We’ve been getting quite a few letters from people who are saying that the reason Verizon won’t let them cancel is because they haven’t Txt’ed enough in the past. One rep even went so far as to tell Reader Andrew that he had to have sent 34 text messages to qualify.

From Andrew’s email:

I made a witty response about just sending out a text message from each phone and continue with terminating the contract.

Well, she responded by ACTUALLY QUOTING ME A NUMBER of text messages that show a material adverse. She said that 34 text messages would show material adverse. I asked if 34 text messages is what it says in the policy (or whatever the hell is feeding her this information), she replied yes.

We think she was probably making that up, but who knows? She also told Andrew that he had to wait until after March 1st to cancel. Sneaky! For those of you who think this is impossible, take heart. Reader Matt canceled his contract using our advice. It wasn’t easy, but he did it.

She kept saying I would be charged, that is until I read her her own user agreement where she responded with stunned silence. She got me to Jason in the Wallingford CT call center and he canceled it on the spot for me. They are definitely allowing you to do it, but you have to put up a major fight.

Way to go, Matt! —MEGHANN MARCO

Andrew writes:

I called verizon on friday about trying to terminate my contract w/o
the termination fee. After going through a lot of boring back and
forth about the usual stuff, I read out loud the section in Verizon’s
“Agreement” (agreement sounds so much nicer than contract) including
the part about material adverse. Then the custstomer service person
told me that I did not have material adverse because we do not text
message on our phones. I made a witty response about just sending out
a text message from each phone and continue with terminating the
contract.

Well, she responded by ACTUALLY QUOTING ME A NUMBER of text messages
that show a material adverse. She said that 34 text messages would
show material adverse. I asked if 34 text messages is what it says in
the policy (or whatever the hell is feeding her this information), she
replied yes.

I would argue that one text message is enough to show material adverse
because if I send a message for $0.15 versus $0.10, that’s 5 cents
that Verizon doesn’t deserve to have.

Next this person went on to say that I would have to wait until AFTER
March 1 for the fee increase to come into play before terminating my
contract. I read her the section again that was in capitals that you
had on your site. It clearly states that the customer has 60 days
after the increase is announced to terminate the contract. It also
says that after the date that the fee comes into play, in this case,
March 1, and I haven’t cancelled the agreement, then I am agreeing to
the fee increase. The verizon rep didn’t budge. I ended the phone call
without getting my contract terminated and now I hate verizon even
more.

Hope this helps your readers,

Andrew

Matt writes:

Like many of your readers I also had a hell of a time canceling with
Verizon. My parents on it and wanted to get on my Cingular family
plan so I told them I would help them cancel their account. My mother
called first of all and the supervisor she got told her flat out
“no.” She said there is no way that they could do such a thing even
after reading her the user agreement. Unwaivered, I called back and
pretended to be my father who is also on the account. The tier 1 rep
immediately said “that is well within your right to cancel and I will
help you out with that.” GREAT, I thought. Three hours after we had
“canceled” my parents get a phone call that said “after reviewing
your account terms, we don’t believe we can cancel without a
termination fee, we will be contacting you in a couple days with more
information.” I was furious. I called them the following day and
bitched out a tier 1 rep. She kept saying I would be charged, that is
until I read her her own user agreement where she responded with
stunned silence. She got me to Jason in the Wallingford CT call
center and he canceled it on the spot for me. They are definitely
allowing you to do it, but you have to put up a major fight.

Matt

PREVIOUSLY: Verizon Makes Canceling Over Their Txt Msg Hike Impossible

Break Your Verizon Contract Without Fee, Thanks to TXT Msg Raise

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