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Frontier Demands $4,300 Cancellation Fee Despite Horribly Slow Internet (arstechnica.com)
Frontier Communications reportedly charged a cancellation fee of $4,302.17 to the operator of a one-person business in Wisconsin, even though she switched to a different Internet provider because Frontier's service was frequently unusable. From the report: Candace Lestina runs the Pardeeville Area Shopper, a weekly newspaper and family business that she took over when her mother retired. Before retiring, her mother had entered a three-year contract with Frontier to provide Internet service to the one-room office on North Main Street in Pardeeville. Six months into the contract, Candace Lestina decided to switch to the newly available Charter offering "for better service and a cheaper bill," according to a story yesterday by News 3 Now in Wisconsin. The Frontier Internet service "was dropping all the time," Lestina told the news station. This was a big problem for Lestina, who runs the paper on her own in Pardeeville, a town of about 2,000 people. "I actually am everything. I make the paper, I distribute the paper," she said. Because of Frontier's bad service, "I would have times where I need to send my paper -- I have very strict deadlines with my printer -- and my Internet's out."
Lestina figured she'd have to pay a cancellation fee when she switched to Charter's faster cable Internet but nothing near the $4,300 that Frontier later sent her a bill for, the News 3 Now report said. Charter offered to pay $500 toward the early termination penalty, but the fee is still so large that it could "put her out of business," the news report said. [...] Lestina said the early termination fee wasn't fully spelled out in her contract. "Nothing is ever described of what those cancellation fees actually are, which is that you will pay your entire bill for the rest of the contract," she said. Lestina said she pleaded her case to Frontier representatives, without success, even though Frontier had failed to provide a consistent Internet connection. "They did not really care that I was having such severe problems with the service. That does not bother them," she said. Instead of waiving or reducing the cancellation fee, Frontier threatened to send the matter to a collections agency, Lestina said.
Lestina figured she'd have to pay a cancellation fee when she switched to Charter's faster cable Internet but nothing near the $4,300 that Frontier later sent her a bill for, the News 3 Now report said. Charter offered to pay $500 toward the early termination penalty, but the fee is still so large that it could "put her out of business," the news report said. [...] Lestina said the early termination fee wasn't fully spelled out in her contract. "Nothing is ever described of what those cancellation fees actually are, which is that you will pay your entire bill for the rest of the contract," she said. Lestina said she pleaded her case to Frontier representatives, without success, even though Frontier had failed to provide a consistent Internet connection. "They did not really care that I was having such severe problems with the service. That does not bother them," she said. Instead of waiving or reducing the cancellation fee, Frontier threatened to send the matter to a collections agency, Lestina said.
Real business-grade internet access comes with a service level agreement. That's clearly not what she got. If she wanted a guaranteed level of service, she should have paid for it.
With that said, charging someone $4,300 to cancel a service that didn't work worth a shit is predatory. If she can't get relief from her local government, then it is shit.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
This flat out isn't true everywhere in the US, particularly in small towns.
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Or never sign a contract without reading it. Does anyone really believe the contract does not stipulate the exact early payment penalty? Of course it does.
Pleading ignorance of a contract you (or in this case, your business) is pathetic. Also, going out of business over a measly four grand is pathetic. This is nothing but a sob story trying to get a gofundme or Kickstarter or some shit like that.
One cannot help but remember the South Park episode about cable TV.
Every time some idiot yammers about how the free hand of the market will correct things, remember stories like this. Without regulation, every company will put abusive contracts in place that will force you to pay a fortune to end a contract in order to make it as difficult as possible for you to be able to choose.
Internet, meet capitalism.
Capitalism, meet internet.
What did you expect, Libertarian paradise?
My own experience is that favorable results are usually forthcoming right after telling a difficult vendor/provider that the next phone call will be to the state attorney general's office.
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Although it's much less expensive to just spread the story of how bad the company is far and wide on the internet and see what the PR damage does to you bill. This actually works in several cases.
Instead she chose to call customer service and then whine to the news.
There are certain companies, and certain entire lines of business where calling customer service just doesn't work. Airlines are notorious for this, and so are cable companies. So in such cases you can only get justice by shaming them on social media.