No one likes early termination fees, or ETFs, and Verizon’s decision to up its premium handset ETF to $350 last year didn’t win over any fans. But even before then, Verizon customers were already pretty miffed about ETFs and the state of California decided to uphold an appeal in favor of the angry customers who were claiming that the fees were unfair. As a result, the wireless carrier will now have to fork over $21 million in settlement fees, awarding over 175,000 customers refunds.
Signing a contract and committing to an ETF is a tricky thing, especially since both Verizon and AT&T have high fees – $350 and $325, respectively. Hell, it seems like even after you die, Verizon still wants to collect its termination fee. The best most carriers can do with these charges is to lower the fee each month into a user’s contract, so that if he or she decides to leave, the cost will be prorated.
I’d say this is a small win for the consumer, but it doesn’t look like things will be improving any time soon. After all, the carriers claim that the only way they’ll be able to offer such heavy subsidies on premium devices is by ensuring that these ETFs are in place – just in case a customer wants to bail with a $500 smartphone three months into his contract.
[Via: Fierce Wireless]