Escape Your Verizon Wireless Contract Without An ETFNew administrative fee hike allows consumers an out.... ( old news - 11:12AM Tuesday Apr 29 2008) tags: legal · prices · business · consumers · Verizon Wireless BroadbandIf you're a Verizon Wireless customer looking to get out of your contract without paying an early termination fee (ETF), users at Slickdeals (via the Consumerist) highlight your latest opportunity. When Verizon changes the prices or fees on your bill, your customer agreement technically allows you to exit your contract within sixty days without paying an ETF. The pertinent portion of your contract: Your service is subject to our business policies, practices and procedures, which we can change without notice. Unless otherwise prohibited by law, we can also change prices and any other conditions in this agreement at any time by sending you written notice prior to the billing period in which the changes would go into effect. If you choose to use your service after that point, you're accepting the changes. If the changes have a material adverse effect on you, however, you can end the affected service, without any early termination fee, just by calling us within 60 days after we send notice of the change. This time around, Verizon is raising their monthly administrative charge from $.70 to $.85. Users who call in and persistently argue that this fifteen cent hike has had a materially adverse effect on them have been able to nullify their contract. Don't feel too bad, Verizon lawyers would do the same to you.
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Boricua65
Oye, chico
join:2002-01-26
Puerto Rico |  Nickels and Dimes
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hopeflicker
Capitalism breeds greed
Premium
join:2003-04-03
Long Beach, CA
| Re: Nickels and Dimes Im suprised that they even state this in their contracts.
If the changes have a material adverse effect on you, however, you can end the affected service, without any early termination fee, just by calling us within 60 days after we send notice of the change.
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Religion does three things quite effectively: Divides people, Controls people, Deludes people. | |
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Rob
In Deo speramus
Premium
join:2001-08-25
Kendall, FL
 ·Comcast
| Re: Nickels and Dimes said by hopeflicker  :Im suprised that they even state this in their contracts. If the changes have a material adverse effect on you, however, you can end the affected service, without any early termination fee, just by calling us within 60 days after we send notice of the change. Don't worry, they are in the process of removing it. | |
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RARPSL
join:1999-12-08
Suffern, NY
| Re: Nickels and Dimes said by Rob :said by hopeflicker :Im suprised that they even state this in their contracts. If the changes have a on you, however, you can end the affected service, without any early termination fee, just by calling us within 60 days after we send notice of the change. Don't worry, they are in the process of removing it. If/When they do so, it WILL BE a material adverse effect under the old terms so you will have 60 days to tell them to drop dead before you lose this capability/option.
This is, of course, assuming that they tell you of the change instead of just making a stealth change with no notice by just updating the site text. No notice explaining this means that it only applies to New Users who sign up after the removal and not existent users since it is notice by them (which just changing the text on the web site does not qualify as since it must be an explicate written/emailed notice to you [note the use of the term "send"]) that starts the 60 day clock - no sent notice, no starting of a 60 day clock. | |
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jonnyb
join:2008-03-15
Haverhill, NH | Re: Nickels and Dimes... Maybe they should just keep lowering there price until there service is free, cause there is no such thing as inflation. | |
| | | nokiatech
join:2000-10-18
Stuart, FL | Re: Nickels and Dimes... Then maybe they shouldn't enter into 2 year contracts for a service at a set price. | |
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jonnyb
join:2008-03-15
Haverhill, NH | Re: Nickels and Dimes... maybe... | |
| | | | ke4pym
join:2004-07-24
Charlotte, NC
·RoadRunner Cable
 ·Verizon BroadbandA..
| said by nokiatech :Then maybe they shouldn't enter into 2 year contracts for a service at a set price. You know, I used this argument about a year or so ago when VZN upped the admin fee by like, a nickel.
I call them and told them I entered into a fixed contract for a reason. They tried to use a "well, it says in your contract that we can". I told them that I signed a contract because I didn't want or expect my rates to change.
After about 30 minutes of repeating that, they advanced me credit for the rest of my contract (which came out to like, $2) in the next month's bill.
15 cents is 15 cents and $2 is $2. If I can keep that $2 or 15 cents, I'm going too.
If everyone lets companies get away with this, then it will simply continue to happen. And I suspect most people will because they're too apathetic. | |
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hopeflicker
Capitalism breeds greed
Premium
join:2003-04-03
Long Beach, CA
| Re: Nickels and Dimes... said by ke4pym :said by nokiatech :Then maybe they shouldn't enter into 2 year contracts for a service at a set price. 15 cents is 15 cents and $2 is $2. If I can keep that $2 or 15 cents, I'm going too. If everyone lets companies get away with this, then it will simply continue to happen. And I suspect most people will because they're too apathetic. Yep! well said. It's all based on principle and not the fact that people cant afford the rate hike.
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Religion does three things quite effectively: Divides people, Controls people, Deludes people. | |
| | | moonpuppy
join:2000-08-21
Glen Burnie, MD
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| said by jonnyb :Maybe they should just keep lowering there price until there service is free, cause there is no such thing as inflation. Verizon should have enough money in place to set up a computer system to not change rates on those with contracts. Otherwise, they open themselves up to these types of issues.
A contract is a contract. | |
| | | | CurGeorge8
join:2005-05-02
Pittsburgh, PA
 ·Verizon FIOS
| Re: Nickels and Dimes... They're probably done the math and realize that so few people will actually cancel their service because of this, that they'll more than make up the lost revenue from the increase in the fee.
I think their subscriber base was 67.2 million last time I checked. So, take that number, times $0.15, is an 10.1 million dollar increase in new revenue every month.
I'm willing to bet that, at most, they'll lose around 5,000 customer because of this. They're average revenue per user is $51.40. This would equate to a loss of $257,000 per month. In order for the number of customer who deflect due to the fee increase to negate the increase in revenue, nearly 200,000 people would have to disconnect. That would never happen.
Now you can see why it's in their best interests to apply the new fee universally across the board. | |
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jjoshua
Premium
join:2001-06-01
Scotch Plains, NJ
·Comcast
| Re: Nickels and Dimes... said by CurGeorge8 :I'm willing to bet that, at most, they'll lose around 5,000 customer because of this. They're average revenue per user is $51.40. This would equate to a loss of $257,000 per month. In order for the number of customer who deflect due to the fee increase to negate the increase in revenue, nearly 200,000 people would have to disconnect. That would never happen. Now you can see why it's in their best interests to apply the new fee universally across the board. Plus they have to eat the subsidy for the phone. | |
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JakCrow
join:2001-12-06
Palo Alto, CA
·DSL EXTREME
| Re: Nickels and Dimes... said by jjoshua :said by CurGeorge8 :Now you can see why it's in their best interests to apply the new fee universally across the board. Plus they have to eat the subsidy for the phone. Write off | |
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tc1uscg
join:2005-03-09
Saint Clair Shores, MI | 67.2? So now we know who at least 60 million stupid people use for wireless. The other 7 are just miss guided. | |
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KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK
·Cox HSI
·AT&T Southwest
| Hey, a contract is a contract.
Whether it is $15 or .15 cents, a change in fees is a material change. I'm sure Verizon will eliminate this clause from their lock-in contracts eventually, but for now, there is nothing illegal, unethical, or immoral from using the change to escape the contract.
Look at it another way--- If Verizon was doing such a great job with service, why would people be looking so hard to bail anyway?
Just MHO, YMMV.
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"Regulatory capitalism is when companies invest in lawyers, lobbyists, and politicians, instead of plant, people, and customer service." - former FCC Chairman William Kennard (A real FCC Chairman, unlike the current Corporate Spokesperson in the job!) | |
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KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK
·Cox HSI
·AT&T Southwest
| Re: Nickels and Dimes... I saw the post where people call to try and exit contract and Verizon puts a .15 credit a month on their bill and then says they can't exit the contract because there is in effect no material change!
LOL them dogs..... Sheesh. Customer service, anyone?
Didn't think so.... :P
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"Regulatory capitalism is when companies invest in lawyers, lobbyists, and politicians, instead of plant, people, and customer service." - former FCC Chairman William Kennard (A real FCC Chairman, unlike the current Corporate Spokesperson in the job!) | |
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en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA | Re: Nickels and Dimes...  Gotta love that one.
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Canada = Hollywood North | |
| | | | | | EPS
join:2008-02-13
Hingham, MA | Hm? The contract gives the reason that it would have a material and adverse affect- if there's no charge, no adverse effect- the problem's solved, unless you were just looking for a loophole.. | |
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TMMerlin
The Devil made me do it
join:2003-06-19
Oxford, MI
·EarthLink
edit:
April 29th, @11:51AM
| News Release - Millions Jam Verizon Customer Service Lines ? The recent $.15 increase in admin charges has caused a material adverse effect on them ..just another sign of the USA economy being in a recession ! But Verizon says .. "no, because it hasn't impacted them negatively for two months in a row yet"..!
LMAO LOL ROF etc ...Ha Ha Ha
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Some people hear their own inner voices with great clearness and they live by what they hear. Such people become crazy but they become legend. | |
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Phil
Rojo Sol
Premium
join:2001-06-11
Camarillo, CA | Guess I'll try... I've had this Slickdeals.net thread bookmarked since its inception. Quite a few users have failed to actually cancel without the ETF. I will definitely give it go when I get back home. | |
| | itguy05
join:2005-06-17
Camp Hill, PA | Re: Guess I'll try... Right. What they usually do is set up a credit for the $.15 for the remaining term of the contract. This way they don't loose you and the charge cannot materially affect you as you're not paying it. | |
| | | CurGeorge8
join:2005-05-02
Pittsburgh, PA
·Verizon FIOS
| Re: Guess I'll try... said by itguy05 :Right. What they usually do is set up a credit for the $.15 for the remaining term of the contract. This way they don't loose you and the charge cannot materially affect you as you're not paying it. This is what they did for most customers who complained about the SMS rate increase. | |
| | | techphets
join:2008-06-10
| Am I not materially affected in having to spend hours arguing with Verizon representatives to obtain that credit?
Furthermore, what about all the future time I am going to need to invest to remove similar changes from my contract?
If they decide to do this once every three months and I need to spend four hours on the phone each time they are effectively forcing me to work for 25 cents an hour in order to avoid handing the money over to them. | |
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TuPaK
join:2002-07-21
San Gabriel, CA
·Charter Pipeline
·Cox HSI
| I tried this when they raised text message prices.... Because I had a text message package I didn't qualify
But I think I can catch them by the tail here. Doesn't really matter too much, my contract ends in August anyways.
I'm so sick of the Verizon UI...terrible POS. Crippled phones and get it now up your a**. | |
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esc0
@rr.com
| Take Advantage Of This This is how I got out my contract with Sprint. They did the same and I emailed them instead so in order to have copies of what their associates promised me.
Don't just take a phone call as being guaranteed. Have email trails as well. It sux to see how these companies are taking advantage of customers and laugh all the way to the bank without being penalized. | |
| Fluker
join:2005-04-07
West Lafayette, IN
| Too bad CDMA is so awesomely reliable, but completely dominated by a company with just awful practices.
If I wanted a carrier that standardized ass-backwards gui's, disabled phones' most desired features, and charged users left and right for services that are free/unlimited with other carriers - I would pick Verizon.
It kills me that with any of the GSM carriers, I have a mountain of phones to choose from, that cost less per month and are many times more customizable, but I can't reliably connect to anything because GSM is so fragile and spotty  | |
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