Taking away the annual upgrade is probably the big thing in this. Beyond that not much has changed IMO.

How are they waiting less time for an upgrade? It seems to me that for a lot of people, they have to wait longer, and they cant get a NE2 credit (which takes even extra off the phone price), which really stinks.

Use it now, because you won't have it later.

How long until it goes away all together? I don't think I will be able to use it until February or March. I just graduated and I'm currently looking for the ever elusive job and until I have one a phone isn't in the budget. I still don't understand why money can't grow on trees, life would be so much easier!

it can grow on trees lol

Where are you guys getting confirmation of this change? I have reached out to my local DM with Verizon Wireless and he is usually very candid with me. He is yet to hear about any of this.

Perhaps this is only being done in certain regions?

Came through my corporate email today as a training. I didn't want to say anything until it was already well leaked.

Ahhh.

Good to know.

Hopefully it will just be regional.

It's going to be company wide, nothing in the training would suggest otherwise.

Except that the indirect channel in this region has heard nothing about it.

Be careful with assuming.

why would indirect hear first? But it is a loaded training for Indirect anyway

Why are apples red?

I never said Indirect should hear first. I did say Indirect Managers should hear SOMETHING.

Just remember, everyone's always someone else's redheaded stepchild.

Training for it launched today. Check VZLearn for the course, indirect here it auto enrolled me.

Where is here? Curious if this is regional.

Midwest, although stores in Florida, and new York took the same thing. I work for a pretty large reseller, and all of our employees took it.

My understanding of the training (yes I found it, thanks everyone) is that those who have NE2 or annual upgrades now will not lose them. You will only lose your NE2 discount 6 months after you become eligible.

I am fine with these changes. Subsidies have been going up steadily with or without a NE2 discount anyways. No one who has "earned" anything will lose it.

I guess I should have been more specific. From my point of view, if you lost them after six months it's still losing them. I didn't clarify the time frame, I just mentioned the word "later."

The whole problem begins with subsidies, in my opinion. Few customers care that they get a $320 subsidy on a smartphone when they used to get a $120 subsidy. They assume all the prices are grossly inflated anyway.

The mentality comes from the fact that subsidies have always distorted the consumer's perception of price and value. As far as I'm concerned, a top to bottom change in how they (manufacturers, distributors, and retailers) price devices is necessary to stop the cycle of distortion.

You and I know that they get a better deal today...
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If they are combative I will just smack them on the forehead.

I guess you have more independence in that regard. 😉

When I was in retail we had a panic button which I used liberally.

Ours calls the police. Wouldn't go over well.

So did ours. I only used it when I was actually physically assaulted.

We use it whenever someone gets ornery, if they don't back down.

I had to use it on a mother once, who kept trying to use cyclic logic to get me to magically give her a replacement phone for something she lost six month prior. It got heated, her teenage son got belligerent, and after five requests for her to keep her voice down, four requests not to swear at me, and three requests to leave the store, I pushed the button and tried to usher them outside as they left fearful about having to deal with the police. Son got in my face for ushering his mom (I never touched her, just made the motion of ushering). Within a minute, they were gone and calling customer care (so I remarked the hell out of that one while they were waiting).

Turn...
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Okay. I misread somewhere in this thread that people currently receiving a 1 year upgrade would get a 10 month upgrade instead.

It seems very strange that they would remove the 'premier'-esque benefits, but oh well. I'll just grab a Fascinate and the $15 data pack as soon as I can.

One last question, I've been eligible for probably 10 months now, so even without my 1 year upgrade I should still be eligible for a new phone after the new policy takes effect, right or wrong?

The confusion probably comes from the re-wrapping of one year contracts in the comments and articles I've been reading. Basically, one year contracts were always eligible after 10 months. If you signed a one year contract last time (which almost no one does, because the best deals and any early upgrades always required a two year contract), then you could upgrade at ten months. But because no one pushes one year contracts that much, no one really talks about them. I think the inclusion of the one year contract in the leaked material is a deflection over the loss of annual and NE2 upgrades. Same old thing, just re-wrapped.

If you've been eligible for your annual upgrade for ten months, that would put you into your New Every Two upgrad...
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In corp, 1 years are half the commission of 2 years.

what he was asking is if Verizon will change the pay out structure (or pricing) of one year contracts to make it worth reps time to offer them again.

As an indirect, you often lose money on a 1 year contract, not make less money, LOSE money.

Not sure how you'd lose money. I pretty much price all my stuff so my profit point is where it needs to be on a $9.99 line upgrade. Generally the prices VZW has online are my prices as well and I make a pretty good profit. The commission difference between a 1 year and 2 year upgrade on a $9.99 line is only $65 in my area. At my current prices which are $70 more for a 1 year contract I actually come out $5 ahead on the 1 year. Now as the price plan gets higher its a bigger difference. So I'm not coming out ahead on the 2 year price on those but not losing money because I'm still coming out $5 ahead of what I would on a $9.99 2 year upgrade. I think I'm going to change my 1 year pricing to exactly $100 more than 2 year. Then I'm actually comi...
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What region are you in? I know the midwest region gets much better commission payouts than the NE region did. Phone prices also seem to be slightly cheaper as well.

For basic phones the 70 can usually cover it, but with smartphones, it's not always the case. A lot of the spiffs that make smartphones profitable used to require 2 year contracts for you to get them. This might've changed. I admittedly haven't checked on it recently (work less with commissions than I used to)

Our stores pretty much match corporate pricing dollar for dollar.

I'm in the Midwest. The PDA payout/spiff is for both 1 year and 2 year and its the same amount. Only the commission is different.

Yes but the spiffs they payout are typically only for 2 year agreements. For instance, they paid out a $50 spiff on the original Droid last year in March when the retail price dropped on the handset. Our cost remained the same. The $50 covered most of the discount to make us somewhat whole on the deal. If you still did the $70 difference (which is what I did too) you actually made $50 less on the sale for a 1 year upgrade. Couple that with our lower commission and we lost money.

The difference for us, at least on upgrades, is much more than just $70. New acts is no issue, just upgrades.

This difference for us on a $9.99 is $65 it goes up to at least a $150 difference possibly $250 I don't remember which. I looked at it last night but forget. At least charging $100 more I can make up a good chunk of the difference. Actually I would make more on $9.99 lines which are the majority which would make up for any of the higher plans I would make less on.

The only spiffs we have now are when there are buy one get one frees. Those are only on 2 year which they'd have to do to get a BOGO anyway. Our PDA spiffy/payout is for 1 year and 2 year and its the same amount for either.

But you have to factor in that spiff on single line sales to help cover the subsidy on the BOGO deals. If you start pushing 1 year deals that spiff goes away and makes the metrics for BOGO offers much worse than they already are.

Even with the spiffs BOGO make me the same amount of money as selling just one phone. But if I have 4 other single line sales with that spiff I essentially make money offering the BOGO.

Not in our area. We only get the BOGO spiff when we sell two of the same devices on the same account and same transaction. The Droid 2's and Incredible's we don't even have a spiff on. We make enough off each one to still offer the BOGO though.

I just checked. The highest price plan payout has $155 difference in commission between a 1 year and 2 year. So if I have a 1 year upgrade on a $9.99 line and charge $100 more than a 2 year I come out $65 ahead over a 2 year. If I then have a 1 year upgrade on the highest rate plan and charge $100 more than a 2 year, I come out $55 less than I would have on a 2 year. With the $65 extra I made on the $9.99 1 year upgrade I'm still $10 ahead between the two. I think that's exactly what I'm going to do. 🙂

Oops, one correction. I would come out $45 ahead on a $9.99 line. I had my math backwards! LOL So if I averaged the two out I'd come out at a $10 loss with this combination on 1 year contracts. Still sounds like the way to go for me.

Exactly. Now a BOGO offer is the only reason I see for a consumer signing a two year contract on a secondary share line. Bottom line is most are too cheap to pay the $70 for the one year but at least one can say they offered the better deal and the ability to upgrade after ten months as opposed to locking them in a two year on a device which will be out of warranty and not eligible to upgrade.

A Droid BOGO versus two lines on 1-year contracts can easily be a $340 difference.

I have my hopes for the future with this upgrade change. Some of them, I know, will not be realized (reasonable full retail pricing from manufacturer through retailer). One, though, is if they continue to offer 2 and 1 year terms, they should offer some sort of discount for buying two phones on one year contracts. Not going to hold my breath, though.