Legal Question in Consumer Law in Pennsylvania
cellular service early termination fees
I signed up with nextel cellular service in june 2003 with a two year service agreement. my original contract included features that I strted getting charges for, 18 months into the contract like voice mail, caller id which were initially included. I contacted ther customer service and ended up paying the extra charges. In feb 2006, 2 and half years into my service I decided I had enough,I told the customer rep to cancel my service, I was told there would be an early termination fee apllied to my final bill, 200.00, after further inquiry I was told that by not responding to a letter I was sent I was automatically renewed for another year,without any change to my service or equipment. My final bill came 298.00, what are my options I would rather pay a lawyer than pay those bloodsuckers
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: cellular service early termination fees
Any attorney that would take your money for dealing with this is no better than they are. And most attorneys simply can't afford to take a matter with such a low value. After all, we sell our time.
You have a few options, deal with Nextel to terminate and resolve this matter, sue in small claims, or allow this matter to become a bad debt and look for violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
The first is unlikely to result in a solution. The second is good but you'll need to do some work to pull together the information such as contracts and correspondence. Then you'll need to research what laws or standards they are violating with their practices.
Look at it as an self-educational opportunity. Have some fun with it and stick to those bloodsuckers.
Regards,
Roger Traversa
Re: cellular service early termination fees
Send them a letter, regular and Certified Return Reciept (put EVERYTHING from this point forward in writing). Tell them you are unhappy with their service and explain why. Then tell them that unless they can show you in your original contract that you you MUST opt out, that they can automatically renew your contract, that you want to cancel your account, with no early termination fee.
Give them a date to respond to you, IN WRITING, or you will immediately contact every possibe state agency possible as well as the BBB, the FTC and and the FCC. (try the Dept. of Community Affairs, see if you have a Public Advocate (usually on a county level), etc.)
They are scum, but most big businesses are. They are designed to profit, not to be fair and/or reasonable.
Good luck.
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