Upgrading to Turbo

[this_is_nascar]

I haven't done an upgrade with Verizon in over 3-years. Today, I went to the Verizon store and was all planned on upgrading my Driod Razr MAXX to the new Droid Turbo BL in 64-gb. She got the phone from the back and had the Verizon Case with Kickstand that I wanted. She explained the phone was $249, which I knew about and whatever the cost of the case was.

To my surprise, she said there was a $30 upgrade fee. WTH is that all about? I don't recall paying this fee in the past. I was so pissed, I left within doing the upgrade.

Is this something new? Any way around it?


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[hal1]

Are you still on contract? I've been off contract on my last two phones so it only cost me the price of the phone. If your last phone is 3 years ago I don't know if you might be on a month to month in which case it's not really an upgrade.

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[Rukbat]

Read Dodging Verizon's New $30 Upgrade Fee - MarketWatch

Port the number to Google, then forward it to your new phone. Don't bother porting it back to Verizon. (Why keep switching it? The Google forwarding works just fine - and if you decide to go to another carrier, there's no porting to get messed up, you just forward to your new number. (And you can forward to more than 1 number. My local Google number forwards to both my cellphone and my home phone, so they both ring. Whichever one gets answered gets the call.)

(I hope AT&T allows the same trick if I decide to upgrade some time in the future.

BTW, your phone is listed for from $78 to $165 in fair to good condition on Swappa, so even at the low end, you'd get more than twice what Verizon is offering for trade-ins. (The one listed for $150 is a little dinged on the corners.)

 

[this_is_nascar]

I believe I'm off contract meaning that I can cancel at anytime without penalty. I currently pay monthly. I'd have to sign a new 2-year plan to get the phone at that price.

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[Ry]

I haven't done an upgrade with Verizon in over 3-years. Today, I went to the Verizon store and was all planned on upgrading my Driod Razr MAXX to the new Droid Turbo BL in 64-gb. She got the phone from the back and had the Verizon Case with Kickstand that I wanted. She explained the phone was $249, which I knew about and whatever the cost of the case was.

To my surprise, she said there was a $30 upgrade fee. WTH is that all about? I don't recall paying this fee in the past. I was so pissed, I left within doing the upgrade.

Is this something new? Any way around it?


Sent from my Kindle Fire HDX using Tapatalk.

What plan are you on?

That fee has been there for awhile now but you have a DROID RAZR MAXX. I think the $30 fee was started in April of 2012.

Upgrade Fee FAQs | Verizon Wireless

The $30 upgrade fee applies any time you purchase a new device at a discount, with a contract extension, to replace an old device. This fee is in addition to the cost of the new device and applicable taxes. The upgrade fee does not apply when a new device is purchased at the full retail price.

I believe AT&T and Sprint both charge $36, though that might have changed with their new plans.

 

[hal1]

I believe I'm off contract meaning that I can cancel at anytime without penalty. I currently pay monthly. I'd have to sign a new 2-year plan to get the phone at that price.

Sent from my Kindle Fire HDX using Tapatalk.

Oops, sorry. I completely forgot about that, I bought mine at full price to keep my unlimited data.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[this_is_nascar]

OK thx guys. I appreciate the responses. Guess I have to convince myself to pony up the $30.

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[ibcop]

OK thx guys. I appreciate the responses. Guess I have to convince myself to pony up the $30.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

Sometimes you can get CS to credit back the upgrade fee. And the stroe manager can do it as well - just depends on them.

 

[this_is_nascar]

Thanks. I'll try to push the issue when i go back tomorrow.


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[JoePa2624]

I would call Verizon and see what they can offer. A good of mine used to work for big red and has told me many times they'll wave that fee if you ask them to.

 

[this_is_nascar]

Ok thx.


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[markymark]

When the Turbo first came out they were advertising that the $30 upgrade fee would be waived. I don't know if that was a limited time thing but I don't think it was and the people in the Verizon store didn't even know about it. I happened to be in the store looking at the phone when someone else was buying it and the sales guy told him there would be a $30 upgrade fee, I chimed in and said the fee was supposed to be waived for the Turbo and the sales guy kept arguing with me saying he never heard of that. Finally he went somewhere to check and came back and said I was right.

Edit: Looks like the offer expired at the end of 2014. From VZW website:

•From launch until the end of this year, upgrade and activation fees are being waived for customers who purchase the DROID Turbo. Waived activation and upgrade fees will be credited to the customer’s bill, and may take up to two billing cycles to process

 

[this_is_nascar]

Well, I'm in the process of setting up my new 64-gb Droid Turbo in BL. I also went with the Verizon Combo Case with Kickstand. I'm sure I'll have tons of questions in the upcoming days/weeks.

I was able to get the $30 upgrade fee waived, because I complained about waiting to close to 30-mins before I was waited on.

 

[swharshbar]

Congrats on the new phone. I've also called Verizon and complained about the $30 fee and had it waived. I've found that some stores will waive the fee and others won't which really upsets me making the charge completely bogus. It should be standard fee or not at all.. not both depending on the persons mood.

Report back how you like the phone. It seems from all the online reviews, it can be hit or miss on issues and quality. Either you get a good one or a crappy one. I want this to be my next phone but I've got a little while to wait. I'm still on the Maxx HD and although a good phone still, it's showing its age some in performance since all the updates.

 

[AndroidITPartner]

I think paying $30 activation fee is a rip off and should be eliminated. But, with ATT and Verizon its all about the money.

 

[this_is_nascar]

I'll be honest, if the Verizon store still sold the 32-gb version of the Droid MAXX, I would have gotten that. It still would have been a step-up from my Droid Razr MAXX and I actually preferred the looks/feel of that phone. I guess, at least with the Turbo, I should be good for the next 2-3 years as far a technology goes.

Not sure if I should start a new thread for this question or not, but coming from a rooted Razr MAZZ using Titanium Backup to ensure that restoring from a factory reset is a breeze, what alternatives do I have now, since the Turbo can not yet be rooted? What have you guys done? I really miss not being able to restore apps AND THEIR SETTINGS/DATA.

 

[sharkita]

I think paying $30 activation fee is a rip off and should be eliminated. But, with ATT and Verizon its all about the money.

I'm on AT&T and I have to agree. At least Verizon is faster with updates these days, which is a plus for you guys.