Followup on Verizon Wireless' "Share Everything" - Maximize The Value

Back on March 23rd, I posted a rather candid article detailing my analysis of Verizon Wireless' "Share Everything" offering.  Verizon Wireless' "Share Everything" is a Terrible Plan.

In that article, I gave statements that were true on their face. However, a call to Verizon Wireless Customer Service revealed, as always with them, hidden ways to work around the shortcomings of their plans. I'm going to tackle each statement, then I'm going to share information with you in case it's of value. Frankly, I don't think I should be doing their job for them; this is something they should openly advertise as a value, but whatever.

1. Under Verizon's ideal situation, I'd be forced into the following scenario.  The idea that they would force all of your lines into the "Share Everything".  This actually is true only online.  If you call (and in theory, in store, though I wouldn't trust this), you can isolate lines from "Share Everything".  The actual rule is, if you don't have any sort of share plan (family or Share Everything), you can have one and only one, but you don't have to include all lines as long as you specify which ones are excluded.  If you already have a family share plan, you have to do a lateral change to a Share Everything plan (since in a family plan all devices are already included).  If you've never had a shared plan but you have multiple lines, you can wrap some into Share Everything and leave some out.
   
   SO take this scenario.  A father has a smart phone with unlimited data, kids and wife have basic phones and maybe one tablet.  It's a LOT cheaper for the father to exclude his smartphone, because the Basic Phone plan's data tiers are substantially cheaper than the Smartphone one (which he'd be forced into if he wrapped his phone into the plan).
   
   Here's another scenario.  Frequent commuter has a smartphone with unlimited data, wants a tablet and a hotspot as he doesn't do much calling but he uses a lot of data.  He/she can wrap the two data devices in a Data Only Share Everything plan which is substantially cheaper than the smartphone one.
   
   Verizon REALLY needs to advertise this.
   
2. Data Only plans prohibit you from having a device capable of doing voice and/or text. Did you know that Verizon has a hidden share plan called "Data Only for Smartphones - Share Everything"? Did you know that said plan allows you to have smartphones AND data devices on the same share plan but at the Data Only prices (the ones I said were a way better deal)? If you're a heavy data user but a light voice/text user this is the plan for you. You cannot add it online. You must add it through Customer Service.
   
   Scenario: Family has a share plan but with one smartphone and two tablets. Smartphone is rarely used for voice or text. This plan would allow them to enjoy data only prices but keep the smartphone.
   
   There is one downside to this plan. IF you do voice/text it's pay-per-use. The voice minute price is a ripoff at $.50 cents/minute. No, that's not a typo: if you do an hour's worth of calls, you will add $30 to your bill. Considering that same call literally costs Verizon less than $.10 to complete for you, it's clear that this plan is not for everyone. But choice is never a bad thing.

So, I ended up changing four of my lines over to a Data Only for Smartphones Share Everything plan. Three of the lines are still suspended (and it took some doing to get this just right). One line was swapped to a 5510L Jetpack, so it gets 10GB of data all to itself. My main line keeps unlimited data and 450 minutes, which for me is more than enough. Over time I'll close the suspended lines, but I'm considering a tablet now that everything is the way I want it.

All told, my bill went down $10/month. I kept unlimited. Basically got hotspot for free, and tripled the available data over it. So in Verizon's eyes I'm just a cheapskate right? Wrong. The fact that I was able to make these changes opens my consideration for adding devices I wouldn't have bought before. I'm thinking about getting a new phone, thinking about getting a tablet. Now that data isn't an issue, I'm open to both.

Verizon should really consider advertising these alternate options. At least broadcast the fact that you don't have to wrap everything in Share Everything (unless you're a new customer of course) if you don't already have a share plan. They could stand to make a LOT of money and get more customers transitioned off unlimited over time.