Consumerist
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att
AT&T Employee Misleads Customer, And Now He's Trapped In A 2-Year Contract
A little over a month ago, Mark gave up on his GoPhone SIM, went into an AT&T store with his iPhone 2G in hand, and signed up for a new two year, post-paid plan. The sales rep promised Mark that his corporate discount would apply, and instead of a contract presented just a receipt. Now AT&T is saying there's no corporate discount on an iPhone purchase—even though he didn't buy an iPhone, just the service plan—and that he can't cancel now without paying an ETF because it's past the 30 day mark. More » -
etfs
T-Mobile Introduces Declining Early Termination Fees
Tmobile just announced that they will let early termination fees decline over the course of a contract. Previously, you had to pay the full monty whether canceled on the first day, or last day, of your contract. This chart shows you how the new fee breaks down over time: More »
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success stories
BBB Works Against Sprint
Some people think the BBB doesn't work. They do, but only if the company cares about keeping a clean record. See when you look up a company in the BBB database it shows you how many complaints have been filed against the company, how many were answered, how many did the consumer report as being satisfactorily resolved, etc. So if you have a valid complaint, file it with the BBB, and the company cares about its BBB record, you have a decent chance of getting a solution. You might not believe it, but it turns out Sprint is one of those companies. Here's Kevin's story of how the BBB got his erroneous text message charges refunded and let him leave contract early without early termination fee... More » -
complaints
Verizon Interprets "Materially Adverse" Differently From Reality So You Can't Cancel Without Termination Fee
Joseph would like to cancel his Verizon contract without early termination fee by arguing that the recent monthly administrative fee increase is materially adverse, but unfortunately for Joseph, Verizon's lawyers have filled their customer service reps brains with a bunch of hooey about what materially adverse means. In fact, when Joseph was reading the very clause in the Verizon contract that allows him to what he wants, the call center supervisor laughed at him. According to his account, when he criticized the poor customer service, she started screaming at him. The text of Joe's attempted EECB, inside... More » -
verizon
Reader Uses Being Nice To Quickly Escapes Verizon Without Early Termination Fee
Mason used the increase in monthly administrative charges to escape his Verizon cellphone contract without early termination fee, but unlike others, had very little trouble. The secret seems to be being nice! Wow, are we still doing that? Yes, we are, and it works wonders: More » -
complaints
Verizon Offering Credits To Keep You From Escaping Contract Without Early Termination Fee
Alicia wants to escape her Verizon contract without paying an early termination fee, but she's having some trouble. She writes:Just today, I was informed that Verizon is now increasing their monthly administration charge. I have a right to cancel with having the early termination fee waived because of this increase. The Verizon supervisors I spoke to (total of 4 people) refused to follow this clause and would not waive the early termination fee even though Verizon changed the fees. They said they would give me a credit for this increase, so then it would not adversely affect me, so I can't have the ETF waived. I made it clear that I had a right to cancel and have the ETF waived regardless of what credit they would be willing to give me. They said that having the ETF waived is not an option and they can not do that. Am I in the wrong?
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complaints
Verizon Cancels Returning Marines' Cellphones, Gives Their Number Away, Charges Them $500
Two Marines, a husband and wife, found Verizon had an unpleasant welcome-home gift waiting for them when they got back from serving in Iraq: canceled cellphones, a $500 bill, and their phone numbers were given to other people. Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, when a soldier goes off to war, they're able to send their deployment letters to their service companies and get their service put on hold. Apparently in the case of Haley Katz and her husband, that letter wasn't good enough. When they complained a reached a manager, the manager told them it was their fault they owed the money, and then hung up on them. Read their letter as published in Stars and Stripes, inside... More » -
complaints
Sprint: Please Keep Paying Your Dead Father's Cellphone Bill
Sprint wants Tracey Stewart to keep paying her dead father's cellphone bill. Sprint is not completely heartless: they offered to cut his monthly rate to $10 until the contract expires in September. More » -
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cellphones
How To Cancel Sprint Without Termination Fee Over New Text Message Rate Change
If anyone is looking for a cheap way to escape their Sprint cellphone contract, you can use their raising of the pay-as-you-go text message rates from 15 cents to 20 cents as an excuse. Here's the step by step procedure to follow... More » -
exclusives
Sprint Customers Terminated For Complaining Too Much Were Scamming Sprint For Free Service
Sprint announced Monday it was canceling the accounts of around 1,000 people who called customer service too much. At first blush, it might sound like a pretty jerk thing to do, have bad service and then punish people who complain, but we spoke with one of our most reliable Sprint insiders, who had a different side to the story: the terminated customers were scamming Sprint, calling in again and again, just to get free service credits. More »
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arm outrage missiles
Sprint Cancels Army Unit's Cellphones For Roaming Too Much
Sprint canceled the service of 200 Army men and women who had just come back from Iraq. For roaming too much. Because Sprint hadn't installed a tower close enough to their base. A little ol' backwoods place called West Point. More » -
audio
Recording Of Tmobile Trying To Prevent Matt Haughey From Cancelling For An iPhone
Listen to the valiant attempt a T-mobile retention rep makes to keep Matt Haughey, Metafilter creator, from canceling and switching to an iPhone. More » -
hype
How Not To Submit To iPhone Envy
We could be standing on line outside an Apple Store waiting to get our grubby little hands on an iPhone. We are not, and we're ok with that. You too can resist the little charmer's curves and sirensongringtone by remembering the iPhone's imperfections: More » -
media whoring
Consumerist On Marketplace Talking About 6 Ways To Cancel Cellphone Contracts So You Can Get Yor iPhones
Marketplace interviewed us about our 6 tips for canceling your cellphone so you can get an iPhone. We told people to die... More » -
materially adverse changes to contract
Trying And Failing To Cancel US Cellular Over Text Message Rate Increase
"Did you hear any success stories from readers who tried to cancel their US Cellular contracts over the 5 cent increase on text messages? I forwarded the notice to my mother (who is usually quite talented at dealing with customer service) and she attempted to cancel three US Cellular contracts held by our family, but was met with a definitive "no" in two different attempts...." More » -
complaints
Tmobile To Receptionless Customer: "One Bar Is Good Enough To Make Calls"
Eduardo
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to public.advisor@cpuc.ca.gov,
info@goldengate.bbb.org
cc rdotson@t-mobile.com,
ben@consumerist.com
date Jun 28, 2007 3:40 AM
subject Ludicrous customer service from T-MobileI am a T-Mobile customer from Sacramento California, I recently moved to San Francisco to attend SFSU in August 2006.
I am contacting you because I have been having an issue with T-Mobile customer service pushing me around and stripping me of my privileges as a consumer and a client. Throughout my conversation with customer care, the following issues I had could not be solved...
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apple
6 Ways To Cancel Any Cellphone So You Can Get An iPhone
If you want to get an iPhone but you're stuck in a contract, here's six ways to escape your service plan without paying a $175 early termination fee: More » -
materially adverse changes to contract
Cancel U.S. Cellular Over Text Message Rate Change Without Early Termination Fee?
US Cellular is changing its pay-as-you-go text message rates from $.15-$.20 July 1st, potentially giving customers a chance to exit contract without early termination fee. More »
cellphones
New York, 10:25 AM
Sat Jul 4
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