Know your rights with early termination fees

by Joe P on February 12, 2008

Early termination fees have been an overreaching issue in the wireless industry over the past six months to a year.This is best exemplified by a class action suit against Verizon. Well, it turns out Consumers Union decided to call 12 AT&T reps to get some answers regarding these fees. It’s an exercise I’ve tried before, but less with the intention to bait a rep into a false answer. In any regard, they found that two-thirds of the reps (eight, for those of you with out a calculator handy) got the information wrong.

Some tidbits:

Some told consumers that AT&T pro-rated early termination fees (it doesn’t yet). One said the fee is cut in half after the first year of a two-year contract, while another said the fee declines gradually.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer consumer advocate Phuong Cat Le did her homework on this one. She found an article in which AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel says that the company does not have a pro-ration policy as of right now. There is a plan to do so, though no details or implementation dates were announced.

Surprisingly, representatives from T-Mobile, Verizon, and even Sprint were surveyed by Consumers Union in the same manner, and they all came out squeaky clean. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do your homework before calling customer service. Hey, you might even find the answer to what you were looking for in the first place, thus avoiding that pesky customer service call.

Remember, the only company currently pro-rating early termination fees is Verizon — and even they aren’t doing it across the board. You have to have signed a contract after November 16, 2006 in order to qualify. If you signed a two-year contract before that, you’re still on the hook for $175 if you want to cancel. That’s what AT&T charges. Sprint and T-Mobile both charge $200.

[Seattle Post-Intelligencer]

Filed under : Consumer Issues