Frustrated Verizon Customer

I honestly believe that Verizon is doubling the early termination fee on smartphones due to the complete flop of their BlackBerry Storm. I have had mine for 6 months and have had problem after problem since 3 weeks after purchase. After reading reviews on the Verizon website I know that I am not alone. In the past week I have been in the Verizon store 3 times requesting assitance with problems with my Storm. Each time there were others in the store with defective Storms. One person was on her 5th replacement Storm and had had problems with all 5. Verizon is aware of the problems and is recycling defective devices rather than taking responsiblilty for selling a completely unacceptable product. I believe that the increase in the termination fee is an attempt to strong arm customers into staying in their contracts with an unreliable, poor quality product.

Executive Bonuses...

are based on performance, e.g increased profits.

Once all the legal and moral steps have been taken to increase revenue., there is nothing left but screwing the customer, the employees, or the government.

equipment cost vs time

If it were really about recovering equipment costs, the fees would be pro-rated for the amount of time left on the contract.. $350 might be not unreasonable on a contract that started a month ago (based on the roughly $500 these things cost unlocked and the $150-200 that consumers kick in up front), and a whittling away of about $30 a month. But $350 at the end of things is $30 of equipment and $320 of "We own you, you little worm".

They should be treated as harshly...

as common thieves. Thieves who steal millions of dollars a month. i.e. I'd like to see some people go to jail. Intentional antics like this should place the liability solely on the individual who approved such policy.

and I bet the key that gets you on their web thing

can't be changed to something else. My wife has a dedicated key to access her network's load of crap and it cannot be changed to something more useful that she acually uses. Thankfully she is not charged for going online but this is blatant robbery and I hope they get shafted for it. No doubt a few hundred dollar fine and a smack and they'll just carry on anyway.

How does the FCC dare?

Verizon has a fiduciary duty towards its stockholders to rip off its customers! Why do you think they have a button whose main purpose is to charge the user $2 every time it is pushed?

$1.99 a pop eh?

What a great business model, can I make an app for that?

ETF

In many cases, the FCC needs to keep their noses out of the corporate world. If they want to charge $1,000, then that is their right. The consumer agreed with it when they activated. If they don't like the terms, then walk away. It is pretty simple.

As for the button. Customers should be able to request that they have no data access at all. Then pushing the button would do nothing. Unfortunately, the way CDMA was implemented, we piss poor at best. When the feature set was designed, they looked at what was currently out there and not what could be out there. Chances are, they can't block data access.

No just verizon..

many other UK con artists do this.

The wifes moto has a bloody great "web" button where many other put the menu or ok key (I had the same on an Orange Nokia a few years back). It's the easiest button to hit and if you fumble around to turn the alarm off, guess what key you hit?

Although they don't screw you as much, they all do it.

Whats the problem?

As long as these crooks aren't moving the goal posts for existing subscribers its all fine.

Just don't sign up with them, vote with your feet and they will either get the message or fold.

A mass exodus to AT$T should do the trick.

It's never been done before...

Company comes up with wheeze to screw it's customers.

eBay

If the early termination fee wasn't so punitive, people could 'buy' a phone at the huge discount, terminate the contract and then sell the 'never used' phone on eBay or some other venue and possibly make a profit on the transaction. I haven't done the numbers (not interested enough), but if there was even a little gain to be made, an enterprising college student could enlist all his/her friends to buy phones, terminate and then sell them over to our entrepreneur so that a goodly amount of beer money could be made.

Seems like a fee as high as the one mentioned in this article would surely prevent someone gaming them that way.

BTW, I'm not a supporter of VZW or any other carrier. IMO they are all getting obscene prices for very little value provided. I have an antique phone that <gasp> just lets me dial numbers and talk to people. Quaint, don't you think?