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Another very significant change to Verizon’s services may be coming according to latest rumors. The folks at Gadget-U have received a document suggesting that Verizon Wireless will no longer be offering the one-year contract after April 17th – just 10 days from now.
The document cites the need to streamline and cut down on customer confusion as reasons why they’re making the change. They also claim that not many people opt for the one-year offering. It’s just one of many changes Verizon’s made in recent months that I’m sure doesn’t sit well with you.
Power users prefer one-year contracts as they tend to want the latest and greatest each year. With that option, they don’t have to pay full retail for the device at the point of sale with the extra padding usually being about $150 extra than what you’d pay for the two-year option. It was a very attractive deal to many, but those days may soon be going the way of the dodo. Anyone here affected by this news?
[Note]: If you’re already on a one-year contract you can get an upgrade at the end of your usual term if you so choose, but you’ll have to sign a new two-year contract at that time.
I decided a few months ago that I would no longer sign any contracts with any of these cell carriers because of the crap they are pulling. If they offer a phone that is actually worth the money I will be more than happy to buy it a month or two after it is released off e-bay or CL for half the retail price.
Yeah…let me know how it works out trying to find a Bionic for 300 bucks one or two months after it’s released.
This Really,,Really,,Really F***%$G Sucks!!!!!
I am beginning to really dislike Verizon. I see sprint in my future.
yeah I usually buy full retail anyway but now there is no way that I am going to sign a contract this is getting ridiculous with these companies. T-MO and sprint are looking better every day. Not to mention they dont lock down their phones.
When was the last time Verizon Locked down one of their phones? The Motorola V710? Really? Aren’t all of the new Android Devices open for anything you want to do with them?
Yes, I’m upset about the 1 year contract thing too, but at least bring a relevant point.
droid x, 2, droid 2 global, htc thunderbolt, so yes it is a relevant point
And what is locked down on these phones?
bootloader will not accept non moto/htc signed kernals.
Please leave
you should not be getting upset with verizon about this this it due to HTC and motorola locking down their phones nothing to do with verizon. get your facts straight
Now Verizon will make money on ETF, The way new phones are being launched every 3-4 months some people would be ready to pay the ETF if they are in their
12-16 month period.
Here is how it goes you sign in a $2400 contract with $350 ETF to get a $599 phone for $199 and if there is a problem with that phone after 15 days you get a recycled/refurbished phone which someone else might have returned waiting in the warehouse for you. If you are lucky and you figure out/notice any flaws within 15 days and you need a refund pay $35 restocking fee. On the other hand If everything is going well then they would stop unlimited data or charge you more for 4G/LTE the shit goes on and on
If you notice a problem with ur unit within 14 days u can replace it with a brand new device, same model of course. All carriers offer certified like new devices after return period expires, but they don’t all go thru the same testing
Damn, Carriers never seem to get better anymore… just worse and worse.
T-Mobile fo LyFe (hoping the merger fails)
I’m about to be on that ship since tmo has nicer phones and doesnt nickel and dime their customers. This could be a big boost for tmo and sprint if people leave verizon because of this.
Yea, I really like T-mo, decent phone line up, inexpensive, not charging extra for 4G, excellent customer service, etc. At&t would ruin it
I’ve been signing 1-year contracts on Verizon for the last 5 years – I just signed another 1-year agreement last month when i got the Thunderbolt. This news is really unfortunate, and the fact that they say it’s to “make it simpler for their customers” is just ridiculous. How disappointing.
I agree that Sprint is looking to be a more compelling option at this point. When my contract is up, I will seriously consider what Sprint has to offer.
I was just about to start a yearly contract because of the other stuff that verizon is doing ( no more yearly upgrade for the main account holder.) This is going to put them on my s#*t list. Perhaps u s cellular is the better option after all
They should drop the two year and keep the one year…
Seriously. With the tech advances coming so quickly, I was all set to get a 1-year contract when I (finally!) upgrade my Droid in October.
This is just one more reason to switch carriers.
I think AT+T and Verizon get together to implement these kinds of changes that only benefit them.
And this is why the At&t/T mobile deal shouldn’t be allowed to happen simply because of things like this.
If Sprint could get their 4G business straightened out, keep offering high end top of the line phones, they would be in great position to steal away a lot of customers.
The EVO was a game changer, The EVO 3D will be an industry coup d’ etat
I’m going to miss taking the main line’s 1-year upgrades to get my Android fix on my family plan. :(
hmmm idk how this is going to play out but it really is starting to seem like sprint aka the underdogs may pull out ahead now if verizon and at&t keep pulling stuff
I am surprised that Verizon would drop 1-year contracts for smartphones at this point. One of the main reasons I renewed my contract with a Thunderbolt and 2-year agreement was so that if they are planning on starting tiered data, and/or charging more for LTE down the road as has been frequently rumored, I could still buy a different phone in the future if one really piques my interest (at full price) and still have the $30/month LTE contract. I’ve yet to have an issue with throttling, but I don’t use my phone as a replacement home IP or stream movies and watch videos all day long. To be fair, I’m usually hooked to some wifi network or other, but still managed to hit 4.2GB so far on the LTE network (mostly because the first few days I was playing with it only on LTE and no wifi) and my billing cycle ends April 10th, I still haven’t received a solid answer on what constitutes the top 5% – especially after the sold TBolt with free tethering for everybody until May 15. Time will tell.
those talking about sprint, their loyalty put restriction on their yearly upgrade. it’s possible if you want to pay $89/month individually. however, sprint’s line up is getting strong. verizon must becoming aggressive with their lte expansion.
http://xasu.blogspot.com/
No more contracts for me, I will just go retail. But one thing I have noticed is the “Retail” prices are getting inflated by the carriers and their agents. Seriously the iPad 64G WiFi @ $829 its over priced. The ThunderBolt was going to be $749 and came down but that would have been way over priced. The mfg’s are making a good deal of profit and so are the carriers with contracts. I wonder how long before you MUST have a contract to get service? I am confident the FCC would do nothing to help us.
iPad 64GB wifi is only $699.
Your an idiot
It’s you’re, you idiot.
I think a big part of the reason the Thunderbolt’s price went from a speculated $749.99 to a much more realistic $599.99 was that most people aren’t in an LTE area, and the prices on vzw’s site are :Thunderbolt-$599.99, DX-$569.99, Fascinate(2.1?)-$579.99, Continuum-$579.99, D2G-$559.99…you get the idea. Most people don’t know or care about OS version, hardware, etc. and if they aren’t in an LTE coverage area, they would have a tough time selling their newest Android for $180 more than any of their other high-end Android lineup. I’m very happy with my TBolt, but if I was buying off-contract, there is no way in hell I would pay $750 for one.
Now ain’t this some shi… I just got hipped to this and was planning to do one year contracts here on out. These companies are seriously making me think about going back to dumb phones. The minute you find something to enjoy about the market they shut it down.
I have been doing one year plans for the past 11 years. One of the only reasons why I stuck with Big Red. Over priced phones and less than stellar plans – I think I may be switching carriers after I renew my one year plan one last time. VZW is getting greedy.
Hopefully just a rumor
I got the og droid for a mere $50 more on a one year contract. After a year, it’s still going strong, however I don’t think it would make it another year if I were on a two year. I was looking at the tbolt and it was somewhere around 230 for a one year, but with some of the phones around the corner I’ve chosen to skip the tbolt. I don’t know that I will change carriers, but I am rather disappointed with this.
Reading the flyer, I’m wondering if I might still qualify since I get a discount thru my employer.
Now who cries for me, Argentina? When the Nexus One came out offering users a chance to pay for an unlocked vanilla Android at retail price, it didn’t sell well. Not because of advertising but the terroristic carriers like AT&T, and Verizon did not want that type of phone to squander their profit margin. If the Nexus line proved to be highly successful, the next train of thought for Google would be to offer data plans though Google Voice to undercut the carrier stranglehold on American Communication. Too bad it will take some time to come into fruition, given the fact that the government has ceded away the carriers to foreign entities like Vodafone and Deutsch Telekom sorry for the misspelling.
Nobody wants an unlocked phone that only works on T-mobile and that other carrier that nobody likes. Give us a phone that can work on both verizon and sprint and we have a winner.
Damn, and I was just getting ready to do one year contracts.
This better be a joke. I only buy my phones on one year contract. this just pisses me off.
Verizon can suck on my nuts if they end up killing 1-year contract options. F’ it… I’ll just end up going prepaid without a data plan…
It’s not a rumor, it’s true. The representative who helped me order the Thunderbolt a few minutes ago was like,”I didn’t know that we didn’t notify customers.” W.T.F. I mean, I was tired of waiting for the Bionic anyway, and the Thunderbolt really isn’t a bad phone, but FUUUUUUUUU. Dual core phone with N64oid… maybe next year.
I get it, its nice to have the choice however as devices are becoming more expensive, small computers, u have to ask self, if the subsidy of devices are increasing, a $650 or $750 iPhone, $600 Droid, 1 yr is not long enough to make up for it. Greed? No, prices on plans are dropping, and prices of devices are increasing. What did u think is going to happen? You don’t expect to buy a new computer every year without paying for it. Let’s be honest, a customer who is buying a basic phone is not upgrading their phone every year, its the smartphone user. Though I empathize with consumers, how else from a business standpoint would u recommend compensating for the decrease in plans and increase in device subsidies??? Verizon Wireless isn’t increasing prices of full retail priced devices, ATT is, now that’s greed!!!
When you choose the one year contract you are adding to the cost you pay out of pocket. You don’t get the phone for the same price that everyone on 2 year contracts get.
I’m not sure if u know this but but the 1 yr price has traditionally been $70 more. That’s not enough difference to make up for the subsidy. We do allow customers to upgrade 4 months early, and the iPhone was the first device that required the elimination of the 1 yr contract because of the price Apple charges carriers.
Right you pay $70 more….that makes up some of the subsidy. And the price
difference varies per phone. Either way getting rid of the one year
contract when new phones come out every 6 months is a very dumb idea. There
are going to be a lot of angry people.
Verizon are greedy pigs and will continue to be as long these loser fanboys who enable Ivan to buy an extra two yachts a year keep paying for their overpriced service!
This is so they can sell their over-bloated phone insurance!!! Most people on a one-year contract don’t buy the insurance because phones carry a one-year warranty…so if you have a two-year contract what happens in the second year if something goes wrong? You’re either screwed or if you’re smart you buy a Square Trade Warranty when you purchase the phone. The only thing it doesn’t cover is lost phones though. The insurance really adds up by paying it monthly. I’m sure this is part of their reasoning-and it might just backfire on them.
If their intent is to absolutely kill phone sales, it will work as planned. It will also backfire. If true, VZW are pure rubes.
This really ticks me off. I have owned two smartphones so far, both on Verizon, and I bought both on 1-year contracts. Why? Because if I have problems with the phone, or want to upgrade to something newer, I won’t be locked into a ridiculously long contract. Two years is simply too long to be stuck with one phone at the rate technology is changing these days.
NOOO! YOU BASTARDS! This really pisses me off! I usually get early upgrades and they did away with that so I was going to move to a 1 year contract in May…MAY! Now I’m going to have to keep my struggling OG Droid until September so I can change to a carrier that isn’t run by a bunch of asshats!
SCREW YOU VERIZON!!
VZW may have just lost me as a customer. I had planned on coming over to VZW once the Bionic or Galaxy II came out. I only do 1 year contracts and would rather just get the Nexus 4G out of contract thru ebay or something and stay with Sprint. This combined with my constant worries about a tiered 4G data plan is making me not want to go over to VZW at all. Tisk Tisk VZW
This absolutely infuriates me. My last two phones have been on one year contracts and I was planning on continuing that process this year. My X is out of contract now but I haven’t upgraded because honestly, there’s nothing worth upgrading too right now. I refuse to be locked into a 2 year contract since these devices are changing so fast. I hate Verizon for this, but my phone is vital to my business and I need to stick with the best service provider. Looks like my options now are to either pick up the TBolt on a one year agreement, or just wait it out and buy something I really want at full retail which is just insane. This really pisses me off. My X is still running great, but I really want to get on the LTE network for simultaneous voice/data since my phone is my dedicated GPS unit too. How many more ways can they screw the consumer to keep the shareholders happy?
This sucks big time! I switched to one year contracts so I could get a new phone every year. Now I am screwed out of that too?
BS. Im done wit vzw. Att here i come.
Apparently not a rumor… Gone from website today, and can’t be done in store either.