ETF for long-time customer when renewing a plan?

A Verizon representative called today. He was very friendly and
understood why this seems trivial to me. He agreed and waived the
fee. Thanks to Verizon and PFB for working this out!

Dude, you signed 2 year contracts, that means you pay for service on
those lines for 24 months or pay a penalty to cancel it early. EVERY
CARRIER IN THE US OPERATES THIS WAY.

Plus you are being very misleading with your wording. You are NOT
being charged an ETF for upgrading 3 lines, you ARE being charged an
ETF for canceling one line. Own up to the contract you signed.

These bastards all operate pretty much the same way. As Jeffrey wrote
below, if you are otherwise happy it may make sense to stay put.

Ok, here's what I think. The guy has been with them 10 years! Just
give a guy a break and waive the fee. He's upgrading the main line so
that one's stuck for two years. A little customer service goes a long
way.

on the line you are upgrading so you are not agreeing to expire the
previous one, only the agreement on the one line you are upgrading.
If these 4 lines were put into service at the same time and you are
only upgrading 1 with the NE2, then you only have 2 months left on the
line you want to cancel. Why not just wait?

I am right about Sprint. I handle 2500 lines of services with Sprint
for my firm and 80 with Verizon and this is just the way it works.

Go to another carrier if you want but they all work that way.

Contract lengths is by line, not account. If the line you want to
drop is still under contract, they will charge you an ETF. My
stepdaughter and I are on the same account. She is under contract
since she recently upgraded her phone and I am not. If she wants to
cancel, we would have to pay an ETF.

I'm pretty sure that if you called Sprint and said you wanted to
cancel a line of service that's still under contract, they'd charge
you an ETF.

If you're out of contract on at least one phone, then tell them that
you want to drop THAT line. You'll lose the phone number, but at
least you won't have to the pay the ETF. And there are things you can
do to keep your number.

What you should do is renew only the main line and get the Tour. Make
sure they don't extend the contact on the other lines. Then, when
that 4th line's contract expired, cancel it ETF-free.