Warning: Verizon Spiking Early Termination Fee

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Major7up

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I'm on Sprint now and was thinking of jumping ship and going to Verizon but that may give me pause to reconsider. I am not dissatisfied with Sprint in any way, I just felt the service was more reliable with Verizon and I have had both twice each now to base that comparison on.
 
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Early term fees are sometimes very reasonable... Look at what many cell phones cost without a contract, especially the newer nice stuff. Some of these phones are $500, but you can get them for like $49 when agreeing to the contract... Verizon is basically financing your phone for you, over the life of your contract. So of course they don't want you to kill the contract halfway though.
 

piezoman

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Interesting, though, that the same phones, unlocked, in GSM, are available to the rest of the world for about half the 'real' price we're asked to pay. And there's typically no contracts to sign.

Only in the US...
 
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MS ...many of the good unlocked phones in Europe are serval hundred dollars. It is not unheard of paying $700 and up for these devices...get real......there is no free lunch.
 

JOSHSKORN

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Seriously, both Sprint and Verizon both suck for different reasons. I started out with Sprint, which had great customer service and HORRIBLE cellular service. I kept getting dropped calls, which they gladly credited me for. Obviously this gets annoying. Verizon, on the other hand, you can't get a right answer out of any of their customer service reps. This idiot at the Verizon store signed up my FiOS service in my father's name, who I specifically told him, he was deceased and it should've been put in my mother's name. That was the beginning of my problems w/ Verizon. I could go on and on. Other than that though, I think the actual service is better, just DON'T CHANGE ANYTHING ONCE YOU GET IT! SOMEONE AT VERIZON WILL SCREW IT UP!
 

-713king-

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actualy they do this because there is alot of fraud, some people just get the new phones and then a week later end the contract so i think its a good idea charging that..
 

cookoy

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Life is all about fees. The moment you were born, fees start coming your way. You can't just "jump ship". If you die, there are funeral fees. In between birth and death, you have Verizon fees. Lots and lots of them. So before you jump in and subscribe to anything, Stop! Look! and Listen!
 

bildo123

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Maybe they should have better, more affordable, plan for people that don't send 2000 texts a month and talk 20 hours a month. Soon as mine is up I'm jumping ship, great coverage and service though.
 

jellico

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[citation][nom]tiga2001[/nom]Verizon's got great infrastructure, but they totally exploit their customers with stuff like this[/citation]
A statement like that implies that Verizon is taking unfair and/or unethical advantage of their customers. Yet the fact that they are customers and not indentured servants pretty much precludes that. A customer enters into a voluntary relationship with a business because, first and foremost, they want what that company is offering. So, right away, the relationship starts with an exchange for mutual benefit. In the case of cell service, there is usually a contract involved. The contract means that the purchaser is obligated for, usually, 2 years of service. A $200 or $350 fee to break the contract is actually pretty cheap considering that you are legally obligated for paying the entire two years whether you use it or not. Finally, contracts work both ways. You are obligated to pay, but only the amount in the contract. If the company's costs were to sudden skyrocket, they can't make you pay more even if your contract with them is less than what it costs them to provide the service.

So there is no exploitation at all. As the customer, you can vote with your feet (and your wallet). A company that tries to exploit their customers (see the recent Tom's articles on MacPadd) will quickly find themselves without customers.
 

t33lo

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The reason behind this is that customers who were purchasing the "buy one blackberry, get one free" promotion would cancel their 2nd blackberry and pay the cheap ETF and then sell that BlackBerry on eBay or Craigslist to actually cover the cost of their other BlackBerry and even profit in some cases. I can't blame Verizon for this, blame the people trying to take advantage of the system.
 
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