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Verizon to Charge Customers $350 for Contract Termination
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Jason Mick
November 04, 2009
Halloween may be over, but this news is downright scary. For those considering to jump ship from Verizon and grab an AT&T iPhone (assuming Verizon doesn’t get it), you may soon be paying more — much more.
Verizon may be keeping customers happy with its Buy-One-Get-One sale on Blackberries, including the new Blackberry Storm 2, but some new terms are likely to make customers not so happy.
Verizon had been noticing that some customers had been using the promotion to snag some extra cash, getting an extra line with a Blackberry Tour or Storm 2, then selling it on eBay after paying the $175 termination fee, in the end pocketing about $100 or more in cash. An unhappy Verizon has decided to punish all its customers and will be rolling out increased early termination fees, in a move reportedly confirmed by Boy Genius Report.
The wireless carrier will bump ETFs to $350 for new smart phone 1 year and 2 year contracts. To soften the blow, Verizon plans to drop this amount by $10 a month, but that’s still substantially more at the year mark (previously $175 or less, now $230). Verizon still has yet to specify a full list of models the term “advanced devices” covers (the term used in the ETF hike info sheet), but we’re guessing it includes the Blackberry Tour, Storm 2, and Droid phones, at least.
The new terms will be reportedly rolled out to new customers starting November 15. Incidentally, that’s a mere week and a half after the new Android 2.0 Droid phone hits on November 6. So Verizon customers might want to act fast if they’re planning to go Android — as a short wait could end up costing them.
_© 2009, DailyTech
rlrenne
18 days ago
2 comments
Not worth the time for a lousey $100.00
verakot
18 days ago
116 comments
Buy Droid for $200, terminate for $230, sell on eBay for $550, still pocket $100-120.
kenneth_golden
18 days ago
20 comments
Not a real surprise. My wife and I had to buy out of a dual phone Verizon contract several years ago becaause they claimed to ghave service in our town and it worked on one side and not the other. Paid cash to get out, only to find out three months later that they'd sent our paid "debt" to collections and then posted it to our credit record. It took me two years and a letter from Verizon acknowledging we paid out and I still can't get it off of my credit record. Love those companies with clauses like "you are npt guaranteed service"... What then prey-tell am I paying for? Oh right the ability to connect to your servcie whenever I can find it. At least here Cingular (now ATT) works well.