*Notice*

This may be a re-post, I could not find it here.


Verizon doubling early termination fees

Wed Nov 4, 2009 11:37AM EST

See Comments (30)
Buzz up!585 votes

It's called lock-in, folks: The tactic that works by ensuring that once you sign on with a product or a company, you have virtually no way to escape. You're stuck for life. Apple does this with the iPod by locking iTunes to its music player. Online e-mail providers do this regularly by making it impossible to get your email out of their system and onto another.

But perhaps the most notorious example of electronics lock-in is the good-old cell phone contract early termination fee. Every carrier has one: If you want to get out of your contract early, you'll pay at least a hundred bucks for the privilege. The carriers justify it by saying you get a better deal on your cell phone when you make the initial purchase, but for many, hanging on to a crummy phone for two years just isn't worth it, and many people find that after the first year has passed, they want out of the deal (usually so they can get an iPhone).

And that termination fee is always painful.

Well, if you sign up for new service with Verizon beginning November 15 or later, that early termination fee is about to start hurting much worse. According to Boy Genius Report, Verizon is preparing to double its ETF to a whopping $350 if you cancel your service before your contract is up. For users with a simple calling plan, that amount of money can be close to the fees for a year's worth of service.

Oh, there's a little bone thrown in there for you: For every month of your contract fulfilled, the company knocks $10 off the ETF. Great deal? Hardly: Cancel your 24-month contract in the 23rd month and you're still on the hook for a $120 termination fee. Ouch.

It's unclear if the new fee will apply to all devices or just mysterious "advanced" ones (see the link for further speculation), but either way this is a bad omen for all cell phone users, as all the carriers tend to raise prices and fees in lockstep with each other whenever they think they can get away with it. (See also: Text messaging fees.) And they usually do.

Get ready for some outrage, folks. Be mad!

Link
Verizon doubling early termination fees : Christopher Null : Yahoo! Tech

Yeah I saw it here too but I think yours was posted first

http://forums.crackberry.com/f40/vzw...s-350-a-356567

Be mad? Don't sign the stupid contract. No one is forcing this on you. Its all the dirtbags that screw the company you should be upset with, that's why the $$ goes up.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Lordcliff is right. It's the one's who sign up then let the bill go unpaid that cause alot of this. Verizon is just protecting what they agreed to do as much as the consumer should do.

If you sign a contract, pay the money like you said you would.

VZ scared of the 9700 and iphone.