Verizon Wireless may eliminate rebates on smartphones $150 and up

By on Jan 28, 2011 at 1:46 PM
mobile January 28, 2011

According to a new report from Android enthusiast blog Android Central, Verizon Wireless will eliminate rebates on all smartphones priced $150 and higher. Smartphones priced at $149.99 and lower will still have associated rebates, which are typically $50 and require proof of purchase to be mailed into a processing center. Rebates will now be applied instantly on Verizon’s high-end devices, so customers will no longer have to wait for reimbursement by mail. A screen shot of what is presumed to be an internal Verizon Wireless document states that the policy change will go into effect at the end of this month. The new move, which comes just ahead of Verizon Wireless’ iPhone 4 launch, is likely a result of the imminent release of Apple’s smartphone as the carrier will not require a rebate with iPhone purchases.

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46 Comments

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  • Jroc869

    gay

  • Riley Biers

    Verizon is starting to turn into a huge douche after getting the Jesus Phone. I’m even more glad that I left them for Sprint.

    • Monique

      what are you talking about? this is a good thing. for example, the droid x is $199 WITH a $100 mail in rebate. therefore, you have to pay $299 upfront then wait to get your $100 gift card in the mail. With this new policy, you will pay $199 for the phone and not have to wait for $100 gift card. In essence, the ‘discount’ is applied instantly….

      • Nyynke98

        Did you happen to read the part that said “will have no rebates”? Does not say will be applied instantly, says in a gently Verizon massage, F – You

      • sheellll

        They will be instant rebates, they won’t make a droid x $299 when the iphone will be $199.

      • Tee

        Maybe you should invest on researching this issue more than just reading this piss-poor article that leaves out the replacement… which, as has been explained, removes the rebate and gives you the 2-year contract price without the wait. So now, when something is advertised as “199.99″ it actually IS “199.99″ instead of having to wait 3 months for 100 dollars on a pre-paid debit card.

      • Monique

        I guess you still don’t get it..what a shame

      • Tee

        By the way, that would entail the terrible task of hitting the “Read” button below what they have used as a summary…

    • Anonymous

      Verizon has been a douche, what are you talking about? They are just as expensive as any other major carrier.

    • Sonya

      Wow. Reading is fundamental.

  • Anonymous

    Translation: Now that we’re selling the iPhone, which sells for $200-$300 consistently without the benefit of rebates or buy-one-get-one-free deals, we no longer feel compelled to offer rebates on devices that we only pushed to consumers because we didn’t have the iPhone. Though this will result in reduced sales by RIM and our Android partners, we’d prefer to actually sell devices instead of giving them away. Cheers.

    • Tim242

      The rebate is now instant, idiot.

    • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiQmQhA-OrM Walter Sobchak

      You are priceless!

  • Jorge

    And that is the reason I buy my phones through Amazon.

    • Tim242

      The rebate is now instant, idiot.

  • http://baoquyphan.tumblr.com Bao Q

    WTF You guys this is a good thing. No longer will VZW customers have to use rebates. They’re getting rid of the process of sending in a rebate and just making the pricing as is.

  • Xavier Peppers

    What do you people not understand? You’re getting an INSTANT rebate. So if you bought a Droid X on a 2-year contract at $199.99 but had to pay $300 and wait for the $100 dollars in the mail, that’s not going to be around anymore. It’s now instant.

    • palomosan

      Yep, it’s as easy as pie to understand, finally some good news for Verizon customers after all the nonsense about the every two and one year contracts.

  • Anonymous

    Awesome! I hate rebates! They know I never send them in.

  • Monique

    I guess some of you guys don’t know how to read…no more having to wait for $100 off the phones…you will get the ‘discount’ instantaneously….so, instead of paying $299 upfront and then having to wait for your $100 gift card in the mail, you will only pay $199 upfront…no more having to wait for that $100 discount…this is a good thing…

  • JayKay

    BGR missed an important part of the article. As the Android Central article states, “Now before anybody freaks out, we’re told all that means is that it’ll be treated more like an instant rebate.”, which might be a good thing considering you won’t have to wait to your rebate in the mail.

    • RIMrod

      They didn’t miss anything. These commenters are just idiots.

  • Sherrejon

    The reason why Verizon is doing this is because of Best Buy. Heres an example : Lets say you buy a DROID X. Go to a VZW store and it will cost you 300 and youll get a 100 visa card in the mail. Who wants to wait a month and cut the UPC out of your Droid X box? Not me. BUT …… If you go to best Buy youll get the phone for 200 straight up without any stupid rebates and youll have a nice clean box so when you sell it on ebay your buyer will be so happy ! out.

    • Sherrejon

      I buy all my smatphones at Best Buy because they eat the rebates !

    • Sheelll

      You’re mistaken if you think verizon cares what best buy does. Apple is the whole reason they are changing the rebates. The iphone doesn’t have a rebate. Verizon changed the return policy to 14 days why…..because apple does 14 days. No more $15 data package. Apple is screwing everything up.

      • Tim242

        The rebate is now instant, idiot.

    • http://twitter.com/VDubb722 Vic Webb

      You realize that when Best Buy sells a Verizon phone, Verizon still benefits. Verizon doesn’t care who sells the contract as long as they end up a Verizon Wireless subscriber. This is so that the iPhone doesn’t cannibalize the sales of Android and BlackBerry devices by discouraging customers with the MIR.

  • JohnPA2006

    If they keep up with this “customer un-friendly” rules people will start going to other carriers.
    Someone at Verizon thinks their running Germany back in the 1940′s
    people WILL NOT tolerate it. and will leave.

    • guest

      #fail

    • Monique

      okay, Bye…guess you didn’t understand what BGR was saying either…I think BGR needs to edit this article….for those that still don’t get it…REBATES WILL NOT BE NECESSARY! YOU WILL PAY $199 UPFRONT FOR A PHONE INSTEAD OF PAYING $299 AND THEN WAITING FOR THE $100 MAIL-IN REBATE….NOW WAS THAT SO HARD?

      • 13s13rod

        Monique is mad cute .. i love smart women ….!!!!!

    • Tim242

      The rebate is now instant, idiot.

      • Anonymous

        No need to keep spamming, Tim.

      • Tim242

        They keep saying the same thing over and over.

  • andre141

    Headline should read: Verizon Wireless may eliminate MAIL IN rebates on smartphones $150 and up.

    Current headline suggests people will now be paying full price for smartphones.

    • http://twitter.com/stephen_peters Stephen Peters

      Bingo….it’s a poorly written article with an even worse headline. When this came up on my twitter feed, I took it to understand no more rebates at all for phones $150.00 and up, which would eliminate my wanting to upgrade my phone to something new this year. I had to re-read it twice to fully try to fully understand why it said “Good News” in the screen capture.

  • Cree

    Guys…guys…guys….some people on this forum are a little confused.

    The article should state this….”Phone over $150 no MIR Required, Price of Phone will reflect Instant Rebate”. “If phone is under $150 a MIR is required to send for processing. No Instant Rebate will be provided upon purchase”. This should help with any confusion.

    Cree

  • Hiking

    Oooooooh verizon is sooooo much better then AT&T. Now that we are almost comparing apples to apples verizon don’t look so good

  • http://www.vgchartz.com SuperChunk

    This says “net” which to me means outside of the normal subsidized pricing. Meaning typical smartphones will still cost $200 new and instead just won’t have any additional discounts.

  • http://www.vgchartz.com SuperChunk

    Also, my last two verizon phones were purchased from Best But… well they were free Fascinates, so there are plenty of other BETTER choices to get your hardware from anyways.

  • Hb_4_dg

    IDIOTS!!!!! Look at what you are reading!!!!!

    Verizon is lowering the price of the phones up front! You won’t have to wait 3 months to get your money back in the from of a gift card.

  • Joel Kuhns

    at&t did this for most of their smartphones long ago

    • http://twitter.com/VDubb722 Vic Webb

      Take a guess why AT&T did it long ago and Verizon is starting to now…

  • SupAll

    I think the confusion is caused by BGR’s poor paragraph structure. I mistook it as “rebates eliminated, so now you have to pay more, but 149.99 with rebates are applied instantly”

  • Geri O

    I like the way BGR words this article to almost, but not quite insinuate that Verizon was eliminating the rebate-pricing altogether instead of mentioning that the prices of the phones would be the after-rebate pricing. What’s up with that? And to not-so-smart some of us here are buying it without realizing just what the case actually is.

    Nice work.

    Geri O

  • http://www.thetechtemple.com The Tech Temple

    LOL @ the confusion.

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