Verizon Offering $650 To Switch To Their Network (pcmag.com) 83
An anonymous reader writes: Verizon is offering up to $650 to customers who switch to their network. PC Mag reports: "To get the discount, you'll need to port your number to Verizon, trade in your current device, and buy a new 4G LTE smartphone. Verizon will give you up to $650 on a prepaid card to cover the installment plan balance, minus the device trade-in value, or up to a $350 via a prepaid card to cover your old carrier's early termination fees (minus the device trade-in value). Your existing phone needs to be in 'good working condition,' and you have to keep your new Verizon line active for at least six months."
Anonymous reader? (Score:5, Insightful)
More like Anonymous Verizon Employee; am I right?
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I had Verizon since right before they ended the unlimited data. I was grandfathered in and stayed on it. I won't lie when I say they have great coverage. The speeds were also more than enough at 50+mbit. When I traveled, I always had service for the most part. Earlier this month I changed to Project Fi due to Verizon raising my data fee by $20/month. I felt it's unjust to charge me more because dick head bob over there sucks 2TB+ a month.
Now Project Fi uses Sprint and T-Mobile networks. In my area T
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I don't work at Verizon and I don't have a Verizon phone but I'm going to make the switch! This is awesome and I've told all my friends about it. Everyone I know has great things to say about Verizon Wireless! Verizon Wireless, and this switch, is going to make my New Years 10x better!
This message is not brought to you by a Verizon employee!
Damn Ads! (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, Slashdot, your slashvertisements have hit a new low. Going to have to add the entire root domain to ABP now.
Re:Damn Ads! (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, Slashdot, your slashvertisements have hit a new low. Going to have to add the entire root domain to ABP now.
I've been reading Slashdot for a VERY long time. I've seen it go down hill these past few years, but this is the first "story" that made me say "What the actual fuck?" out loud.
Re:Damn Ads! (Score:5, Insightful)
No kidding. Slashdot shilling for Microsoft is bad enough, but VERIZON?
There seems to be no limit on "how low can you go".
Re:Damn Ads! (Score:4, Interesting)
The problem is us low-uid drones keep coming back and reading (and some of us continue posting to the comment section). Ergo, nothing will change. Just like the anti-beta team that was slowly silenced by the developers forcing the problematic design on us all. Solyent News picked a horrible name and just faded into obscurity (yes they have very similar content but the comment section is desperately lacking). So where else do we have to go.. Reddit? ha. IRC? I know a few that have. But must that I've talked to have just given up. They never login anymore and continue to read slashdot and give into the ad viewership. Which, what is up with that ?autorefresh and waking up to blaring audio ads because I left slashdot open in a tab.
If my ADD didn't need a fix, slashdot would be dead to me now. At least OSNews [osnews.com] hasn't strayed from it's path in over 15 years.
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I left OSnews 10 years ago because it became thom howler bitch blog, and sometimes OS news.
I find several other websites have OS news up with actual in depth coverage long before OSnews does a comment and a link to those same articles.
Every once in a while I go back, and see the same article, usually thom bitching about apple while buying their products.
in that case yes OSnews hasn't strayed from their path.
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I'm guessing one is Phoronix, but link me the rest, please?
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So where else do we have to go.
Can't some of us get together and make a replacement? Surely we have enough technical people here to put together existing technology in a way that works for what we want.
I moved to Reddit from Fark and Slashdot in 2012. It was ok, but is missing a lot of what Slashdot was. (Particularly decent moderation). Voat is more or less just Reddit reskinned.
Can't someone put a BuzzWord version of Usenet and IRC with a moderation system of somesort? I'll make an attempt: "We should leverage docker technology to cre
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PipeDot [pipedot.org] is great. Clean layout, modern site engine, a trusted developer behind the wheel.
All it currently lacks is content and comments. We know how to get those, people simply need to visit the site and say what they think.
I can't recommend it highly enough, and here I am, a lowly grad student (still) who's been reading /. for fifteen years and has finally realized how totally abhorrent the place truly is...
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The thing is it needs to be a new platform, not a new site.
Voat is going to fail because it's just Reddit rehashed.
Pipedot is going to fail because it's just Slashdot rehashed.
Make a damn new website. Use IRC as the chat backend (It's field tested to death and works), use Usenet as the message storage backend (It's field tested to death and it works), figure out a 'moderation' system on top of that and let anyone make their own site.
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...says the Anonymous Coward... :)
Re: Damn Ads! (Score:2, Funny)
News For Herds, Stuff that doesn't matter.
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agreed who the fuck cares...
The Supercookie Company?!? (Score:2)
I pay $50/month for MetroPCS with unlimited calling and 4GB of data. I simply cannot understand why anyone would be stupid enough to ever give money to a company like Verizon.
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So you like T-Mobile eh?
(they own Metro PCS)
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Awful in SF (Score:4, Insightful)
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They are useless where I live as well, in the sticks two hours north of San Francisco. The only networks which are worth half a crap here are GSM ones, and they are not that good either. I can't switch to Verizon's "network" because Verizon doesn't have a "network" in my area. If they want to lure in more customers, maybe they should work on fixing the massive gaps in highly populated areas, let alone where I live. That might do more than offering to buy people out of a contract with a carrier which actuall
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What's really needed is to decouple the network from the service providers. Right now the carriers control the network, the service plans, and the phones. Those all need to be decoupled (de-tripled?) so each is forced to compete on their own merits, not subsidized by inefficiencies in an unrelated market. There should be companies which own networks of cell towers, who compete to provide the best coverage. The carriers should provide service plans an
Watch the fine print (Score:4, Insightful)
Those deals that seem too good to be true...often are. There are so many restrictions in the fine print, and you have to wait six months, by the time you realize you aren't getting the $650 because of some technicality, it's too late.
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Well the technicality here is even though I live in the most densly populated state and Fios is only 60' away all I can have is dial up or 3g, the 4g will work if I sit outside or buy their booster :( So that tax to expand broadband, where is it being built?
Naw, it's simpler than that (Score:3)
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I am a current Verizon customer, and am normally fine w/ their service and coverage in GA. I do have issues w/ their sales promotions that are totally one sided.
I currently have an iPhone 5s and a Verizon Ellipsis 7. Both of them - the term ends in May of next year. The sound in my Ellipsis has stopped working, and the warranty on that was 1 year. Recently, I was contacted by Verizon encouraging me to upgrade my phone. I declined, since I'm not planning to upgrade until the iPhone 7 is out. But I di
So this is Slashdot? (Score:5, Insightful)
This site has been becoming less and less relevant as time goes on. But this makes it very clear. Slashdot is not news for nerds. It is revenue for Dice Holdings. And they're not even trying to hide it. It's been real...
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Let's switch to PipeDot [pipedot.org] and try to rebuild something great there.
Smells desperate (Score:2)
That's an awfully big bribe - which makes me think I smell desperation... But I don't live in the US so I don't know. Is Verizon really doing that badly? Are they on the brink of some sort of collapse? Or is there some sort of fishook in the deal (like only applying to $100 / month plans or such) that would make this run-of-the-mill and more of an advertisement than news of import.
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Things that both make this an ad and not a good deal:
- You have to switch to Verizon, which if you aren't familiar with them is a terrible proposition
- You have to trade your old phone in for one of their carrier-locked spyware-ridden pieces of garbage
- "Up to" $650 minus the trade-in value for the 'good condition' phone they just made you give them just translates to "we'll buy out your current contract and/or phone payment plan", so you're not actually gaining anything here.
- You have to stay switched to
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Verizon has always extensively monetized their service.
Remember when they disabled bluetooth file transfers in order to stop people from loading ringtones onto their phone? Or send pictures for free?
How about when they disabled third party access to the GPS chips in some blackberries to force people to pay for VZNavigator?
Or how about when they used to charge a fee for transferring your contact list from your old phone to your new one? (Yeah, that one was a long time ago.)
Verizon has always been a shitty co
Suckers (Score:3)
Nothing is more scary than when someone wants to pay you to switch to their service.
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"up to" $650 paid to your previous carrier (Score:2)
Death knell for Verizon! (Score:1)
They must be dying to offer this. Strong companies can survive by profiting much more steathfully.
Tmobile has hit it's mark now (Score:5, Interesting)
Looks like the big 2 (VZ, ATT) are realizing that "being the best" or "being the biggest" aren't good enough for most folks when they can get service much much cheaper (and with switcher discounts to boot). And in some cases the service being offered by Sprint and T-Mobile are even better than the big 2.
3 years ago me and a dozen of my closest colleagues were on AT&T and Verizon. Now, I'd say about half are on T-Mobile (including me) and one is on sprint. Sure, this is an anecdote, but I also personally have 10 people on my plan (including friends) and the billing has been pretty much no-nonsense (simply no overages) and rock solid.
I've touted the benefits of T-Mobile before, but even it T-Mobile became twice as shitty I'd never go back to AT&T with their regular data overages and Verizon with it's crazy share plans that would make a family/friends plan a nightmare.
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I've tried Sprint twice in my life separated by at least a decade. Both times, service was terrible. The most recent time, Sprint was literally an order of magnitude slower than Verizon at downloading while standing on Market Street in the middle of downtown San Francisco. (No, I don't work for Verizon.)
I was fully expecting this level of data coverage/service from T-mobile when I switched a couple of years ago in 2013 but *that* desperate to get away from AT&T and Verizon (wife and I had separate carriers at the time). It was a godsend - of special note was the HD Voice - which T-mobile rolled out back in 2013 for iPhone5 and other phones - what was usually a shoutfest during commute hours on the way home turned into a much more enjoyable experience.
T-mobile isn't perfect - spotty rural coverage an
Tmobile's problem is coverage (Score:2)
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they've got the wrong kind of bandwidth, so you get crummy service outside of major cities or inside buildings/garages. That's why they've been pushing wifi calling and it's enabled on their devices. That's what makes AT&T & Sprint so big. Tmobile bought up some spectrum recently so we might see some improvements, hard to say (I don't know enough about spectrum and what else they could use it for).
It's totally worth it for me. I pay $15/mo, all 10 of my lines can call mobile phones in like 70 countries including France, India and Mexico.
Plus the consistent billing is like suddenly dsicovering you're cured from lifelong irritable bowel syndrome. Seriously no bill anxiety, no worries about overage at all. When I was in France last year I worked (voice, text, data+tether) like I was simply in a remoter part of the US. With very very minimal costs and all unlimited.
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They're nearly matching VZW in terms of population now, and based on reports they're only working to increase that... probably even take the lead in addition to adding more towers where they already exist (speculation on my part).
As for the coverage, yeah, that's a frequency problem. But they're starting to roll out LTE Band 12 (700MHz) now which is supposed to increase coverage and building penetration.
I would think that the combination of these two things will largely resolve the service issues.
(Disclaime
very happy with Google Fi (Score:5, Interesting)
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Just did the same thing this month, leaving Verizon for Fi.
Math worked out same as yours. I'm saving about $70 a month and it breaks even after month 8 only taking so long because I had to pay off a fairly new Edge phone, sell it, and then buy a Nexus 6. The service has been fine on Fi. The $40 bill a month is just amazing. Very pleased.
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My first Google "Project Fi" cellphone bill:
$20.00 - Fi Basics -Calls, texts, 24/7 support
$10.00 - Data - 1 GB at $10/GB
$5.51 - Taxes & regulatory fees
$35.51 - Service total
$12.46 - Device payment - $12.46/month, $274.08 remaining
$47.91 - Billing total
I used almost exactly 1GB of data, so my monthly total for cellphone service (including regulatory fees!) was $35.51. The amortized payment on the phone itself is an extra $12.46 until I pay it off. The phone was surprisingly good at finding free W
minus the trade in value? (Score:2)
So we get fucked if we have a high trade in value phone? stick your head in a lake Verizon.
No thanks Verizon. I fired YOU! (Score:2)
I just paid Verizon a fair pile of money to buy out my Edge plan so I could port my number AWAY from them.
Bought a Nexus phone and signed up with Project Fi and cut my wireless bill by about $70 a month. Leaving Verizon hurt in terms of cash spent now but I'll start saving money in about 8 months and from them on, saving $70 a month is SO worth it.
Miss the Galaxy S6 I had on Verizon but the Nexus works OK and the Fi service is fine.
Never! (Score:2)
I switched FROM verizon to Sprint (Score:2)
That was 4 months ago, while Sprint was running their promotion. Here is my breakdown of what things cost:
Verizon bill: I was paying $170 per month for my family plan. 2 GB total data between 3 phones (yes we have very strict wifi discipline)
I switched to Sprint, they paid for my Verizon early termination fees.
New Sprint bill: $111 per month for my family plan, 4 GB. I don't know if that 4GB data is standard. The guy at the Sprint store looked at my bill, said oh you're getting 2GB... we'll double that to
Nice deal but no thanks (Score:2)
CDMA (Score:2)
On occasion I like to visit my wife's family in Brazil. Verizon operates on CDMA technology, so I couldn't pop in a pre-paid SIM and use the same phone in Brazil. You see, Brazil (like most of the developed world) uses GSM instead of CDMA.