@WakeUpCall – Matt Weller, Verizon Tech Expert

Amy talks with Verizon Tech Expert Matt Weller talking about back-to-school & essential tech for families.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right now, let's say good morning to Verizon tech expert
Matt Weller.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Good morning, Matt, good morning, Thank you so much for
having me.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Well, thanks for coming on. We're getting ready to get
the kids back to school, and the big question that
I'm sure a lot of parents are asking is what
kind of tech do my kids need? What kind of
tech should they have? And it's a question that you know,
you're kind of on your own, except now Verizon's going

(00:28):
to step in and give a little helping hand with
a Verizon Family Weekend. Tell us what that is.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah, absolutely, we're so excited to host Verizon Family Weekend
this weekend and turn our stores kind of into an
unofficial back to school hub. We're going to be doing
three hands on demonstrations for all those kid friendly devices.
So whatever it is that you and your family need
to get fine tuned right before this school year, feel
free to come on in and join us and we'd be
happy to help.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Okay, so when we're talking about the devices, Matt, what
kinds of things need to be considered for your children?

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, so right now is definitely the time to take
advantage of the back to school offers that we have.
Starting today, customers are going to get exciting offers on
all sorts of new phones free iPhone sixteen, a free
Samsung S twenty five, a free Google Pixel nine devices
with select unlimited plans and no trade in. But a
really exciting option for parents right now is the Gizmo Watch.

(01:22):
It's an incredible tool for helping keep your kids safe.
When paired with our award winning network, it gives parents
really an incredible range of features to help keep their
kids safe, from finding your child's location on a map,
to setting up customizable location a work so you can
instantly get pinged when your kid gets home or leave
the designated area like school. And if a critical situation

(01:43):
ever were to occur, kids can simply just press that
SOS button on their Gizmo Watch and it instantly alerts
their designated emergency contact. So it's a great tool to
allow kids to be able to get a little bit
of independence with a connected device, but and allow parents
to be able to call and text them without giving
them access to any Internet or social media content. Before
a parent's ready for that, okay, and for.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
That Gizmo watch, maybe they would be wearing that watch
even if a lot of schools are not allowing students
to have phones in school, but they can still have the.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Watch right, So it doesn't allow it doesn't allow any
sort of social media or Internet content. So it's very
confined in that sense for sure.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Okay, And for this Family weeken, this is an opportunity
to go in, get your hands on, see what options
are available and you know, like, do you want to
have do you want to know where your kids are
all the time? And is that a good idea and
does that work? And is it age appropriate and all
that stuff or those are the things that people are
going to be able to find at your events.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, absolutely can't recommend enough stopping by and just speaking
with one of our reps and let them find, you know,
the solution that works best for you and your family,
and let them introduce really the wide range of tech
and resources that we have available to help you ace
the school year. But one of the things we're really
excited about launching later this month is our Verizon Family
Plus Perk. It builds on the free Verizon Family App,

(02:57):
which is still available to all customers, but it's going
to streamline that process to give you all of the
Parntal controls you need to keep your kids connected and
safe all in one place. So for just ten dollars
a month, you're going to get unlimited location monitoring with
on demand updates. You're going to get content filtering for
online content, screen time management to make sure we're not
spending too much time on those devices of course, and

(03:18):
then even driving insights for the new team drivers of
course want to make sure we're keeping them safe as well.
So really, like I said, it's a wealth of tools
at your disposal. We're really excited for the Verizon Family
Plus Perk to launch on the twenty first.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Okay, is this it? All your stores?

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Yep, all the stores, come on in and we'll be
happy to happy to help you.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Do you need to make an appointment or just stop by?

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Absolutely not, stop on in all weekend long. We'll be
there and we'll be excited to help.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Okay. Matt Weller, Verizon Tech Expert, thanks so much for
sharing the information about Verizon Family Weekend. Appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
Okay, So you know, not an ad for a Verizon this,
We just thought that this was a really cool opportunity
for you to go in and maybe think about that
because there are a lot of things to consider when
you're like, should you be following your kids all the time?
Do you want to do that? And I think that
some of the parental controls that they have are pretty cool,

(04:12):
especially in today's world when we want to keep connected
and that kind of stuff. But it's an opportunity. It's
this weekend and you can take the family in and
check out the cool things that they have to offer.