The Verizon Wireless Megathread: Tears for tiers

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > The Verizon Wireless Megathread: Tears for tiers

Gwyrgyn Blood: Dec 17, 2002

Deep Winter posted:

You can early edge to a turbo, yes, if your eligible, which is pretty much a "call in or go to a store to find out" thing. Know this, it works by canceling your contract, so to avoid a fee you trade in your smartphone. Know this, it has to be in working condition. You trade in a hosed up phone, expect a fee, but please don't ask me what the fee is.

When I went in and asked about it they said it would be in the range of $100-200. I was hoping to make use of early edge to get a Turbo but unfortunately my HTC One is a nearly non-function piece of poo poo, and it has a small dent in the side of it so it doesn't count as 'working' for their purposes.

I basically have no choice but to replace the phone at this point, maybe I should just pick up a new 2013 Moto X off ebay or something?

Might be a weird question but my #1 biggest problem with the HTC One has been that it has a built in noise cancellation on phone calls, and it's completely impossible to hear people in some meetings because it works extremely poorly and just constantly noise cancels people's voices. Oh, and of course there's no setting to turn it on or off at all.

Edit: Or I'm an idiot and the Moto X doesn't work on Verizon anyway. Anyone got any suggestions for a nice phone for a not too high price to replace my HTC One with?

Gwyrgyn Blood fucked around with this message at 18:47 on Nov 3, 2014

# ? Nov 3, 2014 18:04

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# ? May 28, 2024 22:49

b0nes: Sep 11, 2001

kitten smoothie posted:

Why does what sign him up for a 2-year contract? The Slickdeals trick? If you're using the Best Buy loophole as described on Slickdeals you're buying the phone on a 2-year contract at the 2 year contract price, and you're crossing your fingers that not activating on the provided SIM will permanently keep your unlimited. I have to imagine there's a non-zero possibility that someone will notice what's up on your line and kick you down to 2GB.

If you just choose the full-retail option on the web, or just walk into a store (that's not a 3rd-party store, for the reason I already said) and say "I'd like to buy this phone full price," then they'll sell you the phone at full price, sans contract, and you'll keep unlimited legitimately because you didn't enter into any contract.

That's what I figured. He asked over chat. It really should be that simple. I don't even see them asking a bunch if questions. He wants to keep his month to month. He is pretty paranoid about keeping his UDP. If he does walk in and buy it outright, should he get a new sim in store or buy one in eBay or just cut his old sim into a nano sim?

b0nes fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Nov 3, 2014

# ? Nov 3, 2014 18:34

comper: Jun 22, 2006; My mom says I'm cool.

Gwyrgyn Blood posted:

When I went in and asked about it they said it would be in the range of $100-200. I was hoping to make use of early edge to get a Turbo but unfortunately my HTC One is a nearly non-function piece of poo poo, and it has a small dent in the side of it so it doesn't count as 'working' for their purposes.

I basically have no choice but to replace the phone at this point, maybe I should just pick up a new 2013 Moto X off ebay or something?

Might be a weird question but my #1 biggest problem with the HTC One has been that it has a built in noise cancellation on phone calls, and it's completely impossible to hear people in some meetings because it works extremely poorly and just constantly noise cancels people's voices. Oh, and of course there's no setting to turn it on or off at all.

Edit: Or I'm an idiot and the Moto X doesn't work on Verizon anyway. Anyone got any suggestions for a nice phone for a not too high price to replace my HTC One with?

Yeah it does. Go here: http://swappa.com/buy/moto-x-verizon/us

# ? Nov 3, 2014 23:22

The Bananana: May 21, 2008; This is a metaphor, a Christian allegory. The fact that I have to explain to you that Jesus is the Warthog, and the Banana is drepanocytosis is just embarrassing for you.

Apologies if this has already been asked (I'm on my poo poo sprint phone, and it was enough trouble just to get this page to load, let alone several pages if I were to try to search for the question), but does anyone know if I can turn in 2 smart phones and get the $200 credit for both? If so, does anyone know if I could go into a Verizon store tomorrow with a fully functional SGS4, and palm pre, and get the 2 credits, as well as the $130 port credit, and the free tablet, if I buy the Note 4 on a 2 year contract?

# ? Nov 4, 2014 00:02

nine16thsdago: Jun 29, 2005; fprintf(stderr, "this should never print\n");

DangerZoneDelux posted:

Check the bands Germany uses if they match your phones avaliable bands yes you can just pop in a sim card while there. Just disable the Verizon network before you board the plane

so i did the suggested research on-line beforehand, and the bands supported on the VZ 'global' VS985 didn't appear to be listed in the materials i saw documenting german GSM bands. i was sort of pessimistic that i'd get anything better than EDGE.

however, i've got a solid HSPA signal on a mobilcom-debitel SIM purchased from a local saturn (saturn.de) shop. the actual carrier is vodafone, and for 10 EUR i have 300 minutes/text and 300 MB of data. more than enough for me to be on-call while here and get around the city. other than some of the odd requirements here for activating a SIM (they needed my passport number), this was the easiest & cheapest option.

thanks for the help!

# ? Nov 4, 2014 14:35

jackpot: Aug 31, 2004; First cousin to the Black Rabbit himself. Such was Woundwort's monument...and perhaps it would not have displeased him.<

Falco posted:

Here is the info to request new shipping materials.

Call Verizon Device Recycling Program customer support at (877) 247-3846 to have new shipping materials sent to you.

Pulled from this FAQ

http://www.verizonwireless.com/support/faqs/Equipment/trade_in_program.html

Still waiting on my shipping container; can I just take this thing into a store somewhere, or do I have to mail it?

Also, the 30 days to ship this thing started when I activated my new phone, right? Not on the day I ordered it?

# ? Nov 4, 2014 16:32

Falco: Dec 31, 2003; Freewheeling At Last

jackpot posted:

Still waiting on my shipping container; can I just take this thing into a store somewhere, or do I have to mail it?

Also, the 30 days to ship this thing started when I activated my new phone, right? Not on the day I ordered it?

I called our local store, and they said it was a no go. The phone had to be sent back using the mailer to get the full $200. Otherwise, they will only give you the trade in value as it sits, which is something like $50.

I believe the 30 days was when you activated the new phone, but I'm not positive. It may be worth a call in to Verizon.

# ? Nov 4, 2014 18:56

XIII: Feb 11, 2009

What's the easiest way to get a turbo in my hands quickly without having to argue with someone about them having to dick with the phone before I can leave? Can I just walk in, say "one 64GB Turbo, please", pay, then leave or am I going to have to pull some poo poo about how it's "for so-and-so's birthday/anniversary/other thing, so don't open it. I'll just install her sim blah blah blah"? Or would ordering it via the web be best?

# ? Nov 4, 2014 19:34

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Order it via web. Otherwise, you are at the mercy of whatever your local store does.

# ? Nov 4, 2014 19:38

hoobajoo: Jun 2, 2004

XIII posted:

What's the easiest way to get a turbo in my hands quickly without having to argue with someone about them having to dick with the phone before I can leave? Can I just walk in, say "one 64GB Turbo, please", pay, then leave or am I going to have to pull some poo poo about how it's "for so-and-so's birthday/anniversary/other thing, so don't open it. I'll just install her sim blah blah blah"? Or would ordering it via the web be best?

If you don't want to talk to people, obviously web is the best.

# ? Nov 4, 2014 21:01

XIII: Feb 11, 2009

I thought someone recently posted about their turbo order taking says longer than expected?

# ? Nov 4, 2014 21:10

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Myself and a few others here were not able to leave the store without activating the phone. We were told that they couldn't complete the sale without activating. Take that as you will. Others have been successful.

Just be prepared to either cancel the order or activate the phone in store if you order it online for in store pickup as you might not get lucky.

# ? Nov 4, 2014 21:31

Deep Winter: Mar 26, 2010

bull3964 posted:

Myself and a few others here were not able to leave the store without activating the phone. We were told that they couldn't complete the sale without activating. Take that as you will. Others have been successful.

Just be prepared to either cancel the order or activate the phone in store if you order it online for in store pickup as you might not get lucky.

Are we talking on contract or outright purchase? If it's on contract, absolutely we're going to activate it in the store before you walk out. Otherwise people could could walk in and buy a $700 phone for $100 and sell it on the street.

If it's off contract, then they should let you walk out without activating it, it's yours, you can do whatever. Know that of course recently released phones are reserved for contract pricing.

# ? Nov 4, 2014 21:40

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Deep Winter posted:

Are we talking on contract or outright purchase? If it's on contract, absolutely we're going to activate it in the store before you walk out. Otherwise people could could walk in and buy a $700 phone for $100 and sell it on the street.

If it's off contract, then they should let you walk out without activating it, it's yours, you can do whatever. Know that of course recently released phones are reserved for contract pricing.

Outright. Purchased it full price on the website for in store pickup. Told them I was traveling that day and didn't want to setup a new phone (truth), but she said that the system wouldn't let them complete the purchase without activation. She offered to activate it and then switch the activation back to my old phone right away, but there was no way they were just giving me the unopened box to walk out the door with. She told me I would have to order it shipped to me.

# ? Nov 4, 2014 21:45

BigPaddy: Jun 30, 2008; That night we performed the rite and opened the gate.
Halfway through, I went to fix us both a coke float.
By the time I got back, he'd gone insane.
Plus, he'd left the gate open and there was evil everywhere.

Has anyone yet been able to get Verizon to sort out the $38 = $200 iPhone crap? My Other Half is in the same boat and they pulled the copy and paste "you didn't turn off the tracking" stuff with her so is getting rather annoyed at the whole thing understandably.

# ? Nov 4, 2014 21:53

Falco: Dec 31, 2003; Freewheeling At Last

BigPaddy posted:

Has anyone yet been able to get Verizon to sort out the $38 = $200 iPhone crap? My Other Half is in the same boat and they pulled the copy and paste "you didn't turn off the tracking" stuff with her so is getting rather annoyed at the whole thing understandably.

Not yet, but I've heard this over and over. We actually video recorded the entire process in case they try to pull it on us.

# ? Nov 4, 2014 22:09

DangerZoneDelux: Jul 26, 2006

Deep Winter posted:

Are we talking on contract or outright purchase? If it's on contract, absolutely we're going to activate it in the store before you walk out. Otherwise people could could walk in and buy a $700 phone for $100 and sell it on the street.

If it's off contract, then they should let you walk out without activating it, it's yours, you can do whatever. Know that of course recently released phones are reserved for contract pricing.

Lol yeah the reason is so the accessory push can happen in the store. You can buy the phone online and the activation process is up to the consumer at home.

# ? Nov 4, 2014 22:21

Deep Winter: Mar 26, 2010

bull3964 posted:

Outright. Purchased it full price on the website for in store pickup. Told them I was traveling that day and didn't want to setup a new phone (truth), but she said that the system wouldn't let them complete the purchase without activation. She offered to activate it and then switch the activation back to my old phone right away, but there was no way they were just giving me the unopened box to walk out the door with. She told me I would have to http://imgur.com/gallery/ISCW4 shipped to me.

Corporate store. I dunno mate. Sucks, but they can only do what their system lets them do. You could try best buy and Wal-Mart, which are indirects.

DangerZoneDelux posted:

Lol yeah the reason is so the accessory push can happen in the store. You can buy the phone online and the activation process is up to the consumer at home.

Fun fact, when you upgrade online the phone comes activation ready. You just turn it on and bam, it activates. There is no more star 228, no sim card bullshit since they come preinstalled. Easy and idiot proof, and yet people still come in asking us to activate their online bought phone that came with instructions.

# ? Nov 4, 2014 22:57

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Deep Winter posted:

Corporate store. I dunno mate. Sucks, but they can only do what their system lets them do. You could try best buy and Wal-Mart, which are indirects.

I'm over it. It was the push I needed to realize I didn't need to get the turbo and if I get another phone this year it'll be a Nexus 6 directly from Google. Better overall outcome since I'll then have a device that will let me leave Verizon easily at the end of my contract.

# ? Nov 4, 2014 23:14

Favorabilis Solitud: May 18, 2006; And that's the way it was.

BigPaddy posted:

Has anyone yet been able to get Verizon to sort out the $38 = $200 iPhone crap? My Other Half is in the same boat and they pulled the copy and paste "you didn't turn off the tracking" stuff with her so is getting rather annoyed at the whole thing understandably.

This is Apple bullshit. Ios 8 and I believe many versions of 7 turn on Find my Iphone by default. What find my iphone does is it makes the phone useless when getting rid of it. Thats why they make you check a box about it before quoting the 200 dollars.

Every person with IOS 8 that I ran diagnostics on had FMI on and had no idea. Apple always does poo poo like this. Its as bad as when you try leaving them for an android. There is no warning then you can't receive texts from other iphones on your new android. Thanks Apple.

# ? Nov 5, 2014 00:17

kitten smoothie: Dec 29, 2001

Activation lock started with iOS 7, idea being that if your phone was stolen and declare it to be hopeless, you can invoke a remote wipe and the phone's basically bricked. If you should find your phone for some reason later, you can bring it back to life with your password, but otherwise under no circumstances will the phone ever be useful for anything other than a handful of parts.

At some point with one of the iOS 7 patches, they changed it so that doing a factory reset prompts you for the Apple ID/password and turns off FMI/activation lock. But if you never updated to that version, then a reset would leave it turned on, and the next time you tried activating the phone, it was bricked unless you had the password.

They recently added a checker page you can use to confirm it's turned off.

https://www.icloud.com/activationlock/

# ? Nov 5, 2014 00:34

Favorabilis Solitud: May 18, 2006; And that's the way it was.

So keyword Apple. These calls are up there with customers calling in to complain after they switch from iphones and can't receive imessages. Yes, this happens.

Favorabilis Solitud fucked around with this message at 01:31 on Nov 5, 2014

# ? Nov 5, 2014 01:25

baram.: Oct 23, 2007; smooth.

Verizon has some sort of promo going on where you can get 10gb for the price of 6gb. A friend just mentioned it to me and I had no issues switching to it via My Verizon Mobile app.

# ? Nov 5, 2014 04:12

Trisk: Feb 12, 2005

So with this trade in promotion for the Droid Turbo, is it going to be an issue that my Galaxy Nexus is running CyanogenMod? Should I flash to stock before going to the store?

# ? Nov 5, 2014 05:16

Big Bowie Bonanza: Dec 30, 2007; please tell me where i can date this cute boy

My Gnex was straight up rooted. They just checked for water damage and screen breakage.

# ? Nov 5, 2014 05:25

Trisk: Feb 12, 2005

FordPRefectLL posted:

My Gnex was straight up rooted. They just checked for water damage and screen breakage.

OK cool, good to hear. Less effort on my part the better. :I

# ? Nov 5, 2014 05:55

jackpot: Aug 31, 2004; First cousin to the Black Rabbit himself. Such was Woundwort's monument...and perhaps it would not have displeased him.<

Which should I believe, my phone or Verizon's site? The site says I've used 2gb (I just got the text letting me know I've hit my data limit), which is really high for me, but my phone says I've used 20gb, which makes me want to cry. It also makes me wonder if when I'm home on my lovely Wi-Fi connection (lovely, depending on where I'm sitting), if I'm actually on cellular and not noticing.

# ? Nov 5, 2014 06:33

hoobajoo: Jun 2, 2004

jackpot posted:

Which should I believe, my phone or Verizon's site? The site says I've used 2gb (I just got the text letting me know I've hit my data limit), which is really high for me, but my phone says I've used 20gb, which makes me want to cry. It also makes me wonder if when I'm home on my lovely Wi-Fi connection (lovely, depending on where I'm sitting), if I'm actually on cellular and not noticing.

The Verizon measurements are taken from the network side, rather than the phone side, so they're the most accurate. I'd wait a day or two, in case another company's network is being slow to report, but it's probably just your phone's data app being lovely.

# ? Nov 5, 2014 06:58

Big Bowie Bonanza: Dec 30, 2007; please tell me where i can date this cute boy

jackpot posted:

Which should I believe, my phone or Verizon's site? The site says I've used 2gb (I just got the text letting me know I've hit my data limit), which is really high for me, but my phone says I've used 20gb, which makes me want to cry. It also makes me wonder if when I'm home on my lovely Wi-Fi connection (lovely, depending on where I'm sitting), if I'm actually on cellular and not noticing.

I just checked your history and you have an iPhone. You're probably fine. iOS's data calculator is as janky as it gets.

# ? Nov 5, 2014 07:02

b0nes: Sep 11, 2001

hoobajoo posted:

If you don't want to talk to people, obviously web is the best.

Current customers only i'm guessing. I couldn't purchase it online without a plan.

# ? Nov 5, 2014 07:45

DangerZoneDelux: Jul 26, 2006

Favorabilis Solitud posted:

This is Apple bullshit. Ios 8 and I believe many versions of 7 turn on Find my Iphone by default. What find my iphone does is it makes the phone useless when getting rid of it. Thats why they make you check a box about it before quoting the 200 dollars.

Every person with IOS 8 that I ran diagnostics on had FMI on and had no idea. Apple always does poo poo like this. Its as bad as when you try leaving them for an android. There is no warning then you can't receive texts from other iphones on your new android. Thanks Apple.

Lol I just received the email for my mom's iphone 4s trade in. $36 and I made a point to disable the Find my iPhone activation lock. I had to google it to learn how to do it in the first place before I sent off the phone

# ? Nov 5, 2014 16:10

Favorabilis Solitud: May 18, 2006; And that's the way it was.

Good luck to you. I wouldn't be laughing though. Call them up, "ripping off people" is not a practice.

Edit: Why not go back to that website and check it. Maybe they would accept a screenshot of it saying it is off.

# ? Nov 5, 2014 16:26

DangerZoneDelux: Jul 26, 2006

Favorabilis Solitud posted:

Good luck to you. I wouldn't be laughing though. Call them up, "ripping off people" is not a practice.

Edit: Why not go back to that website and check it. Maybe they would accept a screenshot of it saying it is off.

It's off on the website. Yeah I would have no problem talking to someone about this if you could actually talk to someone. When you call they say it's too busy and just hang up on you. I just finished a massive Verizon Wireless research project too. So annoying. Hooray customer satisfaction

# ? Nov 5, 2014 16:36

jackpot: Aug 31, 2004; First cousin to the Black Rabbit himself. Such was Woundwort's monument...and perhaps it would not have displeased him.<

FordPRefectLL posted:

I just checked your history and you have an iPhone. You're probably fine. iOS's data calculator is as janky as it gets.

Sorry, I keep forgetting there are phones in this world other than the one I have.

Yeah, verizon's site is really, really exact with their number and my usage details, so I think/hope you're right. Strangely enough, a lot of the heavy-use times happen after work when I know I was home - LTE is so fast that I really do think there are times I'm browsing youtube or whatever and not even noticing I'm not on wifi anymore. Which hey, that's great - LTE very fast! But goddamn.

DangerZoneDelux posted:

Lol I just received the email for my mom's iphone 4s trade in. $36 and I made a point to disable the Find my iPhone activation lock. I had to google it to learn how to do it in the first place before I sent off the phone

I think I'm literally going to record myself turning off find my phone, publish it to youtube, and then write down the url to the video and put it on a piece of paper in my shipping box right before I seal it up.

jackpot fucked around with this message at 17:05 on Nov 5, 2014

# ? Nov 5, 2014 17:02

duffmensch: Feb 20, 2004; Duffman is thrusting in the direction of the problem!

jackpot posted:

Sorry, I keep forgetting there are phones in this world other than the one I have.

Yeah, verizon's site is really, really exact with their number and my usage details, so I think/hope you're right. Strangely enough, a lot of the heavy-use times happen after work when I know I was home - LTE is so fast that I really do think there are times I'm browsing youtube or whatever and not even noticing I'm not on wifi anymore. Which hey, that's great - LTE very fast! But goddamn.

I think I'm literally going to record myself turning off find my phone, publish it to youtube, and then write down the url to the video and put it on a piece of paper in my shipping box right before I seal it up.

If it's an iPhone, the "current period" listing doesn't reset with your billing cycle or anything, really. You have to manually clear it for it to begin a new period of data tracking. Like others said, go with what the website says (since that's where they're tracking your usage).

# ? Nov 5, 2014 17:07

jackpot: Aug 31, 2004; First cousin to the Black Rabbit himself. Such was Woundwort's monument...and perhaps it would not have displeased him.<

duffmensch posted:

If it's an iPhone, the "current period" listing doesn't reset with your billing cycle or anything, really. You have to manually clear it for it to begin a new period of data tracking. Like others said, go with what the website says (since that's where they're tracking your usage).

Thanks, yeah, I just figured that out: I just noticed my phone's last reset was over a year ago. Really big loving relief - you can imagine my terror at the idea of somehow using 21 loving gigabytes in the past two weeks, considering I pay (I think) $15 for every gb over 2.

quote:

Current Period refers to the period of time since the last reset. This is nothing to do with the cellular plan. You can see the beginning date of the current period by scrolling to the bottom and looking at the date under the reset option.

If you have never reset the counter, it has been counting up like the odometer of a car since you started the OS at a clean restore.

So to sum up, "current period" is a really terrible choice of words.

# ? Nov 5, 2014 17:21

BigPaddy: Jun 30, 2008; That night we performed the rite and opened the gate.
Halfway through, I went to fix us both a coke float.
By the time I got back, he'd gone insane.
Plus, he'd left the gate open and there was evil everywhere.

kitten smoothie posted:

Activation lock started with iOS 7, idea being that if your phone was stolen and declare it to be hopeless, you can invoke a remote wipe and the phone's basically bricked. If you should find your phone for some reason later, you can bring it back to life with your password, but otherwise under no circumstances will the phone ever be useful for anything other than a handful of parts.

At some point with one of the iOS 7 patches, they changed it so that doing a factory reset prompts you for the Apple ID/password and turns off FMI/activation lock. But if you never updated to that version, then a reset would leave it turned on, and the next time you tried activating the phone, it was bricked unless you had the password.

They recently added a checker page you can use to confirm it's turned off.

https://www.icloud.com/activationlock/

It was a 4s on the latest iOS 7 but not 8. It is funny as I just dumped my old 4s into one of those Eco ATMs for $50, not that I have said that to her.

# ? Nov 5, 2014 17:38

vulturesrow: Sep 25, 2011; _{Always gotta pay it forward.}

Verizon dudes, if I buy a Turbo online, (either for in-store or home delivery) when it does it officially become part of my billing cycle. I know I didn't phrase that really well, I'm just asking because I want to get the most of my last month of unlimited data and my billing cycle starts on the 7th. I'm assuming the new plan is in place once I activate the phone? Hope this makes sense.

# ? Nov 5, 2014 20:23

DangerZoneDelux: Jul 26, 2006

vulturesrow posted:

Verizon dudes, if I buy a Turbo online, (either for in-store or home delivery) when it does it officially become part of my billing cycle. I know I didn't phrase that really well, I'm just asking because I want to get the most of my last month of unlimited data and my billing cycle starts on the 7th. I'm assuming the new plan is in place once I activate the phone? Hope this makes sense.

Once you activate it its on your cycle. It will get prorated depending on your billing date

# ? Nov 5, 2014 20:26

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# ? May 28, 2024 22:49

Gwyrgyn Blood: Dec 17, 2002

comper posted:

Yeah it does. Go here: http://swappa.com/buy/moto-x-verizon/us

Oh nice, thanks for the help. Is there any particular model number to look for? XT1060 is the one I see listed the most, but I'm not really clear on what the differences are or which I should be looking for specifically.

# ? Nov 5, 2014 20:43

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