Slashdot Mirror
Verizon Charged Marine's Widow an Early Termination Fee
In a decision that was reversed as soon as someone with half a brain in their PR department learned about it, Verizon charged a widow a $350 early termination fee. After the death of her marine husband, Michaela Brummund decided to move back to her home town to be with her family. Verizon doesn't offer any coverage in the small town so Michaela tried to cancel her contract, only to be hit with an early termination fee. From the article: "'I called them to cancel. I told them the situation with my husband. I even said I would provide a death certificate,' Michaela said."
You're an asshole.
Why should a grieving war widow be allowed special consideration over the rest of us regular civilians. Aren't we all deserving to be treated equal under the law? If my father died in the war, should my student loans magically be forgiven because I'm grieving? Or maybe I should demand free food handouts for awhile? Should a mortgage be forgiven because the primary breadwinner suddenly dies? Bad news, you lost your spouse, good news, free money!
The contract is to subsidize a LOWER cost for her phone which she pays for over time. If she didn't want the contract, she could sometime pay the extra $300 - $500 up front for the phone. Early termination fee stops people from canceling the contract and making off with a phone they didn't pay for.
I agree though a $350 early termination fee was ridiculous. Generally ETF decline over the course of the contract. Perhaps she had recently bought an expensive phone.
Now as far as contracts go. Contracts end when YOU die. Why should a contract end when someone ELSE dies. This wasn't the husband's phone. The pro-widow news site stated it was the WIDOW's phone. His death has nothing to do with the contract, except for the fact she decided to move to a no-coverage area.
I won't even get into the flamebait the news site said about him defending our country.
Verizon has since reversed their automatic policy and let her off the hook. Could it have been done sooner? Maybe. But charity is charity. You can't demand charity on your own timeline. So what's the problem? Where's the news?
"Major business has simple policies in place to protect business profitability. Lowly paid minions aren't hired to make decisions nor paid enough to take responsibility for decisions. Customer flails arm at lowly paid minion repeating from a script instead of talking to someone with authority"
Yeah, how novel.