Attention Droid X "add a line" customers...

[Texas Tornado]

Hello everyone! This is my first post on this forum.

Many of you may be adding a new line of service for the Droid X. I'm just curious as to how many of you may be wondering if you would have to be putting down a deposit or not? My understanding is that if your service with VZW has been interupted within the last 4 months (cut off because of past due amounts) you may be hit with a $150 deposit before adding another line. I've also seen some long time customers with 3 lines and perfect account standings add a 4th line and are asked for a $150 deposit. The reason why I bring this up is because when I used to work for VZW when the BB storm was released, we had some upset customers who stood in line to add a line for the Storm, and ended up not being able to get it then because of a pending deposit for their add a line.

A good solution would be to get with your VZW rep and you can have him run your information to add a new line of service. If the deposit comes out to 0, then find an old regular VZW phone to put on the new line, make sure you DON'T sign a contract, that line is there without a contract and an old phone so you can cancel it at any time. From that point forward, you can then sign a contract and get any phone at the "2yr" price anytime in the future that you wish. Just wait till launch day comes, then go in and sign a contract, and get your Droid X for the 2yr price.

I'm bringing this up because I've seen good VZW customers spend the time waiting for a new device to come out, only to discover that they have to put down a surprise deposit before they can get their device.

For those of you not sure if you're account may be in good standing or not, the above method might make you feel better knowing before you spend the time to stand in line, that your line is ready to go for the Droid X.

I'm in this boat somewhat because I have 3 lines already and am wondering if I was going to get hit with a 4th line deposit. So i called up my buddy who is still a rep and had him add a line on the spot and used a ESN from an old Samsung glyde to hold that spot until I can come in and sign a contract for the Droid X on the 15th. The reps get their money when they get the contracts signed.

Hope this helps some of you guys out, feel free to comment back as to weather this situation may apply to you or someone you know.

 

[jreed2560]

When you initiate service with verizon wireless, and they run your credit, They are supposed to run it for 5 lines. Once you are approved for those five lines, that should cover you if you ever decide to add more.

 

[Texas Tornado]

When you initiate service with verizon wireless, and they run your credit, They are supposed to run it for 5 lines. Once you are approved for those five lines, that should cover you if you ever decide to add more.

That is very correct. I've had customers who's credit i've run for 5 lines and they are only getting two lines. Then in about 4 or 5 months they come in and want to add 2 more lines to thier account, and it prompts us to call the credit line, then they ask for a $150 deposit per line AND their account has been in perfect standing the whole time. There has been other instances where it doesn't prompt me to call the credit line, and just shoots out a $150 deposit response. Why I've only seen $150 for add a lines i'm not too sure. I haven't seen anything higher =/

 

[Garemlin]

We have 3 but were approved for 4. Hopefully I don't have to deal with any of this or I will tell them where they can shove their DX.

Oh and TT. If you already added a line how are you gonna be able to get the X for $199. Technically it won't be a new line of service. Some way around this???

 

[JRunSW20]

When you initiate service with verizon wireless, and they run your credit, They are supposed to run it for 5 lines. Once you are approved for those five lines, that should cover you if you ever decide to add more.

Honestly have never heard of that. Every time I port over a new customer or for an add a line, it's how many lines they want to add at that time. Reason why sometimes people get a deposit to add a line is because they are still new to VZW and had to pay a $400 deposit in the beginning or have not been paying their bill on time for consecutive months. I've never really had a problem with add a lines requiring deposits. I've only seen it twice out of hundreds of people helped over the years.

 

[JRunSW20]

We have 3 but were approved for 4. Hopefully I don't have to deal with any of this or I will tell them where they can shove their DX.

Oh and TT. If you already added a line how are you gonna be able to get the X for $199. Technically it won't be a new line of service. Some way around this???

He still technically added a line already. VZW lets you go on a month to month contract if you provided the phone at the time of adding the line. This also allows you to use your upgrade at anytime in the future when you want a new phone.

 

[screenamesuck]

I'm really not sure what to say here. If you run your credit for five lines and come back with $0 deposit, but only activate 2 lines that does not guarantee you can come back months later and get another line added on without issue. Your credit class can change every 30 days and things like paying your bill on time can have a massive affect on what your deposit will be. Chances are YES you will have no deposit if you were lucky enough to get 5 for $0 in the first place, but there is always a chance if you are late with your payment every month that they will charge you to add another line.


The other thing is I've never heard of you being able to start a month to month service??? Anytime you add a new line to your account you have to sign a contract, after the contract is over THEN you can go to a month to month. There is nothing in Eroes or Beast that allows you to start a brand new line without having to sign for something. If there is something that I don't know please enlighten me, but I have NEVER heard of you being able to do this and this has been brought up in my store plenty of times and none of my fellow employees, including my manager have said you could do this. This just sounds like prepaid, if Verizon allowed anyone to just bring a phone in and start a new line of service without contract on postpay without signing an agreement then they would never make money

 

[JRunSW20]

The other thing is I've never heard of you being able to start a month to month service??? Anytime you add a new line to your account you have to sign a contract, after the contract is over THEN you can go to a month to month. There is nothing in Eroes or Beast that allows you to start a brand new line without having to sign for something. If there is something that I don't know please enlighten me, but I have NEVER heard of you being able to do this and this has been brought up in my store plenty of times and none of my fellow employees, including my manager have said you could do this. This just sounds like prepaid, if Verizon allowed anyone to just bring a phone in and start a new line of service without contract on postpay without signing an agreement then they would never make money

Correct, you can add a line, and if you provide your own phone it can be on a month to month. I know cause I've done several of these for customers who did not like the word "contract." I guess that's the perk of me working in a VZW corporate store I did not know you were in a Best Buy or auth retailer Our systems use NetACE which allow us to do month to month.

 

[screenamesuck]

See I've never even heard of NetACE, so yeah, Best Buy's can't do what your saying. Still doesn't make sense though, that really just sounds like prepaid then.

 

[JRunSW20]

^It's not like a Pre-paid at all, because it's an add a line. And if the customer decides to use their upgrade, that is when their contract changes from a month to month onto a 2 year contract, because they are given the 2 year contract discount in pricing.

 

[screenamesuck]

But until they decide to get a new phone they can just stay on a month to month??? That sounds like prepay to me lol. Whats to stop a guy from activating one line on a 2 year plan then adding 4 more lines with used phones from home for his family and never upgrading. As long as he doesn't upgrade them he can just get the better deal with the postpay plan and not have to worry about going to prepay??

 

[JRunSW20]

^That's correct, but not everyone can get approved for postpay add a lines/plans so thats why they have Prepaids

 

[CRPercodani]

But until they decide to get a new phone they can just stay on a month to month??? That sounds like prepay to me lol. Whats to stop a guy from activating one line on a 2 year plan then adding 4 more lines with used phones from home for his family and never upgrading. As long as he doesn't upgrade them he can just get the better deal with the postpay plan and not have to worry about going to prepay??

Here is the link, this all happened a few years ago.....guess BB is out of the loop. No Contract Required

 

[screenamesuck]

That really doesn't make sense though. Anyone can just find a friend with Verizon and convince them to add them on their plan (if they have good credit) and avoid prepay then if he person doesn't have any worries about being stuck in a contract. I'm gonna have to ask my rep about this

 

[screenamesuck]

When I even called into Verizon Customer Service they said it wasn't possible???? I'm getting false info from Verizon grrrrrrr

 

[screenamesuck]

ok, I have a question then. Lets say a customer comes back with a huge deposit. Can they technically get prepaid service for 3 months then use that phone to get a postpay plan since all you really have to do is just buy the phone strait out???

 

[CRPercodani]

Verizon still makes there $$$, if anything they are making more since they wouldn't need to cover the subsidized price of a new phone especially smartphones. Doesn't the average customer cost Verizon like $13 a month or something.....can't find the report for it, and with the cheapest plan being $39.99 that's still a good chunk of profit every month not to mention text and data features.

 

[JRunSW20]

That really doesn't make sense though. Anyone can just find a friend with Verizon and convince them to add them on their plan (if they have good credit) and avoid prepay then if he person doesn't have any worries about being stuck in a contract. I'm gonna have to ask my rep about this

Haha believe it or not, I already know a good amount of people that do this. I mean not everyone is that close with their friends, but for those who do not have great credit and know someone, it's a great idea. And honestly, I've dealt with some VZW cust service reps over the phone, and most of the time, I deal with people that do not know anything, but there are those who are experienced occasionally.

 

[JRunSW20]

ok, I have a question then. Lets say a customer comes back with a huge deposit. Can they technically get prepaid service for 3 months then use that phone to get a postpay plan since all you really have to do is just buy the phone strait out???

They can, but if their credit hasn't changed then they still have to pay the deposit. Doing a Prepaid to Postpay conversion isn't as easy as you think. If the cust decides to do that, we have to disconnect the line and use the reason code PPREPAY CONVERSION, which reserves the line so it does not get lost. Once the disconnect is done, we run the customer's credit like a new line, and there's a section where you can put "Previous customer" and populate the line again. Again this is only for NetACE, which is something BB doesn't use.

 

[screenamesuck]

ok, one final scenario so I know what to tell my customers from now on. I also want to make sure I have down all the facts. Customer has $500 deposit. If he activates a Verizon prepay phone and only uses the basic $.25 a minute plan for a couple months he can then use that phone to activate a Month to Month plan on postpay. Can the customer then upgrade to a much better phone without deposit as long as he signs a 2 year agreement. Is this a way of getting around the deposit

Edit: I see you responded above. If the customer doesn't care about keeping their phone number then it wouldn't need to be a conversion would it.

 

[JRunSW20]

There's one catch though, if the phone was purchased as a Prepaid, it must go through the PREPAID to Postpay conversion in order to be unlocked as a Postpay. If it does not go through that, it can only be a Prepaid phone. There's no way around to avoiding the deposit unfortunately.

And yes, if the customer doesn't care about keeping their phone number, it does not need the conversion. It's basically a new line

 

[Amaroth]

I was planning on doing this..I only have my own line, and I added a line for my sister. I wanted to add a new line for the Droid X and like stop/suspend my current line. Then later I plan to just swap the 2 lines cuz I want my current number for the Droid X.
I just want to know how much it is to keep a line suspended? Is it 10 dollars a month? Does it still count towards your 2 year contract?

 

[JRunSW20]

You can either suspend the line with billing or no billing. If you choose not to do billing, for the amount of time you have it suspended is the amount of time the contract extends on that line. Some people do not want their contract to change so they just keep paying.

 

[Texas Tornado]

Now do keep in mind if you are activating your own equipment on a new line of service (meaning brand new first time customer), u still can't escape the $150-$400 deposit required for the line if that's what was said. It just means a month to month plan with no ETF and u can sign a contract and get a new phone anytime u want. Hope this thread helped, seems like a lot of people didn't know they could do this :? Hope this helped and happy 4th of July Everyone!

 

[Syv3n]

So I have a question...can I add a line when the Droid X comes out and then swap that to my main number and put in a DUMB phone in place of the new line, that way I dont have to pay 2 Data fees of $30?