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Google Reduces Its Nexus One Termination Fee
CWmike writes "The only smartphone Linus Torvalds doesn't hate is that much less unlikable now that Google has quietly chopped $200 off its early termination fee on the Nexus One. Customers who cancel the service had been on the hook for $550, including a $350 Google cancellation charge. Google has reduced their fee to $150 — but users are still liable for a $200 ETF from T-Mobile. Users have a 14-day grace period during which they do not have to pay either charge, although they may be hit with a restocking fee. The $350 total fee matches one of the highest in the industry, charged by Verizon. Google did not announce the change but simply altered its online terms-of-service document." The price cut could add momentum to a phone that, by one reckoning, costs only $49 unlocked.
Linking to an article mentioning Linus and an older advertisement, with a tiny bit of new information (a 200$ cut because of an about-to-be ruling by the FCC), that overall shows Google in a positive light. With clumsy maths at the end.
Slashdot at its best!
Nexuses are retired, not terminated.
Just saying...
-- Roy Batty
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
The price cut could add momentum to a phone that, by one reckoning, costs only $49 unlocked.
And, by another reckoning, it actually saves you $5,000 and rescues your cat from a tree. Incidentally, both reckonings are fallacious.
Evil? Well with these fees maybe just a little bit evil. But seriously this is google, how much more money do they need?
Personally, I am waiting for the phone that is subsidized by non-obtrusive, relevant advertising.
There are two kinds of fool. One says, This is old, and therefore good. And one says, This is new, and therefore better.
I was trying to teach that cat a lesson. How will he learn if the phone keeps rescuing him?
meep
So I just upgraded my phone on Verizon over the weekend, and though everyone is making a big deal about having 2 ETFs with the N1 (one on from Google, the other from T-Mobile), I believe the same thing is in place for ATT & VZW. See, you can upgrade your phones through a few 3rd party services (one being Amazon). In the fine print you have 6 months that you cannot change which plan a phone is on. If you do, Amazon will charge you the full device price for the phone. This is Amazon now, not VZW. If you also canceled your contract, VZW would also charge you an ETF, even though you paid Amazon for your phone. There you go, 2 ETFs. ATT, Sprint, and even TMobile all say the same thing when you upgrade through 3rd parties (of which Google would be one)
It's one thing to have a story/advertisement, it's another to blatantly lie in it.
The bullshit statistic of the $49 dollar unlocked version was ably debunked in the comments of the last story where this was claimed.
Please stop doing it. When you're caught in a blatant lie, you don't repeat it unless you are also an idiot.
How else do you expect it to work? If you want subsidised phones, early termination fees are a necessary evil. If you could just cancel your contract one month in with no penalty, then everyone would just sign up, get the phone, and cancel.
-- Lattyware (www.lattyware.co.uk)
Initial ETF for iPhone 3G in my country (Latvia) is what would be around $570