Verizon Wireless has updated its Customer Agreement to change how it handles early termination fees for people who cancel their service while still under contract. But rather than simply jacking up the total amount you would have to pay, Verizon now has an 8-month delay before the total begins to decrease. [More]
etfs
Sprint Now Offering To Pay Up To $350 In ETFs For People Willing To Switch To One Of Its Framily Thingies
By 4.4.14
Months after AT&T and T-Mobile dueled over subscribers by offering to pay them to get out of their current contracts early, the folks (frolks?) at Sprint are finally (frinally?) getting into the game with a temporary deal that will reimburse up to $350 in early termination fees for people who dump their current plans and switch to one of Sprint’s Framily shared-data plans. [More]
T-Mobile Announces “Contract Freedom,” Will Pay Early Termination Fees On Up To 5 Lines
By 1.8.14
T-Mobile’s campaign to brand themselves as America’s “un-carrier” started last year at CES in Las Vegas, so it makes sense that the company introduced “Uncarrier 4.0” this afternoon at the same event. [More]
T-Mobile Won’t Refund Peace Corps Volunteer’s ETF Because South Pacific Isn’t ‘Overseas’ Enough
By 2.13.13
Naseem is a Peace Corps volunteer, serving in the South Pacific. She had once been told that as a U.S. government employee sent to an overseas posting, she would be freed from her T-Mobile contract when the time came for her to leave the country. She had nothing to worry about, all of the company representatives she talked to assured her. It would be fine. She would have to pay an early termination fee. Until someone at T-Mobile decided that the South Pacific doesn’t count as “overseas,” and she has to somehow prove that she’s not still in the United States. [More]
T-Mobile Wants $250 ETF After I Move Out Of Their Towers’ Reach
By 2.12.13
Smoo has been a loyal T-Mobile customer of more than a decade, but it’s time to go. She just moved to a town where T-Mo has next to no service, so obviously she needs to cancel. There was a catch: she had just signed a new contract to get a better deal. No problem, said T-Mobile! Just send proof of her new address along, and they would let her out of her contract. Oh, if only it were that easy. [More]
T-Mobile Gives Us 1 Bar Of Service At Home, Still Charges $600 ETF To Leave
By 1.8.13
JD and his family moved to a different town in the same state, but T-Mobile didn’t have great reception in their new home. They had only one bar of service, but T-Mobile customer service staff assured the family that the service would get better. It didn’t. When his wife’s phone broke, they upgraded her phone and his son’s phone after assurances from the salesperson that having new, advanced smartphones would improve their reception. They did not. What the family would really like now, a year later, is to quit their T-Mobile contract and get on with their lives. That’s not an option without an early termination fee. [More]
Moving My DirecTV Service Costs $230, Canceling It Costs $500
By 11.27.12
Some satellite TV customers decide to end their relationship with their company of choice when they move, but that’s not what Brad and his wife want to do. They’re moving to be closer to family during a medical crisis. The problem is that they’re still under contract: they just signed up this August. They also like their service and want to keep it. The problem is that DirecTV offers them two options: a $200 fee to move the service, or a [More]
T-Mobile Tells Me I Can Cancel Son’s Line With No ETF After His Move – Now I Can’t
By 11.16.12
Mobile phone carriers are supposed to let you out of your contract without an early termination fee if you move outside of a coverage area. That’s a theoretical exercise as far as Tom is concerned. His son uses one of the lines on his family plan, and moved outside of a coverage area. Should be easy enough to end that line without an Early Termination fee, right? Nope. [More]
Verizon Says I Can Port Numbers Without Paying ETF, Charges Me $910 ETF Anyway
By 11.8.12
When Consumerist reader Jill’s husband left his job at Verizon earlier this year, he’d been told that he could port all five of the wireless lines on their family’s account to another carrier without paying any early termination fees, and so they did. But when that final bill came from VZW, they suddenly owed nearly $1,000 in ETFs. [More]
Must Have An iPhone 5 Right Now? Maybe Your Carrier Will Effectively Pay You To Leave
By 9.18.12
Good news, Apple fans: if you absolutely must have the iPhone 5 right now, take the time to do some math and talk to your current carrier. It might be cheaper to just break up with your carrier, pay the early termination fees, sell your existing phone (or phones, on a family plan) and get a subsidized phone from a new carrier. One customer discovered that this was the case: that AT&T would effectively be paying him to leave, since the price of upgrading was so high. [More]
No Sprint Service, Let Out Of Contract If I Surrender My New Phone
By 8.14.12
Vincent has been a Sprint customer for a long time, and it’s only just recently that his service really started to suck. He drops or misses calls, and can’t get a data connection. ONly after calling the Consumerist Hotline did he learn that the problem is systemic: their network is overloaded in his area, and there might be a solution at the end of this year. Sprint has made him an offer: they’ll let him out of his contact without an early termination fee, but only if he gives back his recently purchased smartphone. He says that he shelled out $400 for this phone, and would have sold it to another Sprint customer to recoup some of his losses. What should he do? [More]
CenturyLink Holds Me To Imaginary Contract, Bills Me Twice For $700 ETF
By 8.7.12
Rick typed out his tale of Qwest/CenturyLink woe using the Consumerist Mobile Tipster app, and attached one of those pictures that has circulated online seemingly forever–a little boy sticking a butter knife in an electrical socket. That’s how this situation apparently makes him feel, and it’s easy to see why. He used to work for Qwest, and never really had any problems with them in seventeen years of service from them. When he finally canceled service, he was told that he was still under contract and owed an early termination fee. A twenty-year contract? [More]
T-Mobile: Sorry You Lost Your Job And Had To Move, Here’s Your $500 ETF Bill
By 5.24.12 — Updated: 7.10.13
Walter’s wife was laid off from her position in Chicago, and she needed a job. She found one in a different Midwestern city: Omaha. She doesn’t seem to have any complaints about Omaha, except for the thing where she has next to no cell phone service. This still isn’t enough to get her out of her contract with T-Mobile, and she’s on the hook for her entire early termination fee, plus her whole non-prorated last month of service. [More]
Returned iPhone Within 30 Days, Still Charged $350 ETF
By 10.28.11
Justin’s and his wife live in a major metropolitan area, and therefore their phone service with AT&T Wireless is crappy. His wife upgraded to an iPhone 4, found it even more unusable than her previous phone, and returned it within the 30-day return period. This means that they shouldn’t have to pay an early termination fee on her contract. Yet she did, and now AT&T won’t refund the fee. [More]
Business's DSL Still Out 1 Month After Account Breach
By 10.7.11
Derek tells Consumerist that someone contacted AT&T and canceled his business’s DSL account. Which is interesting, because that person had no affiliation with Derek’s business, didn’t have any of the account information, and really shouldn’t have been allowed to edit the account at all. Did that stop AT&T from letting the person end the business’s Internet access, resulting in early termination fees? Guess. [More]
AT&T Charges Your 82-Year-Old Grandma A $150 ETF
By 4.26.11
One might think that a recently-widowed 82-year-old woman moving in with her grandson in another state would be have a valid reason for AT&T to waive the early termination fee on her phone and Internet package. Not so! Reader Chris is the grandson in this situation, and he helped his grandmother get the $150 ETF waived. AT&T has finally cooperated: they think. [More]
Sprint Does Everything Possible To Drive Longtime Customer Away
By 4.21.11
G. has been a longtime loyal Sprint wireless customer. Thirteen years, to be exact. She recently signed a new contract, and then a series of things happened in quick succession that make having service with Sprint darn near unacceptable. There’s a broken phone, service that doesn’t work in the house after a move, promised 4G service that hasn’t showed up yet, and a promised rebate that never materialized. [More]
AT&T Raising iPhone Early Termination Fee To $325
By 5.21.10
Having cold feet with your iPhone will cost you $325 starting June 1. AT&T is increasing the fee for breaking early two-year smartphone contracts from $199. The carrier is also decreasing the early termination fee for “dumb” phones by $25 to $150. [ [More]
