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Verizon Defends Doubling of Early Termination Fee
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Verizon is defending its decision to double its Early Termination Fee from $175 to $350 after being called to account by the FCC. They claim it's because the higher fees allow them to offer more expensive phones with a lower up-front cost (PDF), and they also say that because they pro-rate the fee depending on how much of your contract is left, they still lose money. Apparently doing something about the Verizon customer service horror stories isn't as good a way to retain customers as telling them that they have to pay several hundred dollars to leave."
Maybe consumers would have a better chance at fairness if Verizon had to justify itself to the FTC.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Verizon sucks anyway. Their plans are laughable. Try pricing out a smartphone plan with them. Oh, and don't forget the (lol) extra $24 for the data plan. For an average family plan with smartphones they come out to like $40+ more than Verizon for just two lines, and it goes up as you get more lines.
Verizon can rot in hell. Can you hear me now? Yes? Well, what I said was "fuck you, Verizon".
Verizon will go any lengths to protect their customers, even if it means killing them.
If they didn't get you on the back end, they could just charge you more up front to buy the phone, then amortize the up front cost through lower monthly bills, until in the end you pay the same amount. That way, they could even offer "no termination fee!" But I'm sure somebody would still get pissed at call it deceptive business practices. It's a free market, and they can charge anything they like. This is a total non-story.
Please, Slashdot, can we have a way to filter out stories by submitter? I don't think I've ever seen a story from "I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property" that doesn't irritate me with its smug sanctimony and total irrelevance. Personally, I don't believe in imaginary news.
AT&T CEO: So, basically when the new iPhone 3GS++ comes out, people will be leaving other carriers in droves.
Verizon CEO: No matter, every customer signed a contract with more words than the US Constitution which means they either didn't or are unable read it. In that contract, we reserve the right to increase our crippling early termination fee. So we'll juice that up to lock in size and by the time most customers can leave, we'll have an answer to your latest model.
Verizon Shareholder: I approve.
Verizon Customer: Why does my ass hurt?
My work here is dung.
If you don't want to pay the fee, you should avoid it by not signing an agreement with Verizon. If you don't like Verizon's customer service, you should avoid it by not signing an agreement with Verizon. Or sign an agreement and live up to your obligations and avoid the fee that way.
Don't hire the government to force the people at Verizon to do things against their will -- unless the people at Verizon have truly defrauded you, personally, out of a significant amount of money. Because forcing people to do things against their will is (almost always) morally wrong.
Let us interested Americans pool resources and start a nation wide non-profit cellphone company where we can all do as we please or where we can all utilize resources according to predetermined policies.
It would not be that hard.
Or, we could take over an existing company like Metro then do as we please. We surely can raise a few billion dollars, can't we?
Somehow, Verizon has done the impossible, it has developed a way to sign people up for onerous contracts without their realizing it.
THAT is why this is so serious, it used to be you could just say "No, I'll use a different carrier" and go on about your business. NO LONGER!
Ah, the good old days, when I was responsible for the contracts I signed and the agreements contained within...
GOD DAMN YOU VERIZON! WHY!!!
Why are so many posts with factual errors modded up?
Verizon's guilty of a lot more than merely doubling their early termination fees. They've also tried to pin about 300$ in botgus charges to a friend of mine's account when she tried to leave them. I hope the FTC nails them to the nearest cross.
Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
Is the fee prorated more aggressively because the phone doesn't cost as much or are you subsidizing the super phone users?
The FCC and FTC definitely need to step in the the wireless market. Policies like this promote stagnation and high prices.
Why should the customer be bound to a wireless contract when this doesn't apply to landlines? I've said before that wireless contracts are keeping prices artifically high, allowing providers to charge quite similar rates for similar plans, because it is so difficult to switch. If customers were not tied to contracts, the ensuing price war might bring wireless rates down closer to prices that I have seen outside the USA.
Speaking of other countries - Why is the USA one of few countries where I can't just pop the SIM or UICC card out of my handset and put it into a new one? Why did it take intervention by the Chinese government to force device manufacturers to standardize chargers to minimize electronic waste?
The total lack of customer service, the terrible coverage, and the relatively subpar implementation of cellular service in the US compared to other countries is not just a problem with Verizon. It is a problem industry-wide, and it is only getting worse.
With the economy in the toilet, these companies are losing customers like the Bucs lose football games. This means they don't have the financial wherewithal to build out the necessary networks. And due to this, customer service continues to decline.
Maybe it is time to nationalize the whole wireless carrier system and slowly parcel out contracts to private companies for the day-to-day operations. If we can punish these carriers by taking away their networks, we will see real change in customer service and subsequently real competition and improvements across the board.
As long as private companies run these networks, we're stuck with the worst possible system for cellular phone users. It may be a cultural thing because Asian and European companies don't seem to screw over their customers so badly, but it's our culture and we should (as a nation) take it back.
they also say that because they pro-rate the fee depending on how much of your contract is left, they still lose money.
...So, they claim to be losing money on all the subscribers who don't cancel their contracts early?
That can't possibly be right, maybe I should go RTFA to see if it really says the same thing...
IIt's a free market, and they can charge anything they like.
It's not a free market, and folks getting upset over the dissemination of phone and plan prices aren't making it any freer.
Another commenter already pointed out that other network providers offer better better deals... The hard part is getting this information to consumers in a form that's clear and easy to understand, when the providers themselves seem dedicated to obfuscation.
"they also say that because they pro-rate the fee depending on how much of your contract is left, they still lose money"
Wow... that's the biggest load of BS I think I might have seen all week.
They don't lose money off of the pro-rated fee... at absolute worst they lose money because they lost a customer, and even that's unlikely unless the company is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Heck, if a customer terminates early and the company collects that fee, they can actually earn interest on the whole termination fee sooner instead of collecting it over a period of several years.
I'm not sure in what sort of reality they think saying something like this would be likely to make anybody feel even slightly sorry for them.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Verzion has been running various deals where you get 2 of the newest generation phones for free/nominal fee with contract. A few people have doing the following: Sign up for 2 year contract, get the 2 phones (which retail for 200-300), pay the ~$300 cancellation fee, then sell the 2 phones on ebay for a profit. Though it can certainly be claimed to be their problem and some people may get screwed in the deal, this seems like a way to continue doing what they're doing without taking such a loss.
Wow. My early cancellation fee is $500. And contracts are three years, not two.
Fairness would be selling the phones at standard unlocked prices and letting people buy their contracts ala carte. Of course that would also mean much higher phone prices, how many people would buy the iphone or Droid at $600? In the long run consumers would be better off for it, but many seem to want the latest and greatest but don't want to pay more than a couple hundred bucks to get it.
In Verizon's defense, they are likely looking to stop some of the scamming that goes on with newer phones. I know of a couple local discount cellular stores near me that was having employees buy iphones, keep them 30 days so that the return policy is no longer in effect and then pay the early termination fee, for a 32gb 3gs they nearly double their money. Perhaps a better option would be a tiered ETF?
Go Prepaid! Cheaper rates and no contract! Boost Mobile - $50/month for unlimited data usage. Metro PCS - $45/month for unlimited data usage.
Except if you want to get a new phone, there is no discount. The Samsung Finesse, for example, costs $300. Out of pocket.
. . . need to be regulated like the installment loan contracts they actually are, and subject to the Truth In Lending Act.
One CPU cycle wasted on digital restrictions management is ONE TOO MANY.
I just had my contract cancelled because my phone broke and I needed a new one. I had 33 months left and they charged me 400 and only picked up 190 of it. When I told them thats retarted they said "We don't care just pay". I'm confussed on what the fee should be.
I want to call them back and agru this because first of all I shouldn't be charged for a broken phone because the phone should of broke in 3 months. Second I shouldn't be charged a massive cancell fee becasue they sell phones which break easily.
Does anyone have a story or tale about being charged a low rate for there contract. Something around 33 months would be good because I'm really pissed about how they've been screwing me. Out of the last 5 or so months I've had to call and get my bill corrected 4 times and on a second note I had to make a new call to just get my phone replaced. This company is horrible and when my contract is up I'm never going back.
by purchasing an expensive smart phone, unlocking it, selling it on E-Bay and then paying the fee? If so, $175 is too low.
Since this is the crux of it...
Verizon Wireless said Friday that it doubled the fees for customers to break service contracts for smart phones because those devices cost much more.
and other companies have not raised their ETF incredibly (including AT&T, who just so happens to have rights to the most smartphones, including iPhone), it basically comes down to maximizing profit with the added benefit of increasing retention rate. In other words, they want more money.
However, it's not completely bleak, since they do decrease the ETF like other carriers do:
Verizon, like several other carriers, lowers the price of the early termination fee over the length of the contract. A Verizon customer who canceled a two-year contract after 23 months would still be charged $120, though.
It must suck if Verizon Wireless is one's only option. If it isn't, it makes zero sense to switch (except for network coverage, but AT&T is practically right there with them).
I have NEVER had a good experience dealing with Verizon phone or store personnel. I only feel better when I compare horror stories with AT&T customers, who have similar complaints.
I am also amazed at the piss-poor quality of connection we collectively tolerate as cell phone consumers. Remember when you could talk over a land line and actually hear somebody? And now my wife and daughter want iPhones so it's about to get even worse.
I hate being bipolar; it's awesome!
I don't understand your non-poweruser who would sign a wireless contract. Prepay is by far more cost effective, $1 a day to talk unlmited to any Verizon customer (and who isn't, even if they are evil), otherwise 10c per minute outbound, add $10 and you get unlimited text, otherwise 10c a text. Best of all, no taxes or bogus FCC fees, etc. Now if you live in NYC this might not work, as you probably have people on all the networks, so you'd be paying 10c per minute to talk outbound during the day (unlimited nights and free inbound) But here in Delaware/Maryland area, AT&T's network quality is horrible, and Sprint/Nextel is nearly non-existant.
If you don't like their terms, don't sign their contract. They're not your slaves and have no moral obligation to offer your favorite price structure. Use another service. I do.
The FCC is completely out of line here.
Absolute horse-crap. Phones are one of the most arbitrarily priced pieces of hardware on the market. Take for example the 'free phone' it is 'retailed' at 200 plus dollars. It has not touch screen, no wifi, no app store, no legit mobile browser. When in reality, you could buy, for that same 200 bucks, a iTouch, which gives you applications, wi-fi internet, Texting, and a significantly larger screen (touch screen even). Hell, with Wi-Fi, as long as you have access to a router, you can run Skype and Call anyone, FOR FREE! Hell for 200 bucks you can get a netbook! Cell-Phones are a huge, dare I say, price-fix bonanza. Friggen Rip-offs.
Not a "standard" on my new motorola phone, a clutch. It looks like it takes a standard micro USB cable but it doesn't quite fit or work, I mean I bought one and tried it and had to take it back. You have to use one of their proprietary cables.
After having spent 12+ years in the wireless business building the non-wireline cellular network (A-side, was Cellular One, absorbed into Cingular, absorbed into AT&T wireless) in several parts of the country, you'd think I'd stay with them. I have been with Verizon now for 8 of the last 10 years and the primary reasons are service almost anywhere I've been and their customer service. I've been mistreated and abused by Cingular, AT&T, US West (in Minnesota), and Sprint. The difference between them and Verizon is night and day. I can usually get anything handled with Verizon in one phone call, usually talking to one person. If something happens that the problem isn't resolved on that phone call, they make arrangements to call me back. And, get this - they do!
The only thing that makes Verizon suck is their nickel and dime billing strategy* and their penchant for late, crippled phones that suck compared to the other carriers (droid is late, but it doesn't look crippled, I'm sorely tempted!). However, with all the places that abuse me as nothing more than a "consumer," I'll put up with Verizon's other practices to be treated like a human customer! [* just don't use vcast, vnavigator, or anything branded verizon, don't download stupid BREW apps, and get a plan with unlimited text and your bill won't vary due to nickels and dimes everywhere. If you get a smartphone, make sure you get one that can be hacked - HTC are especially good for this, but generally any full windows mobile phone has been hackable, just not the windows smartphone ones-the ones that don't have touch screen and are crackberry wannabes.]
[on an unrelated note, this javascript enabled reply box sucks! I wanted to edit a previous sentence and it kept disrupting the mouse's ability to place the cursor in the text. Eventually I had to click in the center of the box and use the cursor keys.]
> If you don't want to pay the fee, you should avoid it by not signing an agreement with Verizon. If you don't like Verizon's customer service, you should avoid it by not signing an agreement with Verizon.
That's a very good idea. That's pretty much why I wrote this story: to make sure that potential customers know what they're getting into. If they sign the contract even after knowing, well, that's their fault. But it might do them a lot of good to know that Verizon changed the contract on them (and they can, therefore, be made to drop it because Verizon isn't living up to what they originally agreed to). Most people don't have time to read 800 page contracts every few days, just to see if they've changed.
In other words, even if Verizon is doing everything legally, people still have a very good reason to want to know about this fee hike. One of the free market axioms is that customers are able to make informed decisions. This story helps support that idea.
- I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property
You say a low-end phone has MSRP $200, compared to a smartphone minus its GSM/UMTS radio. But how much does this radio cost?
As a Verizon Wireless Customer Service Representative in one of their call centers, let me just say this. That early termination fee pays my bills. And the 350 dollar early termination fee only applies to ADVANCED devices such as the Droid phones, the Windows phones, and other phones that we're selling to customers at a drastically discounted rate ($200 for a Droid whose MSRP is $600) so even with a 350 dollar early termination fee, Verizon is still losing money for those that cancel early after getting one of these phones. We don't even ask for the device back when they cancel, so THEY (the ones that cancel three months after getting such a device) are the ones that are ripping Verizon off, leaving Verizon to pay HTC and Motorola for the phones that we sold to them at 1/3 of the cost.
"...they also say that because they pro-rate the fee depending on how much of your contract is left, they still lose money.
Er, somehow I seriously doubt that the .01% of customers that terminate a contract early somehow equates to them "losing" money. Their extortionist texting rates alone could probably keep the entire division afloat. What a crock of shit.
Any company that is sitting back reaping the benefits of tens of millions of people calling in "every week to cast your vote for the next one-hit-wonder Idol" can STFU about "losing" money. They're enjoying profit streams no one even imagined 10 years ago.
on an unrelated note, this javascript enabled reply box sucks
It's not the reply box, there's some super-fucktarded empty div that's pinned to the bottom right of every article's page that blocks people from clicking on anything on the bottom when they're trying to reply.
<div style="display: block;" id="slug-Bottom" class="slug"></div>. Nuke Anything will take care of it.
Knowing the geniuses behind the code here, it's probably supposed to have some dumb ad in it (hiding at the bottom of the page where most won't bother see it? I guess this would be the discount rate.) but hasn't worked for years even though I'm not using adblock.
I picked up his-and-her iPhones yesterday. (Was scheduled for today, but we're getting all the snow they promised, 14" and coming down at 1"/hour). Verizon coverage is very good, but ATT cannot be any worse than Verizon on customer service and in particular on corporate policies. I got a call a couple of days ago from some Verizon sales rep trying to get me to replace/upgrade my phone. I said "I don't want any of your new phones."
A friend has a Droid and is pretty happy.
Even if you're not an Apple fan, you have to give them credit for recasting the cellphone world and removing the chokehold the carriers had on costs, phones, customer service, etc, etc.
The phones wouldn't be expensive, so to speak. If all phones in the USA were unlocked, and any retailer would sell them, you know good and well stores like Walmart, Target et al, would pressure the manufacturers for the lowest price and the "retail" price would come down to a few dollars, above the cost to manufacture the phone. It's called capitalism & good business. Those that didn't drop the price, would lose market share.
No one is FORCING you to purchase a wireless phone, no one is forcing you to purchase an expensive phone. If you require a phone, get a cheap tracphone, or something similar. If a company wants to charge more, then they better offer a better service, or they will lose market share.
I have never been prevented from paying full price for the hardware from any carrier. This allows me to go month to month on the service.
I also do this with sattelite TV companies, and I've noticed they treat me better when I am not contractually bound to their service.
Telecom contracts are for suckers.
-Ted
My pay as I go Virgin Mobile phone works just great. See if I wanna visit a web page, I wait til I'm at a computer. Call me old skool.
Basically, that's how I look at it. Yes, they might ding your credit, but in my experience when purchasing a large ticket item like a car or a house, anything like a cell phone bill or a Dr's bill can generally be discounted as long as you mortgage, auto and credit card payments are current. I've had the finance guys at car dealers and banks tell me that they don't even look at utility bills or dr bills. tax liens, on the other hand...
I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...
If Verizon gives you a free phone for 24 month's service, they should credit you for 1/24th of the early termination fee every month should you terminate early. Have a $240 termination fee and cancel after 23 months? Cough up a 10-spot.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
It is only Nationialisation when it is a government agency that takes over.
In your case, what you are thinking about is a Workers Cooperative. Those US readers of you will think Socialism. Well not quite. There are many examples of Worker owned business making a lot of money for those workers. The workers are in effect the shareholders. Just look up the John Lewis Partnership in the UK. They are one of the most consistently successful retail companies in the country.
Traditionlly,"Not for PRofit" organisations are no good at doing the sort of thing like running a Mobile Phone Company. It requires people with a very sharp business acumen.
I mean, the iPod touch is $199
With no camera and no GSM/UMTS radio.
Yes, an iPod touch doesn't have GSM/UMTS. But factor in the next piece of information
and you can get a cheap throw away phone for $20
TracFone and Virgin Mobile phones are subsidized and provider-locked in the hope that you'll buy more minutes.
I think the original post wasn't referring to the heavily subsidised smart-/feature- phones, but to the crappy phones that only provide basic voice & SMS. Basically they are only a GMS chipset connected to a speaker/microphone/keypad combination. You can find such in very low price-ranges.
Thus, according to this reasonning, adding GSM/UMTS radio to iPod touch to convert into iPhone, should cost something in the same range as the sum of the above products.
Creating a smartphone out of something which looks like a PDA should raise the cost from the initial ~200$ to ~300$ max.
Not a price jump from ~200$ to ~600$ as its currently the case.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
...that a totally “free” market, is the exact same thing as the law of the jungle?
Which is the opposite of democracy on the “democracyness” scale. (Beware, that I don’t say that that scale can’t have negative numbers too. :)
If you tell that to a fundamentalist “free market” republican, does his head explode? ^^
“We must have a democracy.
But we must also have a completely free market.
But we must have a democracy.
But... aaaaahhhh *BANG*”
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
It's an oligopoly (with a high risk of collusion)...
I've read Slashdot for the last 5 years, and now I start posting... Go figure
Even buying the hardware outright is for "suckers". Since the phone is likely still locked to the carrier and you don't even get a discount on monthly fees. A package that is $50/month when you pay $200 for the phone is still $50/month when you pay $800 for the phone.
No matter what they still have you locked in due to the simple fact that the phone (bought outright or not) is still locked to the carrier. Try switching carriers and you still lost your entire investment.
I got a plan from Wal-mart with www.straightalk.com where I pay $33 a month(that includes tax) for 1000 minutes and 1000 text messages and 30 mb of data month with no lock-in agreement. My bill was $70 a month with Verizon. Thanks for overcharging me Verizon. Go screw yourself Verizon...
USMC applies here too: U Signed the Muthafuckin' Contract.
Don't like it? Don't buy a Verizon phone. Or better still, don't buy a phone with a contract.
There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
My T-mobile early termination fee was 500 dollars... That was _years_ ago.... WTF?
I'm never going to pay it... Fuck the credit system!
If enough people just refused to pay full stop they would soon have a change of mind on the plus side this would also mean a lot less of the frikkin apple iPhone heaps around as well because people will not pay the typical apple over inflated price for a stupid contraption
I have a nasty habit of washing my phones. Or losing them when camping....
I can't afford to get a fancy phone three times a year. I can't afford to be in a contract. So I just buy my phones.
I get them off ebay. They cost $10, including shipping. They have no bells and whistles, but who cares? I don't contribute to shitty Ta mining practices in Africa. I don't sign a contract for the length of my service. It's cheaper for me.
I'm free. I can leave whenever I want to. Hear that Sprint? Yup... whenever I want to.
Other people could be free too. We're all whining about how Evil Verizon is, but people PUT UP WITH THIS SH!T. It's outrageous, considering that NOT putting up with it is cheaper, easier, better for the environment, etc...
Now, even though I think most poeple are morons who "need" the latest Shiny... The phone ocmpanies are still evil bastards. Go FCC! Extend network neutrality to phones!
I actually agree with Verizon that they shouldn't have to eat the cost of an expensive subsidized phone (like the Droid). It seems fair to me that if you get a very expensive phone you are going to pay that back either through service usage or termination fees.
What seems wrong is that every person has to pay that termination fee, including people buying cheaper phones. It makes no sense for those people to have to pay more when they don't even want a smartphone.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
People don't like being forced to pay $15+ /m each rent for the cable box and the cable co have worked hard to make cable card a joke and to make it not work 100%. Some said here that comcast Garden State "Effective January 1, 2010, Digital Classic Channels and Digital Additional Outlet Service will no longer be available for subscription to subscribers with a Cable Card"
so use more then 1 tv with cable card and or Digital Classic (where NFL network, MLB network and lots of others is will need a comcast cable starting about $5-$6+ (sd) up to $20+ for a HD DVR per tv.
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r23478294-Bad-News-for-Cable-Card-Users-in-South-Jersey
These termination fees don't apply just to the whole contract. If you add a family member in for the $9.99/mo, they get their own phone number (duh), which is effectively another contract. If that family member leaves before the end of the contract, they own the remaining balance on the termination fee. The primary holder on the account can also be hit for the remaining balance of the termination fee if they cancel early too.
So, if you subscribe your wife and/or girlfriend on to the plan 18 months into a 24 month plan, they charge you $9.99 a month. I don't remember if they charge a fee to set up the phone, but the cynical side of me says that they probably do. If your significant other dumps you in the 23rd month of the contract, they can prorate the termination fee any way they want. They may take their $175 prorated to remove (23-18=) 5 months and you owe the rest. Then, when that is done making you mad and you decide to leave a month early, they'll hit your side of the contract with the prorated termination fee too.
Oh. Did I forget to mention this: when your significant other left you in month 23 and you canceled her phone, you automatically signed yourself up for a different plan. So, if you go to leave at the end of month 24, they find a way to prorate the termination fee because you are leaving the new plan early.
This is insane, you say? Then go to a pay-as-you-go plan where the profits are really juicy. Go ahead. I dare you.
I'm just glad none of these fuzzballs got bailout money. Or at least I'm hoping they didn't.
As correct as you are, you forget what this means in reality: All the "goodness" (read: efficiency) of the ideal free-market goes out the window as soon as it becomes an Oligopoly or Monopoly... so in effect, this "free market variant" is so different in terms of apply basic pricing theory that it's not a free market at all.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
A Rogers Wireless customer signed a contract that said "All text messages received are free." But Rogers decided to start charging for those messages and when the customer got the large bill she decided to leave. That's when the fun started.
By the urging of the Canadian government, last year the wireless industry establishing a code of conduct which states that if customers contracts change they should not be forced to accept those changes and they can "terminate the contract without any additional fees for early termination"
But, Rogers told this customer that if she leaves she'll have to pay $20 a month for the remainder of the contract and Rogers "Rogers does not consider its cancellation fee to be a penalty"
Watch the video on this page and Cringe.
Want to find a way to avoid getting fuxed by the Verizon Wireless early termination fee to escape it's crappy service? *world map excluding United States pops up* There's a map for that!
What do you expect them to do when you get a subsidized phone?? There should be little penalty for switching if you own the phone outright,whatever it costs to do the switching. But as far as subsidized phones ya got to pay for the phone and switching. Its only fair i think
Jack of all trades,master of none
t-mobile has everything you guys ask for. they have a no contract option where you do pay full price for the hardware but of course you dont gotta worry abought termination fees. there rates are the lowest of all the company's. and there customer support doesn't make you to commit suscude after speaking with them, its kinda like dish network vs cable. cable companys got insanly high rates and crappy[y customer support. my dish had a issue the other day and they had a tech out hear the next day you herd my right the next day. and i pay abought half what i did for cable. yet cable companys are still a huge monnpooly.
Just make the early termination fee $1 billion and change the contract length from 2 years to 100 years. Then shut down all the towers and fire all employees so that the CEO and a few other high ups are the only ones collecting money. It isn't like they will need to worry about anyone ever leaving ever so who cares if they don't actually provide service since they have a "service not guaranteed" clause in the contract anyway.
...and require carriers to offer service plans without a contract. That would force them to shape up service to retain customers.
usa is to capitalism and free-market as the soviet union was to socialism and public good
as always: if you aren't going to offer a solution, there's no point in mentioning the obvious problem
The only winning move is not to play.
Have gnu, will travel.
When I have the big, heavy, cardboard box up near the cash register and they start asking me if I want their warranty, I set it down as quickly as possible without any damage, back up like I just found out it's infected with ebola, and say in a very loud, incredulous, voice "It's going to BREAK!!?! I don't want it if it's going to BREAK!!!"
Of course, they assure me that it's perfectly fine, so I ask why they even sell warranties, and then they go into some weaselly song and dance. But the upshot is, I don't get the usual hard-sell on the warranty, because I've convinced them I'm ready to bolt without the hardware.
While it sounds like a fantastic idea, the ability to give out loans is limited to banks. Verizon would have to start up a new business or outsource that end of the business to someone else, thereby increasing the price further. Because phones are technology which is obsolete as soon as it gets in your hands, good luck getting companies to finance a $600 phone for three years when it'll be worth less than a hundred within a year or two. In practice it's worth zero within six months because there will be no buyers for your old phone when the new shiney comes out.
People do horrible things to their houses when they get repossessed. How do banks plan on getting the phone back from people who don't pay their bill? What are the odds it'll still be working and in resellable condition?
Banks only want to finance things which retain their value longer than the loan.
An additional problem is that anything less than $1500 in most states is small claims. So the bank would have to send out a lawyer to deal with you in small claims court which costs more than the phone is worth. The plane ticket to make the court date would cost more than the phone.
It's a good idea in theory but there's just no way it's going to happen. It's simply not worth the hassle.
Work Safe Porn
...or some other anachronism that means dump the crooks. I did a couple of years ago, and am about 2500 bucks richer - minus the 200 i have spent on wireless since then, and have only missed the endless time on the phone to customer service.
yet they do it... ISPs offer you the option to buy your modem or rent it (agreed the price is ridiculous but still) cable/sat distributors let you either buy or rent the STB (especially hi end ones HD PVRs)
canadian ones let you buy them not us ones.