Cingular Charged Early Termination Fees with Change in Service

OK, Kay, in the word's of Melanie's Dad in Sweet Home Alabama "You
can't ride 2 horses with one butt, sugar bean!"

How did you think you could port the number to Verizon and still
"keep" the Cingular account? Can't have 2 phones with the same
number!

I was almost willing to believe you were wronged until I read that
part.

Now, do I think it's crappy that they're trying to collect an early
termination fee over 2 stinking days, yeah, but since Cingular changed
back to AT&T, they are back to their old sheisty ways.

But since Verizon has the 30 day test drive (see my response to Lee
below) I have to wonder what would happen if you decided to leave
Verizon before the 30 days and go back to Cingular? Would they have
to remove the charge???

Might want to look into it.

Boy Kay, I have to agree with what the other posters have already put
out there.

While reading your letter, I immediately had the same questions that
many others have pointed out. For example, "I switched to verizon
[sic] on 4/26 and on 4/27 called back to cingulair [sic] to see if
they would be willing to offer a comparable deal..." What in the
world were you doing?! When you switched to Verizon, you would have
also made a contract with them, receiving some promotional value.
Trying to undo all of that, at best, would be difficult if not
impossible. Once you've entered a contract, you've entered a
contract. This makes the argument that you should be allowed some
leeway on your Cingular contract rather ironic. Basically, you're
telling Cingular that you were willing to play shenanigans with
Verizon on their contract and now want to manipulate them to not pay
the ETFs.

Sorry, but you're out of luck. I wouldn't be surprised that Cingular
rescinds their earlier offer and requires the full payment of the
ETFs.

I used to sell cell phones, and whenever a customer inquired about
porting their exsisting number, I always was VERY CAREFUL to make it
EXTREMELY CLEAR that by porting their number, they are automatically
canceling their service with the other cell phone company.

Did the verizon rep inform you when you bought the new cell phones?

What did you expect to happen when you changed your number of to
Verizon? What "account" would Cingular have to keep open???? I think
it's dumb to hold you to nearly a $400 termination fee, when it is 2
days before the end, but technically, they can.

Hopefully, you will find someone that can see what happened here and
come to an agreement in the middle.
Otherwise, you just learned a very expensive lesson and Cingular is
technically not doing anything wrong.

I just have one more thing to say. Read your contract, porting is
spelled out in there clearly. There is no excuse when it is clearly
written down in the paperwork you are given.

You should have asked what would happen if you ported your number. I
am not a wireless customer, but it is just too obvious that if you go
asking another provider to use your number that your contract with the
old provider will likely be terminated.

In addition, this little shopping around thing after the fact looks
bad. You called the day after you switched and asked how much it
would be to stay with them? You weren't "with" them anymore.

I would say you should take the offer they made you to credit any of
the termination fees.

You were clearly informed that your contract was up on 4/28. You
changed the rules, and took a number Cingular owns to a different
company 2 days before your contract was up. The number was ported out
to a different provider, and this cancelled your contract.

While you were (the keyword here is "were") an excellent customer with
Cingular for 2 years, you are no longer their customer. They are not
very interested in giving someone who is no longer a customer a credit
for the "interest of customer service."

As others have said, you are lucky to have had one fee waived. The
only other way to have the second fee waived, and this is the PITA
way, but it is to port back to Cingular from Verizon and then re-port
back to Verizon, as long as Cingular doesn't set you up with an 11
month contract or something if you have to accept a new plan (if
your's is an older, expired one.)

I do sincerely hope that you take the time to read Verizon's TOS. It's
not much different from Cingular's, and it tells you your rights as a
customer, and their right's as a company.

I suspect that Cingular's stance on early termination fees -- and the
fact that they aren't prorated -- was given to you when you entered
into the contract. While it might be nice if they told you all the
downsides to your decisions every time they spoke to you on the phone,
I've got to tell you that I would have preferred not to have to go
through all that when I'm getting rid of my cell phone service. It
was a long, frustrating process compounded by the fact that an awful
lot of people who both hear and speak cannot grasp that they aren't
meant to talk to the relay op about me, but rather talk to me as if
they thought I was a person (though I will at least give them credit
for not referring to me as "it", which an awful lot of people do).
The phone companies can't really win on this issue because different
people want different things.

You should not have made a new contract with Verizon before the end of
your contract with Cingular. Verizon took over the right to bill you
for the use of your cell phone number, and that meant that Cingular
couldn't do it any more. And that means you were ending the Cingular
contract. While I recognize that you didn't really think all of that
through (and many people wouldn't), you still did something that your
contract said would cost you a non-prorated early termination fee, and
therefore the charges are both warranted and justified. You can't
change your mind now and unilaterally decide that the terms you agreed
to two years ago no longer apply.

Of course you can ask, but it sounds like your request has already
been answered. I don't see them changing their minds.

I have to echo what S. Brown said. As soon as you ported your number
to Verizon, you terminated your contract. That's the way it works in
the wireless world.

I handle 2500 cell phones for my firm and when one of my users
requests to change carriers, I find out the contract term date and
create a reminder to port their number at least a week later so as to
avoid ETF's.

Also, it made no sense to port to Verizon and then call them the
following day to try and make a deal. You were no longer their
customer the minute Verizon took possession of the number.

You are asking them to waive the fees in the interest of customer
service but you are no longer their customer, you are now Verizon's
customer. They waived one and I think that's all they will do.

When you ported your cell phone number(s) from Cingular to Verizon it
was the same as cancelling your contract. Next time, instead of
calling and asking questions, it is a much better idea to keep a copy
of your contract and refer to that document for the terms and
conditions.

I also think your confused the issue (and yourself) by not making a
firm decision and sticking with it. Case in point - - what good did
it do you to port your number(s) to Verizon and then call Cingular to
try and swing a deal for them to keep you when you had already left -
- and even then you still didn't formally terminate your agreement.

This situation is not a matter of customer service - - it is a matter
of your not understanding how wireless contracts work and in the
process of changing carriers you terminated your Cingular agreement by
virtue of porting your number(s) to Verizon two days before your
contract ended which is all Cingular needs to bill you early
termination penalties.

Cingular has already waived one of the early term fees and I seriously
doubt they are going to waive the other one as you cancelled your
account two days early.