For those who have CANCELLED EARLY on their cell phone plan.

[DoubleA]

Hey everyone,

I recently got a Cingular plan about 3 months ago and have been very unhappy with the service. Sometimes I can't make calls, my phone doesn't ring half the time, it doesn't tell me when I have voicemail, conversations get cut off, etc, etc.

So...I want to cancel my service, but they have an early termination fee (just like every cell company does). My goal is to avoid these termination fees, but obviously I signed their agreement prior to obtaining the service. Can anyone help me out with this? Right now, my cell phone is the only phone I have so I need something reliable. Has anyone successfully cancelled early without being charged a termination fee and how did you do it?

Thanks for any words of advice you can offer...

 

[Amused]

<< Hey everyone,

I recently got a Cingular plan about 3 months ago and have been very unhappy with the service. Sometimes I can't make calls, my phone doesn't ring half the time, it doesn't tell me when I have voicemail, conversations get cut off, etc, etc.

So...I want to cancel my service, but they have an early termination fee (just like every cell company does). My goal is to avoid these termination fees, but obviously I signed their agreement prior to obtaining the service. Can anyone help me out with this? Right now, my cell phone is the only phone I have so I need something reliable. Has anyone successfully cancelled early without being charged a termination fee and how did you do it?

Thanks for any words of advice you can offer... >>



You signed a contract, and are beholden to every term in that contract until it expires. On the other hand, so is Cingular. IF they have a provision guaranteeing their service will be acceptable, you have an out, but I doubt they do.

Your only recourse, if they insist on holding you to the contract, is to sue them.

 

[b0mbrman]

No, you can always cancel. The outcome just won't be as pretty as if you waited till the end of the contract.

 

[DoubleA]

Well, they want to charge at least $150, plus another $300 for the phone if you cancel before 181 consecutive days. I need to go over their contract and try to pull something out of there that I can use as my argument. I mean, if it says anywhere in the contract something about offering service, well, I haven't got service most of the time, so that would be my argument I guess.

Cmon, there has to be someone out there that has cancelled early with Cingular. They suck!!!

 

[RossMAN]

Has anyone successfully cancelled early without being charged a termination fee and how did you do it?

Yes. I helped a friend cancel their 2 year cell phone contract before the contract expired without having to pay the penalty. He signed up with some promo's like free phone, free car kit, free extra batteries, 2 months free service, etc. so he had to pay all that back which was small apples compared to the $300-$400 cancellation fee. All we did was write a very long 4 page bitch letter to the vice president of customer service stating everything that happened, and in the end summed it up that the service was crappy and he shouldn't have to pay for crappy service. A few days after receiving the letter he received a call from the vice president's secretary apologizing on behalf of their wireless company, said he'd have to pay for all the promo's he received but that his contract was terminated with no fees or bad credit reporting against him.

 

[DAWeinG]

Copyright the letter and sell it to us! j/k unless... Ok I'll drop it =) I have a contract with another provider which links to Cingular networks and yeah... I can't call a lot of the times. I wanted to cancel my two year contract but am afraid of the consequences :disgust:

 

[Passions]

das y u dun get cingular.

 

[ignorus]

California has a law about this (or something similar to this), I think it is stated here ->
http://www.co.marin.ca.us/depts/DA/main/da/ConsumerPages/ContractCancellation.html

Particularly, in the Part "II GENERAL CONTRACT CANCELLATION RIGHTS"

"2) A buyer has a right to rescind a contract when the exchange that the buyer anticipated receiving from the seller "fails, in whole or in part, through the fault" of the seller (CC 1689(b)(2))."

Not sure how this effects the cancellation fee clause though, because in the first part there is this:
"Service Contracts... For any type of goods, pro-rata refund less penalty -- indefinite cancellation period (CC 1794.41(a)(4)(B))."


[edit] doh I think my post messed up the message width of this thread