Credit card companies stuffed all the crazy they could into their contracts in advance of the CARD act taking effect. This time they might have taken it too far, even for banks. Shoulda read that boilerplate!
#599; The Boilerplate Clause [WonderMark] (Thanks to MercuryPDX!)
The Washington Post is reporting that the ridiculously huge ETFs for the Nexus One are magically shrinking as the FCC continues to investigate the fees. Google has shaved $200 of the “equipment recovery fee” it charges if a customer breaks their contract with T-Mobile after a 14-day trial period. [More]
Natraj rushed through the contract signing process when renting a car from Dollar, and his failure to confirm the car return time on the paperwork ended up costing him an extra day’s rental fee. [More]
Yesterday, four senators introduced legislation to make cell phone early termination fees be actually related to the cost of the phone. [More]
Over a year ago, Michael didn’t want TiVo service anymore, and he called them to cancel. This would have been a perfectly reasonable request. The problem, he tells Consumerist, is that TiVo refuses to acknowledge his multiple cancellations, and now won’t let him call and try canceling again until he pays the balance that has accrued since his credit card expired.
Mary says DirecTV stuck it to her after she missed a payment. Not only did it cancel her service, but she says it charged $680 to her checking account for unreturned equipment — never mind the fact that she still had time left in her seven-day period to return the stuff.
Malcolm moved to a building in an AT&T Wireless dead zone, and hoped to get out of his contract, being that he can’t use the service he pays for monthly.
Yesterday, the Senate adopted an amendment that will prevent federal funding from going to any contractor that requires its employees to use mandatory binding arbitration, instead of court, for sexual assault and civil rights claims against the company.
If you signed up for Frontier Communications’ Price Protection Plan—a combo phone and broadband package—between January 2007 and September 2008, and you canceled the agreement and were charged an early termination fee (ETF), you may be getting some cash back.
In this video, a blonde dame in glasses shows you how to escape your cellphone contract for free with several tried and true tips for defeating those $175 early termination fees.
Good news! The Washington Redskins are no longer suing a 72-year-old grandmother and real estate agent who was unable to pay for her season tickets after falling on hard times. The team has vacated the $66,364 judgment against her. Yay!
UPDATE: The Redskins have vacated their judgment.
Auto service companies in St. Louis have found a way to avoid issuing refunds when customers cancel vehicle-protection contracts: by selling warranted vehicle additives in place of service contracts.
Most complaints that we receive about gyms involve memberships that refuse to die (even when the customer does), but Laura in Indiana has a different problem. Her local Gold’s Gym is changing its services and membership structure with no regard for the facility’s current members.
Here’s a funny commercial starring Bas Rutten for some prepaid cellphone company. You probably shouldn’t try this with your own cellphone company, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be thinking like Bas while disputing that ETF.
Gold’s Gym in Oxnard, California won’t stop billing Molly’s brother for membership, even though both he and his mother have repeatedly sent the gym copies of his deployment orders to Afghanistan. Two months later, the gym claims that it has “misplaced” the deployment orders, and is still billing for services Molly’s brother can’t use.
The sun has set for Sun Harbour Apartments in their attempt to steal money from a dead man’s family. Court documents obtained by Consumerist indicated the landlords recently lost their appeal in a case where they tried to charge the estate of the late Arthur Zissenfor the 3 months left on the man’s lease, as well as taking his security deposit. The apartment complex have a 60 days advance notice required before vacating the premises policy and not even a swoosh of The Reaper’s scythe could break it, Sun Harbor believed, erroneously. Inside, the local newscast from when the case first went to court.
Debbie Eckert cleaned out her son’s apartment after he died in a February fight, but the landlord, CCRT Properties of Brookfield Wisconsin, thinks she should pay several months rent and an early termination fee. The Wisconsin Department of Consumer Protection says that CCRT can pursue the 24-year-old teacher’s estate, but that they have no right to heartlessly badger his mother.
Part of 
