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Using Someone Else's Upgrade (Billing Question)

AG11

Newbie
Apr 17, 2010
18
0
Hello. I am quite excited for the Incredible release like everyone else! I had a question in regards to billing if I am using someone else's upgrade. I am using my parents upgrade to buy this discounted. When I went to pre-order it asked me to select a data plan. I am forced to select one of them (the $30 or $45 plan). So....I will select the $30 plan, but it wont be charged until I activate the phone.

My understanding is that need to swap ESN's and to do this I just need to activate the Incredible on my parents plan for a few minutes and then I will re-associate my parents original phone with their plan. So....the Incredible will only be activated on their line for a few minutes and I will not actually use any data....will there be any charge to my parents account when they get their bill?

Thanks.
 
@AG11 I worked for VZW so I know of a better way. When you receive the device dial *611 from the device, usually you press OPTION 1 to activate but in your situation dial OPTION 3, this option gives you the ability to activate it on a different number. You will be prompted to enter your mobile number, don't enter your parents number, then it will ask you to accept the terms & conditions for the upgrade and then activate the new phone on your line. This way you never activated your new phone on your parents line. I did this all the time. Hope it helps!
 
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@AG11 I worked for VZW so I know of a better way. When you receive the device dial *611 from the device, usually you press OPTION 1 to activate but in your situation dial OPTION 3, this option gives you the ability to activate it on a different number. You will be prompted to enter your mobile number, don't enter your parents number, then it will ask you to accept the terms & conditions for the upgrade and then activate the new phone on your line. This way you never activated your new phone on your parents line. I did this all the time. Hope it helps!

Option 3 is gone in most markets, folded into Option 1. Otherwise this is pretty much correct. After Ts&Cs are accepted, choose Option 2 to activate later, then you can put the ESN/MEID on any line you want.
 
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I am doing the same thing, I have already talked with Verizon and here is what they told me to do. They said to call them from a different phone, they will activate on my wives phone first, so they NE2 is used, then they will switch it to my phone. They said the no additional charges will be applied for data on my wives line. So she wont be charged and only I will, but since I have data already, no big deal.
 
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Option 3 is gone in most markets, folded into Option 1. Otherwise this is pretty much correct. After Ts&Cs are accepted, choose Option 2 to activate later, then you can put the ESN/MEID on any line you want.

Yeah, I literally just called CS to ask them this yesterday. The told me to activate the DI on the upgraded line first and then switch to my line. I asked them if I could just dial *611 on the DI instead and they said that was fine. I'm not sure why they wouldn't have just told me to do that in the first place though.

This way, you won't have to alter the data plan for the other line at all.
 
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I'm glad you guys are hashing this out. I'm in a similar situation and I'm still trying to figure out the best way to do this.

I was planning on just buying the Incredible on the 29th at Best Buy. Does anyone know if they have to ability to use the upgrade from another line and then activate the phone on my line?

Oh and I'm not sure if it matters, but my line will be a brand new line (switching from AT&T:D)
 
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I'm glad you guys are hashing this out. I'm in a similar situation and I'm still trying to figure out the best way to do this.

I was planning on just buying the Incredible on the 29th at Best Buy. Does anyone know if they have to ability to use the upgrade from another line and then activate the phone on my line?

Oh and I'm not sure if it matters, but my line will be a brand new line (switching from AT&T:D)

I work at Best buy and if you see my post above yours, Yes we have the ability to do that both in our Best Buy activation system (Beast) or in the Verizon Activation system (Eroes)

But if you are getting a new line, switching from ATT, why would you need to use someone elses upgrade? The new line will be eligible for full rebated pricing.
 
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Stickboy46 said:
I work at Best buy and if you see my post above yours, Yes we have the ability to do that both in our Best Buy activation system (Beast) or in the Verizon Activation system (Eroes)

But if you are getting a new line, switching from ATT, why would you need to use someone elses upgrade? The new line will be eligible for full rebated pricing.

Thanks for the info! My goal is to get the incredible without signing a new contract for myself. I'm a phone addict so the longer I can keep myself contract free, the easier it will be to upgrade in a year. I figure if I keep the incredible for 1 year and upgrade using my new line, I could upgrade every year by rotating upgrades with my line and the extra line I'm using to get the incredible now. :) not sure if that makes sense. I'm at work and replying on my phone lol.
 
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I'm probably rehashing this but I want to make sure I'm crystal clear on this.

If say a friend of mine:
- used their NE2 and signed for 2yr contract to get the DI for $99 pre-ordered thru Vz.com website
- gave phone to me without activating it on their account

I can activate it on my account (with applicable data package addition) and they (friend in this case) will incure no further charges and Vz won't care?


They would just need to dial *611 and accept ToS and then state they will activate later?

Just want to make sure their rate plan would not change and they would not be charged any extra for the phone because they didn't actually use the phone/data plan.

They are on a grandfathered plan atm w/ no data line on a phone that now requires at least $10? mo. plan. I don't want to add to their bill due to this nor make them get charged extra (up to full retail?) for the phone cuz they didn't use it.

Thanks for any clarification.


****just to be clear we are talking 2 seperate accounts that are in no way connected to each other not a shared account with primary/secondary lines.
 
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I'm probably rehashing this but I want to make sure I'm crystal clear on this.

If say a friend of mine:
- used their NE2 and signed for 2yr contract to get the DI for $99 pre-ordered thru Vz.com website
- gave phone to me without activating it on their account

I can activate it on my account (with applicable data package addition) and they (friend in this case) will incure no further charges and Vz won't care?


They would just need to dial *611 and accept ToS and then state they will activate later?

Just want to make sure their rate plan would not change and they would not be charged any extra for the phone because they didn't actually use the phone/data plan.

They are on a grandfathered plan atm w/ no data line on a phone that now requires at least $10? mo. plan. I don't want to add to their bill due to this nor make them get charged extra (up to full retail?) for the phone cuz they didn't use it.

Thanks for any clarification.


****just to be clear we are talking 2 seperate accounts that are in no way connected to each other not a shared account with primary/secondary lines.

They have to "activate" it, that "mostly" means accept Terms & Conditions, which is done by using the Incredible and dialing *228, Option 1(note this could also be a virtual button on the phone like the Droid and Eris had with a Press Send to Activate your Phone), then going through the steps: 10 digit MTN of the line it was ordered for, billing system passcode/last 4 of account owner's SSN, confirm the order number, confirm they accept the two year contract. And I'm sorry for the length of that sentence. One thing to keep in mind, if you have to call in for assistance with getting Ts&Cs accepted, or to just get Customer Service to help you accept them without doing anything with the phone at all, make sure either the account owner calls in, or you're an Account Manager on that account.

Assuming they use the phone itself to accept the contract, after they accept the contract, choose Option 2 to Activate Later. This will add the contract extension to the line in question, but make no other changes. At that point, Verizon could not care less what happens to that phone. Phone has been paid for, and the contract has been accepted.

You won't have a manufacturer's warranty on the Incredible, but you can still get insurance. The warranty will be voided when you put the phone on your account, since you're not the original owner of the phone.
 
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one questions, doesn't purchasing this phone require a data plan, and have an early termination fee if you don't have the data plan?

So say, you used a friends line who doesn't have a data plan to get this phone, then put it on yours. Now your friend is stuck with a data plan, or early termination fee for his line?
 
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one questions, doesn't purchasing this phone require a data plan, and have an early termination fee if you don't have the data plan?

So say, you used a friends line who doesn't have a data plan to get this phone, then put it on yours. Now your friend is stuck with a data plan, or early termination fee for his line?

Just the ETF. The data package is required to activate the phone.
 
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If you order the phone on a different line same account, when you call to activate tell them it is a buddy upgrade. If you activate it on a different line different account tell them it was a gift and youre not sure what there phone number or account number is. Whatever line you order the phone on is responsible for the $350 ETF. The smartphone data package is only added to a line after the phone is activated so if you never activate it on the lines it's ordered on they wont be charged.
 
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Just the ETF. The data package is required to activate the phone.

If you order the phone on a different line same account, when you call to activate tell them it is a buddy upgrade. If you activate it on a different line different account tell them it was a gift and youre not sure what there phone number or account number is. Whatever line you order the phone on is responsible for the $350 ETF. The smartphone data package is only added to a line after the phone is activated so if you never activate it on the lines it's ordered on they wont be charged.


They won't have to pay the ETF right now for not activating the phone, correct? Only if they term. their contract before 2yrs?
 
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Do you guys know that if you use an older stlye NE2 upgrade $50 - $100 discount and you transfer the phone to another phone line it will void the grandfathered in NE2 and will switch over to the new $30-50 NE2 discount on future upgrades. ALso if you add a new line to get 2 yr pricing and transfer the phone to an existing phone line you would have to keep 2 phones active to keep the old number. If you want to cancel a line it would have to be the existing phone line that you transfered the phone to as the new contract would outlast the other.
 
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My girlfriend just used a NE2 upgrade from her father's account to order her phone.

Basically he ordered the phone as normal on a line that has no data plan. Just go to the website, place your order, choose the data plan as normal.

When the phone comes you MUST call in and agree to the TOS for the phone etc. You then cancel the phone for that line and cancel the data plan THIS DOES NOT CHARGE ETF. We were on the phone with a CSR to confirm it all before going ahead with it.

The phone can then be moved to whatever line/account you want but your warranty will be voided. You can get insurance however which is probably a good idea.
 
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Ok,sorry if this is already answered but i'm a bit confused.

My situation is that I have pre-ordered from bestbuy. My dad has a single plan with the NE2 discount. I want to upgrade his plan to the family share plan to add 2 new lines, 1 being the incredible. Now i want to use his NE2 discount on the incredible but keep his phone/line intact. Also the primary line recieves a discount on the data package, so I would like to make the new incredible line the primary(dad does not use data).

Is this possible to do all at bestbuy? I had asked about the NE2 discount at a different bestbuy(forgot to ask when i preordered) and the lady didnt know what i was talking about. Then i asked online at verizon and they said i was not able to use the NE2 discount on any other line, so i gave up.

So i'm guessing there is a way around this to use my dad's NE2 discount for the new line?

sorry for long post and thankyou for help on this.
 
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Im not for sure if you can do this over the phone with a preorder but i know in store we can do an "Alternate Upgrade" Basically it takes the upgrade eligibility and upgrades the contract on one line but then adds the phone to another line. That eliminates all the swapping. Might ask them if they can just do that.


Ok, so this might have answered my question. Do i just ask them to do an "Alternate Upgrade" and they will know what to do?

Does this work when upgrading to the family share plan?
 
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So are you guys saying if I order the phone as an upgrade to one line on MY account, but then transfer the phone to another line on my same account, my warranty is void for the phone. Even before I used it?!?

We did this 6 months ago, right in store by doing an alternate upgrade and they never warned us about this. If I bring the phone into the store after it's delivered, and have them do the switch, can I keep my warranty?
 
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