Home  ›  News  ›

Senators Propose Wireless Consumer Protection Bill

Article Comments  

all discussions

show all 14 replies

unfair?

xjittianx

Sep 6, 2007, 3:01 PM
If the government wants to look into and regular the "unfair" practices of an industry, you'd think they'd turn there attention to Insurance companies instead of the wireless industry.
as far as the "early termination fee" goes, it's the consumers choice to sign a contract to get a discounted price on a service instead of paying the normal charge. it doesn't make sense to break a contract and not have any reprocutions.
I also find it odd that they don't note complaints by company like they do for the automobile industry. why would you group them all together. if company A is getting massive complaints and company B only gets a few, well there's the "unfairness."
to me it's just the governments excuse to put there noses in and "regulate"...
(continues)
...
Versed

Sep 6, 2007, 3:47 PM
I understand paying early term fee's if I got a subsidized phone, but not contract extentions without telling the consumer, or if one wants to change minutes on a plan, or if you add or drop a feature like texting or data. That should be regulated.
...
xjittianx

Sep 6, 2007, 3:59 PM
and the thing is, every different company does different processes to features, minutes, plans, etc.
I do know my company makes sure we tell the customer if there contract will be changed before we even go about doing it. My company only has contract extentions on changing your plan or upgrading your phone at the discounted price. when it comes to all the features, they don't even touch the contract and don't charge any fees to take off or add them.

so the point is, when it comes to the studies they conducted, they grouped all the wireless companies together as one. each company has different rules and regulations when it comes to the actual contract and changing or breaking it.
...
phoenixms

Sep 6, 2007, 4:31 PM
No Locked Handsets...It's not necessary and annoying.

You offer two discounted prices for the phone depending on one or two year contracts.

A minimum plan is specified for that service provider to recover that discount over the one or two year period. The customer should be allowed to upgrade or downgrade service plans as long as the plan meets minimum requirements. Personally though I think keeping a current account with any plan is enough.

Insurance. If the customer lost the phone, then they either have to pay full price for a new one or use their insurance.

It's as simple as that folks. Their is a local carrier that does it that way and I think it's fair. They do however offer upgrades while still under contract by extending y...
(continues)
...
xjittianx

Sep 6, 2007, 4:52 PM
that sounds just like t-mobiles policy. only when you upgrade your phone, te contract doesn't extend, it just starts over from that day. so if you had a 2 year contract and was a year into it, and you upgraded your phone for the 2 year price, you'd have 2 years until your contact was up instead of 3.

every six month you get some sort of upgrade discount.
...
phoenixms

Sep 7, 2007, 9:28 AM
Probably why they get high marks in customer satisfaction. 🙂
...
lalolanda

Sep 7, 2007, 2:48 PM
well, my company has a 6 month period so cust can change plan without extending the contract..... when customers go to a store to get a phone they receive a disccount and they also make a contract for a certain plan, if they change the plan then that contract its not valid because they are not keeping the terms of the contract with the first plan. i found that contract renewal fair, keep the first contract with the terms of that contract.
...
xjittianx

Sep 7, 2007, 7:34 PM
I do know that with T-mobile if you sign a 2 year contract, you can change your plan all you want for the first year with no reprocutions
...
Versed

Sep 8, 2007, 8:20 AM
I see no reason what any company should be extending contracts because one changes their plan, this is a rip plane and simple. I'm with AT&T, I add stuff all the time on their support website, no contract extensions, basically only if I get a new phone. When I had VZW, if I wanted new minutes or did this or that, they would extend, Sprint's far worse.

I understand if I'm getting a subsidized phone, I have no problems with that, but even so as a person said in a pervious post, you upgrade, they charge you an upgrade fee and you're deboxing, and changing sim's, you sign on initially, if you can't talk them into waving start up fee's, bang they get you again.

No other industry does this, you don't buy a new car, have a car loan, pay ...
(continues)
...
T-Zag

Sep 8, 2007, 11:47 AM
That Comparison is absolutly rediculous and makes no sense what so ever. Buying a car and a cell phone are absolutely nothing a like and you are an idiot for making that compasison.
...
Versed

Sep 8, 2007, 1:35 PM
T-Zag said:
That Comparison is absolutly rediculous and makes no sense what so ever. Buying a car and a cell phone are absolutely nothing a like and you are an idiot for making that compasison.


Well I guess name calling makes you right..
...
xjittianx

Sep 10, 2007, 1:19 PM
I do see what you mean though Verse. It wasn't the best comparison, but it got the point across.
the wireless industry does need a little bit of revamping, but I don't believe the government needs to really get too involved with it. It called the people's voice.

oh, and there are TONS of similarities with purchasing a car and a phone. why do you think a lot of companies hire ex-car salesmen.
...
T-Zag

Sep 13, 2007, 11:10 AM
No being right makes me right. You saying something idiotic make you an idiot.
...
phoenixms

Sep 6, 2007, 4:12 PM
I Think contracts are OK. I do however think locking the handset to the service provider is not.
...
xjittianx

Sep 6, 2007, 4:49 PM
i completely agree with you on that one. I mean it does make some sense, atleast for the company, but it's very unfair to the public to only be able to have a certain technology on one provider.
A company could have there lowest price plan be $80 or very limited coverage, but have that one phone everyone wants, so the consumer would have to be stuck with that service.
...

This forum is closed.

Please log in to report a message to the moderator.

This forum is closed.


all discussions

Subscribe to Phone Scoop News with RSS Follow @phonescoop on Threads Follow @phonescoop on Mastodon Phone Scoop on Facebook Follow on Instagram

 

Playwire

All content Copyright 2001-2024 Phone Factor, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Content on this site may not be copied or republished without formal permission.