Verizon to lock phones in spring

[LittleRedRose]

Verizon recently announced they will begin to lock new phones to there network.

Quote

Verizon has historically been one of the best carriers when it comes to selling unlocked phones — every major smartphone it offers comes unlocked out of the box — but that generous policy is changing, according to a report from CNET. Verizon is now set to revert to selling carrier-locked phones in what it claims is an attempt to combat theft.
The new policy will roll out in steps. First, Verizon will lock phones initially, unlocking them once customers finish the activation process, which would be in line with the company’s explanation of preventing thieves from stealing phones from retail stores.
Sometime this spring, Verizon will be instituting a wait period, where new phones will be locked to Verizon for an unspecified amount of time before customers will be able to unlock them. The company has yet to detail how long customers will need to wait or whether they’ll have to submit manual requests to have their phones unlocked.

But it’s hard not to view the longer wait period as more hostile to consumers, since it’s not obvious how making customers wait longer to unlock their devices will prevent people from stealing phone from Verizon trucks and storerooms

Up to this point Verizon had been good at selling phones already unlocked from their network and only locking phone-in-the-box prepaid phones, to offset the subsidy of said phone.

Quote

• We do not lock our 4G devices, other than our 4G Phone-in-the-Box Prepaid phones. In order to partially offset the subsidy we provide to make our 4G Phone-in-the-Box Prepaid phones more affordable to service customers, our 4G Phone-in-a-Box phones may only be used with Verizon Prepaid service for 1 year from original activation date or until payments in the amount specified on the back of the Phone-in-a-Box package are added to the Prepaid account.

With this new change in policy it will be interesting to see if it will extend to deployed military personnel or will Verizon keep their policy of unlocking deployed military personal on request regardless of the length of ownership. 

Quote

Unlocking policy for Deployed Military Personnel

If you are a Verizon Wireless customer in the military we will unlock your device at your request.

News story from The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/12/17003690/verizon-phones-locked-network-date-spring-change-policy

Verizon policy quotes from Verizon website:

http://www.verizon.com/about/consumer-safety/device-unlocking-policy

 

[Nena Trinity]

Wow just wow, good reason to jump to another carrier. (Fuck AT&T and Verizon!)

[flibberdipper]

I kinda find their theft reasoning to be bullshit. Something tells me they're just gonna try to charge you to unlock the phone you already dropped a phat set of bills on. Thank god I avoid Verizon like the plague and stick to Sprint.

[ItsMitch]

all i can say is ayyyyyyyy lmao 

[Ginger_]

I don't see why this matters? The only people that should be affected is people buying stolen phones, and so screw them I couldn't care less. 

 

If your buying a phone from Verizon, you're going to use it on Verizon til you sell it, which it will be unlocked then. So, The problem is...? 

[Nena Trinity]

1 minute ago, Ginger137 said:

I don't see why this matters? The only people that should be affected is people buying stolen phones, and so screw them I couldn't care less. 

 

If your buying a phone from Verizon, you're going to use it on Verizon til you sell it, which it will be unlocked then. So, The problem is...? 

But carrier locked phones are always full of bloat ware, not to mention many carriers if its to long after will refuse to unlock the devices and these devices will be dumped or stay in a old warehouse.

[GilmourD]

That sounds like bullshit since most of their phones are specific versions for Verizon that use their bands. Most other carrier and unlocked versions don't support VZW's bands.

 

[Bouzoo]

It's funny because even my country has a law that prompts carriers to unlock all new phones. 

[LittleRedRose]

3 minutes ago, Ginger137 said:

I don't see why this matters? The only people that should be affected is people buying stolen phones, and so screw them I couldn't care less. 

 

If your buying a phone from Verizon, you're going to use it on Verizon til you sell it, which it will be unlocked then. So, The problem is...? 

Theoretically you could’ve bought a phone from Verizon to protect from buying a stolen phone and then switched to another service by buying the phone without a plan or with a monthly no contract plan. Now it’s harder to do that. Overall for long term users there’s not much effect, but it does affect a small group of specific users. 

[Hidden Orange]

Didn't Canada recently pass a law that made it illegal for carriers to lock phones?

 

Now if only that could happen in the US...

[lieder1987]

Just now, Hidden Orange said:

Now if only that could happen in the US...

LOL good one!

[Ginger_]

Just now, LittleRedRose said:

small group of specific users.

Small is the keyword there. But if you want to be sure you're not buying a stolen phone, there's plenty of reputable retailers that sell the phones cheaper than Verizon. Amazon, Samsung's website,  i think Apple even has their own financing plan outside of any carrier.

[Drak3]

16 minutes ago, Nena360 said:

Wow just wow, good reason to jump to another carrier. (Fuck AT&T and Verizon!)

Outside if enthusiasts, not really.

And the quality of their biggest competitors is more than enough reason to stay with ATT and VW.

[Nena Trinity]

1 minute ago, Drak3 said:

Outside if enthusiasts, not really.

And the quality of their biggest competitors is more than enough reason to stay with ATT and VW.

So most cannot escape the devil? O3O

[markr54632]

That kind of sucks. I really liked buying my devices at Verizon. I dropped their service over a year ago.

 

[Drak3]

4 minutes ago, Nena360 said:

So most cannot escape the devil? O3O

Better than Beezlaboot, the Canadian Devil.

[Bouzoo]

25 minutes ago, Ginger137 said:

I don't see why this matters? The only people that should be affected is people buying stolen phones, and so screw them I couldn't care less. 

 

If your buying a phone from Verizon, you're going to use it on Verizon til you sell it, which it will be unlocked then. So, The problem is...? 

Since I work for a carrier, I see people on daily basis that need the phone unlocked. The reasons are mostly:

• giving the phone to someone in the family who is another carrier
• using the phone for another number that you own from another carrier
• swapping networks but the phone is still working great so no need for upgrade

The problem is that some carriers to unlock your phone, want to take your phone due to some excuse and it takes them up to 2 weeks to unlock them. Even the carriers that just give the you unlock code via phone sometimes (read: quite often) have to get the code itself from another party in another country, and that can also take some time.

It's quite inconvenient if we're honest. Hell it's the same thing for members form my family, who have swapped 3 networks in 4 years and still have the same phone.

[79wjd]

33 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

And the quality of their biggest competitors is more than enough reason to stay with ATT and VW.

Sprint is basically just as good as Verizon in the NY/NJ area -- at least in my experience. I'm currently on Verizon, but wanted to switch to Sprint a few months ago due to a few Verizon fuck ups and a complete disregard for their customers (not that Sprint is truly better in this regard -- they're just forced to be better otherwise customers would switch back to Verizon).

[Drak3]

1 minute ago, djdwosk97 said:

Sprint is basically just as good as Verizon in the NY/NJ area -- at least in my experience. I'm currently on Verizon, but wanted to switch to Sprint a few months ago due to a few Verizon fuck ups and a complete disregard for their customers (not that Sprint is truly better in this regard -- they're just forced to be better otherwise customers would switch back to Verizon).

In Idaho, Sprint and T Mobile are vastly inferior to Verizon in quality and reliability. So much so that price is the only saving grace of either at this point.

[miagisan]

22 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

Sprint is basically just as good as Verizon in the NY/NJ area -- at least in my experience. I'm currently on Verizon, but wanted to switch to Sprint a few months ago due to a few Verizon fuck ups and a complete disregard for their customers (not that Sprint is truly better in this regard -- they're just forced to be better otherwise customers would switch back to Verizon).

My wife's sprint service sucked on long Island. I had her switch to my Verizon plan. Vastly better here. Could also just be the location we live in. 

[79wjd]

Just now, miagisan said:

My wife's sprint service sucked on long Island. I had her switch to my Verizon plan. Vastly better here. Could also just be the location we live in. 

Yeah, location is by far the most important factor as none of the top four companies have the best coverage in all areas, but there isn't any difference between Sprint and Verizon in the areas where I personally am (well, more specifically I haven't noticed worse service on either Verizon or Sprint -- there are times when Verizon has coverage and Sprint doesn't and times when Sprint does and Verizon doesn't, but neither ever stood out as being meaningfully worse).

[rockking1379]

22 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

In Idaho, Sprint and T Mobile are vastly inferior to Verizon in quality and reliability. So much so that price is the only saving grace of either at this point.

same in Wyoming. Tmobile used to piggy back off the Union Wireless towers but that has recently went away as well

 

[michaelocarroll007]

1 hour ago, Nena360 said:

But carrier locked phones are always full of bloat ware, not to mention many carriers if its to long after will refuse to unlock the devices and these devices will be dumped or stay in a old warehouse.

Verizon phones (Unlocked) were Full of Verizon bloatware anyway.  Unlocking them could be difficult. I could only be okay if they said after 14 days of use the phone will auto unlock or something. 

[michaelocarroll007]

39 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

Yeah, location is by far the most important factor as none of the top four companies have the best coverage in all areas, but there isn't any difference between Sprint and Verizon in the areas where I personally am (well, more specifically I haven't noticed worse service on either Verizon or Sprint -- there are times when Verizon has coverage and Sprint doesn't and times when Sprint does and Verizon doesn't, but neither ever stood out as being meaningfully worse).

 

43 minutes ago, miagisan said:

My wife's sprint service sucked on long Island. I had her switch to my Verizon plan. Vastly better here. Could also just be the location we live in. 

 From Long island, Id say sprint is noticeably worse here but Tmobile ATT and Verizon are Very equal in 95% of the areas doesnt matter which your on.

[bcredeur97]

they still have to unlock phone for you for free once it's paid for/off contract (if people still do contracts)

 

because at that point it's your phone, not theirs.