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cellphones

How to Get Out of a Cell Contract Without Paying an ETF in Many Not-So-Easy Steps

If you try to get out of your cellphone contract without paying one of those blasted (and newly illegal in California) early termination fees, you're going to need a meticulously planned and researched counterargument for everything they throw at you. It's not a small undertaking, and you'll meet hostile resistance every step of the way. But it is possible. More »

3:30 PM on Sat Aug 2 2008
By Adam Frucci
68,549 views, 64 comments

Latest by coreyfriedman: @crackle: It doesn't matter what a large part of the population thinks. It matters what the court thinks. more »

etf fees

Judge Rules Early Termination Fees Are Illegal and Violate California Law

A California County Superior Court judge has just ruled that early termination fees from cellphone companies violates California state law and are illegal. What's this mean to you? Sprint Nextel has been ordered to pay $18.2 million in reimbursements to customers who already paid their ETF, and to stop trying to collect $54.7 million from customers who canceled and refused to pay. But if ETF fees are illegal, does that mean 2-year contracts—which in turn give you subsidized price on your cellphones—will be a thing of the past? Tough to say, but we're headed towards some change. [Mercury News via Yahoo]

5:00 PM on Thu Jul 31 2008
By Jason Chen
15,004 views, 215 comments

Latest by MarlonBarba: I work for an "Evil" cell phone company, and have been in the industry in many capacities for about 5 years. more »

t-mobile

T-Mobile Raises Text Message Prices (Meaning You Can Ditch Your Contract)

T-Mobile is hiking its SMS rate to 20 cents a text (up from 15), effective Aug. 29. Annoying, unless you want to get out of your T-Mobile contract. Raising prices is typically considered a material breach of contract, meaning you can weasel out of it with a bit of elbow grease and persistence (to show that it's a "materially adverse change" to your contract), avoiding that hefty early termination fee. More »

10:45 AM on Tue Jul 1 2008
By matt buchanan
10,866 views, 54 comments

Latest by iCanhasLs2plz: @Evan394: Waaaambulance is here! more »

etf

Cellphone Companies' Early Termination Fees Compared

Consumerist's taken all the early termination fee news we've reported on lately and shoved them into an easy-to-read graph to show you what's up. If you're talking two-year contracts Verizon and AT&T are tied for the best at the start, but T-Mobile beats them somewhere around the 22nd month. For one year contracts, T-Mobile wins at about 7 months. Head over to the Cons to see the details. [Consumerist]

7:00 PM on Fri Jun 27 2008
By Jason Chen
5,550 views, 11 comments

Latest by Joseph: @doobiebros22: I just saw a Sprint commercial for the Instinct. Get that; their commercial has 2 quotes about better more »

t-mobile

T-Mobile Makes Early Termination Fees Less Ouchy in Confusing Increments

As promised last year, T-Mobile is finally reducing its early termination fees, so breaking your contract to get some actual 3Gness won't pound you quite as hard. Instead of declining month-by-month, the fee goes down in weird increments. More »

1:50 PM on Mon Jun 23 2008
By matt buchanan
8,594 views, 16 comments

at&t

AT&T Lawyer Says Early Termination Fees Are Good For Consumers

According to Ars, one AT&T attorney told the FCC yesterday that early termination fees we pay for leaving our contracts before the designated time are actually a great deal for us. His reasoning was that "ETF-backed term contracts give consumers the ability to lower their monthly charges and upfront handset costs in exchange for their promise to pay monthly charges for the life of the contracts or alternatively to pay the ETF in lieu of the remaining charges." On the one hand, that's a punch in the nuts. On the other hand, he kinda has a point. More »

6:00 PM on Sun Jun 15 2008
By Jason Chen
9,012 views, 55 comments

Latest by runtothesun: @RoCKSTaH53: If you cancel within 30 days, you have the return the Iphone, but there's no penalty. After 30 days, more »

cellphones

FCC May Regulate Cellphone Early Termination Fees

The FCC might be getting up in cellphone providers' collective grill, telling them what they can and cannot charge to customers who quit their service early. A proposal to them outlines some changes consumers want enacted, including free termination up to 30 days after signing a contract or 10 days after the first bill and pro-rating the $175+ fee depending on how many months you've been with the service (some do already). What's the upside for cellphone companies? They get let off the hook in state courts "where they are being sued for billions of dollars by angry customers." [CNN]

11:10 AM on Wed May 21 2008
By Jason Chen
4,649 views, 21 comments

Latest by ConwayAmycus: They pro rated early termination fees to hopefully get fcc to regulate termination fees in exchange to being immune from more »