"Todd Allcock" <elecconnec@AmericaOnLine.com> wrote in message
news:fov10u$8ki$1@aioe.org...
> At 13 Feb 2008 07:41:55 -0500 RBM wrote:
>
>> > No one is "stuck" in a contract. You can buy yourself out of it by
> paying
>> > the ETF, which is roughly equivalent to the upfront discount we
>> > received
>> > when we accquired our phone. Fair is fair- if my carrier "gives" me
> $200
>> > in return for a two-year contract, why should I get to keep it if I
> decide
>> > to bail out early?
>> >
>
>> While I agree completely with you, I did feel like a hostage in September
>> when I changed the minutes of my family share from 700 to 1400. I was
>> unaware that all 5 of my phones would be locked into new two year
> contracts.
>> They're not subsidizing me. Each phone has it's own two year contract,
> which
>> expire at different times, but this plan change superceeds all of them.
> One
>> of the phones was past it's two year contract, and I wanted to
> discontinue
>> it, and was told I'd have to pay the ETF
>
>
> That stinks-while I stand behind what I wrote, there are certainly
> situations where a carrier (or, more likely it's rep desparate to hit a
> quota or make a commission) will extend a contract without properly
> informing the consumer. IMO, this whole "verbal" contract extension over
> the phone idea is just wrong.
>
> A gazillion years ago, when I was a Cingular dealer, Cingular wouldn't
> extend a contract without your actual signature on an actual contract!
> Even if you upgraded phones by calling customer service, they mailed you a
> contract extension with the phone, with yellow highlighter sloppily
> smeared
> along along all the places you had to intial or sign, and a pre-addressed
> reply envelope to mail it back in (along with the threat that if the phone
> and/or contract wasn't returned in x# days, the "full retail price" of the
> phone would charged to your account.
>
> Back to your situation- if I were you, I think I'd call Sprint back, get a
> supervisor on the line, and demand that the contract expiry dates be
> changed back to whatever they were, explaining you weren't informed that
> your contracts were being extended, and if they refuse, demand proof that
> they were extended- make them provide whatever document you signed (you
> didn't), or a recording of whatever statement you agreed to (I assume
> there
> isn't one).
>
> When T-Mobile, my current carrier, extends my contract over the phone,
> they
> have this robotic script like "you agree by accepting this offer, your
> servive agreement will be extended a year and will now expire February
> 13th, 2009, blah blah" that you have to verbally agree to (and I assume is
> recorded for "posterity.")
>
> Being that it's only one phone you're wanting to cancel, it might not be
> worth the effort (for a $10/month reduction) but I'll wager you could
> convince them to let it out if you rattle the right cages.

My understanding is that in October VZW stopped this practice. The phone I
wanted to cancel was being used by an elderly friend and no longer needed
it. My plan was to give it to my youngest kid this comming September, when I
felt it would be appropriate, so for eight months I had no need for the
phone. It's not a big deal, and not worth fighting over. Just seems like a
bad customer relations tactic. It certainly puts me on the defensive and
causes me to distrust them
>
>