After a woman’s husband died in Afghanistan, a marine felled by an IED, she moved back to her home town to be closer to her family and grieve. In the smaller town, she couldn’t get any reception from Verizon, so she called them up to cancel. Despite being a widow and Verizon not living up to its contractual obligations to provide actual cellphone coverage, they slapped her with a $350 early termination fee. UPDATE: Verizon Retreats From Charging Marine Widow $350 Early Termination Fee

If you don’t have any coverage, you’re supposed to be able to break your contract without penalty, but customer service reportedly told the widow “Nothing could be done” about the fee. Reached by CBS13, Verizon’s PR department promised to look into it.

If you don’t have a reporter calling the PR department for you, here’s 6 ways to break out of your cellphone contract without paying an early termination fee.

Marine Widow Battles Verizon Over Cancellation Fee [CBS13] (Thanks to Andrea!)

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