Fastforward two years to the present time and its now time to get a new phone.  As the family geek I start looking into what would be the best new smartphone to get. So I start looking into the latest and greatest from Verizon and find that they have instituted a new policy requiring all smart phones introduced after November first 2009 to have either a $29.99 or $45.99 per month data plan!  This would almost double my mother’s phone bill with no visible benefit to her.  Although I respect the fact the Verizon has the right to do what every it wants with it pricing policy this really sucks for my mother and effectively means she’ll never be able to upgrade to a new smartphone again as long as she stays on Verizon.

So I call up Verizon customer support to try to get full details on the new policy.(Props to Verizon here the support guy was really good and understood the issue straight away and answered all my questions)  He confirmed that there are only three newer phones that can still uses the pay as you go plan, two new versions of the Q and a Samsung model.  And that my mother could buy one of those and add it no problems so she’ll be able to upgrade one last time this year.  Although Verizon doesn’t sell them any more as far as I could tell making here $100 NE2 bonus worthless to her.

Asking why Verizon was implementing this new policy he gave me the company line that the new phones were designed so they will download information for the internet for weather and such automatically and so the new policy was designed to protect the customer from overage charges.  Now I don’t really believe this is true but assuming it is why couldn’t they have just include an option to block all data access instead of requiring a data plan?  This is an option they have for all there phones so its not a technical limitation.

Here are the reasons I think Verizon is implementing this policy and alternative solutions I think they could implement that I think better respect the customers ability to choose.

1. Verizon doesn’t want to give people cheap smartphones if it isn’t going to make up the money with the data plan
   1. Only give the smartphone discount if you buy a data plan and stay on for a given length of time.  My mother would be willing to spend the $400-$500 for a smartphone if she had to.  Better that than spend $360 a year for a service she doesn’t need.
2. Verizon apparently had a lot of issues with people choosing the pay as you go plan and then being surprised with the huge charges they got.
   1. Verizon could give customers one month of a free data plan if they sign up with the pay as you go option  and in the bill show them what it would have cost with pay as you go.  If the customer doesn’t switch they are responsible for whatever charges happen no if and or butts.  Obviously this would cost some money on Verizon’s part for the ‘free’ month but they seem to run these sorts of ploys to try to rope you into other services such as their TV service so I don’t think it would be a huge issue for them.
   2. Verizon could require that you either have a data plan or you get data blocked.  Ergo no surprises with pay as you go charges.
3. Verizon apparently had a lot of issues with people returning smartphones after they bought them without data plans as they didn’t realize all the neat features required data access or what not.
   1. Verizon could charge a additional restocking fee for a smartphone if you either cancel the contract or ‘downgrade’ to a regular phone.  That should ameliorate any costs associated with returned smartphones.

Although my mom has always been happy with Verizon’s service and coverage this new policy has her strongly considering moving to another carrier.  And this is despite all in network benefits she gets since the rest of the family is also with Verizon.  I hope Verizon will retract this policy and replace it with something more customer friendly.