UTTERLY, Thoroughly Confused: Verizon Help Needed

S

Sandy C

New Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2006
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Hi... I posted a few weeks ago for some gift ideas which I greatly appreciate the web addresses. However I'm just about at my wits end to figure out what to do in the communications arena.

My wife's hearing is now to the point where she despises talking on the phone. So I'm trying to figure out what my options are as we put her cell phone out for retirement. We already have a contract with Verizon and monthly cost is an issue. We have a pretty good deal now with the family plan, 3 lines, $70/mo.

Should I buy her a Qwerty type phone and just do txt messaging? If we end up txting enough we can add on unlimited for $10/mo. We might not even txt that much and we just pay 10 cents per txt, but then it's really 20 cents because I get charged and she gets charged (I think).

One sales rep said to get a blackberry type and get a 2nd contract but that's $40 a month. Is that all any of you guys do? Just get a Qwerty type phone with unlimited txting?

HELP, I'm so disgusted trying to figure this out.

Thanks,
Sandy's husband, Bill
 
hi bill, this is intresting information. yes you can get charged for this BUT, if you set up an unlimited txt messaging with verizon on both ends and still use your own regular phone you can set this up this way with umilimited plans. ask them for that set up and u can save money for both ends and all you use is the voice plan for ur phone WITH data unlimited plans. this is what i used and have used for a quite a while and has worked very well for me, OR just go get the motorola Q plan and use that so she and you can use both ways and not have to stress out on the text messaging and getting stuck on high bills. thats an idea.

good luck :)
 
"Sounds" like the unlimited text messaging is the way to go, if you already have a family plan. I use a Blackberry on T-Mobile without any voice plan for $29.99 a month (unlimited email, and data plan). If I wanted a family voice plan that would be extra. In your case it may not be worth it at this time. Perhaps in the future, your needs will change. For now text messaging looks good. (of course, not everyone will have unlimited texting so it could cost them to receive them from her.)
 
Sandy C said:
My wife's hearing is now to the point where she despises talking on the phone. So I'm trying to figure out what my options are as we put her cell phone out for retirement. We already have a contract with Verizon and monthly cost is an issue. We have a pretty good deal now with the family plan, 3 lines, $70/mo.
Click to expand...

Are you stuck with Verizon? The reason why I'm asking is that it may be worth your time shop around, look at different phones to see what your wife may like. Verizon and Sprint are pretty good on the hearing loss category for quality. The other alternative is to have your wife figure out if she's comfortable with using relay services on a phone such as a Blackberry or a Windows Mobile device, or even AOL instant messenger.
 
OK... I'm back, the original poster, but I got my own login instead of using my wife's. Anyway... Yes, we are stuck in a family plan with Verizon for at least another year. So currently we have 3 lines at $70.

Texting just isn't real attractive because it's so slow and awkward. It's OK to say "Honey pickup milk" but obviously can't replace a normal phone conversation. Sandy can no longer really have normal phone conversations.

We thought about TTY VO, but I don't know how realistic it is to expect other people to use TTY all the time. My thinking is they'll just avoid calling her, which defeats the purpose, even though in the long run it's the cheapest alternative.

I'm thinking about getting a data only option for her. She would have NO phone. But would be able to read and respond to e-mail. I will be talking to Verizon this morning, but the website doesn't list this option. T-Mobile does and a Sidekick seems nice. I think that's $30/month... drop one family line from Verizon and it's really only adding $10/mo. Consider that we won't have to txt each other and it will be adding only $10/mo beyond that....

SIGH.... I suppose we are doomed to have the $100/mo phone bill?!?! But we have NO home/landline phone so it's either this or nothing for Sandy from what I can figure.

I welcome anymore input.

Bill
 
Back
Top