Hello, all. I am new to this forum, and may not ever post another thread, but I have felt compelled to give some remarks about Friends & Family from the perspective of an Alltel customer about to be gobbled up by Verizon.
Verizon's Friends & Family is an inferior product to Alltel's My Circle. Yeah it's all fine and good that Verizon adopted the service, but I will be paying more money for 500 more minutes that I don't need. Why roll out a program, charge people more money, and then give them minutes that they are not likely to use? In my estimation, this is what Verizon has done in order to keep to their status quo, which is to charge higher prices for the same thing that smaller carriers are offering at a more competitive (and in my opinion, fair) rate.
The concept of My Circle is to attract customers by offering them a group of numbers that they can call that will not be counted against their anytime minutes, thus saving them the need to opt for more expensive plans with anytime minutes that they don't have to use (or won't use). It's value. By making Friends & Family require a plan with a minimum of 1400 minutes kind of defeats the purpose altogether, at least from the perspective of an Alltel Customer who is used to benefiting from the more valuable My Circle. If I switched to a Verizon contract, I would be paying twenty to thirty dollars more for minutes that I'll never use.
Personally, my only saving grace is that I am in the upgrade period and have the opportunity to extend my Alltel plan another couple of years. As long as Verizon lives to its word, I will get the benefit of My Circle for the term of the contract, and I suspect that the wireless landscape will have changed appreciably when it comes time to renew. Hopefully by then, the value that is My Circle today, will be trumped by the unlimited plans of companies like Cricket, Boost Mobile, and Metro PCs's of tomorrow.
Make no mistake: Friends & Family vs. My Circle is not really a battle. My Circle wins hands down. And I am pretty surprised to see that no one has really addressed this issue on the internet. When I searched for information, basically all I could find was how Verizon was adopting My Circle as Friends & Family (and seemingly doing both Verizon and Alltel customers a favor), but Friends and Family is basically a smokescreen to support Verizon's substantially higher prices for similar services. Well, I ain't going for it.
It is true that I am leaning towards staying with Verizon because of My Circle with Alltel, and officially become a default Verizon customer by July 13, 2009, but if Verizon doesn't give me the value that Alltel has over the years, then I won't be a customer come August 13, 2011. Verizon can thank My Circle for keeping me and my family. If I had to rely on Friends & Family with its current 1400 minute restriction, then I wouldn't be with Verizon in September. I know that Verizon has a great service by all accounts, but for my money, it's not $20 to $30 better than what I have with Alltel.
Verizon's Friends & Family is an inferior product to Alltel's My Circle. Yeah it's all fine and good that Verizon adopted the service, but I will be paying more money for 500 more minutes that I don't need. Why roll out a program, charge people more money, and then give them minutes that they are not likely to use? In my estimation, this is what Verizon has done in order to keep to their status quo, which is to charge higher prices for the same thing that smaller carriers are offering at a more competitive (and in my opinion, fair) rate.
The concept of My Circle is to attract customers by offering them a group of numbers that they can call that will not be counted against their anytime minutes, thus saving them the need to opt for more expensive plans with anytime minutes that they don't have to use (or won't use). It's value. By making Friends & Family require a plan with a minimum of 1400 minutes kind of defeats the purpose altogether, at least from the perspective of an Alltel Customer who is used to benefiting from the more valuable My Circle. If I switched to a Verizon contract, I would be paying twenty to thirty dollars more for minutes that I'll never use.
Personally, my only saving grace is that I am in the upgrade period and have the opportunity to extend my Alltel plan another couple of years. As long as Verizon lives to its word, I will get the benefit of My Circle for the term of the contract, and I suspect that the wireless landscape will have changed appreciably when it comes time to renew. Hopefully by then, the value that is My Circle today, will be trumped by the unlimited plans of companies like Cricket, Boost Mobile, and Metro PCs's of tomorrow.
Make no mistake: Friends & Family vs. My Circle is not really a battle. My Circle wins hands down. And I am pretty surprised to see that no one has really addressed this issue on the internet. When I searched for information, basically all I could find was how Verizon was adopting My Circle as Friends & Family (and seemingly doing both Verizon and Alltel customers a favor), but Friends and Family is basically a smokescreen to support Verizon's substantially higher prices for similar services. Well, I ain't going for it.
It is true that I am leaning towards staying with Verizon because of My Circle with Alltel, and officially become a default Verizon customer by July 13, 2009, but if Verizon doesn't give me the value that Alltel has over the years, then I won't be a customer come August 13, 2011. Verizon can thank My Circle for keeping me and my family. If I had to rely on Friends & Family with its current 1400 minute restriction, then I wouldn't be with Verizon in September. I know that Verizon has a great service by all accounts, but for my money, it's not $20 to $30 better than what I have with Alltel.