Why I Left Verizon for T-Mobile

Recently my wife and I made the switch over from Verizon to T-Mobile, and a number of people have asked why we made the switch. So I figured I'd spend a little time letting everyone know why we made the switch. So let's jump right in.

To be honest, we weren't incredibly unhappy with our Verizon service. We actually liked it quite a bit. The customer service has always been great to us at Verizon, their wireless service is the best, especially when traveling, and my wife and I were both happy with our phones. But there have always been a number of things that have bugged me about Verizon that, while they didn't affect my day-to-day use with them, made me increasingly dissatisfied with their service. T-Mobile has addressed many of those concerns, and when they announced their plan to pay for ETFs for switching, it sealed the deal for us. But what are those concerns? I'm glad you asked! Let's go over them one at a time.

Phone selection and availability

Verizon has a reputation for always being the last to the game when it comes to new devices. Yes, they have a few exclusives like the Droid series that are kind of cool, but those phones never appealed to me. Phones like the Galaxy S4, the HTC One, the LG G2, etc. ALWAYS came out long after the competition had begun selling them. I really wanted an HTC One when it was debuted in February 2013 and while every other carrier was selling it by March, Verizon didn't start selling it until the end of August 2013. At that point, I was buying a 6-month old phone, which is already starting to be on the edge of obsolete. T-Mobile is always one of the first carriers to get new devices, and combine that with the fact that I don't have to wait two years on T-Mobile to upgrade a device (as is the case with Verizon unless you want to pay an exorbitant amount of money), and that's a big deal.

Then there's phone availability. Verizon is really restrictive when it comes to the phones and tablets they allow on their network. Essentially, if it isn't branded by Verizon, it won't work on Verizon. So no Nexus devices like the Nexus 7 or the Nexus 5, which was also a phone I was looking at purchasing. T-Mobile is a lot more open with the devices it allows on its network, meaning my buying choices are a lot broader.

Android Updates

This is more specific to me because I'm an Android user, but goodness gracious, Verizon takes forever to push out Android OS updates to their phones, and it's ridiculous. Again, they're usually at least a month later if not more than all of their competitors. Some of this is on the device manufacturers, but a lot of it is because Verizon is so restrictive with their network. Again, T-Mobile is usually right up there with the rest of the wireless carriers when it comes to pushing out updates.

Company Reputation

This isn't a huge one, but when Verizon is basically on the wrong side of all net neutrality arguments, it makes it really hard to like them as a company. While T-Mobile hasn't come out as a huge proponent of net neutrality, they have at least backed off of fighting it within the last year.

Another thing that bugged me with Verizon was Viva Movil, Verizon's hispanic-based stores fronted by J-Lo. Now, I have to admit this also bugged me because they announced this program on a day where a lot of people were expecting Verizon to announce the HTC One, so that didn't help. But I don't think I was the only one who felt this came off as racist. Verizon can't serve hispanics and latinos well enough in their regular stores so they have to create specialized stores so you can meet their needs better? Sounds a little like segregation to me. I contrast that with T-Mobile's push to help their customers with their mobile wireless pain points, and I get a very different picture of what they company's objectives are and how they're trying to best serve their customers.

Data Caps

I use a lot of data each month. With Verizon, this meant I had to spend a lot more money to make sure I didn't go over my monthly allowance, and Verizon does not have an unlimited data option anymore. So if I go over my monthly allotment, I get hit with a huge extra charge. T-Mobile will throttle my connection if I go over a certain amount each month, but I won't get charged for it. That's huge. I can handle a slow connection, especially since I can always hop on a wireless network. Makes a big difference in how I use my data, especially since I often use my phone as a GPS, which hogs a lot of data.

Price

This ultimately leads to the price difference, but I'm not just talking about lower monthly costs (though T-Mobile is certainly a lot cheaper than Verizon). I'm also talking about what I'm actually paying for. Verizon subsidizes the cost of their phones. So when I buy a $700 Galaxy Note 3, I'm not paying $700 for the phone; I'm paying $300 and Verizon is picking up the rest of the tab. Except then I pay for that phone forever. And by forever, I really mean forever until I switch my phone. This is because wrapped up into Verizon's service cost is a subsidy for the phone. It's somewhere in the range of $20 a month but no one really knows because Verizon won't say how much that subsidy is though they acknowledge it's there. But it's about $20; looking at the previous example, splitting the cost of $400 of two years would be about $20 a month. When the two year contract is up (also terrible), that subsidy doesn't go away. I continue to pay that $20 a month as though I'm still paying off the phone. Combine that with the fact that I've waited at least a month longer than everyone else to get this phone, and now that extra cost seems less attractive. With T-Mobile, the phone and service costs are separated. I pay one price for the service, a separate price for the phone, and once the phone is paid off, I no longer have to pay for the phone. In either case, I'm paying full price for the phone, but in the former, I'm paying that and then some. With T-Mobile, I pay for the price of the phone and nothing more.

Incidentally, this is also why Early Termination Fees (ETFs) exist. If I leave Verizon before my contract is up, they take a bath on the phone they subsidized. In order to recoup that money, they charge a huge ETF. But here's the catch: that ETF doesn't reduce at the same rate as the subsidy you pay. Their ETF only reduces by $10 each month while I'm paying $20 a month for the subsidy. T-Mobile will still make me pay for the rest of my phone if I cancel my service, but they won't charge me more than I owe. And if I've paid off the phone before I cancel the service, I don't owe anything more for canceling.

Would I Switch Back?

I've heard from some people that if I had pushed Verizon, I could have gotten a cheaper plan for being a loyal customer. And I have been loyal to Verizon: until now, Verizon was the only wireless carrier I ever used, going back to high school (back when they were AirTouch Wireless). But the issue wasn't just a cheaper cost. It's all of these things put together, and it would take an entire culture shift in Verizon to make those changes happen. Sure, I could have switched to a pre-paid plan, but again, I would have had to wait until the end of my contract, and mostly likely I would have had to buy a new phone outright to make that work. But the biggest thing is that with T-Mobile, I feel like my needs are getting put first. As good as Verizon is, I just felt like another cog in the machine. With T-Mobile, I feel like if I have a problem, it's going to be addressed in a permanent way, not just a "we're trying to appease you so you won't leave" way.

So that's why we switched. So far I've really liked T-Mobile's service. My phone is really nice, and it's going to be cheaper both for the phone and the service. If you have any other questions about why we switched, just leave me a comment.

Quick Introduction

Hi guys! Once again I'm going to try to do this whole blogging thing. And I'm going to keep this intro short and sweet so we can move on. =) This is just a place for my random thoughts. Could be about theology, baseball, my dog, my family, or why I think blue is a better color than orange. (see what I did there?) So sit back, enjoy, and onto our first blog entry!