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Geting out of a Cell phone contract? (1 Viewer)

Eric Alderson

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Apr 22, 1999
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My girlfriend has had some issues with her phones from Verizon. She has been through at least 4 phones within 2 years but now they can't help since her friend stopped working at one of the store which made it easy to switch out phones. They tell her things like, "it the other persons phone which causes the echo", or "you could be in a bad area" which is ridiculous because her sister has the same service and has no problems. She is so fed up that she thinks it's worth the $175 to cancel the service. Don't these guy's have to provide the consumer with quality service and if not, the contract is void? Has anyone got out of the contract or at least get there problems resolved?
 

Kyle McKnight

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So she's had 4 bad phones in less than two years? What is she doing to the phones? How much longer is on her contract? I don't know if Verizon allows plan switching without extending contract, but if it's only a few more months she may want to drop to the cheapest plan and let it ride out. Do the math to see if it beats the ETF.
 

Leila Dougan

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Mar 27, 2002
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Were they all different phones, or the same one (or at least the same brand)?

It could be the network, it could also be the phone. Ebay is a good place to buy cheap phones. The fancy ones will be expensive, but a used or older model won't be. Just make sure it's unlocked or locked to Verizon before purchasing.

Actually getting out of a cell contract is hard. Pretty much the only way I know of is if you can prove you no longer live in an area that has coverage. But considering Verizon is in a ton of places and the fact that they require quite a bit of proof, that's tough to pull off.

But overall I agree with Kyle. It might just make more sense to drop to the lowest plan and ride it out. At least she'll get some use out of the phone in the mean time.
 

Alan Erceg

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I work for VZW...

Basically the only way you will get out of a contract is if you move out of a service area and can prove it, Die, have a terminal illness, get called to duty(military), prove that the area your in is a trouble spot with little/no service.

Those are the main reasons.....

There are exceptions, but honestly I would think your g/f would not have any luck trying to get out of the contract now. What exactly is happening with the phone? The phones that have been swapped have they been the same model? Different models?
 

Eric Alderson

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Apr 22, 1999
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She has the Samsung SCH-a670. She is on her 2nd one of those. When people call, the other party will hear themselves echo on there phone. I'll call her and hear myself but if I call her sister in the same house under the same service, there is no echo. The people at the store said it could be my phone but it happens to other people with Verizon. They did a software update which helped for a few days, then the echo came back. Could it be that she just has a bad number?
 

TonyD

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verizon.

i bought a phone from them about 18 months ago.
the day i took it home the small crystal on the front developed a crack right down the middle.

dont know how it happened becasue i hadn't even realy used the phone yet.

when i went back the next day to ask for an exchange or repair the manager flat out refused.
" did you buy the $5 a month service plan?"

"no"
"sorry" nothing we can do."

i was polite the entire time but no matter what argument i presented, from me being a verizon cell phone customer for about 5 years to just asking for simple customer service so that when this phone runs out i'll buy another verizon phone.

the guy even suggested that i may have run the phone over with my car.

well i was flabbergasted.

i showed him the phone had not a scratch or a mark of any kind on it to indicate it was even barely touched.

he didnt care.
he just wanted to see me leave the store and continue to send my $60 a month for the 2 phones on the contract.
 

Robert_Gaither

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I would recommend that you tell your girlfriend to lower the volume on her phone as this can be the source of echoing on the phone (her mic might be picking up the earpiece).
 

Marvin Richardson

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Jul 16, 1999
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The problem is, they are all like that. It doesn't matter which company it is. I don't understand it. They all act like they have a monopoly, when you can go anywhere else you want once your contract expires. My Sprint is up next month and I'm going Verizon because its supposed to have the best service in my area. They might screw me over too, but I figure at least it will be someone new doing it!
 

Mark Leiter

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Aug 9, 1999
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I couple of things I would recommend. For me Sprint was the worst ever. Dropped calls, bad sound quality, lack of service in supposed “in service” areas and on and on and on…I was able to break my contract with them because I documented the history of the troubles I had with them.

Basically what I did was every time I called to complain about a problem, I wrote down the time, date, the name of person I talked to, the problem I had and any solution that was provided

If you provide them with this information when you call to cancel your contract you might get them to waive the cancellation fee.

The other thing I would suggest is whichever service your interested in getting find someone that uses that service and borrow there phone for a day and take it to the places you would most like be using it. See how good the reception really is. I was able to get the sales person at Cingular to let me borrow hers. This turned out to be a great move. I have been very happy with my service from Cingular so far.
 

Justin Lane

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I ran into a similar situation with Verizon. Their phones come with a one year warranty, but they try their best not to honor it.

My fiance's phone began acting up after two months, with audio cutting out if the flip phone was opened all the way like it was supposed to be. Went to customer service, and the guy accused me of tossing the phone in the bath tub, causing the audio not to work. It was obviously a manufacturers defect in the ribbon cable, and the phone was never tossed in the bath tub.

I was steaming and asked to see the manager who was trying to sell phones to other customers at the same time, one phone which was the same model I had trouble with. I walked up to the manager and customers and told them not to buy that particular model since it was going to break in two months and Verizon would not honor their warranty. The manager then quickly went back to the same asshole at the service counter and told him to give us a new phone.

It seems like the customer is the enemy these days and our only role with these companies is to give them as much money as possible for a screwing.

J
 

Clinton McClure

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When my current contract with Cingular is up, I'm switching to a different company. Most likely, I'll go back to Alltel. When I went to Cingular they had the best coverage in the state and I got great reception at my house. Five years and three phones later, their service keeps getting worse. Even last year I could sit in my living room and talk on my phone with no problems. Now the reception in my area is so poor, I have to go outside and stand in the yard to get a signal and most of the time the call gets dropped. Takes you several tries and about 15 minutes to have a 5 minute conversation. It's like the Wal~Mart of phone service.
 

DustinLC

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Jun 17, 2003
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Well, you can see by the responses that each service has its own problem. I have Cingular and I get echo occasionally. The only thing that matters are:

1. Who you talked to when you call for customer service.
2. How cheap is your plan. A good deal
3. You get good signals
4. The phone you have

I went through several and honestly don't think one is better than another. Each person just have a personal experience. It doesn't apply to all. If one company really does provide bad customer service all the time by everyone, I'm sure they'll either change very soon or be out of the competition.
 

Shane Martin

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I would agree with you. Around here, people I know are dropping Cingular like crazy due to their poor service(customer and call quality). Personally I can't complain about T-Mobile.
 

Robert_Gaither

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I would recommend first get a service that works at your home, second your job, third a common place you go to hang out (bar, sof's home, parents home, etc), and finally meets your needs in terms of voice services, data services, and misc services (texting).

When investigating go to the corporate stores of the company for an evaluation of your service area so you'll know what to expect in terms of coverage (they usually have a more detailed coverage map than what is found online). When it comes to phones go to a forum that discusses the carriers that you're interested in and ask their workers (not just users but employees that work for the service) what are the reliable phones (strengths/weaknesses) as they are the ones who do the troubleshooting and may see some things in the call center they work for (most companies have a non-disclosure agreement we sign stating we can't recommend one phone over the other or badmouth a particular brand but we can state what is the most common phones/data devices). I've seen reviews for phones I disagree with but that's my opinion.

Call the customer care department of each company you're interested in to get an evaluation of general knowledge, friendliness, wait times (find out what their hours of operation runs at), and ask what are the three most common phones/devices in their call center (workers might be somewhat fashion conscious but most likely will not own problem phones). See if these are the types of people you can handle if a problem arises (if they're rude and disrespectful before you join it might be an insight to what you'll deal with).

Rate plans are only as good as the availibility to use it, make certain you at least are in a position to use it. I work in the industry (T-Mobile) and the two problems that really affect people are the lack of research and not taking advantage of the buyer's remorse period. If you fail to do the research make certain you cancel before the remorse period (I'd advise even 2-3 days before the period if you intend to port in/out the number to give it a chance to port out). Not every carrier is right for everyone, make certain your girlfriend gets the right one for her needs.
 

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