay or someplace else. It also makes the Nexus devices much more appealing for an unlocked phone.

It really does. Or go to the regional services that run off other towers that dont have contracts.
However since we are in an app based world now with cells, I just do not see the need to upgrade as much. They are all running the same garbage, with a small amount of new features. And I miss BBM.
 
Not sure how the others work, I assume they are similar, but T-Mobile doesn't have contract anymore, and if you buy a phone through them you pay full price (you can pay over 24 months). They have lowered the prices some to offset that. But I bought my S4 at WalMart for $199 total, and only had to agree to keep it for two years. Same deal as you used to get with the upgrades, but it's through an outside source now. (Similar deals apply at Best Buy and other places as well)
 
It really does. Or go to the regional services that run off other towers that dont have contracts.
However since we are in an app based world now with cells, I just do not see the need to upgrade as much. They are all running the same garbage, with a small amount of new features. And I miss BBM.

Soon. It will be back soon.
 
It really does. Or go to the regional services that run off other towers that dont have contracts.
However since we are in an app based world now with cells, I just do not see the need to upgrade as much. They are all running the same garbage, with a small amount of new features. And I miss BBM.

I miss BBM too. Although I don't know how much I will use it when it gets released for Android. I think Hangouts has pretty much replaced it for me. But I do miss those BBM days.
 
It sure is since one is opting in for the service knowing full well what is involved.

Do they? For the most part I wouldn't really think so. When I asked about the Edge program for my Note 3 to maybe get off of contract, and we were going through all of the numbers and whatnot, it was never brought to my attention that I would still be paying the subsidy fee even though I haven't owned a subsidized device in years. Also, nowhere in the program advertisements does it mention that you will still be paying for it. Furthermore, nowhere in their legal mumbo jumbo for the Edge program does it mention the fact that subsidy charges remain. Add on to all that the fact that VZW Executive Chief, Lowell McAdam specifically said that this program was part of a stepping stone to getting consumers completely off of subsidies if at all possible and I would say that it is extremely misleading.

Now I'm sure that buried somewhere deep inside of 1,000s of paragraphs of legal documentation they do put this out there. However, the way that they "play on words" and omit and adjust statements to make people believe that they are getting something that they aren't should be considered criminal.

I actually thank you both, JB and ddec, for bringing this to light. When I get back from deployment next year I will undoubtedly be moving away from Verizon. Knowing now what y'all just informed me of had me extremely aggravated with the company as a whole. I've been knowingly screwed by then on numerous accounts. I never knew that they were hosing me with subsidy charges all this while that I've never had a subsidized phone from them...

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
 
I miss BBM too. Although I don't know how much I will use it when it gets released for Android. I think Hangouts has pretty much replaced it for me. But I do miss those BBM days.

I think the really big difference is that the BBM is fully encrypted and routed through RIM's servers.

So if you don't need your group invites to lunch at Chipotle to be super secure then there shouldn't be much use for it anyways.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
 
Played with the Note 3 at Best Buy.

I shouldnt have done that.
 
Played with the Note 3 at Best Buy.

I shouldnt have done that.

I told you, dude! Sweet ain't it?

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
 
I told you, dude! Sweet ain't it?

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
I liked the form factor. Not enough to make me change though.
 
Touchwiz is Touchwiz. Bored with it.

Honestly, I don't even know what Touchwiz works like. Never deal with it. Nova launcher is always one of my first downloads. Funny that the Note 3 autocorrects directly to the word Touchwiz... I don't think it's a real word... Right?

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
 
Nova launcher is nova launcher. #OwnIt

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
I have Nova.

I just dont see the need to move from my S4 to the N3.

While I liked the N3, it just wasnt "enough" to pay full retail.
 
I have Nova.

I just dont see the need to move from my S4 to the N3.

While I liked the N3, it just wasnt "enough" to pay full retail.

I thought you broke the s4
 
Had a play with the Sony Xperia Z1 in a shop a few days back and love it. Might be time to finally get rid of my HTC One X.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top