Been with them since 2002. Purchased my IPhone 7 through them when it was the latest offering.
Would like to upgrade to a newer IPhone mainly because my 7 will only be supported by Apple for so long, and I have already replaced the battery once. Worry that the 7 will fail and I will have to replace it under duress. Wife had to with her last phone.
Verizon insists no "free IPhone deals" for me. Only available on trade ins that they can resell. The 7 is too old.
I'm not looking for latest or most expensive version of an IPhone.
A couple months ago a family member went from Android to current IPhone with Verizon, no out of pocket or monthly. No questions asked.
I tried to upgrade last year and couldn't get a deal and that's when I replaced the battery.

What am I missing here? Do I just have to catch them when the stars have aligned? Don't really want to change carriers just to make it happen but I'm not going to come out of pocket roughly $1000 to replace my 7. Any tips on getting them to step up?

I have no problem signing on for another couple of years as part of a deal.

Usually if you contract for another term they will/may comp you a new phone, used to be only for new customers, now all carriers are retention focused as well.

If not, switch, find out what carriers work well in your area, switched from Verizon back in the "we don't want paying customers to stay" period to ATT, then to T-Mobile, each time when the deal was better to move than stay.

If you are over 55 check into the 55+ plans with your carrier as well, massive savings.

I've given up on working with the carriers for cell phone deals. AT&T wants you on a more expensive monthly plan to get any deals. Same for the Costco deal.

So I'm staring to just buy my own unlocked refurb phone and put my sim / eSIM into it.

You can save a lot by going a generation or 2 older and buying refurb. There are 2 or 3 reputable refurb sellers on line. I may try Gazelle.

Lots of refurb iphone 13's out there as the rich folk move to iphone 14's.

quote:

buy my own unlocked refurb phone

This is what I do through Amazon Renew and my service with Total Wireless. Two phones with unlimited call, text and I share 60gb data a month with my daughter for $57

If you are military / veteran, check Apple's military website. They offer a 10% discount, which can be stacked with the 15% discount for re-furbished iPhones. New battery, new shell (outer case), 100% warranty same as new retail warranty. Best deal around.

If you are a Spectrum internet customer, you can't beat the deal offered by Spectrum Mobile. $29 / phone / month, unlimited voice, text, and data with no contract, walk away any time with no penalty. They use the Verizon network, so you get the same coverage, for a lot less money. Charter has a similar deal.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
If you are military / veteran, check Apple's military website. They offer a 10% discount, which can be stacked with the 15% discount for re-furbished iPhones. New battery, new shell (outer case), 100% warranty same as new retail warranty. Best deal around.

This ^^^^^ is The Way. Then take it to the carrier of your choice.

I haven't bought a phone from a carrier since switching from my Palm Centro to an HTC Sensation, back when we moved from Sprint to T-Mobile ten years ago.

For the past several years I buy unlocked refurbs from Woot. I have no need for top-of-the-line.

They have this right now.

Woot - Iphone 11


Rick

I have bought 3 "mint" iPhones with 100% battery through

https://swappa.com/

All have been perfect and work with just a SIM card transfer from the old phone.

I am with Verizon, and have bought our last 5-6 phones on eBay, got upgraded SIM cards from Verizon for free, and saved a lot rather than buying the latest phones. I know we'd probably be cheaper with another carrier, but our costs actually dropped after moving to 5G.

I'm a few generations back from the latest, but everything works fine.

On our latest 2 phones, Verizon's tech support getting things working has been top notch.