Feeling locked in your cell phone contract because of the early termination fee?
Cell phone carriers impose high early termination fees for a reason.
A report by the US Public Interest Research Group (US PIRG) found that termination fees allow cell phone companies to continue to provide poor service to their customers because those customers cannot cancel their contracts without paying fees. elevated.
While this is true, there are some loopholes in your carrier’s service contract that will allow you to terminate your relationship with your cell phone service provider, without penalty:
The adverse material clause – this little-known snippet in his cell phone contract states that, “If any terms or conditions change after you sign the Service Agreement, you have the right to cancel the service without penalty.”
The wording in each carrier’s service agreement varies, but it essentially states the same thing.
Some of the recent changes that have allowed users to end the relationship with their carrier include; an increase in text messaging charges from the four major wireless carriers and Verizon’s increase in administrative charges.
When an operator makes any changes to the contract, you are given 14 to 60 days to cancel the service, depending on the operator. Continuing to use the Service beyond the indicated time period indicates that you agree to the changes. This is known in the wireless industry as a negative option.
To do
- Carriers notify customers of changes to their cellular contract via US mail, so be sure to read any correspondence from them. Most carriers provide information on the amount of time allowed to finalize the contract, but some do not, and are not legally required to do so. If you’re not sure how much time you have, look up the information online or call your operator’s customer service.
- Make sure the contract changes are relevant to you. For example, the recent increase in text messages did not affect subscribers who purchased unlimited text messages, only subscribers who used the service occasionally.
- Ask to speak to a supervisor immediately. Most customer service representatives do not have the authority to cancel your service. Be sure to specifically tell the supervisor that you want to terminate under the Adverse Material Clause and explain how the contract changes have affected you.
falls
Cell phone companies do not uniformly enforce material adverse clauses. In fact, it is often up to the discretion of a customer service supervisor whether or not you have an honest complaint.
Also, the wording of important adverse clauses can be confusing. For example, the T-Mobile clause states that you accept the changes by continuing to use your service. While this should not apply to the 14-day window the carrier allows, you may want to play it safe and stop using your cell phone until your service contract is cancelled.
excessive roaming
Roaming occurs whenever you make or receive a call outside of your carrier’s network. Not too long ago, carriers offset roaming costs by charging customers 69 cents or more for every minute spent on another carrier’s network. Today, all major carriers have eliminated fees associated with roaming by allowing consumers to purchase domestic plans that offer non-roaming minutes.
Many cell phone users are unaware that there is a limit to the amount of time one can spend roaming.
Typically, carriers start to lose revenue if you use more than 750 roaming minutes per month. They also lose money if a customer uses more than 6 gigabytes of data. The number of roaming minutes or data you can use varies by carrier.
To do
- Read your carrier’s service agreement. It will provide information about how much data and voice roaming you can use before it is considered excessive.
- Find an area where your phone is roaming and start calling or texting. If your cell phone plan includes free nights and weekends, you may want to consider using your phone at that time. It is more expensive on the carrier end.
falls
Termination of service due to excessive roaming is at the discretion of your carrier. There are other options a carrier can choose from, including banning off-network roaming or changing your plan to one that imposes a fee for any roaming activity.
Repeatedly calling customer service
Every call made to your operators’ customer service center reduces your profit. For an average wireless subscriber who spends about $53 a month on a service, carriers only make a profit of about $24, according to Roger Entner, a senior vice president at IAG Research.
On average, it costs cell phone companies between $2 and $3 for every minute a customer is on the phone with a support staff member. This means that all of an operator’s earnings for one subscriber are exhausted after just 8 to 12 minutes per month of phone calls to customer service.
To do
- Try to make your grip legitimate. If you check your cell phone statement, you will often find excessive or unknown charges. Ask the customer service representative to explain these charges.
falls
Not all cell phone service providers cancel service due to too many calls being made to customer service personnel. Carriers that have terminated service to their subscribers due to excessive calls include T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint and Alltel.
