Verizon doubling early termination fees

A lock-in, have you ever heard of one? Sure you have, Apple has it, Verizon, iPod, or AT&T; they all have this. It is a contract usually lasting for twenty four months not allowing you to leave and go to another cell phone company without paying a large fee called a ETF, translation; Early Termination Fee. This fee on the most usually runs one hundred dollars or so, but for some reason, November 15, 2009 Verizon will be charging a whopping amount of three hundred fifty dollars for your ETF, per the Boy Genius Report. Although Verizon does offer a small incentive, for every month of your contract fulfilled, the company knocks ten dollars off the ETF. What a deal huh? Well if you think about it, if you cancel on your twenty third month of a twenty four month contract your still paying a one hundred twenty dollar termination fee, now tell me that don’t hurt?

I was floored as to the amount they want you to pay to cancel early. With the economy the way it is, how do they expect people to come up with that kind of money? Before I read this article my husband and I was contemplating on moving our service from T-Mobile to Verizon, no way will I do this now. The more I read this article the more upset I got, it amazes me how the conglomerates think they have the right to rob the public so arrogantly.

I have had a cell phone for years, and this termination fee has been there for years in all companies it is nothing new. As the article stated, “Every carrier has one: If you want to get out of your contract early, you'll pay at least a hundred bucks for the privilege.” This is something we all who own a cell phone accepts and signs contract to prove this. But to charge the public three hundred fifty dollars is beyond ludicrous. I find this amount offensive and I only hope that this is read and told to many of this amount to keep the many from making a fatal mistake.

Cell phones, as stated by; http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/154280 have termination fees, this is something common. And some early termination fees can be are always painful to the pocket. But cell phones don’t have to be as bad as credit cards; we don’t have to go in debt to have one or to keep one. This company is not trying to help stop the recession but instead it looks as to be assisting it. They may be able to keep that customer most the time for the two years with their horrific ETF fee, but you can bet this won’t be good for their reputation. Word of mouth can be very damaging for a company no matter their size. I think this is a very dumb move on behalf of Verizon, you could say they are getting a little too big for their britches to think something as this won’t affect them. Time will tell.