Verizon Plan Question

[Ron Penton]

I have a 7-year old LG phone and I may be upgrading to a smartphone in the near future. The current frontrunner is the Lumia 822 (though I'm waiting for the 928 to see if that changes my mind). So I'm going through the process of pricing out the plans to estimate how much more I'll pay for a smartphone, and I noticed a strange discrepancy when going through verizons site. It gives me 2 different plans depending on whether I'm using the site while logged off, or whether I'm logged in and upgrading my current phone.

For example:

When I click on "New Customers" it gives me the ability to pick:

Nokia Lumia 822: FREE
Monthly Line Access: $40.00 Per month
300 MB Shared Data Unlimited Talk & Text: $40.00 Per month
Monthly Access For All Devices: $80.00
​

I'd like to go with 300mb per month, I don't really think I'll be using much more than that.

But if I try to upgrade my current plan, it shows instead:

Nokia Lumia 822: FREE
Upgrade Fee: $30.00
500 messages PLUS Unlimited Mobile to Mobile Messaging: $10.00 / month
2GB Data Bundle with Personal Email: $30.00 / month
​

So firstly, they want to charge a $30 upgrade fee? What the **** for. They claim I have a $50 "New Every 2" discount but it doesn't seem to be applied here because the phone is already free, so does that discount disappear? Then, the unlimited text plan disappears, all I can choose is 500 a month, 1000 a month, or pay-per-text. This won't work for me, I need unlimited. Then there's the 2gb data bundle. I want the 300 mb "shared" plan they had on the "new customer" screen. Also they don't even show what my calling plan will be...

I am so confused here. Why are they showing me completely different plans since I'm an existing customer? Why is there an upgrade fee?

 

[Laura Knotek]

Moved to Carrier Discussion Lounge, since this is a question specific to VZW, and people who have VZW will be able to help.