Verizon increases SMS rates -- customers now free of their contracts

It looks like Verizon Wireless is following in Sprint's SMS footsteps, announcing a planned hike in text messaging rates for those not currently subscribed to a messaging package. The hike, which will take effect March 1st, will bump the cost of sending a text message to the U.S., Puerto Rico, Canada and Mexico from $0.10 to $0.15 per message, with the price for international text messages remaining at $0.25 per message. The cost of receiving a message from customers of foreign wireless carriers, however, will increase to $0.15 whether you subscribe to a messaging package or not. If this all sounds a little familiar, it's because when Sprint did the same thing late last year, it didn't take long for people to figure out that the rate hikes amounted to a so-called "material change" to their contracts, meaning they could bail on it without paying an Early Termination Fee (EFT). So if you've been sticking to Verizon but secretly fancying another carrier, this looks like it may be your only chance to take the plunge without also taking a hit. In related news, Sprint looks to be planning a price hike of another sort, with a pair of tipsters relaying the news to us that the cost for Sprint's directory assistance service will be going up from $1.49 to $1.79 on February 1st, although whether that's enough to constitute a material change to the contract or not remains to be seen.

[Thanks, Max, Tina, and Jonathan]

[Lee Roy Brandon III @ Jan 12th 2007 11:17PM]

I've been treated poorly by carriers in the past as well. I signed up with AT&T approx 12 years ago, and did well to keep my (cheap) contract for seven of those. Then, opting for a phone upgrade, AT&T (then DBA Suncom) farked me. It took a few years to get out from them, including several multi-hour long calls to customer service - mostly on hold. Thank god I got out when they took Faux-Frankie as their poster boy, and I switched to Cingular - who also Farked me with a crappy phone and then wouldn't offer me an upgrade. Looking around, I found Helio has a secret plan: Join MySpace (or at least tell the Helio rep you did), and you can get service without a contract obligation. Granted, contracts protect us consumers, or at least they're supposed to, but this is a nice option if you get out of your current contract and need a place to go for few months while your waiting for the Apple phone...

[Jimmy @ Jan 13th 2007 12:04AM]

i work at cingular. we are raising text message prices to .15. etf won't be waived bc text messages are optional. and the thing i hate is, we do not offer unlimited messaging for any package/phone.

[moksha @ Jan 13th 2007 12:08AM]

From the Verizon site:
Our Rights To Make Changes
Your service is subject to our business policies, practices, and procedures, which we can change without notice. UNLESS OTHERWISE PROHIBITED BY LAW, WE CAN ALSO CHANGE PRICES AND ANY OTHER CONDITIONS IN THIS AGREEMENT AT ANY TIME BY SENDING YOU WRITTEN NOTICE PRIOR TO THE BILLING PERIOD IN WHICH THE CHANGES WOULD GO INTO EFFECT. IF YOU CHOOSE TO USE YOUR SERVICE AFTER THAT POINT, YOU'RE ACCEPTING THE CHANGES. IF THE CHANGES HAVE A MATERIAL ADVERSE EFFECT ON YOU, HOWEVER, YOU CAN END THE AFFECTED SERVICE, WITHOUT ANY EARLY TERMINATION FEE, JUST BY CALLING US WITHIN 60 DAYS AFTER WE SEND NOTICE OF THE CHANGE.

[Phil @ Jan 13th 2007 4:01AM]

so first, F*** VERIZON!!!!!!!!!!!!!
so i have the V, sweet phone but F***ing verizon dosent have unlimited text, so i have there highest, does this mean since i have a text plan i cant cancel march 1st??????????? Sidekick 3, w/unlimited text & web browsin' w/o consumming all ur min. like ver. retarted web 2.0

[JosephN @ Jan 13th 2007 6:20AM]

Wow, text messaging used to cost 5 cents a txt with free incoming. You'd think that with increased wireless capacity nowadays it'd be way cheaper. Man, 15 cent texts and 50 cent picture/sound messages. They're really pushing it. I signed two new contracts with Verizon last August after they gave me a pretty good deal on the Chocolate since I said I was leaving due to their high rates... guess I'm leaving for good now. Been one of their first customers since 2000 :\

[alex @ Jan 13th 2007 1:42PM]

Actually the way it is worded is the same as cingulars. The fee applies to pay per use of txt therefore does not affect the contract because the contract never states a price, just that you will be charged pay per use. Having a package means the price stays the same. I heard they did this to help start to pay for Mobile TV so they can roll it out further and faster. America does 300 million txt a month

[Rar @ Jan 13th 2007 2:02PM]

1. It worked for me. Most CSRs are unaware of the new change so you have to "educate" them. The easiest way to do so is to point them to their Infomanager, or the website used by Verizon reps to find out information concerning Verizon Wireless service, equipment, etc. There is information on the Infomanager pertaining to this issue, and it instructs them to let you out of your contract w/ no ETF. So you tell the rep "on your Infomanager website there is a page dedicated to this issue and it outlines the cancellation process." Worked like a charm.

2. According to the customer agreement (google it to find) you must cancel within sixty days of receiving notice of the upcoming change. Notice was put up on January 1st - meaning you have from between now and March 1st to cancel with no ETF. If you are still under contract once the change goes into effect you are giving consent to the change and thus will be subject to the ETF. All this info can be found in the customer agreement under the "Our Rights to Make Changes" heading.

[Damian @ Jan 13th 2007 2:06PM]

Increasing price on text messages is absurd and plainly dumb! It's a huge highway robbery! What's wrong with our wireless carriers and the competition? They are destroying the very value of our society by increasing profit margins over a text message! Oh please! Beside this and why is the voice plan much cheaper than of text message alone? This thing is affecting larger audiences that are deaf and hard of hearing. Our culture where we demand more of our e-mails and SMS as our communication tool in information age.

isn't there any coalition out there that can create a petition to stop this monololy?

[wesrubix @ Jan 13th 2007 6:50PM]

the cingular data plan for $19.99 is not unlimited messaging. it's 200 txt with unlimited data. it's called MediaMax200

cingular might try to make people sign up for their PDA data plan, which is $39.99 (for unlim. data and no included messages). but i know the MediaMax200 plan works on the pda phones. Just add it on your own later.

[Infomanager @ Jan 13th 2007 7:27PM]

This is GREAT!!! I read through the first two pages of comments which doesn't provide any additional information about how to do it, while the third page gives you tidbits (enough hope) for it to work.

I have two contracts with Verizon that I opened on the same day. 1. I bought a Moto Q with a voice and EVDO data plan without a text messaging plan. 2. I bought a PC Card for EVDO and had to sign a plan for that.

Does this mean I can get out of both contracts? Can you get out of a PC Card contract. You can send text messages via the PC Card through the verizon software and I'm not sure if they charge you for that or whether it's part of the monthly fee.

I want to buy the OQO 02 with Sprint for my evdo access, then get the iPhone when it comes out in June for Cingular. I also have a Cingular contract but I don't pay for that. I find the QVGA resolution of the Moto Q to be barely useable so the high resolution of the iPhone will be nice despite the horrific EDGE but that's okay because I can use the OQO for EVDO which I wish was Rev A capable but it isn't. Can't have it all...would love to cancel my contract with Verizon. I wish these companies had contract free options for evdo and the like.

Rar,

What is an infomanager?

And I agree with all these people from other countries talking about how ridiculously high text messaging fees are here in the U.S. Which is exactly why I didn't get a plan with Verizon for texting...i do most text messaging on my company phone which is Cingular. They both are awful to the consumer IMO.

[Rar @ Jan 14th 2007 12:06AM]

Infomanager is Verizon's intranet, or the website used by Verizon reps to find out information concerning Verizon Wireless services and equipment. There the rep can find the particulars about this type of (no ETF) cancellation.

[infomanager @ Jan 13th 2007 9:10PM]

I called and she said it was on her infomanager but it said nothing about getting out of contract without no early termination fees.

In facted, she attempted to belittle the situation by stating I had only used 2 dollars and 40 cents in text messages last month. She informed me that other carriers have already done this so she was denying my request. She became quite hostile so said in a rather polite manner...I see we are not getting anywhere with my request. She snapped back saying I am answering your questions in a nasty tone, then asked if I wanted to speak to her higher ups. I calmly said no thank you and said I will do more research about this and get back to you and ended the call.

I called 10 minutes later and got a guy who after giving him the same exact story was politely told that my contract will terminate at the end of my billing cycle on Feb 9th without any termination fees. He apologized and he was completely professional in tone as was I.

Hopefully it went through. Never really know...wish there was a way to log onto your account to see. Hopefully I will get a letter in the mail.

[Rar @ Jan 14th 2007 12:08AM]

Congrats! :) By the way, if you ask they will terminate your service as of the current day. They will then charge you a pro-rated amount for the month's service. No need to wait until the end of your billing cycle if you don't want to.

[OP @ Jan 14th 2007 12:15AM]

I have a contract ending in 08, if I go to the verizon store tomorrow and cancel my contract, can I then buy a new verizon phone at the discounted (2 yr seervice agreement) price and keep my old nuumber?

[Bob @ Jan 14th 2007 12:33AM]

I just spent about 20 minutes with verizon, talking to the assistant then the supervisor, they would not let me cancel. I do not have the text package, I pay for each one. They said its my choice to use text messaging or not. I told them I do use it, so I would be affected. I told them the agreement says prices or any other conditions, and this would have to be a price change.

There reasoning, stop using text messaging and it wont be a problem, therefor you are stuck. But I DO use text messaging.


UNLESS OTHERWISE PROHIBITED BY LAW, WE CAN ALSO CHANGE PRICES AND ANY OTHER CONDITIONS IN THIS AGREEMENT AT ANY TIME BY SENDING YOU WRITTEN.....IF THE CHANGES HAVE A MATERIAL ADVERSE EFFECT ON YOU, HOWEVER, YOU CAN END THE AFFECTED SERVICE, WITHOUT ANY EARLY TERMINATION FEE, JUST BY CALLING US WITHIN 60 DAYS AFTER WE SEND NOTICE OF THE CHANGE.

Who has canceled and what have you said and who have you talked to?

[Kevan R (SLC) @ Jan 14th 2007 1:38AM]

I guess I wasn't clear enough. CUSTOMER SERVICE REPS WILL NOT CANCEL YOUR CONTRACT WITHOUT CHARGING AN ETF. You HAVE to talk to their LOYALTY DEPARTMENT. YOU ARE WASTING YOUR TIME WITH CUSTOEMR SERVICE. My contracts are, Sorry, WERE up in June. I do not have a messaging service, I am on pay-per-message. I talked to the loyalty department and told them that according to their service agreement I could cancel my contract because they were raising the messaging rate for doods like me that pay-per. I said I want to stay with you, but I will only if you allow me to re-up my contract now and get new phones. I had a Palm Treo 650, now I am holding in my hand a new LG 8300. Worked like a charm.

[Beau @ Jan 14th 2007 4:59AM]

Huge question for attempting this: Are any of you people who are attempting to cancel your service—outright—attempting to port your number to another carrier at the same time?

I assumed that ceasing service with a given phone number would release it to 'the pool' and therefore be unable to port.

Rar and Informanager, above: Did you port, or are you OK with losing your cell phone number?

[Rar @ Jan 14th 2007 10:37AM]

I was asked if I wanted to port but I declined the offer.

[jstein @ Jan 16th 2007 6:41PM]

Rar,

Myself and others have been asked by mutiple CSR's for a phone number of another account which allegedly canceled with no ETF. Normally I wouldn't go around asking for someone's phone number (especially in such a public forum) However since you decided not to port your number would you be willing to share your old number with those of us who have been harassed by Verizon CSRs? Please help us!

Thanks

J.

[Pharoah6905 @ Jan 14th 2007 11:56AM]

So...basically I have two questions:
1. Like some people have previously asked, what is the time frame for canceling?
2. How do I go about canceling? I know how to call up Verizon, but what do I say to get out of the early termination fee? Basically, how do I justify my argument that raising the prices gives me the right to cancel my contract, is there some document that I can quote to let the customer service person in some far off country know that I actually have some basis for my claims?
Thanks in advance, John

[vectordirector @ Jan 14th 2007 1:30PM]

I just emailed Verizon's customer service with the following message:

According to published reports of the Verizon fee increase for text messages, Verizon customers can elect to cancel their contract without an ETF. I signed into my account online and was surprised that I was unable to find any mention of this or even a link to an official FAQ. On behalf of all current Verizon customers, I would like Verizon to take the time to officially address this in a clear and concise manner.

Blog posts on this subject are appearing daily on the internet that clearly show Verizon’s mixed messages in regards to this specific portion of the Customer Agreement. We need definitive answers and we deserve prompt customer service in this regard. Please reply with specifics on the following:

-Specific cutoff dates for current Verizon customers to terminate their contract without ETF

-Specific procedures for customers to terminate their contract as well as month-to-month payment options.

-Anything else that current Verizon customers should be aware of with regards to this issue


Thank you for your time.


I'll update this after I hear back from Verizon. Hopefully they'll clear this all up with a link on thier page or a guide for current users.

[Ben @ Jan 14th 2007 1:48PM]

For those who have had success, can you get out of your contract, and stay with them, paying month-to-month? I have no problem staying with them until, say, June? This would be ideal as I would not have to find an interim phone between now and June.

[deedubya @ Jan 14th 2007 3:54PM]

Interesting info......

http://www.mobiletracker.net/archives/2007/01/12/verizon-wireless-sms-price

[smith @ Jan 14th 2007 3:55PM]

I called Verizon Wireless Business Support they claim that for people who have a text messaging plan in their contract the increased fee for incoming texts from foreign carries does not constitute a "material change" to the contract because incoming texts from foreign carriers is an extra service and we could have them turn our receiving of texts off. Really pisses me off cause now im gonna have to save for the iPhone and pay to end my contract or just wait till it goes up in november.

[Chris @ Jan 14th 2007 4:43PM]

I just contacted Verizon, and the CSR stated that if the terms say that a change in pricing will occur, that you would be able to cancel your service without paying a termination fee. However, she seemed kind of clueless over all, so I didn't press my luck and cancel with her then suddenly get hit with a fee later and trying to argue. May try later though, see if they'll cancel at the end of the month when I might have time to get another provider. I actually like Verizon, but when i get married my girl is insistent on keeping her carrier, so I need to get out of the contract.

[Larry Mayer @ Jan 14th 2007 6:05PM]

Hey, everyone of the cell phone services have us all by the short ring tones. We want it, we pay for it. Discipline and restraint are key to cost control.

[Beau @ Jan 14th 2007 9:20PM]

Larry, it's true that the best way to save money on your cell phone is to simply resist gorging on their services, and it's true that we have the unfortunate situation of not being able to choose the "best" provider from the main players. We must identify the strong and weak aspects of each carrier and try to choose the one that fits our individual needs the best.

The crux of these potential "escape clauses" is not that we are upset about getting gouged (which we are), but that it presents an opportunity to make a lateral move from an inferior carrier (w/r/t individual needs) to the one we hope is better. Sometimes the grass is greener.

Me, well, I've been with Verizon for five years, and while I love the coverage and voice quality, everything else (on-average higher prices, crippled equipment, patronizing corporate image, propietary systems, etc.) ranges from mildly annoying me to making my blood boil. I'm in a Cingular 3G market and anticipate being with them in June (or until someone unlocks the iPhone), so that's where I'm heading for now. Maybe not for the long term, but it's worth a shot.

[infomanager @ Jan 14th 2007 11:40PM]

I don't know what port means nor was it discussed. I would like to transfer my phone number but only because the number happens to be my birthday. I spoke to a guy named Andrew.

[Joshua Easters @ Jan 15th 2007 12:14PM]

I was able to get out of contract without ETF. My phone will not actually be out of contract until March when the change takes effect, but there is a note on the account to cancel without ETF and Verizon said they would call Feb. 28th to confirm cancelation. I am on a family plan and want to cancel one line of 4 and keep the other 3 (at least till June/iPhone arrives.) I asked about switching from contract to month-to-month and they said they could switch the other 3 phone to month-to-month, the only disadvantage of doing this is that free mobile to mobile and free nights and weekends require a contract, but this is not a problem for me because I never go over my minutes, I would much rather be out from under a contract than have nights and weekends free. When you talk to teh CSR tell them that they can find the information about cancelation without ETF in the infomanager. It is there, the CSR I talked to confirmed that the information was in the infomanager. If you want to keep you Verizon service on a month-to-month and they say they will only cancel your service, ask if it is better for them to keep a customer without a contract or to lose a customer.

[petros316 @ Jan 15th 2007 12:33PM]

I called into Verizon just today and was able to get my early termination fee waived. All I did was talk to the customer service representative, had them go on their own website under "legal notices" and inform them about their own change ... yeah they didn't know. Then I went over to the "customer agreement" link (btw, both links are at the bottom of verzionwireless homepage) and have them read the section under "our rights to make changes." they put me on hold for 10 minutes before they agreed to letting me off the hook. I was pretty nice and straightforward. Of course, they weren't extreemly excited when I asked for the ETF waived, but they gave it to me. That's all I did folks. hope this helps

[Matthew @ Jan 15th 2007 4:24PM]

Oh and this is great, it gives me even more reason to jump ship to Cingular for the iPhone. Then only problem is that the damn iPhone doesn't come out till June. I'm still jumping ship anyway though. I've been a Verizon Wireless customer since 98 and I'm finally leaving. Well worth it though. Yay for iPhone!

[Matthew @ Jan 15th 2007 4:24PM]

Okay one quick question.
When you say "Foreign wireless carriers" do you mean texting to any network other than Verizon or do you mean texting to someone outside of the US. The word Foreign has many different meanings.
Thanks

[Al Sajoo @ Jan 15th 2007 9:40PM]

I use Peekamo for all my SMS, it's free and I find their interface very easy to use, even on my HTC TyTN. Check it out, http://peekamo.com.

Why would anyone want to pay the ridiculous prices that the carriers charge?

[Al @ Jan 15th 2007 10:07PM]

Get Peekamo, they let you text "real" SMS for free. I've been using them and I can vouch that neither the sender nor the receiver gets charged. Why should anyone pay the carriers for outrageously priced SMS?

[jstein @ Jan 16th 2007 5:49PM]

Well I spoke with 2 different customer service reps the first one stated she had been with the company for 4 years now and she had never heard of anything like this. blablabla... In a last ditch effort I informed her that there have been other people who have gotten out of their contracts because of the rate hike. She told me that it was hearsay and that I would need a wireless number from a person who had canceled to confirm this. (Anyone out there want to help a brother out?) So basically I got the run around from her for 20 min. Determined to leave Verizon I called back 10 min later and spoke with a new customer rep. After having her read me both the legal notice regarding the text messages and the customer agreement section regarding material changes I got pretty much nowhere. She told me that because I had a text messaging plan on one of the 4 family plan lines that the rate change did not apply to me. After pointing out the part of the legal notice which mentions foreign rates (regardless of a plan) I finally got her to agree that it doesn't matter that I have or don't have a messaging plan. After all of that all I got was an addressees in Rochester NY for their Customer Correspondence department. Sounds like some B.S. to me. Anyways the fight isn't over yet. I want out damnit! Ill keep you all updated as much as I can.

[tvtodd @ Jan 16th 2007 6:25PM]

It would help GREATLY if others that have successfully negotiated this would allow the use of their numbers as an example to Verizon of their waiving the fee, I have been asked three times now to site specific customer numbers that have had their fees waived per this thread.

Thanks!

[Ben @ Jan 16th 2007 9:19PM]

Here's how my experience just worked.

I called Verizon, explained I wanted out of contract, but would like to stay a customer until I find a phone and service I am happy with. They were not willing to let me continue my service without a contract. I do want to port my number. The CSR said I need to go to whatever carrier I am going to and port the number. I will then call Verizon to verify the number has been ported without an ETF, and will close my account at that time. There will be a note attached to my account noting that I am not to be charged an ETF.

I do intend on calling and verifying this before porting.

The CSR was very polite and friendly. He asked a few basic questions as to why I want out, and about my service, but was never pushy.

[Dave @ Jan 18th 2007 9:47AM]

Here's something interesting. Two months ago, a Verizon rep called me in regards to a recent bill of mine. I had texted alot that month and I didn't have a texting bundle so I overpaid on my bill by like 10 dollars. No big deal really, but he called me up and said that I could save money by adding the text messaging bundle. I said fine, go ahead and add it, without thinking much more about it. Now I realize the REAL reason behind that call was to get me on the text plan so when all this stuff went down with raising the SMS fees, I would already be on the text plan and not able to get out of my contract.

It's one thing to hire a bunch of deceptive lawyers and marketers to draw up a huge binding legal contract that is so hard to understand, that even when you DO find the information you need you can't even understand it. I signed my name to it when I got the plan, so I knew what I was getting myself into. However, I think it is over the line to call me and deceive me like that with no mention of the SMS text increase.

[Jane @ Jan 18th 2007 1:42PM]

Unbeleivable !!! I just spoke to 3 Verizon customer service reps... First call, rep insisted, a customer could not get out of contract, without paying fee.. Told me to read Customer agreement.. 2nd rep was nasty just talking too...
3rd rep... I read her the agreement.. and my contract... That I have no text plan.. pay 10cents a minute.. I insisted they have no right to change my contract...

To make a long story short... First she told me.. " oh she could block the text messaging "

Then, I should take a plan...
Finally agreed customer needs to be informed of the price change and YES can get out of the contract...
I cant believe the others tried to challenge me...
They tried to talk to me like I was making these facts up...
The phones we got only in May all stink !! Dont work, batteries die so quickly !!
Later Verizon !!!! :0)... This is fun !!!

[Jessica @ Jan 19th 2007 8:35AM]

I spoke with Verizon yesterday and was able to get out of one of my two contracts. I have a family plan and one line had a sms text package and the other did not. 1st rep completely ignored what I was saying and tried to tell me you can only get out of your contract if your phone does not get service in your home area. I told her several times that was not what I was calling about. She finally threaten to put legal on the phone and I said that was fine. Of course "legal" never came to the phone, but instead she put a supervisor on the line. The supervisor reviewed the account and finally agreed to cancel one line effective at the end of this billing cycle, but would not cancel the line that had the sms package because she said it did not apply to that one.

[travelsgr8t @ Jan 19th 2007 1:27PM]

Called Verizon three days ago and after a total of about 7 people and 2+ hours, was able to drop my minutes to the basic 450/month AND go to a month-month (contract was not up for another year). 2nd level supervisor who finally took care of this was very cordial and friendly and said that he was "going to take care of me" but really need some clarification from the company on how to deal with this on a mass basis.

[Bob @ Jan 20th 2007 7:28PM]

hey travelsgr8t do you remember the name of the supervisor that you talked to?

[beto @ Jan 19th 2007 10:08PM]

Wow I cant believe you people pay that for a text message! Believe it or not we pay 1,5 colones here in Costa Rica, thats only 0,003 dollars!!! (yeah, TWO zeros) I didnt know the difference was so big. How much do they charge for other services, like WAP for example?

[deedubya @ Jan 22nd 2007 7:08AM]

HELLO, iPhone

[Nino Concepcion @ Jan 27th 2007 1:45AM]

Okay guys I just got off the phone with Verizon. I said I wanted to confirm that due to the SMS rate going up that if I cancel I would not get charge an early termination fee. The customer service person was nice and checked my account out. He said it will only apply if it affects my account which it doesn't because I am subscribed to SMS messaging. So basically the guy said if I wasn't subscribed that it would apply. So I'm just going to remove the SMS messaging from my account and cancel it. Hope this helps.

[adin1978 @ Jan 30th 2007 6:18PM]

I called and spoke to a Customer Service and they were clueless. Even the supervisor had no clue. I asked to go to the Customer Loyalty Department and they said I could terminate the agreement with no ETF, however they would take my numbers to the general pool. They also (so I came to find out) tried to sign my wife and I to an SMS plan which would grandfather us in. I called about that and am waiting for a manager to call me back as I am going to press charges of fraud against the store person who the supervisor claims signed me up. I have filed a complaint with the FCC and BBB and my local Public Service Commision which thus far have led nowhere. I have a feeling I'll end up having to port and take this to small claims court. By the way, if you had subscribed to the SMS plan, you can not terminate it and then call back and end the plan. You signed up for that service as part of the contract. So to end that service is by choice. I on the other hand never subscribed to the SMS plan, they tried to add it without my wife or my knowledge and then sent the confirmation to my wife's old address (thankfully my in-laws). Hope this helps.

[Nino Concepcion @ Jan 31st 2007 3:05AM]

I got out of my contact a couple days ago. I had to go back to my account to remove my text message plan. Because when I called they said it did not apply to me because I had the text plan already. So I removed it and called back the next day to try again. First lady said I'm not able to decide until March 17th which was bullshit because I would have already agreed to the rate increase. I hung up and called back right away and I got a really nice lady that helped me. I explained because of the rate increase people are canceling their service without being charged the ETF.

It then put me on hold for 5-10 minutes, she them came back on the phone and says I have until March 1st to get out of the contract without the $175 ETF charge.

I am writing this message on my T-mobile MDA woohoo. This really works guys, just keep trying if one ignores you. You have 1 month from today to cancel. This will be your last chance until your contract is up. Goodluck everyone!

[Ben @ Feb 2nd 2007 11:30PM]

I was able to port my number to GoPhone. I got the go-ahead for the no ETF, then on the day I went to go port, I called Verizon and verified that there was a note on file to not charge me the ETF. There was. The CSR was really nice, but she did try to put some doubts in my mind on the quality of service of another carrier as well as try to discount the iPhone's features. I told her "You've been really great, seriously, but you offered me a way out of my contract and I am going to take it. If the iPhone were not coming out, I would still cancel my contract to get a new phone." She stopped trying to sell me on anything. I ported the number with one minor problem. Today I get my Verizon bill, with the ETF on it. I call them up and they remove it. My bill is $5.

For those going to Cingular for the iPhone, check out GoPhone, I am on the monthly plan and my minutes do rollover (as they should, since you kind of pay per-minute) and they will rollover to the Cingular contract when I sign it. Free nights and weekends, too (on a prepaid, I didn't know this existed, go GoPhone!) And I can port from GoPhone to Cingular.

[byaah @ Feb 6th 2007 1:45PM]

I called the customer loyalty department directly, but to no avail. Both of the representatives I talked to insisted that the text messaging was a feature, and did not constitute a reason to cancel without the ETF. If they had changed the rate per minute for talk time, then I would have a reason to be able to cancel. Lame. =(

[Don @ Feb 7th 2007 12:46PM]

i've been trading emails with VZW customer service and asked that my thread get elevated. got a response from supervisor this morning. long email but here's the most pertinent paragraph...

"I have reviewed your account, and verified that there has recently been a minimal amount of TXT messages used. As you do not currently have a messaging package selected, you do indeed have the ability to terminate your service without paying an Early Termination Fee. If you wish to do so, the service will be terminated immediately upon your request. You will not have the ability to change to a month-to-month agreement at any time. Please keep in mind this does not eliminate the charges that will occur for the messages used, any additional airtime charges, or your monthly access fee and taxes up to and including the date of cancellation."

so, it sounds like it is possible to get out from a VZW contract as long as you don't subscribe toa messaging plan.