Verizon customers can escape their contract without paying an early termination fee, thanks to a recent text message rate increase. The cost for people without a bundled message plan went from 15 to 20 cents, and this constitutes what is known as a “materially adverse” change to contract. That means they’re giving you a new contract and you have a new opportunity to say yes or no to it as they want you to pay more than you agreed to in the first place. This post on SlickDeals gives you the play by play you need to cancel without paying termination fee. Print out their post and keep it in front of you when you call. The poster on the forum says that using his techniques, he’s already canceled five people’s accounts for them.
Get Out of Verizon Wireless ETF [Slickdeals]
(Photo: Getty)
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This is great. Except, I’ve had good service and customer service from Verizon and I rarely text message. Oh yes. I live in Vermont. Our available cell phone carriers are Verizon and Verizon.
Please explain to me why the cost of text messages, which were around 5 cents when I started using cell phones, has gone up 400 percent, while the cost of all the other technology in the UNIVERSE continues to go DOWN. ????
@morganlh85: Because it’s no fun for telco execs to go swimming in a massive vault only HALF full of gold coins.
I won’t be bullied into getting a text plan. This contract thing is perfect leverage. I called and threatened (politely and legally) to cancel my contract. Long story short, I talked them into giving me a free text bundle!
People have tried this reasoning to get out of cellular contracts here in Canada, but whenpushed the carriers simply relent and allow you to continue your service while being bound under the “old” contract instead of the new one, in turn keeping you locked in.
I’m surprised Verizon doesn’t do the same thing. They’re better to eat the cost of the lost profits and keep you as a customer (like it other not) then simply give in and cancel the contract.
Must be a legal difference between countries.
@heathenmonkey: Used phones are widely available on eBay.
See, now, this is insane to me. At my company, I manage our Verizon Wireless business accounts. We have about 100 of them, mostly the aircards, but 3 or 4 phones scattered on there. We’re not a very large business account at all.
Want to know what they charge us for text messaging? $5 for 2500 messages a month for any lines we want them on.
20 cents per text message is absolutely ridiculous. Who are these people kidding? $5 for 2500 messages seems like an awesome deal but until I can get that on my personal phone, I’m not getting a texting plan and will only use texting sparingly.
@DAVIDS722: This is why we need a free/open market economy, and proof that we no longer have one due to corporate consolidation of everything.
I have Verizon, and I almost hate to give money to them. 70% of my phone’s features are disabled (pay-only), but dang if I never miss or drop a call, unlike Sprint (where I couldn’t even finish talking to a half-dozen CSR’s for the call drop problem, before the call dropped).
I’ll have to visit a T-Mob store.
20 cents??? What a racket. The worst thing is that they charge you that much for incoming messages, so if you have friends with unlimited texting, they’ll just keep making money off you.
Buran: That’s what I’m talking about. Hoping you can hold your customers hostage and hit them where it hurts most to make your profit is the record company way of doing business. Might work for a while, but eventually people will find a way to screw you back(like installing programs that send text messages as bulk data), and not feel a shred of remorse.
Thank you for posting this. I’ve been trying to get out of my Verizon contract for a few months now. I’ve literally been a Verizon customer since they became a company, signing up two weeks before the national ads came out, way back when. They’ve since raised my rates, gotten more and more restrictive and the final straw was when I went in there asking for a new phone early and they told me I was SOL.
So, back around Xmas, I went next door to where I work to an AT&T store. The sales people always come into our shop to get food and promise great deals, including paying off ETFs! The catch is, they’ll sell you a 200 dollar or higher phone (not the iPhone) with an immediate 175 discount to cover the ETF. I couldn’t afford this two weeks ago, but then read this article.
Long story short, I went back to the store on my day off today, and told them I’d saved some cash up and wanted the same deal. They gave it to me, and now I’ve got a cheaper plan, with rollover minutes AND unlimited texting plus a brand new Blackberry Curve. I paid 25 dollars plus tax to walk out the door.
Just got off the phone with Verizon after making sure the ported number went through. Did everything the post said, and they waived the ETF fee.
Thanks Consumerist! Thumbs up all around. Between this and getting hooked up with AT&T Dry Loop, you guys are fantastic and are saving me around 40 bucks a month in charges I would have paid to Comcast and Verizon!
I am a reporter for the New York Post and I would like to speak to anyone who has canceled their verizon account because they were not informed of the text messaging hike fees. thanks.
I am on a tight deadline too.
Cynthia
Why can’t Sprint do something that breaks my agreement
I’m stuck for another year.
What are the chances you can keep the service but lose the contract? The wife and I like Verizon but I’d love to be able to be a “free man”.
I have a verizon family plan with no text plan, but am still being
charged the 0.15 cent rate per message. I’ve been waiting for the
increase in the bill to get out of the contract with them, but nothing
has changed yet. Does anyone know if the change is just being rolled
out gradually or something?
Just call and tell them you see it on your bill regardless of whether you do or not and follow the “script” on the slickdeals page, that’s what I did and didn’t have an issue at all.