Verizon charges a fee to transfer contacts from one phone to another now?

[Yulia]

I switched companies 1 year ago, and they transfered my contacts from my old phone to their new phone for free, in the store. Now this phone started giving problems, and we got a replacement phone, just like this one, and in the store they want to charge a fee to transfer contacts and info from one phone to another, or say that we gotta download an application, and transfer them through our computer......but those are business phones, and we have blocked web and text. So they say we gotta call them, unblock the web, download the stuff, get on the computer....blah, blah, blah......if we want to do it for free......Why can't they just plug a wire to the 2 phones, and transfer the contacts for free like they used to?????????? I don't get it? Why do we need to go through so much trouble with the web, or pay a fee? I wish to switch back to my old company now, and get a phone with a SIM card.........is there any way to transfer contacts for free without downloading anything, or doing it by hand....because I have some cool pics on it too, and want to keep them n my new phone.

[derekdemeter]

Verizon has charged a fee for this service for at least a couple years now. They did it because they enabled a free service that lets you do it yourself. You don't have to do it through your computer. There's a free Get It Now app that does it for you. It's actually really quick and easy and they'll even set it up for you when you buy a new phone in the store, plus it gives you the ability to access your contact list online as well through your Verizon account page. However, without having access to GIN on your phone, you're pretty much out of luck.

Just in case you are able to access Get It Now on your phones, here are the steps to do it:
1. Open 'Get It Now' on your phone (also known as 'Media Center'. On my phone, in the menu, its under 1. Media Center -> Browse and Download
2. Select 'Get New Application'
3. Select "Featured Applications" or "Business/Tools"
4. Download Backup Assistant
5. Run the application on your old phone. This will backup your contact list to your Verizon account.

Do the same steps on your new phone, which will load your contacts to the new phone. The entire process takes about 2 minutes. Good luck!