Very confused about upgrading and unlimited data..

[DarkScythe]

Hey everyone,

I'm thinking about upgrading off my ancient Droid Incredible (The original AMOLED one, before they swapped it with SLCD.)
The problem, of course, is Verizon has just about made it as annoying as possible to upgrade.
I've been looking around to find information about upgrading and retaining my current unlimited data terms, and I've found a lot of conflicting information, and I'd like to get some clarification on this from people with experience.

1) It seems like the most recent information is that you can utilize a device upgrade by transferring it to another line in order to get the subsidized phone discount, then move the device back onto the main unlimited line to get the best of both worlds. Is this correct?

2) However, there seems to be a debate about what happens when you transfer the upgrade. Some say you may never, ever utilize the upgrade on your own unlimited line ever again, lest you lose the unlimited data. Others say this is untrue, and would seem to make sense if the above is true - you have to transfer the upgrade away in the first place.

For my own situation, I am in a family plan, but I am the only user with a smartphone. No one else in the family wants to or needs to use data; in fact one of us barely even uses the phone at all (3-7 minutes a month.) Even so, the bill is quite expensive.

In any case:
Line 1 - DINC - UNL Data
Line 2 - Dumbphone
Line 3 - Dumbphone
Line 4 - Dumbphone

Every line except for Line 4 is currently eligible for an upgrade, but they haven't felt the need to change to a new phone yet.
My issues are:
1) Can I transfer my Line 1 upgrade to another line to get the phone, activate, and move it back to my line without losing unlimited data?
2) Will the other lines still be able to use their own upgrades? Keep in mind that the upgrade date has currently arrived (and passed) for all of us, and is waiting for us to take advantage.

I do not want to use my family member's upgrade, and then leave them unable to upgrade at all, if I cannot also use my own line's upgrade.

(As an aside, Line 4 which recently upgraded, wants to upgrade again because the phone is crap, and was thinking of "using" Line 3's upgrade, which seems to fall in line with what I want to do, just without all the smartphone/data plan hassle.)

Thanks, everyone.

 

[paul-c]

Number one is accurate. And the way I understand it is that your line just won't be able to use it's upgrade option again. You have to use another line. Hopefully someone in the group doesn't feel like they need a new phone.

Sent from my Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini

 

[wolverine2003]

You could also activate a 5th line and use that to upgrade line 1 from now on.

 

[DarkScythe]

wolverine, opening a 5th line solely to upgrade with is not an option for us. Our bill is expensive enough as it is. I know this has been suggested as a workaround in other threads, though.

paul-c, this is what I don't understand.
People are saying you cannot EVER use the upgrade on your line, but..
If you transfer YOUR upgrade to ANOTHER line... You've just used your upgrade!
This is what is so confusing.

Do I have to use the other line's own upgrade, or can I use my own by transferring it to them?
Does this action also impact the other line's existing upgrade dates?

 

[DroidXcon]

wolverine, opening a 5th line solely to upgrade with is not an option for us. Our bill is expensive enough as it is. I know this has been suggested as a workaround in other threads, though.

paul-c, this is what I don't understand.
People are saying you cannot EVER use the upgrade on your line, but..
If you transfer YOUR upgrade to ANOTHER line... You've just used your upgrade!
This is what is so confusing.

Do I have to use the other line's own upgrade, or can I use my own by transferring it to them?
Does this action also impact the other line's existing upgrade dates?

Using the upgrade on the line with unlimited data kills the plan. Wether it be you or someone else. You can use someone else's upgrade but not your own. The person you used the upgrade from now has a renewed contact so they can not upgrade until the contract is over or the buy a phone retail

From my Galaxy Note 2 via Tapatalk

 

[paul-c]

Using the upgrade on the line with unlimited data kills the plan. Wether it be you or someone else. You can use someone else's upgrade but not your own. The person you used the upgrade from now has a renewed contact so they can not upgrade until the contract is over or the buy a phone retail

From my Galaxy Note 2 via Tapatalk

What he said.

Sent from my Panasonic ELUGA

 

[Bond32]

You can use your own. Just have to transfer the upgrade to another line then activate the new phone on your line. One line will be on a share plan and yours will still be on unlimited.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

 

[DarkScythe]

Using the upgrade on the line with unlimited data kills the plan. Wether it be you or someone else. You can use someone else's upgrade but not your own. The person you used the upgrade from now has a renewed contact so they can not upgrade until the contract is over or the buy a phone retail

From my Galaxy Note 2 via Tapatalk

You can use your own. Just have to transfer the upgrade to another line then activate the new phone on your line. One line will be on a share plan and yours will still be on unlimited.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

This is what's been confusing me.
DroidXcon says I cannot use my own line's upgrade, Bond32 says that I can use my own upgrade, so long as I transfer it away from my own line.

Bond32, I actually have a thread open in another tab where you claim to have done this, so I would like to ask you - would it work in my situation?
If I transferred my own line's upgrade to Line 2, upgrade L2 to a new phone, activated it, then activated the old dumbphone, and then finally activate the new phone onto my line. This seems to be the process you are suggesting, is this correct?
Further, L2 and 3 are already due for upgrades; would this cause any interference with them, if for example, they decide to upgrade their own dumbphone 2 days after I do this whole switching back and forth thing.
Because If I transfer my upgrade to L2, then L2 would technically have 2 upgrades available.

Thanks.

 

[Bond32]

This is what's been confusing me.
DroidXcon says I cannot use my own line's upgrade, Bond32 says that I can use my own upgrade, so long as I transfer it away from my own line.

Bond32, I actually have a thread open in another tab where you claim to have done this, so I would like to ask you - would it work in my situation?
If I transferred my own line's upgrade to Line 2, upgrade L2 to a new phone, activated it, then activated the old dumbphone, and then finally activate the new phone onto my line. This seems to be the process you are suggesting, is this correct?
Further, L2 and 3 are already due for upgrades; would this cause any interference with them, if for example, they decide to upgrade their own dumbphone 2 days after I do this whole switching back and forth thing.
Because If I transfer my upgrade to L2, then L2 would technically have 2 upgrades available.

Thanks.

That is correct. That is almost exactly what I did only when I did it the line I transfered my upgrade to, I wanted it to remain untouched. The reps are dumb so they burned about 3 sim cards trying to do it but you sound like you have it exactly like I did it. No I did not loose unlimited data on my line (the line with the available upgrade) however the line I transferred it to did.

Regarding the other line upgrades I am not sure. I think the upgrade actually reset to the 2 years on the line I transferred the upgrade to and this is really a mistake. I tried to correct it over the phone but it was too late. You should really call and explain it and let the vzw reps know what you're doing.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

 

[fofjjsr]

Do what is known in Verizon land as an alternate upgrade. You are essentially using the upgrade eligibility of another line to upgrade your phone. It will not affect your unlimited data. It basically is like using the upgrade on the other line and swapping the phone to yours, just less of a process.

 

[DarkScythe]

I will have to look into this alternate upgrade thing..

The staff at the Verizon store near me doesn't seem to know what it is. Hopefully I can describe the steps clearly enough that they don't do anything weird.

I think one way I can get around the "spare upgrades" thing is to just use them.
As I mentioned in my OP, L4 used their upgrade already, but wants to change phones again.
I think I can use L3 for both; Transfer L3's upgrade to L4, get her phone, then I'll transfer my L1 upgrade to L3, get the smartphone, activate it on L3, then reactivate the dumbphone on L3, and move the smartphone over to L1..
Have I made any mistakes?

 

[Bond32]

The verizon employees arent very smart. Be prepared to get frustrated and be prepared to be there a while.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

 

[fofjjsr]

The verizon employees arent very smart. Be prepared to get frustrated and be prepared to be there a while.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

This is beyond the truth. Verizon does some of the most extensive training in the industry. Are there bad apples? Of course. But generalising to "Verizon employees aren't very smart" means what? You know more than all of them?

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Android Central Forums

 

[DarkScythe]

The verizon employees arent very smart. Be prepared to get frustrated and be prepared to be there a while.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

Well, I dropped by my local store after work, and just returned.
Of course I'm more confused now than when I started.
I hope you guys can help clarify some points for me.

First off, this store is a smaller local store, I think is only an "authorized" reseller, and not a proper/official vzw store.
Whether this means anything about the level of knowledge they have, I'm not sure, but I certainly don't think he's playing strictly by Verizon's book/training.

Anyway, I mentioned the alternate upgrade, and he said he knew what it was, and guessed that I was trying to keep my unlimited data.
He says he's doing this for a few clients already, but his description of the process seems like what most other people were saying: You cannot ever touch the upgrade tied to your unlimited line.
This seems to conflict with what you have experienced, since from another thread you said:

If you have 2 lines on the account and one is unlimited with the available upgrade you can transfer it to another line on the same account. Transferring the upgrade renews your CURRENT contract on that line (unlimited) for 2 years however when you use the upgrade on the other line it will put that line to a new plan. After all that's done you simply activate the new phone on your unlimited line.

(From http://forums.androidcentral.com/ve...ut-upgrades-unlimited-data-2.html#post2352644 )

What the guy told me was that he could use an existing upgrade from another line, get the phone, activate it, then do an ESN swap so I could get the phone onto my line without affecting my unlimited. The trouble here is, I've used the other line's upgrade instead of my own. He says I can't ever use mine without losing unlimited.

Citing information from this forum, I say that people have had success simply transferring the upgrade away from the unlimited line onto a dummy line and upgrading that way. From what I can tell, people are saying that the existing unlimited line's contract terms are renewed *at the point of transferring the upgrade.*
He disputes this by saying that the contract only becomes renewed upon *activation on the other line* and is going to affect the terms of the *original line that the upgrade came from.*

This doesn't make too much sense to me, because what if I transferred my upgrade legitimately to my mother, who then upgrades to a dumbphone?

Anyway, for people who have successfull upgraded and kept unlimited, please let me know which scenario is true.
The rep is pretty open about it, and says this is what he knows, but that if I can provide him solid info or steps to doing this "correctly" he'll do it for me, as he has no problem learning how to help customers keep their unlimited.

 

[Bond32]

Lol. Hes wrong. Heck you can go to your account on verizons site and transfer upgrades between your lines online.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

 

[DarkScythe]

Right, he knows you can transfer upgrades between lines.

The problem is when the contract is renewed or touched.
He says you can transfer the upgrade to another line, but when you use that upgrade, the originating line's contract gets changed.
From what you are saying, it sounds like as soon as you transfer the upgrade, the originating line's contract terms are already renewed, and cannot be altered.

 

[Bond32]

Ya thats the beauty of it. Meaning if you transfer an upgrade off a line with unlimited data your unlimited daya contract is renewed.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

 

[fofjjsr]

Dealing with indirect can be frustrating, they are privately owned and do not see nearly the training the employees from corporate stores get. There is also a lot of things they can't do as indirect.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Android Central Forums

 

[DarkScythe]

I just wanted to update everyone on my situation, in case this might help anyone.

I finally went ahead and pulled the trigger - long story short, I have the DNA now, and I still have my unlimited data! AND I used my OWN upgrade - I did not lock any family member out of upgrades!

The story:
My mom wanted a new phone again (Line 4 - she already used her own upgrade) so we went to an official Verizon store to check out phones for her.
Clearly, for her to upgrade, she had to use an alternate upgrade from another line, so I asked one of the staff there about it, and she was like yes we can do that.
I then asked about doing it for my line, but indicated that I had a data plan. She looked at me, and quickly figured out what I was trying to say, and said that yes, she can help me upgrade and keep my unlimited. I wanted to make sure, so I explained the details/steps that I've seen from these forums, and she pulled me aside and quietly told me that she knew exactly what I was describing, and that she's done it, and it definitely is doable, but that it's not company policy, so she can't actively do it for people. She will process it as a "customer request" though.

So, while my mom was busy checking out some basic phones, she went ahead and did the alternate upgrade using her line as the middleman. She transferred my upgrade to my mom's line, and it kept my unlimited data while extending the contract for 2 years. I can now say that my mom had a high end smartphone (for about 5 minutes,) haha. After everything was transferred back over to me, we went ahead and transferred another upgrade over to her line to get her a new basic phone. I wanted to verify I still had unlimited data though, so she allowed me a peek at my service contract thing and it did say Unlimited Web for 29.99. Verified it when I came home through vzw.com as well.

I then went back over to the small Verizon store that I originally was planning to upgrade at, to tell them my experience, since the guy wanted more information.
Of course, when I get there, it's a different guy working, who says he knows exactly what I did and that it is indeed possible, but his coworkers apparently didn't, and were working the exact 2 days he had off, and I went to the store... Go figure.

Thanks again, everyone!

 

[WannaBeYou]

I have a 2 line family plan both with unlimited data. Both are eligible for an upgrade soon. I don't have a dumb phone but presumably, I could buy one off of craigs list if I need to.

I want to keep unlimited data on both of my lines so to get a subsidized phone, I would need to add a line, yes? Then I could get a new smartphone on that line but switch the smartphone to one of the unlimited data lines and put the dumb phone on the new line. Then I could transfer the upgrades from my unlimited lines to the new line twice and get 2 more new phones at the subsidized price each time switching back the new line to the dumb phone?