T-Mobile Settles ETF Lawsuit
I guess...
That's the whole point of this lawsuit. All carriers, including t-mobile, were collecting fees beyond a reasonable amount to make up for "losses".
But the problem is, even after a few months, they've made up part of those costs, yet they still charge you the full amount. I'm sure some of these people were close to the full agreement when they canceled, so most, if not all of that $200 was made up*. This isn't how their contracts are written (I'm not a lawyer, but they have plenty), so they can aruge what ever they want.
Even AT&T's termination fees ($175 minus $5 for each full month of service) still leave you out $60 if you cancel a month early. They'll always win somehow, it is nice ...
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Not to mention that most cellular companies don't know whether they've made a profit off a person for at least 6 months after they sign a contract.
The cellular industry is very profitable after a customer has had consistent service for over a year.
As for your other post, the ETFs are there for several reasons. Yes its to make money back on discounting the handset but also thats revenue that the carriers are loosing. Regardless of the fact you signed a legal document saying that you would pay a monthly fee for 24 months. You break that contract you there should be a penalty. Same thing if you rent an apartment and you break your lease early there is going to be a penalty.
'If you terminate the contract before the 2 year commitment, there is an early termination fee of $200 per line of service.'
-Not exact wording but very close-
Look people, T-Mobile in no way forces anyone to do a 2 year contract. Hell, they don't even force you to sign a contract at all. You can get all the benefits of a regular plan (with the exception of subsidized phone pricing) with NO CONTRACT.
If your too poor to spend 60 bucks on a brand new phone outright or you want a phone with all the bells and whistles but you don't want t...
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Back when I was with T-Mobile (4 years ago), even a simple rate plan change would renew the contract. How does that affect it? Because my usage changes, you're locking me in again?
As it stands now, you can get a month to month Flex Pay account with no contract and no credit check or you can do a regular account on a month to month basis and of course prepaid is still an option as well.
Our store here may be an exception but we regularly offer customers the option of choosing a month to month plan, especially if there's resistance to signing a contract. Of those people, maybe 2 of 100 of them end up doing it.
The reason?
People have this idea that cellphone...
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What does bother me is the fact that my airtime rate is priced to cover the cost of [crummy and/or crippled] "subsidized" phones. I have to pay for those phones whether I take them or not.
The G1 would be expensive, but not quite $400 which is the ripoff MSRP. You don't pay full MSRP for TVs or MP3 players either. If the G1 were available on the open market like a lot of other phones, it would probably be $300 or less.
But "promotional" rates became the normal thing. Eventually, you never saw an officially "normal" rate printed anywhere. So unless you [somehow] knew about the existence of a plan with 100 fewer minutes, and no free weekends, the policy effectively changed before it officially changed.
As a side note, while the U.S. wireless industry isn't nearly is competitive as the European wireless industry, at least in terms of upfront equipment costs, I think people here should be grateful that the state of the industry in the U.S. isn't nearly as bad as Canada! The deals and tariffs are generally terrible, not to mention they have u...
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