Abuse of ETF

I received another call yesterday from customer service. T-Mobile has
now owned up to the fact that their computers should NOT have renewed
this contract and that I was correct all along. This is unfortunately
too little / too late, as I was already forced to cancel the account
and lose the phone number.

The language in their TOS might elude to the fact that they can renew
your contract whenever a change of service is made, however there are
certainly conflicting views and results on this.

They have different promotional plans that are clearly marked as
requiring a contract, with less attractive plans that do not require a
contract.

Again, make changes over the phone and keep documentation on who you
spoke with, and you should be OK in making changes to an account
without extending or renewing a contract!

That you got some satisfaction. It could have easily gone the other
way.

As I said in a post below, the wireless carriers address this contract
extension issue when you first sign up. I posted the exact wording
from the Verizon Wireless contract. Since most people don't read
them, they are counting on the fact that one day you'll change your
plan and they can zap you with a contract extension.

You're advice to only do this over the phone is good but we've seen
many letters here where the phone rep did say there would be no
extension only to find that they never followed up on it.

Thanks for coming back with a follow up!

I pulled up a copy of a personal Verizon contract I have on my work
computer that people must sign when they leave the firm and transfer
their phone to private billing.

Here's how they address the extension of the contract issue.

"If at anytime you change your service you'll be subject to any
requirement, such as a new minimum term, we set for that change"

I'm sure every carrier has similar wording on their initial contracts.
This pretty much solves the issue of contract extension and as to
whether people are told or not told they are extending the contract.
They don't have to tell you because it's already been addressed.

So, even though they waived the extension in November 2006, when the
OP changed his plan again in December 2006, the carrier chose to
exercise that clause of the contract and extended the minimum term.

Wow! Sounds like cacellation the fee is t-mobile's secondary revenue
stream...too bad I always considered them a good company until the
same thing happened to me.

Time to revolt...

The best thing I could suggest would be to call customer care, and ask
the representative to check the notes on your account. Agreeing to
change a rate plan without requiring a contract extension is unusual,
so the rep that did that should have put notes in to that effect. In
general, however, a rate plan change to certain plans will result in
an automatic contract extension, and there is a whole script which the
rep reads to that effect.

Okay, here's a general question for anyone which may have a legal
background to answer.

How can this subscriber, or anyone else for that matter, be held to a
contract or contract extension without clearing signing such an
agreement?

ANY change to an existing plan, expired or not, will result in the
renewal and/or extension of the contract. The new plan doesn't have
to be "better" to trigger a new contract nor does the customer have to
purchase any "subsidized phones". Even if you call T-Mobile and tell
them to move you to a less expensive plan - - bingo - - your contract
is automatically extended. So you may not think you agreed to a new
contract but your actions say otherwise.