Verizon Discount

Recently, the firm negotiated a new contract with Verizon Wireless.  As part of that negotiation, we got Verizon to increase the discount provided to attorneys and staff who own their own Verizon Wireless cell phones or other devices.

Under the current terms, you can get 15% off any Verizon plan that you are on, along with an additional 3% if you choose electronic billing, for a total of 18% off the retail price.

Verizon sent a flyer on the discount, which you can view here.

Also, if you sign up for this discount, you also get a 25% discount on any accessories you purchase through the Verizon store (e.g. cases, chargers, etc.).

If you are already a Verizon Customer or are considering becoming one, the few minutes it takes to sign up is well worth the discount.

Cell Phone Discounts

Last year the firm switched from AT&T to Verizon for the phones used by the Partners.  However, because enough people are using AT&T phones, we were able to keep our group discount with AT&T for employees with personal phone plans.  If you have an existing AT&T account or want one, you can get an 18% discount off your monthly subscription costs simply by associating your account with the Margolis plan.  You can still pick whatever plan you want and still receive your own bill.

There is a chance that AT&T could decide to end the plan if not enough people from the firm remain as participants.  If that happened, the discount could go away.  But there does not appear to be a significant danger of that happening as we are well over the necessary threshold limits.  For more info, click on the link below.

AT&T Flyer

If you are interested in the discount, you can sign up for it through any AT&T store or by calling AT&T's toll free number.  Just mention our FAN  ID: 2384628 to get the discount.

Verizon also offers an employee discount of 5%, which can be added to a 3% discount if you sign up for paperless billing for a total of 8% off whatever plan you have.  You can contact our sales rep Jill Poletas if you have any questions.

Keep in mind that good deals are available right now because the new iPhone 6s is due out shortly.  If you want an iPhone, you can get an even better deal on the soon to be old iPhone 6 once the 6s is released.  If you are getting something else, now is a good time to get a deal.

Personal Do Not Call List

There are some people who have, let's say boundary issues.  You just don't have the time nor inclination to speak with them, yet they continue to call and badger you.

You can block callers on both your Android and iPhone.

With Android,

1. Open your Phone, then click on settings (the three dots in the upper right hand corner).
2. Select "call" then "call rejection".
3. Open the auto reject list.
4. Press the + to add a number
5. Add the number you want to block and press "done" then "save".
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 to add additional numbers.

If someone on the block list calls you, the caller will go straight to voicemail.

Text messaging is tougher. If you touch a message and leave your finger on it for a couple of seconds, you will get an options menu.  One option is to "report as spam".  If you report the number as spam, the texts will be deleted, and future texts from the number will be blocked.  If you use a messaging app other than the one provided by Verizon, you may have other options.  There does not seem to be a way to keep the messages but block future ones.  

There are some other third party messaging apps that may do this for you.  Feel free to check out the Google Play store for a number of free apps that block messages.  I looked at a few that had mixed reviews.  Unfortunately, I have not had time to test any in order to make recommendations.  If anyone else has, feel free to let me know what you recommend.  I will give it a test and pass along the results in a future posting.

Blocking With iPhone:

1. You must have the number in your Contacts before you can block it.  If you don't want to create a contact for everyone with whom you want no contact, you might want to consider just created a "no contact" entry in your address book and add all the numbers to that.
2. Click on Settings, Phone, Blocked, Add New
3. Select the contact you with to block and exit.

Blocked list members cannot message, or Facetime you.  Calls go straight to voicemail.

I noticed a bug in the iPhone blocker.  If I added a contact to the block list, then changed the number in that contact, the block would not work until I removed the contact from the list and then added it again.

Verizon Phones

Verizon also offers the ability to block up to five numbers.   However, a Verizon block only remains in place for 90 days.  You can use this method either by calling Verizon support, stopping by a Verizon store, or ask me to set it up for you through the Verizon web site.

  

The big difference of a Verizon block is that it prevents the caller from even being able to leave a voicemail message.  They receive a recording that their number has been blocked.  Text messages are also blocked, but the sender gets no message back.

Emails

For emails, you can click on the Report Spam button in Gmail.  This usually puts future emails from this address straight into your spam folder.  

This does not always block 100%, especially if you have corresponded with the user in the past, or if they are in your contacts.  Also, there may be times when you want to keep a record of the emails but do not want to see them as they come in.

In such cases, you can create a filter,   Whenever an email comes from a particular address, Gmail can move it to a folder and remove it from your inbox automatically. You can also automatically mark it as read so that it doesn't show up as an unread email.  The Help Desk can assist you with setting up such a filter if you need the help.