Sprint Early Termination Fees Are Illegal

[furrbear]

From the San Jose Mercury News:

Sprint early termination fees are illegal, judge rules

By Steve Johnson
Mercury News

Californians fed up with being charged for ending their cell phone service prematurely won a major victory in a Bay Area court decision that concluded such fees violate state law.

Whether the ruling will stand isn't clear. Experts say an appeal is likely, and the Federal Communications Commission is considering imposing a rule - backed by the wireless industry - which might decree that only federal authorities can regulate early termination fees.

Who will come out ahead if the FCC takes over -- hmm care to bet?

Comments

[seanymike.livejournal.com]

Hmmm.... investors? I mean the Overloads

[happygoatee.livejournal.com]

Its about damn time, lets hope that the appeals are in our favor also.

[bikerbear.livejournal.com]

Are there circumstances behind the ruling?
People sign a contract. What are the purpose of contracts if there is no penalty? It's like cutting out on a lease expecting your deposit back.

If there are no premature termination fees, then companies will jack up activation fees.

[furrbear.livejournal.com]

Or just stop subsidizing handsets. After all, that's the reason they say they need the Early Termination Fees.

It's a state case. More details are at the story link.

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

Sounds good to me. If a person is effectively going to take out a loan on a handset (that's what getting one "free with 2 year contract" amounts to IMO - and that's why there's a credit check), that person should be able to know the detailed terms of that loan.

And like I've ranted about before, monthly service fees should be ENTIRELY separate from however one buys the hardware. That means they should drop about $15-20/month across the board, once phone financing is separated out.

[furrbear.livejournal.com]

As the story points out, Sprint is the only carrier of the majors that does not decrease the ETF as the contract progresses.

As much as I've always liked PalmOS, it's development and handsets seem to have stymied. If Palm continues to flounder, I'd be ready to switch when my current term with VZW is up. And that would most likely also mean a jump away from CDMA and to GSM. The linux offerings, Android and OpenMoku, don't seem to be "there" yet, but the Symbian-based Nokia E71 looks very nice. (I had already drooled a bit at the E61/E61i.) And any of those would mostly likely have to be purchased out-right up front.

[backrubbear.livejournal.com]

That's one of the big reasons why I haven't bought a "cheap" handset in a while. I always pay full price so I can jump ship whenever I need to.