Paul Miner wrote:
> On Thu, 12 Jul 2007 01:18:14 GMT, John Navas
> <spamfilter1@navasgroup.com> wrote:
>
>> <http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/07/10/ap3901076.html>
>>
>> New York's lead consumer advocate is asking Sprint Nextel Corp. to
>> pay a penalty to wireless customers it is terminating because they
>> called customer service too often.
>>
>> Reacting to news that Sprint has told about 1,000 customers they
>> will lose their wireless service on July 30, the New York State
>> Consumer Protection Board suggested the carrier pay those
>> customers $200 each - the amount the customers would have had to
>> pay if they had prematurely ended their two-year contracts with
>> the company.
>>
>> The Reston, Va.-based company, with operational headquarters in
>> Overland Park, Kan., said it will zero out the customers' accounts
>> and not charge any termination fees. But Mindy Bockstein, the
>> board's chairwoman and executive director, said that's not enough.
>>
>> "These former Sprint customers will have to purchase new phones and
>> incur other expenses and inconveniences if they want to continue
>> receiving wireless service," Bockstein said. "Sprint Nextel should
>> do more to improve the quality of its customer service and this is
>> a good place to start."
>
> This reaction seems like little more than grandstanding. Which major
> carrier isn't providing heavily subsidized phones these days?

Seems only fair that if Sprint elects to terminate early they should pay
the customer the same penalty that th customer would pay if they elected
to quit. "But that's not in the contract," you correctly point out. One
of the jobs of the Consumer Advocate is to level the playing field where
a single customer has no negotiating juice. Let's see how they prevail.
I showed up for a dental appointment one Saturday and his office was
closed. When I called them on Monday they were very apologetic. I
pointed out that had I been the no show they would have charged me so
since they were the no show they should clean my teeth for free. They
did.