rip off data plans

My son just got a used iphone handed down to him. He does NOT need a
data plan nor would I if I had an iphone. WIFI in our home gets the
updates and apps, whatever online fine for the phone to stay current.
We tried to hook it up to replace the simple cell phone he has had for
a long time. Guess what? gotta have a data plan with minimum $30
extra a month. What a scam!!! This phone is out of contract, verizon
has already made their $ off of it and now they want to force people
to pay for internet that they don't need on an out of contract used
phone! I already got internet in my house, I don't need it/can't
afford it in my son's phone. Verizon knows the demand for the iphone
and simlilar and is ripping people off because of it. And again,
contrary to one comment I saw on here, YOU DO NOT NEED A DATA PLAN TO
KEEP THE PHONE UPDATED IF YOU HAVE INTERNET IN YOUR HOUSE WITH WIFI!

How about this. I just bought an old blackberry off ebay and plugged
my sim card in and got stuck with a data plan that I don't want. What
a ripoff. I didn't buy the phone from them for them to subsidize.
Bastards just rip people off. It's my phone and they are forcing me
to buy something that I will not use. I am pissed. I have U-verse
and spend $3,700. per year with AT&T for wireless and Uverse. Now I'm
being ripped off another $180 for a damn data plan that I'm not going
to use.

I 100% agree with you. The customer should not be force to add data
plans especially for kids. Sometimes these companies have no common
sense at all. Recently, I saw that T-mobile was offering kids free
until 2012 I believe. Now that is a way of offering service to
parents.

Amen!!!! I emailed Verizon yesterday and just today received a
response regarding the same thing. It totally makes me less than
thrilled about this. We spend $140 a month on our family share plan.
I am in no way going to spend another $10 per line to add a data plan.
In their email response they gave me tons of info on data plans, blah
blah blah. They even went ao far as to tell me they also had phones
available with the qwerty keyboard and to click here and check them
out. I did ~ there was ONE PHONE available.

I have just contacted ATT. They offer phones with the option of
either data or text messaging plans. I am seriously considering
switching and tell all my friends the same.

I am so mad at Verizon I could scream!!!!!!!!!

I agree with you. I wanted to get the Alias2 because I prefer talking
on a flip but also want a QWERTY keyboard and this fits it perfectly.
However... I DO NOT NEED INTERNET... I do not want or need to pay an
extra $9.99 per month to get this phone. it's rediculous. They are
simply being greedy and covering it with "we're doing this so you
don't rack up a large bill" BS. Maybe.. just maybe I would consider it
if the $9.99 got you more than 25 MB. $10 for 25MB and $30 for
Unlimited.. $20 difference for such a HUGE change in usage. The new
plans at ATT are going to be 250MB for $15.. that is much more
reasonable. My contract is up in another month and I'm switching
carriers because of this.

You may get upset now about having to pay for a data package. But just
imagine how upset you will be when a bill comes in the mail for
$24,000 because your child used the internet and was charged for
megabyte of use.

Why would kids that young need smartphones? They got alot of people
and appointments they need to keep tabs on?

The reason for the dataplan is because 99.9% of people will want to
access the net for mail, web browsing, music, TV, games, etc.

I know you can buy the phones on Ebay, but you probably will not be
able to activate them. And even if they do you need to be prepared
for the .99 cents a minute you might get charged the first time the
phone accesses the net without a plan. And most BB's and my Palm Pre
do it constantly to check for updates, news feeds, check my email or
whatever.

Pretty sad now parents having to bribe kids to get good grades. I
remember it was get good grades or get grounded, and occationally when
I did bring home a good grade we went out for ice cream. My parents
just sat me down and gave me the harsh reality of what bad grades do
in the future.

Seems to me if you start off by bribing your kids now they will just
grow up expecting something just because they did what they were
supposed to do.

I guess I'm confused. I have AT&T and was able to get a Blackberry
when I was eligible for a new phone. I love it because it has a
wonderful datebook. I have also texted a few times with a friend
who's son is frequently in the hospital (making texting much simpler
for her) I don't have any need for email or internet capabilities
however.

So are the phone companies now requiring that you purchase data plans
with certain phones? What if you purchased an unlocked phone, would
they still require it then?

Sigh. In my day, the reward for doing well in school was graduating
and getting a challenging and rewarding job.

There are plenty of phones that don't require data plans. Naturally,
phones that are more cool will be more capable, which is one of the
things that makes them cool. And more capable means internet.

If your kids need cool phones, maybe putting some colorful stickers on
them would help.

Now a Hugo and a Rabbit. They don't have 4-wheel drive but they are
cool. Not safe, but cool.

Whatever happened to taking kids out for ice cream for good grades?

Now they get cell phones?? Wow


Good Day

Verizon has 17 phones on their website that do not require a data
plan. Of those 17, at least 10 have the "cool" features that kids
wants like V Cast. They range in price from Free to $149.99.

From what I have read, AT&T is going to be doing the same thing. Since
most people are texting and using email and internet on their phones
now, the service providers have increased the amount of phones they
will require some sort of data plan for. They also lowered the price
for some of their voice plans. You are welcome to shop around to the
other service providers but you will find similar pricing everywhere.

Buy a data plan, a good unlimited one. Trust me, it will be cheaper
than your kids finding out how to use the internet on the phone and
running up a huge phone bill.

Service 101 is NOT giving the customer what they want. It's about
working out the BEST deal for both the customer and the business. If
that was the case, then all the businesses would go bankrupt. Think
about it-I could go into a store, take whatever I wanted off the shelf
and then scream that "the customer is always right, these items are
priced wrongly, I get to take them for free!" and walk off with a heap
of stuff. Nobody's putting a gun to anyone's head and forcing them to
shop there. There are other phone companies out there. And maybe it IS
the manufacturer. Finally, cool new phones are the ones that are more
likely to break down early and/or get stolen by others. Do you really
want your hard-earned money going down on that?