for what its worth, i just got my droid at a third party store. plan is as follows -

450 nationwide minutes 39.99
email and web for smartphone 29.99
unlimited mobile to mobile messaging and 500 out of network messages 9.99

the PDA/smartphone unlimited data package for 40 dollars is also available, but was not selected by default, at least when i purchased. vzw's website offers me the option to add or delete this $40 dollar charge.

description of $30 dollar plan - Email and Web for Smartphone - no mention here or in additional terms and conditions of any data limits.

Use your PDA/Smartphone for personal email and Web surfing.
Access up to ten POP3 and IMAP email accounts, including Yahoo!® Mail, AOL® Mail, Windows Live® Hotmail®, and Verizon.net.
Easy email account setup.
Unlimited Web Browsing
Voice Usage: Per your voice calling plan.
Required Equipment
Select CDMA PDA/Smartphone device with Verizon Wireless software required.

CDMA Data Roaming

In the Canadian Broadband and Canadian Enhanced Services Rate and Coverage Areas, usage will be charged at a rate of $0.002 per KB or $2.05 per MB.
In the Mexican Enhanced Services Rate and Coverage Area, usage will be charged at a rate of $0.005 per KB or $5.12 per MB.
For more information on roaming in Canada and Mexico, visit verizonwireless.com/naroaming

The Email and Web for BlackBerry and Email and Web for Smartphone Features are designed for personal, consumer use and are not compatible with some Internet email service offerings or with email applications utilizing BlackBerry Enterprise Server, BlackBerry Desktop Software, Wireless Sync or Wireless Sync Enterprise Server or Good™ Mobile Messaging. These features cannot be used to tether your device to laptops, personal computers or other devices for any purpose other than syncing of data; any other use is not permitted using these features. Service is only available in the National Enhanced Services and Extended National Enhanced Services Rate and Coverage Areas.

Additional Terms & Conditions apply

for the $40 plan - i'm reading the "connect to your pc" as tethering

Connect your mobile Smartphone to your PC with an unlimited data feature from Verizon Wireless. This feature offers unlimited data usage for access to corporate or personal POP3/IMAP email accounts and web browsing. Customers with access to an enterprise mail server will have the ability to synchronize e-mail, contacts, calendar, and tasks. Qualifying voice plan is required.

Always ask for a hard copy!

It's confusing as all hell. Would be nice if they actually mentioned this.

This sounds very similar to a problem my DH and I had with our smartphones (not Droids) from Verizon last year. I forget the details, but it was something like this. I had to get on the phone and argue for a long time before I finally got charged only for the data plans I actually wanted and not something else.

"These are not the droids you are looking for."

So frankly, I think that most consumers would much rather they just cut off the pipe at that point. Really, I don't think that any wording in the advertisements is sufficient if it's short of "You get 5GB for your money and after that, we will mess you up bad. If you exceed it, you're probably gonna start having to chose between paying your phone bill and paying your mortgage".

@harvey_birdman: Plus, that would be penalizing those who actually like the phone and plan on keeping it over the next couple of years without issue.

Maybe I heard this wrong, but I think they may have prorated the ETF to go with the increase.

@harvey_birdman: Can't. Price point of the iPhone wouldn't allow it.

Still, it's a rip. For DH and I to get a family plan with 450 minutes, no texting included and data would be $129/month. For that amount on Sprint, I can get 1500 minutes (which don't matter because calls to ANY mobile phone are included), unlimited text, and data. Oh, and nights start at 7 on Sprint and not until 9 on Verizon. I really want a Droid but I hate to leave Sprint. Verizon nickels and dimes people too much.

@dp05: Simple solution = raise the price of the phone.

@Mxx: the 44.99 a month plan is only if you'll be using VZW's Exchange solution. the 30 dollar plan provides unlimtied data and individual Exchange email.

This is not that hard folks...the 29.99 smartphone/email/data plan is what's giving you your email and such. This gentleman added the tethering plan, which costs more. I don't see double charging, I see a customer who misconfigured their account online.

@jimv2000: I did the same thing, though I didn't get as far in the checkout process as you did. I didn't have any added charges aside from the phone and plan.

I just went through their store, added the phone, the web/email 450 minute plan and it was only $99. It didn't make me add the web again on the feature screen. I went all the way to the point where they wanted my CC number and the price was still $99. Am I missing something?

My first bill had $185 in minute overages. On my unlimited minutes plan. Their billing "system" took the liberty of calculating my 5 person minute usage at my limited minute 2 person usage allocation.

And they tried to slip in an $18 upgrade fee on a phone I didn't upgrade.

But of course, I'm paying $28 a month for unlimited data, text, and mobile to mobile. More than you suckers on Verizon can say.

@pot_roast: There is logical reason for this. Verizon would be losing money by the boatload had they not. $200 ETF with a phone that costs $199 would allow the buyer eat the ETF, sell the phone $500 (retails for $600) and still turn a profit.

@slim150: Ah, I missed out on SERO

@R3PUBLIC0N: I am not defending the "Unlimited 5GB" wording that all of the carriers give, but I saw an advertisement where the wording on the disclaimer was different from the usual, and finally made it clear in my mind how they can use the wording that they use.

Almost all of the carriers charge a set fee for up to 5GB of data usage (for the sake of this example, lets say that fee is $30 (+applicable taxes and fees)). So if you use 4.99999999999GB of data, they will charge you a flat $30. When you reach or exceed the 5GB "limit" they don't turn off your data connection for the month (they just start charging you a few cents for each KB that you go over the 5GB limit). For all the carrier cares, you could use your wireless device to transfer terabytes of data, they will keep the data pipe open for you, thus, the data is truly unlimited, but if you want to avoid overages, you need to keep your usage below 5GB/month.

The key is in how they word the advertisement so that a 5GB limit is unlimited.

What's funny is NOBODY has been able to root the Droid (or the Cliq, for that matter) so the option to tether your Android device, unless there's something in 2.0 or on the Market that I'm unaware of, isn't there.

Maybe if Motorola and Verizon trusted their customers and allowed them root on their Android devices, then maybe they can give the option to tether.

It could be later in the purchasing process or in store could be just a bad way to purchase the phone.

my impression of the plan that people are looking at is it is unlimited data for dumbphones and therefore is not really applicable for a smartphone, and that is why the system is giving you the add on plan. You won't be double charged if you don't LET them doublecharge you by not understanding what you're buying.

Nevermind you are completely right you can't remove the additional 29.99 fee for email and messaging, yet the $99 plan includes email and messaging. This seems like a gross error. Its in the final checkout page not he page where you select the plans

[store.verizonwireless.com]

You either have basic, select, select canada, pda email and pda email and messaging.

basic: 39.99: 450 minutes
basic + Canada: 59.99: 450 minutes + calls to Canada
select: 59.99: 450 minutes + unlimited messaging
PDA email: 450 minutes + unlimited web
PDA messaging and email: 99.99 :450 minutes + unlimited messaging + unlimited web

no double charging here or weird plans. Its pretty straight forward here. 5 plans to pick from and 2 that include data

as long as it lives up to the hype, i'll be happy. this is my first smartphone, and verizon has been good to me, so i hope i don't have to deal with this.

@maggiemerc: But that still doesn't change the fact that when I added the Droid and selected the same plan the OP did, I didn't get any other charges other than the charge for the phone and the plan I selected. I didn't see any additional charges. Maybe Verizon tacks it on later in the checkout process, but as far as I could tell, the website does not distinguish that I selected a Droid, and as such, the plan I chose would not include a data plan applicable to that precise phone.

@slim150: I totally agree. I just don't get why I gotta pay $30 bucks for crippled internet month by month! $28 bucks?!?! Man you must have some wicked discounts!

@Darkwish: Maybe he's comparing the PDA/Smartphone plan that doesn't include the VZ email and navigator?

I've still got to call them today to sort out everything they potentially tacked onto my plan when I purchased my droid. The stores are extraordinarily unhelpful and lead towards being very confusing.

It doesn't help that uneducated employees try to sell your idiotic addons like the VZ Navigator.

The salesman that I spoke to told me that it was impossible to not have that redundant service. I guess Verizon just really needs money and doesn't care about their customers, as usual.

Curses to Verizon for having the best coverage. Otherwise I'd switch to a cheaper carrier.

@katstermonster: But I don't see where it mentions that those two features cost an extra $10.

@soloudinhere: My experience was opposite when it came to Best Buy Mobile. I wanted the lowest amount of minutes possible, and the computers at the store would only register the second lowest voice plan. I was told that the best way of getting around the problem was to sign up for the second lowest they had available, then go online to get access to my account and change it there.

Math fail.

Go to the VZW store, or Best Buy Mobile. They can do all kinds of things with their computers that the website can't do.

I tried to buy a droid online and it refused to let me REMOVE my 14.99 vcast plan (that I actually didn't know I had, long story) and only let me add the $29.99 smartphone bit.

When I went to the store, the rep explained that the online system is a little dumb and the $29.99 plan would actually cause the $14.99 plan to drop off, but of course there's no indication of that.

It's possible that the system automatically forces the selection of the add on, but the selection of the inclusive plan will cause it to drop off when the service is actually initiated. Check with the reps at your store if you're having trouble...there are times when it's appropriate to speak to an actual human who is standing in front of you.

Verizon Wireless Nationwide Single Line Connect 450
Mobile Email, Unlimited Messaging and no extra megabyte charges for sending or receiving data.
450 minutes $69.99

Description for Nationwide Single Line Connect 450 states:
Unlimited Text, Picture, Video & Instant Messaging
Mobile Email
Unlimited Data for Mobile Web and Get it Now/Media Center
Unlimited calling to all 80 million Verizon Wireless customers
Unlimited Night & Weekend Minutes
No Domestic Long Distance Charges"

when you add that plan to the cart they are also forcing you to select between:
Unlimited PDA/Smartphone Web Browsing and Email plus Corporate Access
$44.99/month
Unlimited PDA/Smartphone Web Browsing and Email
$29.99/month

Seems like they are double charging for the same service.

The OP says that when he went to checkout, the $29.99 charge was there - it doesn't show up on my checkout screen though. I did the same thing the OP did...I added the phone and the plan the OP added, and I'm not getting the additional $29.99 charge. Maybe it was just a glitch in the system?

"UNLIMITED WEB BROWSING, VZ Navigator, and VZMobile Email."

Only applies to dumbphones, not smartphones like Droid, which doesn't even have access to the VZNavigator.

Case in point. On my plan, we have the options you are talking about so that family share users can use those services but I still pay $30 for access on my smartphone.

The $30 is not for tethering it is the data service that every smartphone sold on Verizon's network si required to have.

You're best bet would be to go into a store and look for a better plan, if one exists, since the extras do not apply to your phone.

How does a $29.99 plan equal $40 per month?

@katstermonster: I think he's factoring in the VZ Email and VZ Navigator that Verizon put in with the increased price. The OP claims that VZ Email and VZ Navigator are uneccesary and wouldn't even work with the Droid, and as such, Verizon is increasing their price based on options that aren't even able or necessary for the Droid.

I have an Android phone and have been very disappointed. Maybe Android 2.0 will be a little bit better. :|

Also, unlimited data and tethering are entirely different things. As I remember, it's standard at Verizon to add tethering automatically; it was and may still be free for the first month, and you must cancel in order to avoid being charged. That's a huge annoyance of mine (because I told them, in person, to take it off, and they refused), but it's a different issue altogether.

@crosenblum: Did they stop offering Pocket PCs with Wi-Fi capability, or did the company that made Pocket PCs stop making phones with Wi-Fi capability?

So guess what, your loss, could have kept me as a pocketpc customer if you werent' trying to rip me off os much...

How about think what we want, not just how to rip us off?

I'm at the Verizon Wireless website and I've added the Droid to my cart (just for context). Then when I go to the plans, I see the PDA/Smartphone Email and Messaging plan and this is what it says:

Unlimited Text, Picture, Video & Instant Messaging
Data usage from within the National Enhanced Services and the Extended National Enhanced Services Rate and Coverage Areas
Data Access for Email
Unlimited Calling to all Verizon Wireless Customers
Unlimited Night & Weekend Minutes
No Domestic Long Distance Charges

Emphasis is mine. There's nothing that indicates unlimited data. I'm not sure why the OP is seeing that - maybe it has to do with the area? Verizon Wireless requires you to enter your zip code before choosing a phone and plan.

People can say what they want about Sprint, nothing beats paying $15 bucks a month for data on a smartphone!

I don't think that this story is the same, but I'm paying around $100 until February, when my plan will go back to a more manageable $80.

This is interesting but sounds like a drawback to VZW's flawed web checkout system not being separated into Smartphones / DumbPhones / BBerrys / Android devices.

Ohh Verizon, why do you try so hard to piss off your customers?