Restock Fee: Chance of Waiver or Set in Stone?

**E.T.** · 12-05-2011, 10:38 PM

Question for the masses: For those of us who have recently got a phone within the return period, but now are possibly thinking Nexus, has anyone here heard of any chance of waiving the restocking fee?

Before I get the obvious answers, yes I am willing to pay it. So responses just saying "just pay it," ok, great, but not overly helpful. The question is really asking if anyone has experience with it being waived, and if so how. What was the reason it was waived.

I've heard rumors but never exchanged a phone myself. One rumor was that VZW could waive it for VIP customers. Another was that exchanges set off the restocking fee, but you could return the phone back to the store (not exchange), wait 3 days, and your upgrade would reset, and no fee applied. .

So, has anyone ever had the restocking fee waived, either for one of these reasons, or something else? Related questions: does anyone know if that Livingsocial discount can be applied on an exchange, since the purchase has already been made? Anyone know if defective phones can be exchanged for different models or only the same phone?

**Premium1** · 12-05-2011, 10:41 PM

They pretty much 99% of the time will not waive it. That is just something you are going to have to pay for "renting" I know I got a phone once and returned it 20 days later( before vzw went to 14 day return) and they would not waive the fee.

**ManBearPig618** · 12-05-2011, 11:05 PM

Set in stone.

**bberrynewbie84** · 12-05-2011, 11:11 PM

Well I ordered the rezound and returned because of overheated and noises coming from the phone while using it and I didn't have to pay a restocking fee,but I ordered mines online and not in the store

**E.T.** · 12-05-2011, 11:14 PM

Originally Posted by Androidrookie84

Well I ordered the rezound and returned because of overheated and noises coming from the phone while using it and I didn't have to pay a restocking fee,but I ordered mines online and not in the store

Thanks; that is at least helpful to know!

**goldkear** · 12-05-2011, 11:16 PM

they waived mine a couple months ago, but that had something to do with the discount my dad gets through his work. We also don't pay activation fees :P

**ihyln** · 12-05-2011, 11:22 PM

I had issues with my dinc1 so I used the promo on the free dinc2 however the camera is awful and the call volume is very low. I like the dinc2's speed and screen but compared to dinc1 overall its not as good. I hope they waive the fee when I get the GN.

**wyseguy77** · 12-06-2011, 12:00 AM

Do you see a pattern? They don't charge only if the phone is defective.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk

**tx_tuff** · 12-06-2011, 12:26 AM

I'm sure somebody at Verizon has seen or heard everybody talking about people renting phones until the GN comes out. Not saying this is what you did but because of it I'm sure they will not wave the fee. If they could they would prob double it for people returning anything for a GN.

**Scout_313** · 12-06-2011, 06:57 AM

Every time I've returned a phone in-store, I've had to pay the restocking fee. However, up until a couple weeks ago, I had never had to pay the fee on phones that I had ordered online and mailed back (this was about 8 phones or so). They finally charged me the restocking fee which I had been expecting all along since it's clearly noted as a condition of the sale in the first place.

**philly** · 12-06-2011, 07:17 PM

Originally Posted by E.T.

Question for the masses: For those of us who have recently got a phone within the return period, but now are possibly thinking Nexus, has anyone here heard of any chance of waiving the restocking fee?

Before I get the obvious answers, yes I am willing to pay it. So responses just saying "just pay it," ok, great, but not overly helpful. The question is really asking if anyone has experience with it being waived, and if so how. What was the reason it was waived.

I've heard rumors but never exchanged a phone myself. One rumor was that VZW could waive it for VIP customers. Another was that exchanges set off the restocking fee, but you could return the phone back to the store (not exchange), wait 3 days, and your upgrade would reset, and no fee applied. .

So, has anyone ever had the restocking fee waived, either for one of these reasons, or something else? Related questions: does anyone know if that Livingsocial discount can be applied on an exchange, since the purchase has already been made? Anyone know if defective phones can be exchanged for different models or only the same phone?

I dont know about getting out of the restocking fee.. but I know a quick call to verizon support can get your upgrade put back much quicker then 3 days.. mine didnt reset when I did a return and I got it reset in a matter of 10 mins over the phone.

**Cory Streater** · 12-06-2011, 09:00 PM

Online yes. In store never plus you have to spend a half an hour justifying your decision.

**YourMobileGuru** · 12-07-2011, 02:22 AM

Originally Posted by ManBearPig618

Set in stone.

Yep, baring something completely extraordinary the restock fee is set in stone. Like it or not it costs them money when you return a device and they can not turn around and resell the device as anything but a CLRN. The restock fee is their way of recouping part of that cost and discouraging people from "renting" devices like we have been seeing.