Don’t Let Verizon Wireless Take Your Money When Canceling Service

Posted on April 11, 2008

I have never had any love for Verizon Wireless, and I was quite relieved when my two year contract was up. They hadn’t done anything really bad, but they certainly didn’t ever do anything earn my respect. Nothing had really been post worthy until the last stunt they tried to pull as I closed my account.

I had already activated my $60 a year Virgin Mobile service, when I called to cancel my Verizon account. Everything was fine, until the last thing the agent mentioned as I was about to hang up.

Verizon Agent: You’re account is set to close on the 25th of April.
The Happy Rock: But, it is the 8th.
Verizon Agent: Our policy is that accounts close on the last day of the billing cycle.

I was a little caught off guard, so I just ended the conversation. It bothered me, so I mentioned it to my cube mate Ray @ TMABB. He helped verify my feelings and I decided to take action.

First, I checked my customer agreement and I didn’t see any mention of such a right for Verizon, so I quickly emailed them and asked them to produce documentation showing that they had to right to charge me for service I had wanted canceled or they should cancel immediately and refund the money that was owed.

The stalled for a few days and then finally an agent called to reiterate that closing on the last day of the billing cycle was their policy. I demanded that they produce some kind of proof. They then relented and canceled the account immediately, although they used todays date rather then that of my original call even after I asked. They also kindly informed me that the $17 check would take 6-8 weeks to process. I knew there was a reason I couldn’t wait to get away from Verizon Wireless.

Finally today, they left a message saying that they had worked out a special deal for me. The Rockette deleted it long before I got home…teamwork. I gave Verizon plenty of opportunities to provide me with more reasonable service and price options, but they refused. Now I shouldn’t ever have to deal with them again.

» Filed Under Cell Phones, Money Savers

Virgin Mobile Deal: $60 For One Year Of Prepaid Virgin Mobile Service

Posted on April 2, 2008

Our two year Verizon cell phone contract finally ran out on the 25th of March! It feels great to break free from the chains of a long contract. I haven’t yet canceled the phone, but I did order and activate a new Virgin Mobile prepaid phone for the Rockette. She is s a low minute user like me.

Previously I had talked about how much I would save with Virgin Mobile and how to set up a Virgin Mobile account, so I thought it would be helpful to revisit my decision. It has been about 6 months, and I have been nothing but pleased with the service and the savings. The free phone is fine, so is the call quality, and the billing. I haven’t been using all of the $20 top up every 90 days, so money does roll over each top up period. Either way I won’t be paying more than $80 for the whole year.

We opted for a semi-updated LG Flare for $30 as the Rockette’s new Virgin Mobile phone, although there are currently three phones that are free. The phone was at our door in about two days, and we received a nice little surprise limited time offer when we signed up. Virgin is offering service for a whole year if you top-up $60 in three days. Since you agree to buy $80 for the whole year, I was sold. I bought the $60 worth of minutes, and won’t have to top up for a whole year. We actually have $67.50 in the account, because we got a free $5 for singing up for automatic top up, and $2.50 for being referred. Considering that the referrer was me on our other account, and I got $10 for it, we really got about a 30% bonus after everything is said and done.

6 months ago we were paying about $400 for one cell phone through Verizon, now we have two cell phones for $140 per year. A solid $260 yearly savings all possible because of our low usage. If you use around 150 or less minutes a month, Virgin Mobile will probably save you money. Let me know if you are interested, and we both can get a free $2.50 if I refer you.

Note : The Virgin Mobile straight minute plan is now $0.20 a minute rather then the $0.18 that I got 6 months ago.

» Filed Under Cell Phones, Money Savers

Sell Your Old Cell Phone For Cash

Posted on November 9, 2007

Did you know that you can sell your old cell phone that you don’t use anymore for cash? I didn’t, but as I looked into a comment I came across a couple sites that give you cash for cell phones. I had heard of sites like Cell Swapper where you can sell your phone and plan to avoid termination fees, but I didn’t realize some sites will give you straight cash for phones without plans.

Sites like Simply Sellular, ~~Cash My Phone~~*, and Phone Is Cash buy old cell phones and resell them. The site Second Rotation buys all kind of gadgets, not just cell phones, and they were also featured on CNET. Our current phone, an inexpensive LG VX4650, is bringing about $9 just to give you some perspective.

Unfortunately, I don’t have an unused cell phone to sell and write a review, but I would love to hear any reader’s success stories. Also, here is a site that did a review of all three sites about a year and a half ago.

Of course, you could use craigslist or eBay and you might get a little more, but they will probably lose the ease of use battle. Recycling also helps the environment by saving on landfill space and resources. Enjoy!

*Note - Multiple readers have commented about problems with Cash My Phone. I can’t find to much, either postive or negative, on the company, so I will strikeout their link until I recieve some more information on them.

» Filed Under Cell Phones, Money Savers

Setting Up a Prepaid Virgin Mobile Cell Phone Account

Posted on October 4, 2007

After my research into prepaid cell phones, I decided to add a small amount to our monthly budget and sign up for a Virgin Mobile cell phone for myself. I figured I would use about $10 a month in minutes. Once we can cancel our Verizon contract, and The Rockette gets a pre paid Virgin phone or monthly cell phone costs should drop from about $45 dollars a month to $20. After a week I am right on pace with about 14 minutes used.

The process and experience of signing up was so simple it was amazing. It was a two step process :

Go to the appropriate Virgin Mobile site and pick out a phone. Here is the link to the Virgin USA site. As with most prepaid plans the selection of phones is usually slim. Virgin offers 11 phones that do a good job of providing a wide variety of features. They have a nice cell phone comparison feature that should help the process along. I picked out the Nokia Shorty, checked my coverage area, and ordered it. The cost was $21.70 with tax, but was essentially free with a $20 airtime rebate that is applied when you add minutes. I could care less about the particular phone as long as the battery lasts a while and the call quality is good. The reviews on that phone were solid, and so far I am quite happy with it. It has been a week, and I still almost have full battery life left and I haven’t had any call quality complaints.
The phone arrived in three days. I cracked the plastic and quickly glanced at the manual. I then went onto the website to activate the phone. After entering the serial number, you pick a minute plan and add your first minutes. I went with the flat 18 cents a minute plan(5c text messages) with no roaming charges and ‘topped up’ for $20 dollars. It was at this point that the free $20 of airtime was applied, and the first top up was essentially free. If you sign up for one of their automatic top up plan by supplying a credit/debit card, they will give you a free $5 on your next top up. Next you type a code into you phone, and you are ready to go. The whole process took about 5 minutes and I was able to start making calls instantly.

Simple as that, no contracts, no hassle. Just add $20 every 90 days, and your account stays active. Service in my area has been perfect, and the call quality is great. So far I couldn’t ask for anything better.

(Virgin Mobile does have a kickback program that will give me free airtime for each sign up. If you are interested, send me an email for the code)

» Filed Under Cell Phones

The $0.60 Verizon Cell Phone Battery At Amazon.com

Posted on October 1, 2007

18 month into our two year contract our Verizon LG VX4650 cell phone began to act up. Gradually, the cell phone seemed to hold a charge for shorter and shorter periods of time. Then one day after only ten minutes on the charger the phone was blinking ‘Charge Complete’. I knew it couldn’t be fully charged, because the phone was just dead and it normally takes over an hour to charge. The phone thought that battery was fully charged, but I would only get one or two battery bars. The phone was almost useless, except if it was plugged into a car charger.

I called Verizon and they said I have to go to a local store for battery problems. At the store they confirmed it was the battery, and offered me a replacement for $39.99. I asked for a deal, and they weren’t having any of that. I persisted and he finally asked if I wanted the battery in an exasperated ‘I just work here tone’, and I replied with “I think I could find it for much cheaper online”. I didn’t really know if I could find it cheaper, but I was running off the assumption that dealer retail stores severely mark prices up and that the net offers some great deals.

Little did I know, I would find the exact battery for my Verizon cell phone on Amazon for just $0.60. Click here to see the deal page. The great thing about the internet is that there were a couple of reviews, most of which were positive, reassuring me that it wasn’t a scam. Since it was sold through an Amazon third party Eforcity, shipping was $5 for a total of $5.60.

The catch here was that more expensive and name brand is not always better! The battery sold directly through Amazon was about $9.00 and the reviews were nearly as good.

I received the battery in a no frills shipping envelope in about 3 days. Popped the battery right in the phone and hooked it up to the charger. In about an hour the phone was fully charged and showing a full battery. The phone now lasts about a week without having to be charged, just like 18 months ago. The deals you find on the web at places like Ebay and Amazon are incredible; you just have to be creative and get comfortable with the web.

Similar deals can be found for Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile, Motorola, and other such cell phone batteries.

» Filed Under Cell Phones, Frugality, Money Savers

Low Minute Users Save With Prepaid Cell Phones

Posted on September 28, 2007

The Happy Rockette and I got our first cell phone a little under two years ago. We held out for a long time, because we didn’t want a monthly bill for something that wasn’t a necessity. Yes, I did say it wasn’t a necessity, and it still isn’t for most people. We all survived without cell phones ten years ago, but that is another story.

We got only one phone and the cheapest plan, 300 minutes for $33 a month through Verizon. Recently our battery died on our phone and that got me looking over our usage and contract. I wanted to see through we had made a wise choice, and in hindsight we hadn’t.

We use on average about 80 minutes a month, which with our current plan works out to about 47 cents a minute. Ouch! Even the expensive pre paid plans are cheaper than that.

With our usage being so low I researched prepaid plans, and was quite encouraged. Last time I briefly looked into getting a pre paid cell phone for myself it was ludicrously expensive. It was obvious that the major companies wanted you to buy a month to month plan with a long contract.

My research now reveals that the cheapest and best players in the prepaid cell market were T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile. The rest of the plans had crazy rules or exorbitant prices. Upon closer inspection, Virgin Mobile was getting great reviews and had the best prices.

They have two main minute plans: 18 cent a minute or $6.99 a month and 10 cent a minute. I ran the numbers to see which plan would be the best for monthly minute times of 25 – 300:

The break even point between the two plans was 87 minutes. Anyone who uses over 250 minutes a month is better off with a monthly plan. The takeaway should be clear enough; low minute cell phone users can save a ton of money with pre-paid cell phone plans.