Verizon Decides The Time Is Right To Screw Customers Over, Charge Upgrade Tax

Oh, those sly cellular carrier companies and their jihad against your wallet. Just when you thought you couldn’t get bent over a table any further, Verizon has decided to begin charging customers a luxury tax for resigning an upgrade contract. Think of it as a signing bonus, but instead of the money going into your pocket, it’s now going directly into Verizon’s pocket. Verizon’s not giving you a discount for your loyal and continued business, but starting on April 22, Verizon will begin charging customers a $30.00 upgrade fee for the luxury of extending your contract.

Great, not only do customers have to pay outragous cellular charges, but pretty soon we’re going to be paying these carriers for the luxury of doing business with them. There’s a reason I’ve purchased my iPhone unlocked (I’m in Canada), and that reason is fuck the carriers and their bullshit money grubbing ways.

Think it can’t get any worse? Think again. According to the most assinine press release of all time, that luxury tax is being introduced to “continue to provide customers with the level of service and support they have come to expect.” I don’t know about you, but when was the last time you got excellent customer service from any cellular carrier, let alone Verizon? I’m pretty sure that we all expect to be jerked around, lied to, and misled when dealing with a major carrier. Apparently $30.00 is what it costs for continued terrible service.

Now you get to pay for not only using your phone, but Verizon’s support team. Awesome times. In a world where Apple’s now facing an anticompetitive hearing for e-book price fixing, how the hell do carriers still get away with this garbage?

Via: TechCrunch

Joshua is the Content Marketing Manager at BuySellAds. He’s also the founder of Macgasm.net. And since all that doesn’t quite give him enough content to wrangle, he’s also a technology journalist in his spare time, with bylines at PCWorld, Macworld and TechHive.