It’s still over a month away, but T-Mobile, as announced back in June, will be raising its SMS rates to 20 cents each, matching the industry norm. While I’m sure there was a perfectly reasonable thought process among the T-Mobile executives which led to this decision, it can be an indirect boon to consumers. Because raising SMS charges denotes a “materially adverse” change to your contract with the company, technically you can escape your contract without paying an early termination fee. As Consumerist reminds us, there are restrictions to this.
The toughest issue people have had in trying to cancel contracts is if they have not been charged for text messaging in the past three months. In this case, T-Mo says no, you cannot get out of your contract without an ETF. How not using text messaging changes the status of a materially adverse change, I’ll never know. But it’s the company line for now, though they could come under fire for it.
Just because you haven’t used text messaging in the past few months doesn’t mean you’ll never use it. Actually, it means you probably use it infrequently, in which case the new 20 cent fee would hit your wallet harder than the old fees. Hence, materially adverse. Hence, you can shed your contract without an ETF. It seems logical enough, but I suppose T-Mobile has to do everything to protect its interests here.
The other stipulation is that people with unlimited text messaging bundles cannot exit their contract. This would make sense, except that you can take the unlimited option on and off at will. If, all the sudden, you don’t have the need for an unlimited texting plan, switching back to the 20 cent rates would mean a materially adverse change to your contract since the last time you didn’t have an unlimited bundle.
T-Mobile customers, it’s up to you to raise a stink over this. Consumerist walks you through canceling your contract without an ETF. So get to it, and don’t take no for an answer.
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