California judge rules that cell phone companies cannot legally charge termination fees to its customers.

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/99655

Quote :

"In one of the most significant legal rulings in the tech industry this year, a Superior Court judge in California has ruled that the practice of charging consumers a fee for ending their cell phone contract early is illegal and violates state law. The preliminary, tentative judgment orders Sprint Nextel to pay customers $18.2 million in reimbursements and, more importantly, orders Sprint to stop trying to collect another $54.7 million from California customers (some 2 million customers total) who have canceled their contracts but refused or failed to pay the termination fee."

Can I get an amen?!

7/31/2008 10:01:24 PM

o lawd!

7/31/2008 10:02:09 PM

so basically contracts have been ruled illegal


i hate termination fees as much as the next guy but i mean come on

7/31/2008 10:02:39 PM

whoo hoo

7/31/2008 10:03:00 PM

Yup, pretty much seems that way unless they're trying to contest termination based on company breach and sending stuff to collection agencies when people terminate their contracts due to shitty performance. Otherwise, fucking honor the contract, it's a 2-way street.

7/31/2008 10:04:40 PM

So wait its unfair for a cell phone company to offer a discounted piece of manufactured equipment based upon an agreement that a customer will honor the length of service agreement and *gasp* pay for the service they request in that agreement?

I don't know all the details but this just seems like another judge bowing down to whiny consumers who can't manage their own finances.

7/31/2008 10:09:33 PM

Yup, don't sign it if you can't honor it.

7/31/2008 10:10:56 PM

Quote :

"So wait its unfair for a cell phone company to offer a discounted piece of manufactured equipment based upon an agreement that a customer will honor the length of service agreement and *gasp* pay for the service they request in that agreement? I don't know all the details but this just seems like another judge bowing down to whiny consumers who can't manage their own finances. "

Pretty much.

But I do think it should be illegal to charge termination fees that are in excess of what the company pays for the phone they give you for free/at a discount. As I understood it, the termination fees essentially covered this cost.

7/31/2008 10:13:33 PM

^^^Plz to use more punctuation. Small minds at work here, and my head hurt trying to read that.

And while I'm all for this verdict, what law does this violate?

[Edited on July 31, 2008 at 10:15 PM. Reason : ^]

7/31/2008 10:15:15 PM

nothing will come of this.

7/31/2008 10:24:20 PM

Quote :

"what law does this violate?"

A good question.

7/31/2008 10:32:13 PM

seems to me it's just another way to bail out idiots who don't read what they're signing like most of the fucksticks in foreclosure.

7/31/2008 10:32:40 PM

i'm happy b/c that would mean i could get out of my contract in Mississippi w/ Verizon.

they have no coverage there besides extended network. so i bought a contract and phone with all the fun stuff that doesn't work.

now i wouldn't have to worry about paying a fee at first then hoping to get it back when they decide if my termination was reasonable.

7/31/2008 10:45:00 PM

RAWR RAWR

THE JUDGE DOESN'T KNOW WHAT HE'S DOING

/KngDouchebag

7/31/2008 10:47:50 PM

Quote :

"seems to me it's just another way to bail out idiots who don't read what they're signing like most of the fucksticks in foreclosure."

7/31/2008 11:00:26 PM

prices are about to hit the roof if this stands. And you sign an early termination agreement, so you should pretty much be up shits creek unless the service where you are sucks.

[Edited on July 31, 2008 at 11:37 PM. Reason : ]

7/31/2008 11:35:11 PM

The ETF really does just cover the loss on the phone. Hard as it might be to believe. With Verizon, its $175 - $5/month proration.

Go look at most of the phones in a cellphone store. The free phone runs $199.99 if you are purchasing at straight retail cost. Even my cost to order it is $180, so that $20 is the only thing the store you buy it from is making. Rest is the cost from the manufacturer. Some of the high end phones run right damn high. I can imagine that those 3G iPhones will be going up a couple hundred bucks, since AT&T would have no good reason to subsidize them on a guaranteed two years when anybody could buy and cancel next week.

[Edited on July 31, 2008 at 11:53 PM. Reason : ]

7/31/2008 11:52:22 PM

RAWR RAWR RAWR

FECAL JAPAN DOES A REALLY SHITTY KING DOUCHEBAG IMPRESSION!

7/31/2008 11:52:39 PM

read more into the news. it has a very good chance of being appealed and overturned. Companies are arguing for the FCC to step in because something like this can't be governed by 50 states with 50 different laws.

Also, in the small time I spent looking this up, I could never find out what law wass being broken to make it illegal either.

8/1/2008 7:46:49 AM

while early termination fees suck, I think this is a bad thing, as the article states.

without these fees, phone prices will probably skyrocket.

I don't mind 2-year contracts, especially if I'm getting hundreds of dollars off my phone.

no one should really care about 2-yr contracts if you do your homework.

1.) Quit using shitty carriers (i.e. verizon, sprint, AT&T, cingular)
2.) Quit buying/using the cheapest/free phone. It amazes me that people bitch about not having service, while they are using the cheapest phone they could find. You pay for what you get. Pay a little more for a better phone, and watch your signal increase. It's amazing.

8/1/2008 7:58:48 AM

Quote :

"Quit using shitty carriers (i.e. verizon, sprint, AT&T, cingular)"

What is left? You can say "quit using shitty carriers" and then list all the possible carriers that actually have halfway decent coverage. Unless you think Alltel, SunCom and US Cellular are better

[Edited on August 1, 2008 at 8:25 AM. Reason : Hell what am I saying...they all suck ass]

8/1/2008 8:23:12 AM

sorry, forgot suncom and us cellular

ALTELL for teh winz. never had service problems. none of my friends have ever had service problems.

if someone has, it was probably your phone. Hell I had service back in the mountains of W.Va. when no other carrier did

8/1/2008 8:25:50 AM

Good luck with that Alltel stuff. We (Verizon) plan to complete the merger by years end and Chad will be out of a job.

As for their service I have been in a half dozen states and my fathers Alltel phone had more dropped calls and shitty service than my Verizon phone. And it wasn't the phone, as we both had the same LG phone that was picked up by Alltel and VZW.

[Edited on August 1, 2008 at 8:39 AM. Reason : ]

8/1/2008 8:38:23 AM

never had a problem with service.

and I don't give a fuck about their commercials

and verizon better not fuck up my service, plan, prices, or customer service

8/1/2008 8:46:39 AM

Your stuff will all be converted over to Verizon's pricing structure and plans when your contract is up.

If you have a problem with that; leave. I'm sure they don't care and won't miss you.

[Edited on August 1, 2008 at 8:51 AM. Reason : ]

8/1/2008 8:50:41 AM

8/1/2008 8:55:44 AM

Hahah, ultimate pwnt.

The only thing different could be that in certain areas that Verizon and Alltel are the only option, the Alltel customers will be sold to another carrier against their will, to keep it from becoming a monopoly in that area. So you could be forcibly sold to a shitty rural carrier like US Cellular.

8/1/2008 9:20:19 AM

Correct me if I am wrong- but doesn't it say the policy violates "State Law", and this ruling was made in a California court? This doesn't apply to us then, right? (at least for the time being)

8/1/2008 4:52:38 PM

Alltel is awesome, never once had trouble with them.

Fuck the other carriers, and fuck Verizon because they're gonna ruin a perfectly good carrier.

8/1/2008 5:03:59 PM

Alltel is great... in NC.

I've been with Verizon, AT&T, Alltel, Sprint and Suncom.

Verizon was the ONLY carrier that gave me good coverage and service across the country. It was the ONLY carrier that worked at all in the Midwest and southwest (Arizona/NM).

I'm with AT&T now though, the iPhone with mediocre service is better than a shitty phone and great service, unfortunately.

8/1/2008 5:27:11 PM

never had a problem with alltel and their national freedom plan. Mainly been east of the mississippi but never had a dropped call between here and alexandria, LA. The people with us that had verizon, sprint and us cellular were borrowing our phones to make calls at night and that weekend.

and I'd choke on a dick before I spent hundreds of dollars on a phone with shitty service. Give me a shitty phone that I can actually use rather than an overrated gadget.

[Edited on August 1, 2008 at 5:44 PM. Reason : never had a problem around atlantic beach either.]

8/1/2008 5:37:19 PM

Emerald Isle the Alltel phones could make every other call out, the US Cellular phones were totally without service, and my Verizon phone had 4 bars on the beach.

8/1/2008 5:41:53 PM

^^It's not shitty, it's just not amazing. And I live in a very urban area now, so it's not a big deal to me.

But short of a couple of other tdubbers I know, I can pretty safely say I've been to more areas of the US than nearly anyone here, to be able to give a good report of service coverage.

All the claims of "I had 4 bars and everyone else was borrowing my phone" tend to be because it's the best phone of the 4, and much less to do with the actual service coverage. Alltel and Verizon have always had BETTER rural coverage in the southeast than the GSM carriers because they had analog roaming, but once it's all digital, it's going to even the field out again

8/1/2008 5:48:30 PM

^what he said

8/1/2008 6:26:58 PM

Quote :

"seems to me it's just another way to bail out idiots who don't read what they're signing like most of the fucksticks in foreclosure."

All too often people these days enter contracts that they have no clue about. True many of these contracts are written to be confusing, which is the company's fault, but still; READ WHAT YOU ARE SIGNING!!!!

8/1/2008 8:20:47 PM

^^Tyler at this point thats kinda not even an issue, since just about every phone sold now is digital only.

The situation I was referring to, everybody had midrange LG phones. All three units run on digital only, so analog doesn't do shit.

[Edited on August 1, 2008 at 9:21 PM. Reason : \/No shit, hence why triband capable phones are a thing of the past.]

8/1/2008 9:12:42 PM

even if you have the phone, analog transmission is being phased out as we speak

8/1/2008 9:15:19 PM

there are a lot of dumbasses in this thread. This is finally a step in the right direction. The US can finally join the civilized world in how cell service is handled.

8/1/2008 9:29:35 PM

you know, as I recall, you can now and always have had the option of not signing a contract and paying full price for the phone up front.
I'm still baffled on what law is being broken by willing entering into a contract with a known penalty for breaking the contract early. You know.... like what happens with any contract

8/1/2008 10:46:14 PM

how is my early termination fee applying to the phone when sprint and other carriers extend ur contract every time you add something tiny or get a minor fucking discount ($5 a month maybe) on text messaging.

particularly true when they call to offer me these services or "upgrades" every other month. fuck um.

8/1/2008 11:01:56 PM

yeah, that's true. that's bullshit.
When you get a new phone, though, at a subsidized price, i think it is fair to sign a contract, although I think the early termination fee should be prorated for how long you have left.

8/1/2008 11:10:25 PM

i would much rather buy a phone at full price and have the choice and freedom to take that phone from carrier to carrier as i see fit. THAT will even out the playing field and force these carriers to provide good service.

8/1/2008 11:27:56 PM

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10004328-38.html.

The supposed state law violated by ETFs: http://law.onecle.com/california/civil/1770.html

8/1/2008 11:49:36 PM

Quote :

"i would much rather buy a phone at full price and have the choice and freedom to take that phone from carrier to carrier as i see fit."

completely agree, but that part is not what's under contention here. Making early termination fees illegal does nothing to address the phone-portability issue.

8/2/2008 12:09:36 AM

So instead of a early termination fee, will cell companies now just require full payment of the remainder of the contract when you terminate your contract?

8/2/2008 2:56:24 PM