Mary, what he is doing is an early upgrade, not the NE2. The early upgrade is done between 12 and 22 months of last upgrade for customers who need it with a 20.00 processing fee. And to the original poster, yes, it can be done over the phone. You will have to ask a customer service representative to mail you the contracts and then you will mail them back and then the phone can be ordered. This type of upgrade can not be done online and if you are not able to visit a corporate store, that is fine, but it will take several weeks before you are holding the phone if you do not. It may actually be worth the gas $ knowing this.

Yes, someone is correct. To do an early upgrade they have to be on a qualifying price plan and it requires a new 2 yr contract, a $20 early upgrade/esn change fee & you will lose your NE2. Early upgrades can only be done if you have not upraded in the last 12 mos.

As for your rep, they were just trying to get out of a phone order. Which is probably OK, cuz they seem to get rejected for random stupid reasons anyway (in my call center at least). We all hate to do phone orders, but that is another option is to cmplete it by mail.

I don't know what you guys are talking about with paperwork and a $20 fee??????? I just did a 12 month upgrade under the Merits program and no paperwork, no fee!!!!!!!!

Mary,

The MERITS program is totally different. Early upgrades are available to any customer who bills $59.99 or higher (on one line, so the old $59.99 family share plans do not count) and whose last upgrade was at least 12 months prior. There is a $20.00 processing charge for this and it resets the New Every Two. That is the M&P, exceptions can be made however they must be approved by supervisors (I know Customer Service reps will argue this, but the store has a right to refuse an early upgrade if it's not approved by a supervisor. They usually don't unless it's something clearly way out of policy which I have seen a lot of recently).
The MERIT program allows any user on $74.99 (it may be $79.99) and higher the ability to upgrade the...
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Sounds correct to me. When people call in and take my time checking into an early upgrade and then say their going to the store... I just tell them the approval we just got means nothing at the store and explain that they very well could spend an hour or more not getting a phone.

When you say supervisors have to approve the early upgrades, are you talking about the one after 12 months or just the exceptions? That'd be crazy if they had to approve the 12 month upgrades too.

Merits is on 79.99 or higher.

Thanks for all the info. Funny she never mentioned the merits plan to me. I have a $79.99 plan right now. And no, she firmly told me I HAD to go to a store (nothing about mailing paper work out). It's all a headache as usual. I'll probably just keep my phone longer. Procrastination seems to be my only relief. But I think it's so funny how VW has bought a ton of billboards in this area boasting their reliability. 🤣

All that stuff frustrates me so much. I've been a customer for awhile now, always paid my bills on time, have good credit; however, I always dread speaking to customer service. The e-mail contact is completely pointless since they just cut and paste answers that never directly answer your questions and when you ...
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Being on a 79.99 plan does not automatically put you into the merits program. It is just one of the criteria that are used. So it is very likely that you may be on a qualifying plan and are not listed as a merits customer. I am not sure of all of the criteria, but I know that there are other factors that come into play.