Making the Switch

I finally said goodbye to Verizon.

It's been an 8 year love affair with my cell carrier, but we had to end it. We just weren't mean to be. Okay... strong words, but really, it had to end. My sad, sad wallet just couldn't take the $108/month bill that Verizon was hitting me with.

Bask in the Glory

I started my 8 year stint with Verizon at the age of 16 with a pink Motorola Razr, the coolest phone on the face of the planet. I was hot shit. I kept upgrading from there, always qualifying for an upgrade before my 2-year contract was up and signing up for another 2 years. It didn't matter though, I was happy with the service and my bill was comparable to other carriers. I was grandfathered into the unlimited data when Verizon took it away, but I lost it when I upgraded to an iPhone (RIP BlackBerry Curve). I had 2GB of data and ended up going over a few times, much to my dismay, because I found out quickly that they charge an arm and a leg for doing such a thing. Finally I had to decide: severely limit my data usage or just upgrade to 5GB. I figured upgrading was my best bet.

Jerks.

$108/month is a lot. It started around $85/month in February '14 and it's been in the range of $108 for the past 6 months. I thought I must be doing something wrong, but after reviewing my bill I realized that Verizon was just plain expensive. After doing some research it seemed like Sprint (unlimited talk, text, data) was my best option, coming in at around $70/month. I contacted Verizon's customer service to see what they could do for me. Now, I'm a damn good customer. I pay my bill on time and I have been loyal to them for 8 years. I explained my situation, broke down the numbers, and asked if there was any way to lower my bill. The customer service rep typed.. stopped... typed... stopped... typed... stopped... typed... and finally said "there is nothing I can do for you". Really? I just told you I'm one step away from switching to another carrier and there is not ONE THING you can do to lower my bill even, like, $10/month? Nothing? BYE.

I didn't fully trust myself to go through with the switch online (there must be some fine print I wasn't seeing, I thought), so I decided to go to the store. I already knew the "Cut your bill in half" thing had fine print associated with it, and that it was only the service portion that they could "cut in half". The biggest red flag was that you HAD to turn in your old phone to Sprint, and I knew for a fact I could get more money by selling to a third party. Boom, capitalism. I was a bit skeptical of the store because every Yelp review I read said Sprint had terrible customer service... and not just one or two people, but almost every single one complained that they had a horrible time.

Well, I didn't. It took two visits (it could have taken one, I opted to mull it over before committing), but I'm now an iPhone 6 owner. The customer service was totally fine. I went in on a Thursday night and was the only one there. The guy we worked with was definitely trying to sweet talk us into the deal, but he was entertaining and nice. I went back on a Saturday to a much more crowded store and had to wait about 30 minutes, but it was a SATURDAY and there's only so many employees. The person I ended up working with was really pleasant and efficient. Once the process got started it was quick and painless.

So, what are the biggest changes?

• With Sprint, the "contract" is tied to the phone. In essence I am "paying off" the full price of the phone over 2 years at a minimum of $20/month. I can choose to pay more and pay it down faster. 
• The monthly service charges are $50/month with unlimited talk, text, and data, which is significantly cheaper than Verizon's "base line" plan that I was on.
• Service: the big one. The main reason I stayed with Verizon for so long was because I had service everywhere. I was hesitant to switch and have a useless phone anytime I left the city. I've been up north twice now, and while the service isn't stellar (no 4G) my phone still functions as a phones. I can make calls, I can send texts, good enough. I don't REALLY need to go on Facebook on a ski mountain anyway. Is the coverage as good as Verizon? No, but it still work and that's all I care about. So many places have free WiFi nowadays that it's not hard to access the Internet if I absolutely have to.

So far so good, kinda. I got a free tablet as part of a promotion and was told that I wouldn't have to pay anything more than the taxes, but it just showed up on my bill. I'll have to make another trek back to the store and get it adjusted. Is that a sign that Sprint is terrible and I make a huge mistake? Not necessarily, I've had issues like that happen at Verizon in the past. Edit: I went to the store, talked to the staff, and it was my own fault. I misunderstood something, everything is fine now. Is my bill significantly cheaper than before? Well, it's not "cut in half", but in the long run it will be much cheaper. It IS cheaper now and once the phone is paid off it will only be the cost of the service ($50) + taxes. I can't say I'm over the moon happier with it right now, but we'll see!