Wireless carriers like Verizon and AT&T charge customers an upgrade fee when they purchase a new smartphone under contract or through installment plans. In Verizon’s case that charge is $40, it’s an additional burden on the customer who already has to pay for the handset’s cost and the monthly plan. It appears that Verizon will now slap on a $20 upgrade fee even if you pay full price for the device.
MacRumors has obtained an internal memo which notifies Big Red employees of changes to upgrade fee that goes into effect on April 4th. The memo clearly mentions that a $20 upgrade fee will be charged on all device payment and retail price upgrades.
Basically, what this means is that even if you pay Verizon nearly $800 for the Galaxy S7 Edge, the carrier is still going to ask you to pay an additional $20, despite the fact that you’ve used every cent of your own money to purchase that handset.
That’s not all. The memo shows that this fees will also apply when paying for a smartphone with monthly financing or even purchasing an iPhone from the Apple Store on Apple’s iPhone Upgrade Program. It’s going to charge you $20 for purchasing the handset from a store and a company that doesn’t belong to Verizon.
“We are implementing an upgrade fee to help cover our increasing support costs associated with customers switching their devices,” explains Verizon in the memo, but I doubt that customers will understand.
No response from Verizon yet on this leaked memo, but if it’s going ahead with this, then an official announcement will surely be made prior to April 4th.
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