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.

Suppose a customer said to you "I'd like to be able to spend LESS
money with your company. I'd like you to grant me a waiver from your
rules so that I can start paying you less."

What would you say?

I can see receiving a favor if you're upgrading to a more expensive
plan. Or if the company honestly believes that you're going to
leave.

But, despite the notorious churn in the wireless industry, the number
of people that leave over matters like this is surprisingly low. Most
people change carriers in order to get a specific phone or because of
a specific rate plan.

Sprint, who loses more customers than any of the big players, recently
realized this. They've tightened up their policy on favors and, so
far, they've found that they've been able to be a better performing
business because of it. Go figure.

Yeah, you're probably right about Sprint. The thing that upsets me
here is that Verizon has people sign a 2 year contract with the
understanding that NE2 comes up every 22 months. So they're trying to
create an incentive for people to sign a new contract every 22 months
or so. That's exactly what I want to do. If they want me to sign a
new contract, then we are agreeing to expire the previous one. I'm
not willing to pay an ETF fee for a line on an expired contract. If
they want my business for the next 2 years, they should waive that
fee. If they choose not to, that's ok as well, but there's no
incentive for me to upgrade. Verizon and I will just part ways in a
few months and I'll get new phones on another network.

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.