1. TheScionicMan's Avatar
    Yep. They could probably get rid of the ETF altogether and the FCC couldn't do a thing about it... and that's probably what will happen if they push too hard...
    12-06-09 01:14 PM
  2. gotblackberry's Avatar
    That wouldn't be a good business decision for Verizon. People think paying $100 for smartphones is too much. Unless all the carriers did it, Verizon would lose a lot of new customers/renewals.
    12-06-09 01:41 PM
  3. dchawk81's Avatar
    I wouldn't pay no bloody $700 for a smart phone just to not have an ETF on a contract I wouldn't break anyway.
    12-06-09 01:46 PM
  4. Polychrome's Avatar
    If I break my apt lease 1 day before it's up I'm going to be paying some penalties.
    I dunno about everybody else, but I would certainly hope that most people would be smart enough to use that last day for a last-minute cleaning, considering that most apartments will also take your deposit if you cut town without doing so (and may even charge you extra)!
    12-06-09 01:48 PM
  5. Gawain's Avatar
    I just thought of something else. It could be worse. We could be in Canada, where carriers still rape you for the device, even with a THREE year contract....A 9550 on Telus is C$200 for a three year. Two years is C$499...

    C$50/month gets you 150 minutes, and 500MB of data.

    Good grief I didn't even look to see what their ETFs were...I was afraid to go to Rogers after looking on Telus' site. Poor folks up there...make me feel bad for my Canuckian cousins...
    12-06-09 02:13 PM
  6. TwinsX2Dad's Avatar
    That wouldn't be a good business decision for Verizon. People think paying $100 for smartphones is too much. Unless all the carriers did it, Verizon would lose a lot of new customers/renewals.
    Like Sprint with their much higher priced smartphones?

    I just thought of something else. It could be worse. We could be in Canada, where carriers still rape you for the device, even with a THREE year contract....A 9550 on Telus is C$200 for a three year. Two years is C$499...

    C$50/month gets you 150 minutes, and 500MB of data.

    Good grief I didn't even look to see what their ETFs were...I was afraid to go to Rogers after looking on Telus' site. Poor folks up there...make me feel bad for my Canuckian cousins...
    Say hello to what happens with increased regulation, taxes & such.
    12-06-09 03:07 PM
  7. gotblackberry's Avatar
    Like Sprint with their much higher priced smartphones?
    Well yeah, unless you threaten to cancel then they just free it out for you.
    12-06-09 03:09 PM
  8. dchawk81's Avatar
    Like Sprint with their much higher priced smartphones?
    Are you talking retail, or new contract?

    I don't know about ALL the phones, but my Sprint Tour was only something like $50 more than Verizon's. I wouldn't call that "much higher priced."

    I got my $50 back in the first month of service. Sadly, not enough people see the big picture.
    12-06-09 03:25 PM
  9. TwinsX2Dad's Avatar
    Are you talking retail, or new contract?

    I don't know about ALL the phones, but my Sprint Tour was only something like $50 more than Verizon's. I wouldn't call that "much higher priced."

    I got my $50 back in the first month of service. Sadly, not enough people see the big picture.
    Don't forget - I agree with you there - rediscover my Sprint vs. VZW thread. Personally, I believe 90% of VZW customers would be better off with Sprint. I was making the comparison between initial price for the phone (contracted) vs. ETF. In some cases, Sprint is $150-$170 more on the phone, or VZW offers twofers, which pretty much nullifies the difference in ETF.

    Shortsightedness is what causes much of the churn. People see a phone for $350 on Sprint, while VZW has it for $200.
    12-06-09 03:33 PM
  10. dchawk81's Avatar
    True. And for people like me, the ETF doesn't even factor because we fulfill our contracts.
    12-06-09 03:52 PM
  11. jlsparks's Avatar
    Ditto dchawk. I upgraded with VZW before the published date for the ETF change, so I'm working on the lower priced ETF anyway. But I have every intention of fulfilling my contractual obligation. That's what contracts are for.
    12-06-09 03:56 PM
  12. dchawk81's Avatar
    Yup. If you research your options and choose the best plan based on your own needs rather than blindly based on the advertisements, there's really no reason to cancel.

    The only exception I can think of is financial hardship. A company might even let you out of the contract without an ETF based on that...if you ask nicely. We are in a recession and it's not like they'd have a reason to think you're lying. Having said that, since we ARE in a recession, and if you ARE in financial hardship, you probably shouldn't be signing a brand new 2-year smart phone contract anyway. You might be best served by either ditching the cell altogether (if you have a landline) or at least downgrading from a smart phone to a dumb phone. Cheaper ETF, cheaper plan, still in touch with the world.

    When in financial straits, you can and must give up some luxury. First thing I'd do, however, is start selling high ticket luxuries if I had any....boats, motorcycles, etc. I don't have any of those, but I could, for example, sell a camera if necessary and that'd at the very least give me another 10 months of cell coverage.

    Heck if you're a smoker, you could save yourself $100-300 a month by quitting.
    Last edited by dchawk81; 12-06-09 at 04:26 PM.
    12-06-09 04:19 PM
  13. TrendyProfessional1's Avatar
    Just buy it under a one year agreement...........
    Or pay full retail; and or vote with your pocketbooks.
    I think it sucks bu then again I am not going anywhere
    I plan on being very careful about what I purchase in the first
    place. I'm sorry mods but and please don't close.
    A nuetral statement; this hasn't been a govof the people
    by the people and for the people. It is a gov't of the
    lobbyists by the lobbyists and for the lobbyists
    12-06-09 04:36 PM
  14. TwinsX2Dad's Avatar
    Heck if you're a smoker, you could save yourself $100-300 a month by quitting.
    Yow - was in a convenience store earlier for a cup of coffee - don't normally notice these things, but $6.09/pack & $55.99/carton? Two pack a day smoker, buying by the pack, about $13/day after sales taxes. $390/month.

    There went your ETF that you shouldn't be paying if you're a responsible & upstanding individual...
    12-06-09 09:22 PM
  15. dchawk81's Avatar
    Yow - was in a convenience store earlier for a cup of coffee
    Speakin' of cutting expenses...

    12-06-09 09:36 PM
  16. Super_Mario's Avatar
    Yow - was in a convenience store earlier for a cup of coffee - don't normally notice these things, but $6.09/pack & $55.99/carton? Two pack a day smoker, buying by the pack, about $13/day after sales taxes. $390/month.

    There went your ETF that you shouldn't be paying if you're a responsible & upstanding individual...
    Tell me about it, I save about 150.00 now that I quit smoking......I wasn't cool enough to smoke 2 packs a day.
    12-06-09 11:39 PM
  17. sorlipm's Avatar
    um, so a government agency investigates a trades and services complaint, and suddenly we're all under threat and infiltrated by adherents of a defunct ideology? Sounds like someone left the door to the john birch crazy barn open again. All these agencies and practices were in place during the cold war, but then it was called consumer protection. I doubt vzw will have any action taken against it if the fine print is in place. If so, then yes, it is the customer's fault. If not, vzw got some splainin to do.

    Also, keep in mind there isn't one true communist, capitalist, or socialist economy or country on earth right now, so unwad your undergarments and go back to your tea bags steeped in glen beck's tears.

    Posted from my crackberry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    what a tool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    12-07-09 06:40 AM
  18. sorlipm's Avatar
    Seriously!!!???? From what I read it was they were asking questions not fining them, not telling them they did anything illegal, just asking a couple of questions.

    Maybe if other government agencies stopped to ask a few questions then maybe banks wouldn't have gave out mortgages to anyone with a name and stopped the greatest recession since the great depression.

    This is being blow way out of proportion. I seem to remember reading that the only reason there is any buy out of your cell contract at all is because of pressure from the FCC. (And before anyone else goes "you should honor your contract" tell that to my cousin who broke his so he could go to Iraq and fight for this country only to die serving all of us) He didn't need a his cell plan in Iraq so he legally paid his way out of a contract.
    I know VZW has a military plan that lets anyone going overseas out of thier contract
    12-07-09 06:42 AM
  19. sorlipm's Avatar
    Hahaha, I couldn't stop laughing reading this post. All us leftist communist socialist running roughshod over everything. Someone should stop us!

    Color me crazy but wasn't it, in part, the utter dismantling from 2000-2008 of the financial services sector that led to the recession that started well over a year ago? Wasn't it, in part, IRS, FTC, and primarily SEC's utter failures to take any regulatory action whatsoever during those years that created monsters like Countrywide? How about Enron? Remember them? Lack of oversight and appropriate regulation permitted lil ol' Enron to create markets trading in everything, including trading in the distribution of electricity services in places like California. Remember the rolling-blackouts/brownouts in the mid-2000s in California? Do you realize how much of that was caused my Enron's having shorted supply through effective market manipulation? Under an appropriate regulatory structure such manipulation wouldn't so easily occur.

    Regulation is a necessary and important part of our society. The FCC you criticize for looking into (not investigating - yet) VZW's practices is the FCC that many on here (myself included) praised just a couple of months back for their net-neutral public policy position which, in the end, is going to mean a **** of a lot more to CBs users than FCC's taking a look at an ETF policy that affects what, 1% of VZW's 88M lines. Really.

    And as for your assertion that FCC has no directive to conduct investigations, like nearly all independent regulatory bodies they operate under the authority of the legislative branch. This authority is granted to the legislative branch through in part The Commerce Clause of Art. 1, Sect. 8 (I'm 99% sure, sorry don't have my pocket US Constitution with me), which gives the legislature the authority to regulate interstate and other commerce. The natural extension of The Commerce Cause led to the creation of regulatory agencies (since Congress didn't have the resources to handle it all themselves.) FCC is a legally-operating entity under the US Constitution; the fact that you may not like the leftie commie pinkos currently appointed to it doesn't change that fact.

    Sorry for the quickie lesson in government regulatory powers, but the amount of misinformation that is passed along as gospel on here is simply staggering and, when used to simply attempt to further ones' own obvious political bitterness mandates correction.
    Really!!! do some research, the 1995 banking act started the slide, signed by your friend Clinton, and enforced by Mrs Reno, who told all the banks that didnt go along they would be investigated, i worked in the title and escrow business for 10 yrs and saw it all, the banks were told to stop redlining and loan to anyone with a pulse,
    12-07-09 06:49 AM
  20. larrygump's Avatar
    is this forum so out of touch with reality to support these increased ETF's.....people visit any OTHER forum or talk to any of your friends and or family on the street.....people are sick of this and contracts......why dont we get like the europeans.....they seem to have a pretty good paygo system over there with orange/o2/vodafone.......why is this so hard to reproduce here in the US?.......

    I dont get it....how can you shoot yourself in the foot by supporting these ETF's......oh YOU dont plan on breaking contract huh....what about the tens of thousands put out of work by the recession....you think they WANT to break contract.....but if its between a VZW contract and putting food on their tables or gas in their cars.........oh but let me guess......youll say they still have a responsibility to the contract...........must be nice up on that hill some of you are looking down from....too bad most of us arent......so whats it like to know your thumbing your nose at the majority of us in the middle class struggling right now?

    Sure hope makes some of you feel good to be so totally disconnected and to have more sympathy for a corporation than a hard working honest american who maybe chose a smartphone before he gets laid off then gets down on his or her luck.....wow (shakes head)

    and thus this will be me last post on crackberry........many of you will say good riddance....I just cant take the censorship or arrogance anymore....peace out
    12-07-09 07:29 AM
  21. blue_and_bold's Avatar
    is this forum so out of touch with reality to support these increased ETF's.....people visit any OTHER forum or talk to any of your friends and or family on the street.....people are sick of this and contracts......why dont we get like the europeans.....they seem to have a pretty good paygo system over there with orange/o2/vodafone.......why is this so hard to reproduce here in the US?.......

    I dont get it....how can you shoot yourself in the foot by supporting these ETF's......oh YOU dont plan on breaking contract huh....what about the tens of thousands put out of work by the recession....you think they WANT to break contract.....but if its between a VZW contract and putting food on their tables or gas in their cars.........oh but let me guess......youll say they still have a responsibility to the contract...........must be nice up on that hill some of you are looking down from....too bad most of us arent......so whats it like to know your thumbing your nose at the majority of us in the middle class struggling right now?

    Sure hope makes some of you feel good to be so totally disconnected and to have more sympathy for a corporation than a hard working honest american who maybe chose a smartphone before he gets laid off then gets down on his or her luck.....wow (shakes head)

    and thus this will be me last post on crackberry........many of you will say good riddance....I just cant take the censorship or arrogance anymore....peace out
    Took them right out of my mouth...
    12-07-09 07:48 AM
  22. TrendyProfessional1's Avatar
    is this forum so out of touch with reality to support these increased ETF's.....people visit any OTHER forum or talk to any of your friends and or family on the street.....people are sick of this and contracts......why dont we get like the europeans.....they seem to have a pretty good paygo system over there with orange/o2/vodafone.......why is this so hard to reproduce here in the US?.......

    I dont get it....how can you shoot yourself in the foot by supporting these ETF's......oh YOU dont plan on breaking contract huh....what about the tens of thousands put out of work by the recession....you think they WANT to break contract.....but if its between a VZW contract and putting food on their tables or gas in their cars.........oh but let me guess......youll say they still have a responsibility to the contract...........must be nice up on that hill some of you are looking down from....too bad most of us arent......so whats it like to know your thumbing your nose at the majority of us in the middle class struggling right now?

    Sure hope makes some of you feel good to be so totally disconnected and to have more sympathy for a corporation than a hard working honest american who maybe chose a smartphone before he gets laid off then gets down on his or her luck.....wow (shakes head)

    and thus this will be me last post on crackberry........many of you will say good riddance....I just cant take the censorship or arrogance anymore....peace out
    Because the corporations are the Gov't......................
    Also having more sympathy for a corporation.
    It's just like in the Civil war when the rich slave holders
    got poor Joe Blow to fight for his right to own slaves.....
    Same mentality; think not.
    U know what the elite say though....
    The masses are a$$es.............
    12-07-09 08:58 AM
  23. lastraid's Avatar
    Also europeans paymore and do not have unlim data, from what I have seen
    12-07-09 02:07 PM
  24. dchawk81's Avatar
    is this forum so out of touch with reality to support these increased ETF's.....people visit any OTHER forum or talk to any of your friends and or family on the street.....people are sick of this and contracts......why dont we get like the europeans.....they seem to have a pretty good paygo system over there with orange/o2/vodafone.......why is this so hard to reproduce here in the US?.......

    I dont get it....how can you shoot yourself in the foot by supporting these ETF's......oh YOU dont plan on breaking contract huh....what about the tens of thousands put out of work by the recession....you think they WANT to break contract.....but if its between a VZW contract and putting food on their tables or gas in their cars.........oh but let me guess......youll say they still have a responsibility to the contract...........must be nice up on that hill some of you are looking down from....too bad most of us arent......so whats it like to know your thumbing your nose at the majority of us in the middle class struggling right now?

    Sure hope makes some of you feel good to be so totally disconnected and to have more sympathy for a corporation than a hard working honest american who maybe chose a smartphone before he gets laid off then gets down on his or her luck.....wow (shakes head)

    and thus this will be me last post on crackberry........many of you will say good riddance....I just cant take the censorship or arrogance anymore....peace out
    Honest question:

    If you were on the verge of losing your home via foreclosure, would you even care if you were hit with an ETF from your cell phone company? Your credit is tanking already, a cell phone collection isn't going to make much difference in the grand scheme of things.
    12-07-09 02:11 PM
  25. tgilmore16's Avatar
    Honest question:

    If you were on the verge of losing your home via foreclosure, would you even care if you were hit with an ETF from your cell phone company? Your credit is tanking already, a cell phone collection isn't going to make much difference in the grand scheme of things.
    +1 I'm going to agree with the voice of reason here and add, if you are struggling and foreseeing trouble, why not head off a problem and contact your carrier to see what can be done.

    When my daughter had to switch jobs, she called her carrier and they let her get a non data phone, for free, and changed her plan without extending her contract. She was also given a discount, told to kepp the BB and when you're ready, reactivate it. The carrier made a very loyal customer.
    12-07-09 03:24 PM
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