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Curious about cellphone early termination fees?
If you are curious to understand those sometimes confusing early termination fees (ETF) that cellphone companies impose on us, take a few minutes and read this article by the CBC. They took some time, along with lawyer Matthew Baer to cut through the smoke about what Rogers, Bell and TELUS contracts actually say.
The bottom line he states “There is not any real practical wiggle room in the language of the contract terms for consumers who are unhappy with the service changes. Once you have received notice of the change, you do have 30 days in which you can terminate the contract (which is kind of redundant since you can always terminate the contract) but the fee for doing so is $20/month remaining in your service contract up to a maximum of $400.”
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I signed a three-year contract with Telus in Manitoba for a Windows Mobile smartphone with a web browser. I needed this for when I was out of town – Telus had data service across southern Manitoba.
That service disappeared altogether a few weeks after I signed the contract.
As it turned out, Telus was using MTS towers outside of Winnipeg – and their agreement ended. For you or I, selling these contracts without having a new agreement in place would result in criminal charges. For Telus it was normal business practices.
I now live just outside Winnipeg, well within Telus’s hypothetical coverage area, and I can’t get usable voice signal at my home. I can’t give out my phone number, because I can’t stay connected long enough to collect my messages let alone hold a conversation.
With no data and and unusable voice service, my phone is essentially a brick. And as the article explains, terminating the contract is not an option, even when Telus’s services service not only changes, but disappears.
Telus.
The Future is Sleazy.
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i think its also important to mention telus has no cap on their termination charges. only bell and rogers cap it at 400$
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