Oh I don't know, very few of the things I've read in any of the "Confessions" would be considered proprietary. Most of this information can be found on the companies' websites or if you ask a well-trained rep (although getting to a truly well-trained rep may be easier said than done). I've never seen anything on here from people from my company that was anything I couldn't tell a customer on a call.

Uh, for the record...if anyone's thinking of canceling their contract due to the text messaging increase, you only have (for most wireless carriers who participated in the increase) 60 days from the date of the increase (or for some carriers 60 days from the date you received notification of the increase...yes, they keep tabs on what they sent you and when) to cancel for that reason, otherwise you're stuck again.

Just FYI.

Okay, I've always been really confused on this whole "I NEEEEEEEEEEED out of my contract RIGHT NOW!" thing. Mostly because on the rare occasions that I had issues with either of the 2 cellular companies I've had in the past 10 years or so, they were never so awful that I NEEEEEEDed to get out right that very second.

But okay, let's pretend that some crazy, urgent, couldn't possibly have seen it coming issue comes up from nowhere that causes you to NEEEEEEEEEED out of your wireless contract, and alas, it's not one of the reasons that said company will wave your Early Termination Fee.

Does anyone understand *why* an ETF is charged in the 1st place?

You see, the full retail price of a phone is often over $200...sometimes WELL over $200. But most consumers pay FAR less (depending on the phone of course...BlackBerries & PDAs will cost much more), or even nothing for their phones when they agree to some form of a contract. The wireless company is making their money back on that contract. That's why if you have a higher price plan some companies will allow you to upgrade earlier than the usual time (although going for a 1 year contract allows you to upgrade sooner for usually no more than $50 extra for the phone...alas, that usually means you can't get BOGO offers). The higher your price plan, the sooner the company makes back their money.

Verizon Wireless just started having new contracts with variable ETFs, I assume because they realize they've already made back at least some of the money they gave you off of the phone.

I know that ETFs piss people off, but the wireless companies aren't charging them to us just to be jerks. These companies are in it to make a profit & they're not going to make a profit by just handing out free phones & getting nothing back for them.

But here's the ultimate piece of advice....

...If you aren't comfortable with a contract, get a Prepay service. This is also a good way to test out a new company before officially signing the contract.

And for the love of Krom, if something goes wrong, whether it be with a prepay service or a post-pay service, give the company a chance to fix it! There are going to be bad reps in any large (and many small) companies. This is a terrible fact of life, but there it is. Try to be patient and see it from the point of view of a company that doesn't want to lose the money they've invested in getting you as a customer. Just keep in mind that no service is perfect. Something's going to go wrong at some point, it's inevitable. At least give the company the opportunity to *try* to fix it.

All the wireless companies I've heard of do something similar (though they don't all have dollar sign indicators). They usually take into account how long you've been with the company, how high your price plan is, how good your pay history is (if you're not willing to keep up your end of the bargain, why should the company give you any more than they promised), and even how many times you've called in asking for credits. If you call in all the time looking for bill reworks when all of the charges are technically valid then the companies are going to be far less likely to do it for you as a courtesy.

Of course, that's all for credits done as a courtesy. If the company messed up your bill, then its their responsibility to fix it no matter how bad your pay history is.

And yes, as a service rep myself, I agree with dwarf74...the nicer the person is to me, the more likely I am to be open to the idea of giving a courtesy credit.

"Do you really think everyone is just fickle and wants to break their contract for no good reason?"

Well, speaking as an employee of a wireless company (not Cingular), no I don't think that *everyone* is fickle...but trust me, some *are* just fickle. Luckily they seem to be the exception and not the rule. I certainly don't believe your situation to be fickleness but unfortunately, there isn't a company out there that has perfect service or that can promise service in all buildings (and it's written into most contracts that they do *not* promise service in buildings so unfortunately SexCpotatoes is wrong about being able to cancel if you don't get service at home...but on the bright side you should be able to figure that out within the return period given by most carriers). It's the nature of the beast, I'm afraid...an unfortunate quirk of the technology.

If you assume that you are always going to get perfect service everywhere no matter what, then you are bound to wind up searching aimlessly and in vain for a company that will never meet your expectations (at least until satellite phones become less expensive and more commonplace). My strongest recommendation is that you at least give your carrier the chance to *try* to fix it. If you've gone through the troubleshooting, tried a different phone, and the company says the network shows "fine on our end", or if the company shows no interest in looking into it (alas there are bad reps in every company) then maybe give up.

Another benefit of letting the carrier look into the problem is that some carriers *may*...*occasionally* let you out of your contract without the ETF if they check your area and find that there is only marginal coverage (you may not get out based on coverage *in* the home, but possibly *around* the home). This is not a guarantee by any means (because their tests may legitimately show no problems in the area), but it *is* worth a shot.

And pertaining to the contract question Michael, generally with most carriers with which I am familiar, if you extend your contract by upgrading your phone or by changing your price plan while you were still under another contract, it is not 2 overlapping contracts, it is an alteration and extension of the original contract. If you want to rescind the changes you made to your original contract, most wireless carriers have a grace period in which to make that decision, which doesn't void the contract as a whole, it merely brings the contract back to the state it was in before the recent changes were made (although some very nice and/or uninformed reps may let you out of it entirely depending on the situation...again, no promise, but usually worth a shot).

Hope that explained at least a little bit. I had no idea how my cellular contract worked until I started working for them, so I know what you mean about contract confusion.