New Cell Phone Contract Rules Under Discussion Stateside
Sunday, June 01, 2008 03:54 AM
submitted by Trish Clark
Right now in front of the American FCC is a proposal to ease early cancellation fees when people want out of their cell phone contract early. This is an American proposal I hope will come to Canada. Here, those fees can easily be over $200. In the states it is usually around $175.
There is talk of bringing in a policy of allowing new users 30 days after they sign the contract to cancel the service or within 10 days of the first bill.
Canada already has the 30 day policy called buyer remorse. However the 10 days of the first bill idea I think would really be a godsend to Canadians. For those whose first bill is much more than they intended that is amazing help. Too many times the first bill far surpasses what you thought it would be when you add all the charges up. It would force the agent to be 100% up front with the charges to expect.
The proposal would also cap fees at a certain amount and reduce them month by month over the length of the contract something that some cell companies here in Canada already do. In exchange for these concessions by American companies the FCC will let them off the hook in lawsuits currently before the courts from angry customers.
It is interesting to note that the wireless companies themselves are the ones who suggested this and it is now in the hands of the FCC to decide. To Americans this could result in huge savings as some have been hit with fees as much as $600 to cancel three phones and it is important to remember that here too those fees are per phone.
Now I don’t think we will ever see the day these fees are eliminated completely because the companies heavily subsidize the phone when you go onto a contract and that money has to be recouped.
When you see ads for $50 phones on a 3yr contract the companies are betting they will get that back over the 3years. But how much is too much? If you are on that 36 month contract for 30months you should not have to pay the same as someone who just signed up. Again most Canadian companies pro rate that fee over the contract but this is not the case in the States.
As I said this is an American proposal but I think that if it sheds light on the Canadian way of doing things all the better. Too many times fees are not disclosed to a new customer and the customer is irate when they get their first bill sometimes twice what they thought it would be.
I hope this would promote more openness so that the customer does not feel locked into a contract more than they thought it would be.
Trish Clark is the owner of North Central Communications. You can reach her via e-mail: Trish@northcentralcommunications.ca or visit their website http://northcentralcommunications.ca
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Posted by: ShannanigansB on June 1 2008 9:30 PM
I think this is corporate theft, and should be made illegal. Telus should be charged for this kind of gouging practice, and forced to reimburse every customer they have ripped off in this way.