E.T.F. Changes

[B33]

See this thought O wow, For a customer on Verizon if you plan to bail out of your contract early under 8 months you will pay the Full amount, there use to be a Gradual scale with E.T.F but Verizon has changed this and Early Christmas Present some might say.. It tells me if ya sign a contract you'd better be fully committed.. at least past the First 8 months of your contract.

There is Light at the Tunnel sort of speak for Customers that signed before the 14 of this month if you did you'll be on the old policy,  if you signed after the 14 your contract follows this new policy..

http://www.droid-life.com/2014/11/14/verizons-new-early-termination-fee-policy-makes-you-pay-a-full-...

[Ann154]

[B33]

For Customers needing to read the above thanks for adding.  It should be were members can read the Terms right on the Forum..

On my post I met to add if you sign  On or after the 14 of Nov.  you'll be on the new policy which is not to bad it just reminds a customer if you buy an Advanced Device you'll pay the full  E.T.F.  up to you hit the  8  month then it decreases..

[#4]

However I see this change in violation of Verizon's agreement with the government when they and others were forced to give those monthly reductions to the Early Termination Fees.

If after eight months the monthly reduction is increased to a level making it as it was before.

In this case the FCC may have an issue

[#5]

Well if the FCC has an issue Verizon could solve that by then increasing the ETF to say $450 then still offer $10 per month reduction or even increase it to $15. It still makes it more expensive to leave early. Or Verizon can simply get rid of subsidies all together and then there won't be any ETF to worry about. Would either of these scenarios be better? If T-Mobile or Sprint is willing to pay the ETF( or re-reimburse if you want to put it that way ) what does it matter to the customers what it is? This does 3 things. A) Make it more expensive for T-Mobile and Sprint or at&t to take away a customer. B) Make it harder for a contract customer to leave. C) incentivize the customer to go with Edge instead of subsidy. This is like unlimited data. Verizon could just get rid of it. They rather do it through attrition. I think that causes more headaches in the long run. I think it's better to rip the band-aid off than trying to take it off bit by bit.

[Tidbits]

Sprint and T-Mobile (when they had ETF) they had it brackets. T-Mobile in the first year you paid $200 regardless if it was Month 1 PR Month 12. Month 13 to month 18 was $100. Sprint is the same way last I remember.

FCC approved those so they have no reason to not approve Verizon. We have to remember since the mid 90s carriers need these things approved by the FCC.

[#7]

What your missing is the agreement. Originally carriers were charging that full $350 so let's stick with this amount. The early termination fee was to recoup the price of the device on leaving.

When the governing agency stepped in the agreement was the $10 off per month for months 1-24 that is what Verizon agreed to. Unless the government steps in and states your (Verizon) is in violation of that agreement and they either roll back to what was agreed or get fined. People just don't change agreements willy nilly when they feel like it. The eight month wait is a cash grab. Pure and simple.

It makes no difference to the other carriers on paying early termination fees as a reimbursement. They pay a set amount in any case.

If Verizon decides to go ahead as T-Mobile has done then that is perfectly OK with me and I am sure others.

The unlimited data can be dropped because its not part of the service contract. Big difference there.

The hand slap on the ETF was because it was unfair. Putting it off for eight months is just as unfair.

Keep watching the news and see if the regulating powers don't step in to shutter this new trick in quick order.

Only takes a few complaints.

And I don't subsidize I always pay full price. With or without my unlimited data.

[#8]

I never read Sprints or T-Mobiles early termination agreements. They never affected me.

I do know that when people went and filed complaints the $10 per month off was agreed upon.

I believe Sprint now also takes this amount off per month as well as AT&T.

T-Mobile has no ETF as of this writing.

In any case you would not have an agreement then turn around and change it at will. If the FCC is aware of it I cannot say. We will find out later in the week however because when the complaints roll in then we will know.

[tbo27]

I like points ABC above. When was the last time Vzw had to reverse field on something like this? 4g throttling comes to mind.

[#10]

Correct! You can do anything until you get caught with or without posting a change.

Years ago the carrier was charging $1.99 phantom data charges. Took years to get Verizon. And the little hundreds of millions of dollar fine they incurred was a drop in the bucket to the billions they took in.

That is how big business operates.