Replying to: Question about transferring upgrade eligibility by Victek
Re: Question about transferring upgrade eligibility
Verizon uses the word "transfer" in such a way that it often gets confused at the consumer end.
If line B has an upgrade, and line A wants a new phone, line A gets the new phone while line B gets the new contract agreement. Whatever pricing line B was eligible for is taken advantage of when line A gets the new phone.
A month later, line A finally comes up for upgrade. It also had it's last New Every Two discount of at least $30 off the upgrade (discounted) price. Since line B got the new contract, line A's original upgrade criteria never changed. In other words, you still have an upgrade with a NE2 discount.
The reality here is, the upgrade is never physically moved from line B to line A. There is no transfer of eligibility moved from one line to another. There is no swapping of contracts. The term Verizon uses is misleading. It just sound better than "alternate upgrade" or the dorky "buddy upgrade" terminology used in the past. The upgrade is simply borrowed from the eligible line. The eligible line gets the renewed contract. The other line just happens to get the phone.
Before the computer was capable of doing this, a rep would have rung out the phone on line B, the system would activate the serial number on that line, and then the rep would have to reactivate the old serial number to restore service to the line, thereby rendering the new phone's serial number open and ready. The rep would then do an "ESN change" on the target line with the new phone's serial number and activate it. There were three steps involved before, and it caused issues with warranty tracking. So the "alternate" upgrade was devised. Over time, Verizon has moved to the "transfer" term to avoid other misunderstandings. Verizon is moving to clearly define which numbers receive which subsidies, and have even gone so far as to restrict lines with recent phone purchases from using an upgrade "transfer" all together.
Again, this falls into the "Verizon gets to dictate the terms and conditions of your contract, so they make the rules" kind of thing.
If line B has an upgrade, and line A wants a new phone, line A gets the new phone while line B gets the new contract agreement. Whatever pricing line B was eligible for is taken advantage of when line A gets the new phone.
A month later, line A finally comes up for upgrade. It also had it's last New Every Two discount of at least $30 off the upgrade (discounted) price. Since line B got the new contract, line A's original upgrade criteria never changed. In other words, you still have an upgrade with a NE2 discount.
The reality here is, the upgrade is never physically moved from line B to line A. There is no transfer of eligibility moved from one line to another. There is no swapping of contracts. The term Verizon uses is misleading. It just sound better than "alternate upgrade" or the dorky "buddy upgrade" terminology used in the past. The upgrade is simply borrowed from the eligible line. The eligible line gets the renewed contract. The other line just happens to get the phone.
Before the computer was capable of doing this, a rep would have rung out the phone on line B, the system would activate the serial number on that line, and then the rep would have to reactivate the old serial number to restore service to the line, thereby rendering the new phone's serial number open and ready. The rep would then do an "ESN change" on the target line with the new phone's serial number and activate it. There were three steps involved before, and it caused issues with warranty tracking. So the "alternate" upgrade was devised. Over time, Verizon has moved to the "transfer" term to avoid other misunderstandings. Verizon is moving to clearly define which numbers receive which subsidies, and have even gone so far as to restrict lines with recent phone purchases from using an upgrade "transfer" all together.
Again, this falls into the "Verizon gets to dictate the terms and conditions of your contract, so they make the rules" kind of thing.
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